The great restaurants in the world were created with an utmost consideration to the balance of operational concerns, ambiance, technical specifications and thematic ideas. Each of the areas in the restaurant was created with an orchestration of design that promotes the profound customer experience. Furthermore, restaurants tend to create an experience that lasts from the moment the customers entered the façade to the moment they left the place, such experience should linger with the customer and should make them want to dine again soon. In order to create such a place for the customers, designing the restaurant should consider the following points to successfully indulge diners into a unique and long lasting impression.
Exterior facade
Exterior facades include all aspects of the outside façade including the parking lot, signage, Fascia signs, Monolith (if applicable), A boards, landscaping, building skin, lighting and veranda. The exteriors of the restaurant are defined as the installments made outdoors that still serves specific purpose for the business. Indoor restaurant normally would not need to make outdoor installations except for signage plastered in the main building’s monolith. However, locations such as shopping mall and public outdoors would depend on where the restaurant is situated and what areas it occupies in the vicinity. For example, if the restaurant is inside the mall, there is no need for outdoor installations, unless the restaurant is located on the exterior premises of the mall. Expectations have to be set into place and present an image that is beyond what the guests expect from seeing the exteriors and expectations the guests will have upon entering the restaurant. Even cafeteria-style establishments need to have adequate design elements integrated into the visual representation of the place that goes beyond the visual norms of a typical cafeteria. The façade is the first representation of the restaurant and the first image in which the customers would base their perception of the restaurant from; therefore, exterior façade design is as important as the restaurant’s interior design. The use of iconic elements easily recognizable including the choice of roof, exterior paint color palette, symbolisms and graphics that stands out, memorable and inviting needs to be considered when making exterior installations.
Signage
Signage is referred to as the nametag of the restaurant and without which guests would not be able to determine whether they are sitting in the right restaurant. It serves the branding purpose and name recognition. One good example is Starbucks, which has different shop designs all over the world, but can easily recognized Starbucks because of the signage and design elements that are common in all Starbucks cafés.
Entry Area
Entry area is refers to the restaurant’s entrance door and this is where customer traffic begins. Restaurant entrances vary according to the theme and location whether the restaurant is located inside a building or freestanding. Climate conditions affect the visual quality of the entrance due to the materials used to make the entrances. In some cases, restaurants use wood-framed doors that deteriorate in color and quality through time and would require constant maintenance to sustain good condition. In general, the common characteristic of the restaurant entrance should be inviting and should accommodate any volumes of traffic coming in and out of the dining areas. It should not be too wide nor too narrow, but just enough that customers coming in an out can comfortably made their entrance and exits from the restaurant. Doors usually separates the exterior and interior areas of the establishment, but in some cases, mall based restaurants need not to have doors, but only open portals so that guests can easily walk in to the reception area. There are several materials that can be used for the door, be it glass, wood or aluminum with glass, but that depends on the choice whether the establishment has solid facades, opaque or transparent. What’s important is that, the entrance door should encompass elements such as graphics or vestibules detailing. Whichever material is used, each offers distinct impression that defines the theme of the restaurant that is attributed to customer experience.
Reception Area
Reception areas should allow a smooth transition of customer checking in and transfers to the waiting area without distracting the diners, and ensuring that customers are getting turns in a fair and systematic manner. Having the hostess placed at the reception does not always complete the experience, but rather a control point in which the customers can be directed to the next step following a process flow. The customers in general should expect to be greeted by the hostess, which adds up to their service experience as suggested by psychology of service type. Whether or not a waiting area included is another consideration, it depends on how the areas is to be utilized whether as an added sales area where the customers waiting for their table can be offered with complimentary drinks or to allow them to order their own drinks while waiting. Nevertheless, lighting and temperature control must be thoughtful especially in extreme hot or cold climates to ensure that customers are confortable waiting for their turn to the table.
Waiting Areas
With the exception of reservation-only and quick-service establishments, all dining establishment should offer their guests only the best customer experience and a waiting areas is a suitable added amenity to sustain such goal. There are restaurants that hesitate to dedicate a waiting area for their customers for the reason that the owners must utilize every corner of the establishment to generate income and in addition a waste of valuable space for more dining tables. However, keep this in mind: that table space is only valuable if the restaurant is full, and usually customers would not spend too much time standing at the reception desk waiting for an available table. The results of that would be customers stepping back to find another place to dine. If the restaurant remained full particularly during peak hours, patrons and new guests would be willing to wait for their turn if they are provided with a comfortably place to wait. However, if the restaurant does not constantly experience heavy customer volume and has lots of tables available, the waiting area would only be considered as a non-performing asset of the restaurant.
