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At the same time, a rise in fast-food prices driven by inflation is reshaping consumer behavior, with many customers now treating fast food as a splurge rather than a convenience. The future of dining will center on creating smarter, simpler, and more personal experiences for customers.
. “This enduring customer loyalty drives the restaurant industry forward, creating clear opportunities for restaurants to enhance the dining experience through strategic limited time offers, efficient delivery and exceptional in-person service," said Samir Zabaneh, CEO of TouchBistro.
Fast food and food delivery gradually began changing that equation. 2024 was a year of experimentation with AI, with restaurants testing it on customer-facing interactions, like AI drive-thru ordering, with varying degrees of success. The restaurant experience was once solely comprised of human-to-human, in-person experiences.
"While technology has the potential to enhance the dining experience, the research shows that AI integration isn’t a top priority for most consumers,” said Carly Fink, President, Head of Research & Strategy for Provoke Insights.“Patrons This was only topped by grocery store increases at 79 percent.
What can you expect to see on menus in 2025? From salted egg yolks and chili crunch fusions to mushroom-infused teas and freeze-dried fruit powder garnishes, Kimpton’s in-house experts share the standout ingredients, menu items and techniques that will come to the table in 2025.
You take your seat at a table embedded with a touchscreen menu. Tap a few buttons, and your order is sent to the kitchen, where robots are preparing dishes with precision, ensuring perfect consistency every time. Throughout the meal, robot servers deliver your food and clear the table when you're done. Need a drink?
Steady Online Ordering Brings Food Waste, Donations to the Forefront of Priorities Orderingfood online increases restaurant sales, but it also can potentially increase wasted food if proactive measures aren’t taken – for both the business and consumers at home.
A third of diners said their favorite restaurant changed in the past 12 months, with “better food” (46 percent) and “better value” (40 percent) cited as the leading reasons, according to Tillster’s 2025 Phygital Index Report. The survey of 1,500 U.S.-based For the third year in a row, consumers want more kiosks.
Improve Seasonal Menu Offerings When it comes to the holidays, consumers love to tuck into festive favorites. It’s the perfect season for experimenting with new menu items that align with previous seasonal trends. Analyze Previous Holiday Sales Data Past sales data is invaluable when it comes to planning the upcoming season.
This transformation is not just about automation; it's about creating smarter, more efficient, and more personalized dining experiences. These systems can understand various accents and dialects, process orders accurately, and even upsell menu items based on customer preferences.
Many restaurant operators have misconceptions about average order volume (AOV) and how it works, making statements like: I need more customers to make more money. For example, lets say you have 50 orders in a day that total $2,000 in revenueall you need to do is divide the total revenue by how many orders you have for the day.
From smarter ordering systems to food that travels better, here’s what pizzeria owners can expect in the year ahead. On the customer side, AI is beginning to play a more significant role in online ordering. This not only frees up labor but also reduces order errors.
Menu pricing isnt just about covering costsits about finding that sweet spot where profitability, customer perception, and operational reality meet. Somewhere in between is the number that makes sense for your food costs, your market, and your restaurants unique position. Set prices too low, and youre leaving money on the table.
One location might offer seamless mobile ordering, while another struggles with glitchy payment systems, creating inconsistencies that can frustrate customers and impact revenue. Customers crave simplified steps at the beginning and end of their food service experiences, and it’s not hard to understand why.
The tool from the East Coast vegan chain — a digital take on a split-flap mechanical display that appears on its website and in the chain’s ordering app — estimates the amounts of water, land, CO2, and oil saved by eating vegan burgers. The “ PLNT Impact Tracker ” on PLNT Burger’s website wants you to think about what you’re eating.
Daron English Communal dining is all the rage. It would be one thing if I could whisper and gossip with the group I was dining with that night about the odious man across the room. In food media, youre always a stones throw away from someone talking about how food brings people together.
MVP Menu Performances More than 200 million people tuned in to the Super Bowl last year—many with a plate of wings in front of them. 11, 2024, comparing it to the average Sunday in 2024 and found that: Wings win MVP with an 87 percent increase in sales The average price of wings ordered increased 18 percent.
Restaurant operators need to embrace menu and technological innovations in order to meet guest expectations this holiday season, according to the Fall/Winter Trend report: a report produced by Provoke Insights in collaboration with Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine. "Our The study was in-field in Sept-Oct 2024.
Sure, the chef may have his or her name on the menu, the owner may proudly greet every guest, accomplished line cooks may amaze everyone involved, service staff win the day with attention to detail and salesmanship, and one could certainly argue that dishwashers are MVPs because if they fail, the whole operation starts to crumble.
It’s an unsavory fact: food is getting more expensive. In October, the USDA reported year-to-date averages, noting that food-at-home (grocery store) prices have increased 2.5 percent and food-away-from-home (restaurant) prices have increased 3.6 If current projections from the U.S. Rewards for Loyalty.
When people think of the way AI is currently used in quick service restaurants – such as fast-food chains – they might think of AI-powered voice bots utilized at drive-thrus or AI tools to forecast inventory needs based on demand. Restaurant owners agree, as nearly half of hospitality operators in the U.S.
Providing good food is just the beginning. In todays competitive dining landscape, hospitality is what truly sets a restaurant apart. Service is about accuracy and efficiencytaking an order, delivering food, clearing a table. Hospitality isnt just serviceits the emotional connection that keeps guests coming back.
