Add These 5 Popular Dishes to Your Restaurant Menu to Make the Most of The Festive Season This Year

Successfully running a restaurant all year-round is no easy feat… but when it comes to capturing the hearts of customers during the festive season, it pales in comparison.

A standard Sunday roast suddenly fails to surpass expectations and eager customers expect you to go above and beyond at this time of year – and you cannot blame them, given that every restaurant takes the exact same approach.

The catering industry is already an extremely overcrowded one, so if your restaurant does not keep constantly evolving with the times, it will get left behind with the other 59% of restaurants that fail within their first 3 years.

Whilst there are many things that come along with running a restaurant, such as managing staff, budgets and marketing campaigns, from the customers perspective, the entire experience is mainly about one thing – yes, that is the food on offer.

So, that means that as the owner of a restaurant, it is your responsibility to ensure that your menu does not disappoint over the Christmas period. That means that you need to pull out all the stops to impress your customers – the decorations need to be perfect, your mulled wine recipe needs to be spot on and you need to have adequate staffing levels so that your guests are not kept waiting.

If you are struggling to decide what to offer on your menu this festive season, then here are our top 5 suggestions for Christmas additions this year.

• Hot Turkey and Caramelised Onion Tart with Melting Stilton Cheese

For most of us, Christmas is not ever really Christmas without the delicious stuffed turkey on our plates. But most people will be saving their Christmas edition roast for the big day itself, so your restaurant needs to come up with something a little different.

What is brilliant about this recipe is that it incorporates all the Christmas leftovers your restaurant will no doubt have in abundance. You may well be offering the option of a roast and having this on the menu will mean that you can reduce wastage – something that will reflect positively on your cash flow.

• Veggie Wellington

It is important to cater for all sorts of guests and so it is wise to have at least a few vegetarian options on your menu. Given that research suggests that residents in the UK are year-on-year moving to more vegetarian meals, restaurants should pay attention to this growing shift.

The leading supermarkets have followed suit and have started to cater a lot more heavily for the growing appetite of vegetarianism, and therefore restaurants should do the same.

• Pigs in Puff Pastry Blankets

For many, pigs and blankets are one of the biggest delights to come from the festive period. Although all of us can cook up a batch of these delicious treats any time of the year, it is a pleasure that most reserve purely for the Christmas season.

Your restaurant can serve these as part of a main course or offer them separately as a starter dish. If your restaurant caters for events too, these make the perfect addition to party canapes.

• Stuffing Baubles

If your restaurant truly wants to get involved with the spirit of Christmas, then you absolutely need to add these sensational tasting sides to your menu.

Quite simple to make, this recipe includes bacon, onion, sausage meat and cranberry stuffing – all ingredients that are likely to already be in your restaurant’s kitchen, which will reduce stock costs, making your food go further and increasing profit margins.

• Winter Bombe

For the chocolate lovers out there, this will certainly go down a treat. This is the perfect alternative to the Christmas pudding or chocolate gateau option that is usually found on most restaurant Christmas menus.

You will wow diners with this little trick up your sleeve and with the addition of sparklers, all guests will get to enjoy this and not just the ones who are finishing off the plate.

Compiling the ultimate Christmas menu can be quite a daunting task, but with some careful consideration into what your target customers want and the right resources, your restaurant should be able to storm ahead of the competition.

If you are experiencing cash flow challenges or want to realise your business growth plans, get in touch with our team of Funding Specialists today on 020 7839 9451 or email [email protected].