Introduction
A restaurant is a premise that prepares and serves foods, drinks and beverages to consumers, in exchange for money. Most restaurants offer these services at their premises, whereby customers come, have their meals and leave for example the Deising’s chain of restaurants, while others especially the well-established ones offer take-out (take-away) services and delivery services for example the Macdonald’s chain of restaurants etc. Food serving enterprises first started in the 11th century in Kaifeng, China, during the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). During this period, the city of Kaifeng had a population of about a million people and many people needed food especially for the fact that they were working in the urban areas, and the second reason being many people had moved from the rural areas to the town located in the northern region of the country.
Different restaurants are organized and managed using different ways and strategies, depending on the size of the restaurant, its target market, its policies, cuisines and themes, its ratings and location. Some restaurants only offer lunch and tea-break meals, while others offer breakfast, tea-time breaks, lunch and dinner services. Others insist on formal wear, while others do not give particular concern as to whether the customers are formal, semi-casual or casual.
Notably too, different restaurants have particular themes that they concentrate on depending on their target market, for example Chinese, American English, Brazilian themes etc. these are the themes that define and determine the restaurants’ cuisines. Restaurants also have various policies and regulations, depending with their target markets, governmental regulations etc. For example, depending on the local customs and policies of the restaurant and Governmental regulations, some restaurants may sell or not sell alcohol. Others have the BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer) policy.
Categories of restaurants
There are different categories of restaurants as earlier noted in the introductory part of this essay, depending on their target markets, their services and in this segment, I will take a closer look at three categories.
Fast food restaurants
Fast food restaurants are mainly located around town, where there are many people requiring fast services of food or beverages. These are the people who mainly work in these urban centres. They emphasize a lot on fast services because they serve many audiences and mainly people in a hurry.
Fast food restaurants are mainly small to medium in size and most of them can serve about 100 people or less at the same time. They have seats, and in the event of all seats being fully occupied, small shelves where customers place their food and eat while standing. They use the cafeteria and self-service modes of service. Their prices range according to their target markets and locations, that is, whether they are situated in the uptown or downtown parts of the town. They mainly offer daytime services, but some offer 24-hour services, for night shifters.
Fast food restaurants are classified in different levels and categories for example street vendors to more organized ones for example McDonald’s. Casual fast food restaurants do not offer tables.
Family style restaurants
These basic target families of about 3-8 members on each table. If the guests are more than that, they may choose to stay in different tables, use one big table or join two small ones. They are normally situated in urban areas or town outskirts, and most of them insist on a formal type of setting. Foods and beverages are offered on tables unlike in fast food restaurants. Considering that they offer services to families and their services are more organized, family style restaurants charge a bit more money compared to fast food restaurants. They normally offer daytime and evening services.
Dining restaurants
Dining restaurants offer evening services to diners and their clients are mainly couples and family-based clients. They are mainly formally organized, and like the family style restaurants, are normally situated in urban centres and their outskirts. In rare occasions, some dining restaurants offer accommodation and breakfast, while the ordinary ones run till 12 am. Dining restaurants offer food, beverages and drinks such as wines, and service is table-based. These restaurants charge relatively high prices for their services, mainly because they target formal clients.
Conclusion
Depending on the targeted clients, type of restaurant, their themes and cuisine, location and quality of services, different restaurants set different prices for their products. Also, depending on the type of restaurant, they have different regulations, which are determined by the target market, fro example, alcohol-drinking and smoking ban in family style restaurants.