The following can be considered when creating a waiting area:
- Benches
- Reading material, such as newspapers, magazines and books having a TV would be great, but may come as boring for the others, or if not have a complimentary served to the customers while waiting.
- Good reviews and articles about your restaurant posted on the walls, pictures of celebrities or important people during their visit in the restaurant
- A bar area, so people can order drinks as they wait
Lighting
Lighting design plays an integral role to the overall restaurant experience this is because lighting emphasizes ambiance and highlights the overall interior aesthetics. Experts believe that 90% of the information are perceived by thee brain through, hence highlighting that vision in the restaurant’s can be controlled by applying adequate lighting and design in order to deliver the interior’s “Wow”. The exterior of the restaurant can serve as an attraction, advertisement as well as an extension of the overall experience customer experience. Choosing appropriate lighting and lighting controls to enhance the visual effects of the architecture, signage, and/or outdoor dining areas pays huge dividends to today’s restaurants.
- Serves as an advertisement effects by means of lighting the unique features of the outdoor seating areas
- Provide uniform lighting scenes at different times of the day
- Manage energy costs
A time-based scene cycles through the day highlighting the key areas and alters the mood by dimming or switching lighting zones including changes in light colors.
Dining Area
The environment, unique aesthetics and ambiance are part of the product that the restaurant sells. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the interiors of the restaurant actually encompass a great impact to the customer’s overall dining experience. In addition, seating arrangement, choice of furniture, tabletop, napery, glassware, china and flatware also adds to the total aesthetical elements of the restaurant. Everything must be appropriate to the restaurant’s service level, workflow, and durability and should be thematic. For example, if the restaurant does not serve salad, then it is unreasonable to have a salad spoon set on the table. Another important factor is ergonomics particularly in the bar area, salad bars and other self service areas of the restaurant. Ergonomics is defined as how easy it is for the user to manipulate the equipment or otherwise the level of user-friendliness. If the restaurant have an oyster bar and features oyster-cracking machine, that machine should be easy to use or have a person standing by to operate the machine for the customers. Careful considerations of dining sight lines, floor materials, table mix, and materials are the keys to success.
Walls, ceilings and floor fixtures must also adhere to the overall design theme of the restaurant, which emphasizes the overall aesthetics of the establishment. The walls define space perspectives, which provide interest and function in areas of acoustics, display and storage. Consideration of the materials, color detailing, protection and is important because it is not enough that the walls are adequately ornamented, but it should also be stable and free from dangerous materials such as protruding wires or pieces of steel that might injure guests. Ceilings are too the underrated area of the restaurant, but the same amount of aesthetical consideration should be applied to the ceiling. In some restaurants, they apply plain coating to the ceiling, but installs elaborate chandeliers. The ceiling design should also adhere to the requirements of the overall interior design. If the restaurant is inspired by Victorian or Renaissance architecture, therefore the ceiling should also hold the same design element by having paintings on it. Carefully weigh material decisions with mechanical and lighting requirements, acoustics, and space/volume considerations.
Ceilings can have a dramatic effect when adequately designed. Flooring should also consider factors such as aesthetic appropriateness, but should also be easy to clean and maintain, safe and durable. For example, wooden floors are costly and can easily deteriorate overtime due to constant floor traffic. However, it is safe and not as slippery as marbles floors, but wooden floors are difficult to maintain and maintenance cost is high. This is why life cycle costs, acoustics, and safety should also be considered. Finally, lighting direct vs. indirect, zoning, ease of operation, energy efficiency and power requirements must also be put into utmost consideration to complete the overall aesthetical experience, not to mention the possibilities of going over the operational budget.
The design process entails the significance of optimizing flow in terms of distance, volume, speed, and direction. Flow patters typically are for costumers, employers, service, food and tableware. Starting the program programming should begin with the careful analysis of the flow patterns. There are several important relationship exist in the design such as the distance of the restroom from the dining table, whether down the hallway or on the upper floor, convenience and accessibility should be a concern. The same goes when considering the distance of the kitchen from the dining area, service station and other sections of the establishment to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of service. For optimum efficiency in a busy restaurant a radio of 22 seats to a service station is needed to relay information and cut distance. This is because the faster the service the more the restaurant would need for an effective floor plan.
