Tips For Improving Your Restaurant’s Appearance

Improving Your Restaurant’s Appearance

As with anything in life; first impressions are important, and this is certainly the case when it comes to restaurants and fine dining experiences. Long before we tuck into our main meal, (or well before we’ve even read the menu, for that matter), the first thing we all do upon entering a restaurant is soak in the atmosphere, ambience and aesthetic, making immediate judgments on the establishment before we’ve even sat down.

 

In an increasingly competitive market, ensuring your restaurant’s appearance is crucial, helping to convey and identify to your customers your brand, and hopefully, encourage them to dine. Below, we highlight key tips for improving your restaurant's appearance.

Curbside Appeal

When thinking of updating and improving your restaurant’s appearance, what better place to start than the exterior? Enhancing your curbside appeal, i.e, how your restaurant appears physically to potential customers from outside, is pivotal in improving your business; after all, a restaurant that is clean, visible and attractive is far more likely to attract custom than one that’s grubby, run-down or hard to locate.

 

A little maintenance, care and attention go a long way, so be sure to keep your restaurant’s curbside appeal attractive, carrying out regular cleaning, including pressure-washing exterior pavements and removing any litter. You should also consider watering any plants or shrubbery, as well as keeping all signage visible and on-brand.

Flooring

A real, “no-no”, for professional restaurants, dirty floors can have a lasting impact on your businesses, especially in terms of return customs and sales, likely deterring visitors from returning to your restaurant in the future. In fact, one survey carried out in the U.S. suggests that up to 68% of diners have failed to return to a return that had dirty floors upon their first visit, highlighting just how important it is to get right. Your floors are visible for all to see, added to the fact that they cover the majority of the space, so ensuring they appear clean is crucial.

 

If this is a cause for concern; why not try commercial floor mats? These clever, particularly handy tools are ideal if you’re looking to keep your floors cleaner for longer. Simply pop them by your entrance and exit points, to allow customers to relieve their shoes of dirt or mud.

Lighting

Much like Goldilocks and her famous porridge, it’s important to get your lighting just right. Let’s face it; we’ve all been to a restaurant where the lighting is either too dark or too bright for our liking, playing havoc with the ambience thereby affecting customer comfort and positivity. Equally, lighting that doesn’t match the mood or design of your restaurant won’t help, after all, a romantic setting should always be dimly lit, whilst a kid-friendly family diner may require additional lighting for both safety and novelty purposes.

 

The lighting of your restaurant all but determines your atmosphere, so think carefully about the mood or concept you wish to achieve; low lighting typically creates a relaxing, fine dining environment, whilst bright lighting is generally used in smaller settings, to help increase customer turnover.

Theme & Decor

As an extension of the above, settling on a strict theme, colour scheme or decorative style is vital in improving both your restaurant’s interior aesthetic and its curbside appeal, offering customers an ability to appreciate your unique concept before they’ve even entered the building.

 

Consider an outdoor seating area, with mood lighting and dynamic space heaters, to extend your curbside appeal even further and always use appropriate lighting that reflects the ambience you intend to set. Think carefully about your music choices, and how this will reflect the environment– faster music is often associated with quicker custom, with slower, gentler music typically found in fine-dining establishments.

Quality Linens

A small, but significant detail; tablecloths and napkins will certainly improve the overall ambience of your restaurant, enhancing the customer experience and offering an important positive first impression.

 

Quality napkins and restaurant tablecloths from a proven commercial linen company, such as London Linen, will ultimately engage your customers in the dining experience, promoting class and comfort in equal measure. Oozing sophistication, hiring luxury linens for your restaurant will immediately enrich the aesthetic and ambience of your customer’s dining experience.

London Linen | Why Choose Restaurant Linen Hire Services?

A perfect fine dining experience is more than just the food, (although we’ll admit, it’s important), instead a great restaurant experience relies on several contributing factors, including quality of service, crockery, cutlery, glassware and, of course, your table linen.

 

Restaurant linen, tablecloths and napkins are imperative in providing a positive first impression for your customers, setting the tone, ambience and aesthetic of your restaurant immediately. Below, we take a closer look at how restaurant linen hire can ultimately improve your customer's dining experience.

Improve Hygiene

Adhering to strict hygiene standards is imperative when running a restaurant, with a number of important procedures in place to reduce the risk of harmful bacteria spreading. This is because tabletops, as you can imagine, are a breeding ground for this bacteria, as this is where the majority of interaction happens, with customers placing their hands on a potentially contaminated table. Whilst this risk can be prevented to some degree using sanitiser products, cross-contamination is still possible.

 

With table linens, however, you can quickly improve hygiene as the tablecloth will simply be removed and replaced after customer use. Hiring table linens from a proven linen hire company such as London Linen ensures your tablecloths are clean, hygienic and free of potentially harmful bacteria.

Efficient

Choosing linen hire can prove to have a lasting positive impact on efficiency, eliminating the need to carry out a particularly tedious and time-consuming task on your own, particularly in the case of commercial linen. This will free up time to focus on other tasks, attending to other parts of your business, safe in the knowledge that your linens are being taken care of by the professionals.

Cost-Effective

As an extension of the above point; choosing a linen hire company for your commercial linen won’t just save you time, it will also save you money. In truth, washing and drying restaurant linen is expensive, requiring a commercial washing machine, (complete with eye-watering energy bills), and an extensive space in which you can actually wash them.

 

Choosing linen hire will ultimately save you money, eliminating the cost of maintenance, cleaning or replacements, ensuring you always have instant access to the finest quality linens without the financial headache.

Improve Aesthetic

As suggested, when it comes to visiting a restaurant, nothing says sophistication and class quite like luxury linens. Tablecloths and napkins of the highest quality will enhance the fine dining experience of your restaurant, improving the overall ambience and aesthetic. As customers sit at their tables, greeted by a display of soft, finely pressed linen, there’s no doubt they will be thrilled.

Johnsons | Restaurant & Catering Linen by London Linen

Need restaurant linen hire in London? Whether you need linen hire services for your restaurant, hotel or hospitality business, then look no further than London Linen. With decades of experience, we know what it takes to provide our customers with linen that they can be proud to have in their restaurants, kitchens and hotels. We’re a company that supplies laundry services, as well as table linen and chef wear hire.

 

To provide reassurance that the linen we supply is the best quality possible, all of our products go through a pristine quality control check. Our staff are all fully trained in ensuring that your products are handled efficiently and safely. On top of that, we offer flexible contracts that are tailored to your needs and requirements. Get in touch with our team today!