In response to public distaste at the price of eating out, restaurateurs are launching a 'special value menu', writes Madeleine Lyons
The official launch next week of "special value meals" in restaurants all around Ireland will be welcomed by all those who feel they have been paying too much for too long for mediocre food.
Driven by the Restaurants' Association of Ireland (RAI) and strongly supported by the Government and Bord Fáilte, the initiative comes in direct response to widespread criticism of dining-out prices and a perceived lack of value being offered to consumers. It also marks a move to encourage Irish people to eat out more frequently.
Next week, John O'Donoghue, Minister for Tourism, will launch a booklet detailing the first 200 restaurants to take part in the scheme that will allow diners eat for €10, €20 or €30, depending on the restaurant in question and the package it chooses to offer. It is envisaged the voluntary scheme will be extended to 1,000 Irish restaurants, as the RAI is recommending that all its members take it up.
According to Tom Mythen, president of the RAI and proprietor of restaurants Brasserie na Mara in Dún Laoghaire and the Footplate Restaurant at Dublin's Heuston Station, "There was a lot of criticism about the cost of eating out in restaurants in Ireland, and while I could go on about our costs and VAT, we wanted to show consumers there is good value dining available out there. It's just that it has been all over the place until now, and this is an effort to simplify it for people. It's the same concept as the Prix Fixe, or Menu Del Dia menus available in European countries."
The initial participants comprise 200 established restaurants from all over Ireland, and each decides the special value menu it wishes to offer, although calls to a dozen or so restaurants suggests many have yet to decide on their value menu. So far, many Dublin restaurants appear to be offering a choice of any two courses from their menus for either €20 or €30, while those outside Dublin tend to offer slightly more for the same prices.
The proposed €10 menus appear to be scarce, while the higher €30 menus seem to be the most popular, in Dublin at least. The RAI says it hopes that eventually there won't be too many restrictions on menus - many are only currently available as Early Bird or lunch menus - and that diners will be able to avail of the special value menu at any time.
Mythen admits he has been surprised at the overwhelming public response to the initiative since its announcement, and says the RAI will be concentrating its efforts for the rest of the year on pushing to offer more value to customers.
Ray Byrne, owner of Wineport Restaurant in Glasson, Co Westmeath, and a major supporter of the initiative, says: "From an operator's point of view our margins 10 years ago were 4 per cent, and they are now down to 3 per cent - that's a 25 per cent decline - but customers aren't interested in that. They felt they were being ripped off. The domestic diner has been the cornerstone of the Irish restaurant market for the last five years, they've been very good to us, so it was time to deliver value to them going forward. Instead of simply going from expensive down to cheap, we've managed to be more creative with ingredients and the way we cook them, and not having it be all about fillet steak and sole on the bone."
Some restaurants will also include a bottle of wine with their offers, thanks to a partnership with a small family-owned company in Ireland, Sebvre and Co., which distributes a wine label from a family vineyard in Chile. This allows restaurateurs to buy the wine at a competitive wholesale rate, and offer it to diners either as part of the value offer, or at much lower prices. The idea is to avoid scenarios where diners are enticed to an exclusive restaurant by the special value menu, only to discover that the wine list is prohibitively priced.
Says O'Donoghue: "There are many challenges facing us all at the moment, and while there has never been a more opportune time to appreciate the great asset that the restaurant sector is to our tourism industry, it is also time to re-evaluate and assess our competitiveness in the world marketplace."
The programme is expected to continue indefinitely, and has the support of Tourism Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation.
A pocket guide detailing participating restaurants in the special value menu initiative will be launched by the Minister for Tourism, John O'Donoghue, next Wednesday, and will be available from Dublin Tourism. The pocket guide will be distributed exclusively with copies of The Irish Times on Tuesday April 1st.