All You Can Eat Spanish Tapas (Sydney)

Lche_97 on 20/09/2011 - 15:22

i am looking at posting a deal for a spanish restaurant on behalf of the manager. She is willing to offer a discount to oz-bargainers

so before posting the deal i was thinking i would get some feedback from people on this forum.
firstly, would i even be allowed to post a deal like this?
mondays/tuesdays all you can eat tapas $30 pp
$5 discount for oz-bargainers who make a booking

some things i would like feedback on

is $30 a good price for all you can eat spanish food? the price would be less for those who use their oz bargain discount, however, the public would be paying this price. what do you guys think?
This would only be available mondays and tuesdays. is that a deal breaker for some people?

there is an extensive list of tapas available and they are delicious i myself eat here all the time. however, due to the all you can eat nature of this promotion, there would be no seafood available. is this a deal breaker?

what kinds of terms and conditions should i be setting out. i would like to be very honest from the get go about how this works so no one is disappointed.

is there anything else you guys would like to suggest or do you have any questions for me. is there anything i should include when posting the deal?

General Discussion

Comments

  • whiteflame on 20/09/2011 - 16:12

    no seafood = deal breaker for me, some of the most delicious tapas are seafood

    if the deal were to go ahead, you guys need to hire more staff to accomodate for the influx of customers

  • HerbertShelton on 20/09/2011 - 16:26

    Sounds like a good deal to me.

  • neil on 20/09/2011 - 16:48
    +2

    Sounds fine to post. Good to see a restaurant thinking it through rather than going the route ala group buy companies where they change the conditions, put on special menus, etc.

    Take a look at this deal, http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/41020 or any others for spiceofindia.

    • che_97 on 20/09/2011 - 16:56

      thats exactly my line of thinking, instead of giving their revenue to these group buying sites, we can discount the menu by a little bit less than we would give to say groupon or whoever and keep the difference.

      • punk on 20/09/2011 - 17:57
        +2

        I also hate group buying websites like scoopon etc, so that in itself makes me want to check it out :)

  • Hellfire on 20/09/2011 - 16:49
    +2
    • Price is good.
    • Early week is fine. Most people realise you need to go at odd times to get these deals.
    • No seafood is disappointing but understandable.

    Spell out all T&C very clearly. Most ozbargainers are fine with restrictions as long as they know about them up front.

    Make sure the food comes out in a reasonable time. That is a deal breaker for some all you can eat places. They promise lots of food but you need to wait ages to get a decent meal.

    Make sure there is enough staff. Nobody likes waiting for service or to order more drink/food.

    Food needs to be same or similar quality to normal times otherwise no one will come back.

    You will attract people who will eat an enormous amount of food. If you have problems with someone eating 20 tapas dishes by themselves then all you can eat is not right for you.

    I hope the sangria is good :)

    • che_97 on 20/09/2011 - 16:59

      thanks mate. much appreciated comments here.

      i agree with you 100% be upfront about any T&C. i was thinking something along the lines of:

      all people at the table must have the all you can eat option, as it would be hard to police sharing ( one person ordering a lot and giving their food to people who are not paying for the banquet)

      also, as tapas are by their nature small, people might be inclined to order far too many, so what i was thinking was limiting the amount of tapas they can order at one time to say 5. when they finish those, they can order another 5. do you think that is reasonable?

      • Hellfire on 21/09/2011 - 12:58

        5 sounds like a reasonable limit.

  • RandomNinja on 20/09/2011 - 16:50
    +1

    It would help if we had a current menu/pricing to reference.

    How much would $30 normally get you?
    Is an average person likely to eat more than $30 worth anyway?
    Although seafood is excluded, what other types of dishes are avail? eg: beans and potatoes = not so great value
    Prices of drinks? eg: some places markup drinks to recover costs

    Weekdays are perfectly fine for these deals, may want to specify whether public holidays are included especially as we have the Oct long weekend coming up.

