In earlier posts, I touched on the challenge of relying on in-house guests to drive F&B revenue. The reality remains: hotel restaurants rarely make money unless there’s a strong lunch and dinner crowd from the immediate walking catchment area.
Restaurant Sizing and Service Models
The size of the restaurant heavily influences the type of service it can efficiently support:
• 40–60 pax: A skilled chef with adequate support can manage a full à la carte service without overextending.
• 60–100 pax: At this point, à la carte becomes unsustainable, and we shift to a semi-buffet concept—entrees and desserts are placed on the buffet, while guests order their main course.
• 100+ pax: Even semi-buffet is no longer practical. The natural evolution is a full buffet setup.
The Buffet Trap (and How We Avoided It)
A buffet restaurant must be carefully thought out. I’ve seen well-known 5-star hotels serve lavish buffet spreads (setup costs: RM 1,500–2,000) to just six guests at lunch. Six months later, I returned and saw 10 guests. Still a daily loss, I’m sure—and I couldn’t help but wonder if stale leftovers ended up as staff meals.
We responded by attacking cost and wastage on two fronts:
1. Variable Dish Sizing
For daily breakfasts and Ramadhan buffets, we started with full-size chafing dishes during peak hours, switching to half and quarter sizes as meal times tapered off. This significantly reduced end-of-service waste.
2. Live Cooking Stations
We introduced chef-manned food stations with minimal stock. Stations were progressively closed toward the end of the meal period. This offered multiple benefits:
o Guest engagement: Guests could interact and customize.
o Fresh food: Chefs showcased creativity in real time.
o Low wastage: Portion control was tight, and unused ingredients were minimized.
These strategies gave us agility—we could scale the number of open stations depending on the size and budget of the event.
The Results
At The Everly Putrajaya, this approach helped us gross nearly RM 2 million during the recent Ramadhan period. Even more telling: the staff of our owning company now prefer dining with us over other hotels in the group.
📌 If you’re designing or rethinking your hotel’s café or buffet operation, take a hard look at the scale, service model, and wastage. A buffet that looks good on paper can bleed money every single day. Efficiency, freshness, and adaptability should drive your F&B model—not tradition.
