How long would it take for an English style restaurant in Poland to go bust?

No way in hell I'd put money into that. By weight, yes, buffet, mmm. That's probably something better to experiment with on the side as opposed to it being the main business. An extended salad bar type deal might work. Something like the golden corral in the US. Basically, the buffet alone is like $10 or something like that, and if you get it with an entree it's half that. Don't remember the specifics, but the idea was to have them pay for an entree (steak or whatever), and then have them buy a buffet on top of that for $3 or whatever, which they might use once.

No set menu will keep it fresh...but have you ever done that before? Seems like you'd end up trying to win people over with quality and atmosphere instead of a favorite dish. Maybe not such a great idea over here?

talk aboot pickin on the little irish man havnt even opened me restaurant yet and shes callin me food muck lol

she's a he, and he meant the general mindset of some folks :)

Have you heard of Taybarns in England? Despite any reservations I have about those places, I think something like that would do very well in Poland. It would need huge start-up capital though.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taybarns

Imagine the Restaurant. You got you Buffet Area Theres a huge Mirror Grill in the middle, you got aa wok on your left you gat pasta cooker on your right and little chef stood there. You have your Ingredients in a display Fridge. You have a Menu somewhere visible. Guy Walks up to you I want the Que se dilla with cheese and extra chilli, Piece of the Marinated Carp and the Chicken. I throw it on "sir" gets his plate walks over and Collects his starters "anti Pasto" "tapas" type thing loads of fresh salads.

He eats he Comes back, Takes his selection of vegetables starch gets his food and boom off you go not quite the normal buffet

Its just an idea research would need to be done Im just not sure that an ordinary run of the mill restaurant is gonna work there the most important thing about running a restaurant in any country in the world is you hav to get peoples tongues wagging

Definitely check out Marche when you're in town. They do the same type deal but just bill you at the end based on weight.

Here's their site with some pics: marche.com.pl

Yep, it sounds exactly like what he's thinking about. T

Selling all the excess food for a 50% discount at the end of the night is a killer idea as well.

convex
then it wont get tongues wagging.
It all depends if I can find the right property at the right price first.
What it actually becomes will depend on research
what the poles want
limits imposed by local laws
Licensing
and about 4000000 other things
and what the swambo union thinks about it

Will keep u all updated thanks for the opinions guys much appreciated

If it's the same TGIF & has the same standards all over then I'm not surprised.

The one in Dublin anyway is absolute sh1te.

apologies for callin you a she convex set me right sure enough

open a 'dutch' pancake house or something similar

costs will go into good decor, crockery etc.

the town centre and shopping centres are too expensive for a small business. my opinion.

places to eat are a growing trend.

there will be a new restaurant on the river soon. u could try something similar.

failing that... buy an old castle/palace out of town and try your luck.

some sort of student bar/food place. cheap with fast turn around

something like Ed's Diner in London. (where i did short orders for a while)

if u ever do chilli cheese fries... i'll be a regular

english style is not the way to go because folks have already formed a negative opinion.

Just a quibble, when I was in Southern Mexico (Chiapas) they put raw cabbage and beets(!) on little flat tacos with black beans and yuca. And most food there was served very mild, the chilli peppers were always served on the side and people used them to taste.

I'm not sure of the breakfast thing, outside of hotels I just don't see Polish people having breakfast in a sit down restaurant on their way to work... It seems like a lot of overhead with not much possible return. I'd start off from 12 noon at the earliest and only try breakfast on a trial basis once things are up and running and going okay.

take-away coffee and muffins in the morning, if you're near the university or on route.

take starbucks business from them

There is no other option unless you want to go out of business in a years time.


Do tell ;)

Acquario, on top of Monopol, is doing extremely well btw.


The problem with "cheap", is that you'll never be able to get the prices down to that of your well connected competition. The race to the bottom is a painful one.