    • che_97 on 20/09/2011 - 17:06
      +1

      this is a nice place, wednesday-saturday there is live music from about 7.30-onwards and i would say that it is not a cheap restaurant. the idea behind this all you can eat tapas, is to increase business early on in the week, no secrets here. relative to their original menu,
      the average person would easily spend more than $30 here as mains are $25-35pp normally as are paella and other big platters to share.

      the drinks menu would not change. it is an extensive wine list focusing on imported wines from many regions in spain and some from south america. changing it would be too much of a hassle haha.
      i was also suggesting that we put the price of sangria down, from $25 a jug normally to $10 on mondays and tuesdays to those who order the all you can eat tapas. what do you think of that?

      to be fair to the place, their tapas list is huge and even without seafood there is a good 15+ options that arn't "beans+potatoes" although i must add the potatoes are amazing. so variety and choice is not a problem here.

      ill ask the manager about the long weekend. the restaurant is in the cbd so i don't know if it will be open as all the offices will be closed and they form a lot of the business.

      • punk on 20/09/2011 - 17:59

        I like the sangria idea. Do it! :)

      • RandomNinja on 20/09/2011 - 18:12

        +1 on the discounted sangria!

        Re: number of tapas at one time, 5 seems like a reasonable amount. You may want to consider offering 'supersized' tapas on the first order (eg: double/triple portion size). Could be more efficient for the cooks and help keep hungry customers happy at the start.

        So for a couple, $60 is all they would pay for the all you can eat plus drinks in the city. Seems like a pretty good deal, post it up already!

  • mel82 on 20/09/2011 - 17:51

    I think it sounds great! I love the all you can eat options for my family! Alot of places aren't open on Mondays so its a good day :)

  • citybargainhunter on 21/09/2011 - 10:55

    It's a good idea, $25 per head eve without seafood is still a good deal. If you can throw in a limited number of seafood, say garlic prawns which we all know doesn't really cost that much to make especially tapas size, that would be even better!

  • joannatan on 21/09/2011 - 11:14

    $15 will be the best price for me :)

  • Doey21 on 21/09/2011 - 12:50
    +1

    http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/50417

    Read that one on the Brazilian BBQ - That is what you SHOULDN'T do
    I think its important to realise that bad publicity is worse than no publicity.

    What the Brazilian BBQ did
    1. Promise an all you can eat buffet but deliver meagher amounts. they basically conned everyone out of their money and brought out one plate at a time. It seemed that even if that was full price on a friday night it would've been a ripoff. I think producing a discount code or something would be better if you can't deliver on your all you can eat offer (though it seems you've been doing it for a while and it hasn't been disasterous)

    1. Have rude staff.
      I think if a restaurant was busy, but the staff were friendly and apologetic, I'd be more than forgiving. But if they were rude and condescending (as what happens with these group buy deals), I would never return…Even if the food was magnificent. Not only that, but I would go out of my way to tell everyone what a bad experience I had.

    But I think you're making a genuine attempt by asking for feedback and I commend you for that :)

  • Cyberon on 03/10/2011 - 23:00
    -1

    $30 would be a good deal if you include Calamari and prawns.

    Believe me, the cost price of calamari and prawns is NOT expensive these days. I am sure that the prawns you would be serving would be frozen deshelled ones from asia. You can get $13 a kilo for fresh banana prawns at Woolies, I am sure you could do better wholesale.

    I would think your menu could be something like this

    *Chorizo
    *Potato
    *Olives
    *Meatballs
    *Garlic Bread
    *Garlic Mushroom
    *Omellette
    *Mini Paella- This could be quite profitable as you are serving mostly rice and mixed in with frozen imported seafood (calamari, mussels, fish -are available very cheaply)
    *Mussels in Tomato Sauce - cost price of ingredients again very cheap, and cooked in a strong tomato broth would cover any unfreshness. Frozen mussels are dirt cheap.

    Cutting out the seafood options (which cost price is very cheap anyway), would improve your profit margin, since the non seafood ingredients above are available very cheaply.

    • joannatan on 03/10/2011 - 23:23
      +3

      so u mean the sauce can cover the smelly and unfreshness of any fish etc?

      • Cyberon on 21/10/2011 - 22:50

        Correct.

