New Restaurant Trends for 2016

(Photo courtesy of Andina)

At the start of the 2016, the UK restaurant industry is in an especially exciting place. As landlords with restaurants for sale become more willing than ever to take risks on bold new restaurant concepts, get ready for a wave of exciting new restaurant trends in 2016.

Chains That Deliver

From Grub Hub to Deliveroo and Just Eat to UberEATS, food delivery apps are taking off across the world. This industry secured over $1bn of investment in 2014 and beat that last year. Restaurants are set to benefit from this increased popularity, as the apps facilitate increased sales and open local restaurants up to new markets cross-city.

A surge in delivery app use has arisen as brands battle to dominate the market in key locales (such as New York City and London). Large fast-food, fast-casual and even more formal restaurants find themselves beset with moped-riding suitors battling for partnerships and the right to officially deliver their food. The competition can only be a good thing for the restaurants.

One trend to look forward to is the rise of ‘curated’ delivery apps. UberEATS, for example, has a curated ‘menu’ of the best restaurants in Manhattan which it calls ‘Local Favourites’. This kind of innovation is designed to dominate local food delivery markets by offering something competitors can’t. Expect such innovations to proliferate in 2016.

Restaurants That Don’t

‘Premium’ apps like Supper have launched with a focus on delivering food from high-end restaurants and Michelin-starred restaurants. It remains to be seen, however, whether high-end, formal restaurants can achieve the same success as casual chains like Nando’s with this new restaurant trend of delivery apps.

Although there is demand from customers to have high quality food delivered to their doors (even at the same prices as found inside the restaurant), apps like Supper pile extra stress on quality kitchens which are already notoriously demanding on chefs. The result is a love-hate relationship between star-chefs and delivery apps.

This is because app orders must be treated with the same care as ones from customers in chairs. And once listed on the app, it would be damaging for a restaurant to turn down an order, even if there’s already a full house in the restaurant. This leads to a tough call for head chefs and managers where the restaurant would lose sales by not being listed on the app, but might risk taking on too many orders should they decide to use the apps.

The above means that fast-food and fast-casual restaurants are a much more natural fit for delivery apps, so don’t expect to see too many Michelin stars on mopeds this year.

Spin-offs and Little Siblings

A restaurant trend from last year that looks dead set on continuing is that of the sister store – specifically, the little sister store.

Fast-food or pop-up spin-offs of successful restaurant brands have been around before, of course. Consider ramen bar Bone Daddies’ Shackfuyu opening, or Martin Morales’ opening of Andina after his Ceviche success – an opening which has gone on to have as much success as the original.

As the restaurant industry continues in this period of confidence and growth, more and more chains will be willing to risk investing in a new brand, hoping one of their little-sisters can come of age like Andina.

For restaurant landlords, sister-brands offer an excellent opportunity to take on an exciting new concept. Spin-off brands may be happy to settle for a less high-profile property location in case things don’t go as planned. But if they do go well, then the landlord will have acquired a high-clout tenant that is backed up by big names and resources.

Whatever new restaurant trends break out in 2016, you can trust Restaurant Property’s UK leisure property experts to be one step ahead of the industry. If you have a restaurant for sale and want 2016’s industry success stories to be operating out of your property, call us today on 020 7935 2222 or email enquiries@rparchive.thisisthetreedev.com.

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