I'm interested in opening a small Mexican Restaurant in Poland - looking for information

I'm interested in opening a small Mexican restaurant somewhere in Poland (Warsaw, Poznan, or Krakow) with the most traditional dishes. I would like to keep it small and inviting with a small staff (two waitresses and one cook) that I would hire locally. I've seen the competition and I think I have a great product to offer which will attract a lot of Polish folks (will travel there to have a closer look). I'm looking for information on how hard it is to open a restaurant. What is the minimum wage? How much are taxes? Where are good locations? Good real estate companies? Trusted accounting company? Is it better to buy or lease as a non-Polish citizen? Is it worth applying for liquor license?.......etc.

I'm fluent in English and Spanish and have a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture (mainly apples, cherries and pears).
Looking for a new venture; hope that someone in this forum can provide some feedback.
I plan on traveling to Warsaw and surrounding areas in the next couple of month, and would like to find a company or people that can help answer some questions and show me locations while I'm there. Very interested in opening the lines of communication sooner than later though, this way we can get to know each other and also have the hardest questions asked and answered before I arrive 

Thanks in advance!!!
Felipe
You can post on this forum or contact me at the email listed below
Email: feli.zawi@gmail

The market for restaurants in Kraków is pretty saturated and so it's hard to get into. There are a few Mexican restaurants, mostly selling tex-mex stuff. Gabriel who is Mexican and works at Taco Mexicano runs mexican nights and cooks proper authentic food and it goes down well for the people he invites. However I think a lot of people (not just Poles, but in the UK as well) are not that open to authentic Mexican food. I personally think it's wonderful but most would prefer fajitas, burritos and tacos.

thanks for the reply, that is actually what I'm going for is burritos, tortas, tacos, quesadillas and nachos (authentic)

If they tried it, they would realize Mexican food is much tastier than Polish food. :-)

Why Poland?

Make a carne asada burrito, carnitas and huevos racheros, and I'll be a customer for life even though I live in Gdansk. We have Pueblo, a decent Tex-Mex place, but they don't offer any of the above although they serve the best Mexican food I've had in Poland since coming from Southern California 6 1/2 years. Come to think of it, add some fish tacos and good guacamole and you'll rule Poland.

When you did your research did you uncover Taco Bell closed down on the Polish market some years ago?

Yes.

The OP should be careful though. A very nice TexMex lunch place in Zloty Taras closed down as well as a rather inauthentic Polish-run one (with a startlingly lame understanding of the concept of spicy) on al Jerozolimskie.

There's a decent one on Senatorska, just round the corner from the Wierzbowa restaurant run, but not cheap and in very good (and presumably expensive) premises. When we were last there, one of the starters didn't come and then appeared after the main course - the 'waitress' couldn't understand why I wanted it off the bill, but eventually after speaking to her boss comped us some drinks as well.

We went to 'The Mexican' at the end of Zgoda a while ago. It was full, but every ten minutes they kept dimming the lights and playing a CD of Sto Lat so it's obvious how they're doing their marketing.

Damn rice and beans with fried pork and seafood soup.....none Mexican here infact no good ethnic food all catered to polish taste eg saigonki with salatka,samosa with salatka,falafel with polish sauce,Thai food with salatka.

No original ethnic food in Poland like the west

Yes, but that was because they hadn't thought through their supply chain, which resulted in them doing insane things such as having their crispy tacos imported by air from the USA.


That was due to structural problems with the building itself, not due to the actual place itself not making any money.


Is it actually decent food? I've not been there for several years.

Personally I love the tex-mex at Spoco Loco. They have two places already and are now franchising
spocoloco.com.pl
There's also place in the building at Jerozolimski 123 called Dos Tacos which I haven't been to but is Mexican owned and run and gets very good reviews, apparently it's where the staff from the Mexican embassy eat

dostacos.pl

There's a Thai one now in the same spot - they never look busy.


Remember King Pie?

here is my small menu

Still we don't have any Mexican themed chains entering the Polish market by 2014, even though I have visited El Popo in Wars a few times which is about as good as it gets in PL,I can't help but believe Poles visit Mexican restaurants for the drinks over the food.

We've got Spoco Loco: already at two locations and now selling franchises!

SL is a Polish brand it is not a international chain, I have never eaten there so I can't comment on the quality of the food, one place in Bemowa and another in wilanów miasteczko is hardly a chain H :-)

Looks like Mexican restaurants in Poland, are about as common as Polish restaurants in California.

6 years later. Did you ever make the restuarant? If so how did it go?

Not too good, I am afraid. A few months ago they opened a Mexican bar in my area, now I see it is gone and the premises hosts Asian cuisine bar.

There was an excellent (and fairly authentic, not just 'tex-mex') one by Rondo Wiatraczna. That's closed now. There isn't a place in the market except for either expensive and heavily marketed faux-Mexican ones like Frida and the occasional burrito joint.

Pity, but true. Kebab outlets force other foreign cuisine competition out of the market.

Yes. Sphinx and Pizza Hut are both a blessing and a curse.