        And, not many people know this, but 99% of the prawns you get at restaurants are very cheaply bought deshelled ones from asia, yet are sold at a premium price. Ditto with calamari.

        To put it in perspective, Australian fresh prawns with shells sell for $12.88 at Woolies, so you can pretty much work out that an inferior product is probably half the price of this.

        This is not to say that imported products are bad, it's just that due to the shipping and processing time, it won't be as fresh as something local (generally). And anything that has been peeled is bound to be less flavoursome, because the natural juices leech out. In essence, if you went overseas to Vietnam, China etc and bought seafood fresh there, it would just be as good, it not better than Australian seafood. Similarly, it could be argued if you lived in Asia and bought frozen Australian seafood it would be bad quality as well. It all comes down to freshness.

        the other day I was at a buffet with Queensland Spanner crab. I've had good ones before, but the one I had that night was obviously poorly prepared…I could tell it was frozen poorly as the body was flavourless, yet the claw was sweet.

        The reason?

        The claw has not been exposed as it is encased with the shell, yet the pre cut halves of the crab would have been exposed during the freezing and thawing (arguably more than once). The result? Flavourless seafood. However, not many people know this and will eat it with tartare or seafood sauce…which covers up the delicacy of the seafood.

        So the moral is, anything fresh will be great, and seafood isn't as expensive now as it used to be, especially the raw ingredients they use, despite what many restaurants would like to you believe.

        • joannatan on 22/10/2011 - 00:41

          thats in theory, the reality is not as cheap as u thought mate. coz i got friend that do export prawn business. he sourcing the prawn from vietnam, thailand, indonesia. the farming prawn + cold storage cost + shipping cost (from the exporting country to the destination country) can make up the price for 1 kg prawn (small size) around $6-9, it is depend on the season. and if u added the cost associate with local cost, especially in australia, then their margin really small, they only play by the volume. the main market for seafood export is japan. european, america and austarlia is not as strong as japan market. in japan seafood is part of their daily consumption, so the price is sustainable. compare than europe, america and australia, they are price sensitive market as seafood is not their main consumption.

        • blaze on 27/10/2011 - 00:05

          the deshelled prawns i see in woolies & coles are almost always from china or vietnam

  • kirasuran on 04/10/2011 - 00:44

    Just a comment on the pricing, i definitely like the idea of 10$ sangria. However as to the all-you can eat, i think 30$ may be a bit 'average' in terms of getting a bargain, because from the few times (so i'm no expert) i've had spanish food, it's cost me between 30-40$ already so really, it's not much of a reduction. Having said that, 30$ would be for all-you-can eat so it may be fair. I think that if it was say, $27 or even $25 (with or without the extra ozbargain discount) then i would definitely go for it.

    I do love spanish tapas and i'd DEFINITELY bring my friends (aka my soccer team, so you guys can have 10+ customers already)

  • BuyoTheCat on 04/10/2011 - 13:19

    I take it that this is not a coupon deal.

    My take is:
    Do not sacrifice quality and make it an enjoyable experience for the customer. All decisions make has to revolve around that. Even pricing. I will pay $40 to have enjoyable experiance and decent food than $10 and feel pissed off with shit food.

  • djones145 on 04/10/2011 - 15:19

    *Chorizo
    *Potato
    *Olives
    *Meatballs
    *Garlic Mushroom

    if ya had this for 25 bucks (ozbargin discount)
    i would be happy

    maybe have one plate galric prawns or seafood for each 2 people too

    that would be perfect!

  • morpheu on 04/10/2011 - 17:31

    re prices, take a look around do your research and try to be realistic, on the wiki tapas page it seems about half the dishes are seafood based, there are some asian buffet(all you can eat) restaurants where $18 will get you fresh seafood like prawns, mussels etc plus hot/cold plates, and other places like the Novotel hotel where for $50 you get full seafood incl king prawns, crab, smoked salmon etc either drop the normal price to say $20 with no seafood, or raise price to about $35-$40 and have full seafood, in my experience people complain more about quality of food/service than (slightly)higher prices, but then again those people paying more may be well heeled so it doesn't matter so much to them

  • che_97 on 21/10/2011 - 12:51
    +1

    Just an update here

    Thanks you everyone for all your comments and ideas. this promotion is going to go ahead the details are as follows

    $29 for as much tapas as you can eat

    A FREE glass of sangria will be available to all who 'check in' on facebook and show our staff

    Garlic Prawns WILL be included. we decided to compromise on this point because we know and you guys know that some ingredients are cheaper than others and it will balance out in the end.