The hospitality industry has always been about delivering great service—but today, that means more than just good food and friendly staff. For years, restaurant technology has been about speed and efficiency—faster orders, better scheduling, streamlined payments. Think about your morning routine.
In the demanding world of the restaurant industry, success is not solely reliant on exceptional food and service. Behind the scenes, strategic decisions greatly impact a restaurant's bottom line, and at the forefront of these is the art of menu engineering.
Understanding your target market is the foundation of making smart decisions for your menu, pricing, and overall guest experience. Without a well-defined target market, restaurants risk wasting resources on strategies that dont connect and menu offerings that dont selltrying to appeal to everyone, but standing out to no one.
First, consumers are demanding more convenience and customization, pushing brands to rethink their menus and service models. Fast-casual concepts like Sammy’s Sliders, which offer high-quality, craveable food with speed and flexibility, are perfectly positioned for this shift.
Nowadays, running a successful restaurant takes more than great food and good service. Local SEO strategies, like targeting location-specific searches, will help your site show up when people look for nearby dining options on search engines. To do so, you must have an optimized website and engaging social media profiles.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY Wonder wants to fix food delivery — so it just acquired Grubhub On November 13, Wonder, the company that describes itself as “a new kind of food hall,” announced its acquisition of the established foodordering and delivery platform Grubhub. A Wonder in New York City. Who’s behind Wonder?
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought endless changes to the restaurant industry, but perhaps the most significant has been the rise of the contactless dining experience. With customers opting for alternatives to dine-in, restaurants adapted to build solutions to offer takeout, delivery and curbside pickup options.
Restaurant operators searching for something versatile that will cross the dayparts need to look no further than their breakfast menu as waffles have been breaking out of the morning. Profitability: Waffles are a low-cost, center-of-the-plate item and one of the most profitable breakfast item menu offerings. Waffles saw a 15.4
Independent restaurants have always been cornerstones of community, providing anything from comfort foods to places to unwind, but despite their vital role in society, adapting to the challenges continues to be a struggle. Scalable solutions like self-service kiosks and predictive analytics are transforming the way small businesses operate.
The magnetism of the kitchen dates to those early days of growing up in a home where food played an important role, not as much as some, but enough to leave an indelible mark on my life. I think, even if these items weren’t on a menu, I would find a way to bring them into the fold.
As more diners use Ozempic and similar medications, restaurants may need to adapt to evolving guest preferences and dining habits. Many individuals on the medication feel full much faster, resulting in smaller portions and reduced overall food intake. Beyond portion size, Ozempic also influences food preferences.
population that dined out at least once in the past month, hoping to better understand how Americans are approaching dining out in this new era. Theres also a visual element here, with diners eating with their eyes first and being reeled into new restaurants by food imagery and what I ordered videos.
Everything from food to labor is getting more expensive, which means restaurant margins are tighter than ever. The right marketing strategy helps you get the most out of every dollar by increasing customer retention , boosting order volume, and encouraging repeat visits. Consumer behavior is constantly evolving.
Are you doing all the right thingsserving amazing food, delivering top-notch service, crafting perfectly balanced drinksbut the tables still arent filling up like they should? Youre delivering a great dining experience, yet foot traffic remains inconsistent, online engagement is low, and new customers arent coming in as often as youd like.
This edition of Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine's Research Roundup features news of dramatic Valentine's Day shift, best food scenes, and the evolution of c-store foodservice. ” A Year of Challenges U.S.
When properly deployed, they can transform the employee experience by improving daily operations, syncing front-of-house and back-of-house communication and execution, and delivering a memorable dining experience that won’t send staff to the walk-in cooler for a good cry. What Makes Hospitality So Vital to the Dining Experience?
Restaurants continue to face labor and supply chain issues, plus rising food costs. Review and Revise Your Menu Offerings. Before Restaurant Week kicks off, craft a menu that is friendly to both your bottom line and your customers. Offer Easy Online Ordering. And that’s not different during Restaurant Week.
The food service industry is forecast to reach $1 trillion in sales this year. We’re seeing younger buyers investing in dining experiences that blend food, convenience, and atmosphere with their values as shoppers. Data shows that order accuracy , fueled by improving technology, received top marks from satisfied consumers.
By Bailey Ramsey, Contributor Food waste is a critical issue in the restaurant industry. To put this in perspective, restaurants waste anywhere between 4% to 10% of the food they purchase. Predicting Customer Demand Accurately One of the leading causes of food waste in restaurants is overproduction.
By analyzing customer preferences, dining habits, and feedback, AI chatbots can send personalized messages to engage customers with new menu items, exclusive offers, and meal recommendations. Automated Ordering AI-powered chatbots can handle customer orders, reducing the need for human intervention.
Have you ever walked into a restaurant, excited for a great meal, but the server can’t answer your questions about the menu? Without the right training, even the best menu or ambiance can fall short due to poor service, leading to dissatisfied customers and lost revenue. Focused training also speeds up the onboarding process.
The NCR Voyix 2024 Digital Commerce Index revealed nearly half (48 percent) of consumers dine out less than they used to because inflation is top of the menu. Some brands’ apps even track mobile-order customers’ location to help ensure their food is fresh, whether it’s a burger or a salad.
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