Some Advice for Restaurant Interior Design
Sometimes the way a building looks on the inside can completely determine the success of the business that it houses. This is extremely apparent when you consider restaurant interior design. When people come into a restaurant the first thing they notice, besides the smell of the food, is the décor inside the restaurant.
Unless you run a McDonald's or some other fast food place, the ambiance is created by the combination of the smell of the food, the look of the restaurant, and the quality of service. The best prepared food can be made to taste terrible if the restaurant interior design is not appealing. This is where a lot of restaurants go wrong; they try and appeal to everyone when in reality they should be appealing primarily to their client base. If you appeal only to your client base then that client base will grow.
A Chinese restaurant with a restaurant interior design theme of a 1950's diner is simply not going to work. Although it may be a great novelty for a little while it will soon wear off and the notion of an incorrect restaurant interior design can kill a restaurant. If you have a Chinese restaurant then decorate it as such and make it feel like a real Chinese restaurant.
You will need to get professional decorators in to really give it an authentic feel but once it is decorated properly then you should be able to get customers. Dining is an experience and the restaurant interior design should help add to that experience. A neutral restaurant interior design is boring and offers nothing to help add to the experience of the evening and will drive customers away.
Keep Them Separated from the Kitchen
There are too many people out there who get access to what amounts to a huge banquet hall with a kitchen and think they have a restaurant. They very well may have a restaurant but there is nothing that kills a restaurant quicker than a wide open and brightly lit room. Once again people go to restaurants for ambiance and for a feel that they cannot get in their own dining rooms and if you have some tables and chairs on a linoleum floor then you aren't giving them anything they haven't already seen. Separate the dining room from the reception area somehow. Maybe have a wall put in or even a curtain would do the trick.
Too many people take restaurant interior design for granted and when their restaurant fails they have no idea why. Take the time to make your restaurant an experience and you will have a better chance of watching your business grow than if you offered people nothing different than eating at home.