    The way this will work:

    Each person can order 3 tapas, when they finish those they can order more. if doesn't sound like a lot, believe me it is, the portions are pretty big. when those are finished people can order some more.
    the main reason for this mechanic is that we don't want any wastage i.e people ordering way more than they can eat and leaving lots of it.
    also, this way the food stays hot. so two people can order 6 tapas in the first round then another 6 in the second round. there is no limit on how much they can eat, this truely is an all you can eat offer. we accept some people will eat more than their share and we are fine with that.

    Just a couple of notes
    @Doey 21
    i myself have been to some brazillian BBQ and have not been impressed. the idea with the promotion is to entice people to come and eat here and get them to come back ! this isn't a trick or a game we are trying to play, we make more money from happy 'repeat' customers than stinging people once.
    nothing will be different on the day to any other day
    the food will be the same, the staff will be the same
    the only thing different will be the price

    @Morpheu
    i have decided that the $29 price provides value for the customer as well as allowing the promotion to be sustainable for the business. this is a full service restaurant and not a buffet. you have someone bringing your food and explaining what things are what goes with what etc.

    @photonaturally

    spot on mate

    we want our customers to come back again and again, even if it is for the same promotion.

    • djones145 on 22/10/2011 - 09:53

      sounds good
      hmmm garlic prawns!!!!!!!!!!

      now the most important thing

      WHATS UR DETAILS!!!!!!!!!!

    • joannatan on 22/10/2011 - 20:27
      +1

      can u included soft drink or orange juice unlimited please? and how about people bring kid under 4? do they have to pay for the kids as well?

      • nubzy on 23/10/2011 - 19:11
        +1

        Sounds pretty good to me! Not to impressed about the free sangria if you check in on facebook though, myself and my family do not use it and never will and im a bit sick of all these extra benefits only for fb users..

        and free soft drink/oj would be nice too, cans can be bought very cheap in bulk or can even get syrup and mix it yourself.

        • PVA on 24/10/2011 - 21:57

          I agree about the Facebook thingy.

  • joannatan on 22/10/2011 - 20:33

    interesting if we can compare your products and this groupon http://spreets.com.au/deal/Sydney/restaurants-and-bars/10800…

    Highlights:

    Let the feasting begin – all-you-can-eat Churrasco (Brazilian barbecue) dinner just $22! Valued at $45!
    Head into the sizzling premises of Brazilian Churrascaria Cocktail Bar Bondi and transport your taste buds to Brazil!
    Eat your way through delicious, aromatic specially-barbecued meats, seafood and sides!
    Delight in the likes of rump cup, beef sirloin, rump steak, rump tail, mustard beef, garlic beef, honey and chilli pork, chicken Maryland, Peri-Peri chicken, orange lamb, mint lamb, chorizo sausage and pineapple in cinnamon sugar
    Pair these up with delicious sides like dips and bread, chips, rice, potato salad and garlic bread
    PLUS leave room for various expertly-cooked seafood!
    Buy as many vouchers as you like!
    There is no limit on vouchers per table, so get a group together and let the feasting begin!

  • valuespotters on 23/10/2011 - 15:49

    We like group buying deals. That is a real money saver. We like this particlural deal.

    • blaze on 27/10/2011 - 00:07

      lol k

  • mel82 on 23/10/2011 - 18:07

    ok sounds good! tell us all the resturant all you can eat days and let us go and test it out :)

  • citybargainhunter on 23/10/2011 - 21:41

    where is the restaurant?

  • janeymac on 25/10/2011 - 13:53

    I'm interested too…

  • che_97 on 26/10/2011 - 14:39

    Deal will be posted today before 5pm

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join