Depends on where you're at. If you're close to the hotels, you get people who are skipping the €20 buffets. If you're close to offices, you bill yourself as a place for morning meetings. It works surprisingly well in Prague :) Plus, it's not much overhead, you've already got staff in doing prep work, might as well have some bare bones waitstaff to open and do the day to day stuff like take deliveries, inventory, reordering, all that good stuff.

Home Made Beef Burger € 8.00
Irish Beef, White Flour Bap, House relish and Home Fries
Fish ‘n Chips €9.00
Fresh Cod in beer Batter, Mushy Peas and home fries
Chicken Curry € 7.00
Chicken Pieces in a Mild and Fragrant Madras Sauce with
Basmati Rice
Butterflied Breast of Chicken € 8.00
Garlic and Thyme Chicken Breast, Hot Potato Salad and Sour
Cream
Pan Fried Fish Cakes € 7.00
Salmon and Cod Fish Cakes, Cucumber and Dill Salad
Steak Ciabatta €10.00
Irish Sirloin Steak, Caramelised Onions, Mustardy Mayonaise
Toasted Ciabatta with Home Fries and Pepper Sauce

Ok nso how many poles would eat that ignore the prices old menu from cafe

it's near Tumski Hotel. from the skeleton it looks like it might be a paddle-steamer.

Spot on. Unless - I don't know if any such place exists in Wroclaw, but there's one area here on the site of a former factory that has quite a few specialist establishments. But this place was a huge success in terms of people wanting to live there (a lot of open minded, 30something types). There's about - I dunno, maybe 10,000 people living there, and the restaurants there are doing good business. It's a newish development (5 years old?) and still has that "new" charm - so it works.

But anywhere else? As you say - out of business in a few months.

Isn't property quite cheap in the unrenovated parts of Wroclaw near the centre though?


Sadly, probably not many. I would, I'm sure expats would - but the Poles would be a different story.

Tell you what though - we (as in the people on the forum familiar with Wroclaw) should draw up a list of restaurants and eating establishments for you to visit in Wroclaw when you're over - you'll get a great feel for Poland that way :)

Have a few from convex already and anymore would be fantastic thanks

Hmm, I'd make a point of spending a couple of hours in a milk bar - it'll give you an idea as to what people are after here.

Now - what could work would be take-away soup in winter.

Try starting up a place like "Jacek i Agatka" (pay by weight) near the galeria dominikanska (wroclaw) or the hala targowa. Every time i walk by there i see a massive line up. Good "home cooked" food and reasonable prices. Not only students like this place but i`ve also seen many krauts eating there.

Yes, loads of places in Glasgow do that and it really popular for people picking up a quick lunch or hot snack while shopping.

Theres a chain in holland that does it tiny premises small overheads, Soups Breads and Smoothies if I remember correctly. Thats probably the best Idea I have heard so far nice one:)

That could definitely work here - Poles like soup, they like (well, love) bread and the fruit based drink market is absolutely massive here. Your overheads would be so small - if you deliberately advertised "seasonal products", you could avoid using costly ingredients too!

But - tell you what, the office sandwich market isn't very big here at all. You know what I mean - people coming round to sell sandwiches.

I have often found that strange, if you go into RS McColls or some other newsagent in the UK then there is a fridge full of different sandwiches (they're not great, but hey, they're cheap and easy) which I have never seen here. But a lot of the Polish people I have met love sandwiches.

Infact I noticed Awiteks are advertising sandwiches for 2,70zł but they are always sold out by the time I get there at 12. There obviously is a market if they are selling out so fast.

Okay

Soups- variety
Breads- Variety
Sandwich Vendor
Juices
Teas
Coffees
Homemade Muffins

Okay Im getting a picture and my gf and her family think it will work that there is a market for it.

Going for the starbucks crowd?

are you going to sell, that scab, black pudding? :)

Starbuckd do fres soups and Bread in Poland??

That's the only thing they don't do out of the list. Keep in mind, there's only one starbucks in wroclaw, and it's in an office complex. It's not a bad idea though considering the markups on coffee. Decent coffee at a premium and moderately priced food.

Poles from my experience like coffee sorry to offend any one but my experience of starbucks are that they are sh1te