Thursday, June 12, 2008

Portion Control At Your Restaurant

By Patricia Farnham

How much food should you serve your customers at your restaurant? This can prove to be a very tricky question but one you need to deal with. Unless you are serving foods with a chain that have given you the specifications, then you will need to determine it on your own. There is no right or wrong answer but you need to do your homework. You want to be able to offer your customers what they will be happy with.

You want to be able to offer enough food for the customers to be full when they leave. In fact, most will say that portions are so big that they either over eat or the end up wasting a great deal of food. Some will ask for a box to take it home but not everyone is going home so they can't benefit from eating the leftovers at another meal.

It seems that most restaurants these days err on the side of caution though. Portion sizes have gotten bigger and bigger. This isn't always something that is welcome by customers though. They may dread wasting so much food, especially the older generations. Many people will feel that they are wasting their money when they see so much food left on the table too.

Sometimes it can be offset by taking the leftovers home though. If you can get an addition meal out of it then it can help to justify the cost. Yet not everyone is going home after they leave the restaurant so boxing up the rest isn't always going to work. Help out your customers with small appetites too by offering some smaller portions on the menu.

I like to eat at a local restaurant that serves chicken fried steak. It is so big it is one plate. The side dishes are on another so it is definitely more food that one person can reasonably eat. Yet at another place I frequent the chicken fried steak is about 1/3 that size. So knowing what the portions will be like before you order is important.

If you aren't sure how much food to expect, eyeball the plates of other dinner guests around you. Chances are you can gauge from there what you will be ordering. Don't be embarrassed to ask your waiter or waitress to clarify portion sizes for your as well. They see those plates of food all day long so they can help you out with it.

With more people paying attention to their health and their weight, portion sizes in restaurants have become more of a concern. Make sure you are offering plenty of food for your guests. Keep in mind though it can be a turn off when they are getting too much. It can lead to customers feeling like they paid too much for a meal and that doesn't make them happy.

There are many customers who dine out but that watch calories and portion sizes. They want to be able to enjoy a decent sized meal as well. They don't want to be paying for heaps of food they will never touch. Do your best to balance things out so you can keep your customers coming back for more.

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