I'm opening a food business. What do you want to see on the menu?

[DonLewis]

I know it's not an AIBU!

But I want to get my menu right! I love street food and we have some amazing street food where I live, but I want to do something different.

We have, on our doorstep, phenomenal Japanese food, Lebanese food, tapas, chicken, burgers, Vietnamese, gastro pub food, Indian, you name it, we've got it.

I'm keen to do great veggie and vegan stuff alongside proper meat.

The restaurant already does an amazing daytime menu that I don't want to change but the evenings is ripe for the taking.

I've got ideas, but I love you guys and want to know what you want to see on a menu.

In a hipster area. (yak, but true!)

Hit me with your ideas

[OverZoomed]

Something that is tasty, fairly healthy and contains at least some veg so I don’t feel guilty giving it to the kids. Smaller options are ideal, or starters that make a balanced main meal.

The real selling point for me, though, would be a non dairy pudding that isn’t sorbet or fruit salad. The last time I had one was last summer in a pub, I still remember it...

[BarbaraofSeville]

Agree about not making all food vegan and thinking 'thats the vegetarians covered'. I'm not vegetarian but don't eat much meat, quite often choose the vegetarian options when eating out and adore cheese but vegan cheese is revolting not the best but I wouldn't choose vegan cheese. But naturally vegan foods like Indian pulse and vegetable based foods or things like hummus, salads, falafels, flatbreads are usually good.

[Cobourg]

Loaded fries are good
Halloumi fries loaded are better
Buffalo chicken wings... proper ones

😋

[Breakingthewaves]

I agree with making sure you have crossover on your menu - have you run a food business before? You need to think about prices / food costs - have a look online at free spreadsheets to help you do this. I literally weigh and cost each part of a dish to make sure it's profitable.
Think also about the equipment you have / space / fridge space. Write your menu according to all those things. As far as a theme - try and fit it in with your daytime - what style is it at the moment? Will you rely on a delivery service (I guess take out is on the cars right now) A delivery service typically charges a restaurant up to 20% so factor that in as well. Don't forget about VAT / staff costs. It's a good time to start a business if you can be canny about it

[FangsForTheMemory]

Beef carpaccio with rocket and parmesan shavings.
Stupendous cheese plate.
Ful medames and baba ganoush and all the other eastern Mediterranean things, you could do a special plate.
Duck confit.

[CuppaZa]

It depends on your daytime menu offerings, I would keep to the same type of food, but use variations of them.

[ghostyslovesheets]

chicken in a basket

[DogInATent]

I've got ideas, but I love you guys and want to know what you want to see on a menu.
Accurate allergen information, without having to ask for it.

"Allergen information on request" - might as well just say " off".
Sorry, it's a pet hate and constant source of annoyance when trying to eat out.

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

Pancake house like My old Dutch in a London. You can be anything you like with a pancake (as big as steering wheels), not a high cost, not particularly complicated. Delicious

[CatFaceCats]

Vegetarian food that isn’t made from mushrooms. Sick of my options being a mushroom risotto, or a mushroom burger.

[Mallowmarshmallow]

Vegan/veggie stuff that isn't made to be like 'pretend meat'.

I'm vegan but don't want to eat stuff that is pretending to be meat so vegetable burgers are good but soya/fake meat burgers -bad.

Also, as someone previously mentioned, colourful healthy full of vegetable options.

[Roominmyhouse]

Tacos - there are not enough tacos in this country. Bloody love em!

[Elouera]

Sorry, bit confused. Are you trying to avoid Thai, Indian, Lebanese etc because they are on your doorstep, OR you want those types of things??? Are you looking for sit down meals, or something people can also take-away like street food?

My initial thoughts were:

• som tam (Thai, green papaya salad). If made without the fish sauce, its vegan
  
• Summer rolls (Vietnamese rolls). You can add meat, prawns etc but I just use veg and vermicelli noodles, so they are 100% vegan and gluten free
  
• Satay chicken or veggie skewers

[Anthilda]

Gluten free.

Before coeliac diagnosis I would have said churros and pancakes/ waffles and I agree about being clear with regards to allergen info rather than needing to ask.

And if you're offering salad please put effort into it. I've been some places that offer a salad*
*few leaves from a pre-packaged bag, half a tomato and a couple of chunks of cucumber.

[Dontcoughnearme]

Real fried chicken.
Smoked BBQ brisket.
Sweet potato fries.
Lobster rolls.
Taco cones.
U.S Street food type sandwiches.

[speakout]

What are you good at cooking OP?

Are you an expert in Sushi or Dim Sum or Mexican food?
What are your skills?

[Dontcoughnearme]

Check out Epcot's food festival menus. They have amazing ideas.

[Megan2018]

Belgian fries and waffles

[JustC]

Not a vegetarian, but have noticed lack of vegetarian variety for pasta/pizza. Also maybe some other vedge sides than carrots, peas, cauliflower. Truly dont get why so few places use peppers, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, etc . Wonder if they are more less cost efficient.

[GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal]

Low-carb stuff, please!! Everything comes with bread or rice or pasta or potatoes or pastry. I like a salad, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to have another option.

[GrumpyHoonMain]

I think you need to examine what your competitors are offering first. I have vegetarian / vegan family who wouldn’t go anywhere near a specialist restaurant as most good Indian / Lebanese / Mexican / Ethiopian etc places will give them amazing food; and we have lots of those locally.

[PorpentiaScamander]

@speakout

What are you good at cooking OP?

Are you an expert in Sushi or Dim Sum or Mexican food?
What are your skills?

That's what I was going to say. Theres no point us all suggesting Vietnamese food for example if you cant cook it because it's not your skill set. (Although I guess a good chef should be able to cook most things)

Some flexibility in the menu would be great. We had lunch out once and my sil wanted a mushroom omelette. There wasn't much on the menu that was actually GF so she was limited. Apparently they couldn't make one as it wasn't on the menu. They had omelettes, and other things made with mushrooms (eg mushroom on toast) but couldn't put the 2 together.

[3LittleMonkeyz]

Keep it light, keep it simple, but also find the thing you do best and do it really, really well. People will come a long way for the best at something, but stay local for a good range of decent food. You need to find your niche.

[Zoeyclash]

There's a restaurant in my town and it does a Cajun chicken fillet burger with sweet potatoes fries and it is just the best food ever. It's so popular that people travel miles and miles for it.

[highmarkingsnowbile]

Mexican. Decent Mexican, and it's easy to offer vegetarian options in this type of food (NOT just vegan).