Opinion on novel restaurant concept in Vietnam?

Hello VinciD,

Welcome on board 

I recommend you drop an advert in the appropriate section of the website : Looking for testimonies in Ho Chi Minh City

You will get better chances of inputs.

Best of luck,
Bhavna

Thank you

Not to criticize the moderators but it seems to me that these students are asking for opinions and input as opposed to testimonials.

My own opinion is that the concept will not work.  The big restaurant expenses anywhere are rent and labor.  This concept reduces labor but labor is cheap in Vietnam while rent is high.  I know one individual who collected $3000US per month in ground rent (they built the building) from a big ice cream franchise and this is in an outer district.  Downtown must be worse.  I doubt that the combined monthly wages of all the young people scooping ice cream there total that much.

I have had the experience of operating a successful restaurant in Viet Nam and the IMO single most important factor is good staff that are well trained and lets not forget that the location is always a consideration.

Then remember that about 40% of new cafes fail in the first year of operation so to survive you need at the very least good food at great prices and the idea that just anyone can create good food is one that I doubt, but lets suppose that you go ahead with your plan you should consider some of these questions:

Are you willing to let anyone who walks in off the street into your kitchen and to let them use your expensive equipment and facilities? If not how do you vet them? Suppose a drunken foreigner wants to cook a steak or two?

How will you control food portioning and waste?

Who will be responsible for kitchen and dining room cleanliness?

How will you charge your customers? Certainly for the food they use (or waste) and for the use of your equipment and facilities and I suppose there would also be additional chargers for things like drinks and desserts? How will you monitor the amount consumed?

I am not trying to discourage you but you have to be very pragmatic to succeed in the food business.

Old Saigon Hand wrote:

I have had the experience of operating a successful restaurant in Viet Nam and the IMO single most important factor is good staff that are well trained and lets not forget that the location is always a consideration.

Then remember that about 40% of new cafes fail in the first year of operation so to survive you need at the very least good food at great prices and the idea that just anyone can create good food is one that I doubt, but lets suppose that you go ahead with your plan you should consider some of these questions:

Are you willing to let anyone who walks in off the street into your kitchen and to let them use your expensive equipment and facilities? If not how do you vet them? Suppose a drunken foreigner wants to cook a steak or two?

How will you control food portioning and waste?

Who will be responsible for kitchen and dining room cleanliness?

How will you charge your customers? Certainly for the food they use (or waste) and for the use of your equipment and facilities and I suppose there would also be additional chargers for things like drinks and desserts? How will you monitor the amount consumed?

I am not trying to discourage you but you have to be very pragmatic to succeed in the food business.

Good post.  I would only add that the restaurant trade is extremely difficult to succeed over the long haul and even harder to become a success in the first year to survive.   Simply hot dogs off a cart is nothing like the same as  to be successful in a full service restaurant.  People underestimate how hard a full servcie restaurant is...it's an untameable beast that is always trying to escape your control and bleed you to death.   

Location, location, location! Hard to get away from that one.

Agree with above, your employees can break you a lot faster than they can make you.

The formula for a 'financially' successful restaurant changes on a regular basis because the market, economy, customer tastes, etc etc infinitum changes every year.  My point is that an idea like DIY is not as important as operating and continually changing to keep yourself above water.  What do you have to do?  Whatever the hell it takes!

As for the DIY thing, DIY pizza parlors have been tried in the USA and they have never risen above a novelty, I personally think the idea is rife with problems and generates no real return to justify the risk.   The only thing I have seen, sorta, a little like this in the USA that has succeeded is a franchise call  'Genghis Grill - Build Your Own Stir Fry' whereby the customer stands in line and on their turn get to tell the cook the specific ingredients they want in their stirfry. The cook does the cooking. Google it.  It's very popular in the Dallas Texas corridor. 

I have restaurant experience in Colombia recently and the USA growing up.  Most privately owned, single location restaurants perform financially at a level that provides jobs for the employees and a modest income for the owner usually VERY modest.   It's just the way it is and it won't change because of the nature of the trade.  The biggest advantage that big corporate chains have is standardization and most importantly ...access to debt/capital to ride out slow times or invest more on new ..stuff, and the real power maker, economies of scale in purchasing and advertising/marketing.  One location restaurants don't have either in almost all cases.

All that said I'm not claiming to be a know it all...just opinion.

Pal444 wrote:

...

As for the DIY thing, DIY pizza parlors have been tried in the USA and they have never risen above a novelty, I personally think the idea is rife with problems and generates no real return to justify the risk....

hmmmmm... I can see that working (maybe even from a roadside truck) if you simply put a pizza base of the customers choice on a tray and let them add the sauces, toppings and cheese and then pop it in the oven for them, but of course that old bugbear of portion control might get tricky but still... 

The idea of being able to create my very own custom pizza is appealing...

Old Hand, sorry to repeat myself and please accept I'm not do so with attitude, google it.  My memory is not very reliable on names of stuff I'm not trying myself but I'm 100% certain there is even a DIY Pizza franchise operation in the USA....yes, here is a keyword / phrase to google. 'DIY pizza franchise'.  I recognize you are not looking to buy a franchise, it just may provide some useful info an expose things you may not anticipate.

I recall clearly seeing the first DIY pizza place open in the Dallas Texas market like 15 years ago.

Been some time since I lived there but the last time I recall it was still in business.  Not saying you are, but if you interested in input. PM me. we can exchange contacts. I can tell you one way of controlling portions on the toppings.  I will be arriving in VN the month..no in a rush but I'm looking for opportunites always.