The is an ideal layout for the floor plan, one that is unidirectional and does not overlap with other crossing pattern entailing a straight line flow. The process starts in the dining area as soon as the entry stop and the frequent interaction between the kitchens, bar, service stations, ventilation, sound, lighting and dining area creates a pattern that should adhere to the service flow. This is the reason that architecture fixtures such as raising and lowing ceiling and floors should clearly define the dining space. Restaurant dining area is referred to as the main revenue-producing area; it occupies the largest amount of square footage in the establishment. Depending on the size of the restaurant, all aspects such as the service people, service speed, dining area and level of service changes. Large restaurants are most of the time broken into several sections integrated with barriers that define the purpose of each section and at some point creates the privacy atmosphere. In general, comfort is paramount in scale table service restaurant, the popular 80’s style of high chairs are considered uncomfortable, hence they were replaced by padded chairs and banquettes.
Restaurants also need to emphasize the social connection is particularly in strong elaborate restaurant settings because normally, one cannot comfortably dine in an empty restaurant. Therefore, designs that encourage connection, eye contact—lots of diagonal seating or the U shaped bar is integrated into the design to create the social atmosphere, particularly in places where young and single markets are abundant. For a restaurant that targets older demographics, breaking up the dining space with partitions creates a pleasantly busy feel especially during slow periods. This creates a more intimate atmosphere in the dining area, which will allow the guests to create a social connection without having to project that connection to a larger crowd inside the restaurant. Creating excitement often inspires restaurant owners or transporting evening of exotic tastes, the design should take into account the important elements of contrast and texture in the design. For example, if the restaurant wants the guests to experience the exotic dining experience, the interiors should emphasize rougher texture of stones, moderate lighting and green ornaments.
Apart from typical settings, full-service restaurants rarely offer their guests the opportunity to choose their own seats. This is because restaurant managers utilize the available table to the party size. However, given a choice of where to sit in a restaurant, a substantial majority of people prefer sitting at a table next to some kind of permanent architectural feature: a window, a wall, or even a low partition. This “anchoring” behavior is most likely related to psychological needs: we need personal space around us to feel comfortable An interesting, recent study suggests that a more indicator of where guests prefer to sit is the type of dining occasion and the relationship to a diner's companions. On occasions where diners ate alone, the strong preference was for a low status area in an anchored table, which encompasses a feeling of isolation for the guest. The spatial plan of the dining room should also consider the traffic that’s created by the staff in between the tables; there should be enough spaces in between the tables to allow free flow of traffic to avoid accidents such as the waiter spilling the soup to the customer because another staff accidentally bumped the other. In modern restaurant settings, POD order-entry systems and the remote printer located in the kitchen and bar has lessened the wait staff flow.
Chairs should be positioned so that customers or staff doesn’t bump into them as they move around. In addition, temperature and sound should be part of the experience of the space that highlights the overall mood and ambience of the restaurant. When it comes to lighting optimization of space and illumination ensures that people are physiognomic-ally flattered by the lighting, taking importance to the perception of the lighting as fluorescent. Customers must feel that they the lighting is conductive, comfortable and appropriate. Meaning a fine dining restaurant should not use a blinking red light because it emphasizes a completely different setting. In addition, the lighting should be enough that the customers are able to read the menu taking into consideration the age of the customer as older customers tend to have more difficulties in reading the menu as compared to the younger customers. Visual monotony causes fatigue, which explains the reason why customers do not stay longer in brightly lit fast food restaurants. With the correct lighting, the space becomes more textural, more interesting, more tree dimensional.
Beverage
Beverages are typically a variation of alcoholic to non- alcohol. Therefore, the type of beverage being served should adhere to the settings of the bar itself. Some restaurants consist of a front bar, back bar, bar seating and sometimes cocktail seating. The size of the beverage area depends on the volume of beverage orders. Some areas incorporate bars within the dining area to serve single beverage orders, but other restaurants also dedicate a full bar set up to accommodate drinking customers and are usually separate from the main dining area. In addition, some multiple table service restaurants set up bar that are completely detached from the dining area in order to separate the drinkers from the diners. Beverage areas con range in sizes small to full bar setup depending on the restaurant’s image. For example, a Bar and Grill restaurant typically have full set up bars to service bar customers, while fine dining restaurants have bars to service the beverage needs of the menu. What’s important is that the restaurant separates the needs, type of service offered to the customers in the bar and dining area.
