Can you charge $10 for a dinner roll?

The costs of running a restaurant are sky rocketing in 2018 with both the costs of utilities and ingredients rising. Despite this, most restaurants are still offering complimentary bread to all their guests, even though a lot doesn’t get eaten. Does this still add value to the meal and entice customers to return, or is it all just a waste of dough?

Instead, owners and chefs could look at using low cost ingredients and high quality pastry to deliver a delicious tasting dish and increase value to their business. I have heard some restaurant owners say that they pay close to $3,000 dollars a month just to provide this free bread service to their customers. Often Chefs turn up their nose when someone suggests spending more money on a high-quality pastry. This would add delicious flavour and provide the customer with a culinary experience that they will not forget. It is most likely that the cost of the bread roll is added on to the cost of a main meal but even if it is, no money is made from it. For the same price as a bread roll, it is possible to buy a high quality, all butter pastry that is incredibly easy to use that your customers will love. The best thing about this though, is that with the addition of a few other ingredients, you can then sell the dish for around $15. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say that the other ingredients in the dish cost another $2.50, the total cost of the dish would be $3, which means that the ingredients cost only 20 per cent of the dish.

It may be hard to start charging for, or to stop providing bread rolls, as customers, especially regular visitors, tend to expect it. However, adding high quality pastry dishes to your menu will delight the customers (and their taste buds) as well as leaving them longing to return. It will also increase the chances that they will tell their friends to pay your restaurant a visit. Do you ever hear a friend recommend a restaurant because they provided free bread? It is much more likely they will tell their friends about a delicious, healthy pastry dish that left them wanting more. It almost sounds to good to be true that this can be done for a similar cost to a bread roll but it certainly can.

[cp add – pastry-ready-reckoner]