Considering opening a Polish restaurant in the UK.

Hi there, I'm english with a polish partner and was considering opening a polish restaurant in England, just wondered if you guys have any experience with polish restaurants in the uk and if it is a good idea or not. There are so many polish people here in grimsby and there is already chinese, italien and indian etc restaurants everywhere but not any polish.

any feed back would be greatfully received
many thanks
James

Well when i was living in Cardiff, someone opened a Polish cafe, i never saw anyone eating in the cafe, it was quite cheap and in a typical Polish area of the city. Still it may work, but i don't think the locals would be down with eating Polish food!

There was one in the basement of the Polish club in Glasgow. Quite good.

Hi, there is a Polish Restaurant in Lincoln, but it is not very popular. I have had a meal twice there and I can honestly say I was not impressed. Infact, I would rather have a McDonalds to be fair. I was disappointed, I was really looking forward to some really tasty Bigos, but found it to be far too expensive and not very nice. Szkoda!

I'd hazard a guess that Polish food isn't 'exotic' enough for the average Brit.

Apart from Bigos (which man y would run screaming from when they heard the word 'cabbage' or 'sauerkraut') and pierogi, I don't know that there's much to interest the average brit. Also, one of the beauties of polish food for me is that it is basically 'peasant food' (and I mean that in a nice way) which would traditionally be pretty cheap. Not sure cheapness is always a winner.

I remember a Slovenian resturant in Glasgow. Fantastic food but it didn't last long. I don't think as many Poles would eat there regularly for you to make a huge profit (although I could be wrong).

My advice would be to do some market research, test the water. If they are on short term contracts and planning on going home then it wouldn't make much sense. Put some surveys out and see what consumer demand says.

I would think that Polish families here might prefer to eat at home - being cheaper and probably preferable (because she will know exactly what is in it) to restaurant food.

You would need British clients with disposable income to make any money. Therein lies the problem. We British are generally not too clued up on Polish food. The average Brit wont spend on what he doesn't know or understand.

Of the few who would drift in, English guys with Polish girlfriends and the odd curious culture vulture for example, there would not be enough of them to make it viable IMO.

If you could keep it relatively simple and Polish influenced rather than pure Polish, shashlik and salatka for example, people would understand that (they understand donner kebabs don't they?) and it might work that way.

Don't put yourself in charge of writing the menu or anything to do with the signage outside ;-)

If I ever wanted to eat in a Polish restaurant while abroad, the first thing I would definitely order is meat pierogis with a lot of fried lard chunks - skwarki. All swimming in melted lard. I ordered this dish a few days ago when travelling around the countryside house and I didn`t regret - pure home pierogis.

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