Improving an Existing Restaurant or Bar

When a venue trades below what it should, a new interior is rarely the first answer, so BDS starts with the numbers and works through the menu, the bar, the room and the service in that order.

A restaurant that is not trading well usually shows it in several places at once: quiet weeknights, a menu that has grown long, food costs that creep up, reviews that mention slow service. Each symptom invites its own fix, and owners often try several together: a new menu, a promotion, a refurbishment. Without a diagnosis it is hard to know which change worked, or whether any did.

BDS approaches an existing venue the way an operator would. Read the business first. Fix what costs least and matters most. Keep the bigger changes for when the evidence supports them.

Start with the P&L

The profit and loss account shows where the money goes before anyone walks the floor. It is worth reading in a set order, because each line explains the next:

  1. Sales by day, by daypart and by channel, to see when the venue earns and when it does not.
  2. Food and beverage cost, set against the margins the menu was priced for, to find where the gap opens.
  3. Payroll, set against the hours the venue actually trades, to see whether staffing follows demand.
  4. Rent and fixed costs, set against realistic covers and spend, to know how much the trade has to carry.
  5. What remains, and whether the problem is volume, margin or cost.

Only then does the diagnosis move to the floor: watching a full service and a quiet one, reading reviews for the complaints that repeat, and talking to the people who run the shifts. The numbers say where to look. The floor says why.

Menu engineering

A menu that has grown by addition usually carries dishes that neither sell nor earn. Menu engineering sorts every item on two measures: its contribution, meaning what it earns after its food cost, and its popularity, meaning how often it is ordered against the rest of its section.

  • Dishes that sell well and earn well are kept, protected and given the strongest positions on the menu.
  • Dishes that sell well but earn little are re-costed, re-portioned or re-priced, carefully, because guests choose them.
  • Dishes that earn well but rarely sell are described better, placed better or renamed before they are dropped.
  • Dishes that neither sell nor earn are usually removed, which shortens prep and simplifies the kitchen.

The measure that matters is what each plate earns in rupees, not food cost as a share of price alone: a dish with a higher food cost can still earn more per plate. The work uses the venue’s own sales and recipe costs, and every change is checked against what the kitchen can produce before a new menu is printed.

The bar and the beverage mix

In a bar, or a restaurant with a strong bar trade, the drinks list deserves the same scrutiny as the menu. BDS looks at the mix of what sells: draught against bottled, cocktails against straight spirits, house pours against premium, and coffee and soft drinks through the day. A list that is too long ties up stock and cash. A list with gaps loses the guest who wanted something it did not offer.

Speed matters as much as range. A bar that cannot pour quickly at the busiest hour loses sales the owner never sees. For a brewpub the tap list is the offer, and more taps are not simply more products: they allow rotation, tastings and flights, and give regulars a reason to return.

Small physical fixes before big ones

A refurbishment is the most expensive fix, so it comes last. Some problems that look like design problems can be solved for far less:

  • Re-planning the seating so table sizes match how guests actually arrive.
  • Moving a side station or a billing point to shorten the routes servers walk.
  • Re-circuiting or adding lighting so the room suits the hours it trades.
  • Adding bar stations, ice or glass storage where the bar slows at its peak.
  • Zoning the floor so sections can close when trade is light.

If the diagnosis shows that the concept itself has drifted away from its guests, the right answer may be a renovation or repositioning instead, and that is a different project.

Service systems, SOPs and training

Inconsistency costs repeat visits: the dish that was right last week and wrong this week, service that depends on who is on shift. The fix is a set of written standards the team can use on a busy Friday, not a manual on a shelf.

BDS sets out the operating systems the venue needs, from opening and closing to prep and recipe standards, the steps of service and the changeover between dayparts. Training explains why each standard exists as well as what it is, and the standards are checked in service, not only on paper.

What BDS will not promise

BDS will not promise a sales figure, a margin or a payback date before it has seen the numbers, and it does not attach results to work that it cannot document. Improvement depends on things outside any consultant’s control: the site, the market, the owner’s capacity to invest, and whether the team holds the new standards after the work ends.

What BDS will do is set out what it found, what it recommends and in what order, what each change should affect, and how the owner can measure it in the venue’s own figures.

From the operator’s side

Rish Saini, Founder & Director of BDS, is also a director of two hospitality businesses outside the studio. He is Founder & Director of Underdoggs, founded in 2011, which operates ten locations across India, and Director of Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe since 2009.

These are businesses Rish helps run, not BDS client results. They are where the method on this page comes from: the operator’s habit of treating a venue as a set of numbers to read, decisions to take and standards to hold.

The studio is based in Gurgaon and works across Delhi NCR and India. To talk through a venue that is not trading as it should, start a conversation with BDS or call +91 98187 00006.

Frequently asked questions

What does BDS need to start?

Recent sales by day and daypart, the profit and loss account, the menu with recipe costs if they exist, the drinks list, the floor plan and the staff rota. Where some of these are missing, putting them together is the first step.

Will BDS tell us how much our sales will grow?

No. BDS will not promise a figure before seeing the numbers, and even then the outcome depends on the site, the market and how the changes are carried through. The recommendations set out what each change should affect and how to measure it.

Do we need to close while the work is done?

Usually not. Menu changes, bar changes, small layout fixes and new procedures can normally be introduced around trade. If the diagnosis points to a renovation, closing becomes a separate decision.

Is this the same as menu engineering?

Menu engineering is one part of it. Improving a venue also covers the bar, the room, service and training, because a better menu still depends on a kitchen that can deliver it and a team that can sell it.

Can BDS work with our existing team and chef?

Yes. The improvements depend on the people who will run the venue after the work ends, so the team and the kitchen are involved from the diagnosis onwards and trained on every change.

Does this apply to bars and brewpubs as well as restaurants?

Yes. Bars, brewpubs and cafés go through the same diagnosis, with more attention on the drinks list, the bar layout and speed at the busiest hour.

Three starting points

Improving an existing venue is one of three starting points.

Building or transforming a hospitality business?

Whether starting with an idea, repositioning an existing restaurant or developing a scalable hospitality brand, begin with the business you want to build.

Work With BDS

Or call +91 98187 00006