We booked the beginning of 2017 for the launch of one novelty that came out of our dream factory! We couldn’t wait for it to be ready so we could show it to you because we’re certain that both you and your guests will love it. With this product our daShef family has grown even larger and while until now it mostly took care of catering business owners, with the Room Service app it will put smiles on the faces of hotel business owners as well

The entire offer on your guest’s night stand

Room Service is a specific form of the daShef digital menu, customized for the accommodation  sector. Whether you’re in the hotel business, seasonal rental business or maybe a camp owner, daShef Room Service can adorn your accommodations interior. With the help of this app, you can present your entire accommodation offer on a tablet that will wait for your guests in their rooms, or your receptionist can hand it over during the check-in. Of course, the Room Service digital menu can be set in the lobby or maybe a spa center, so you can announce your whole offer to your guests and clients.

Visualization before reservation!

Room Service enables you to use attractive photographs, video materials and descriptions to present not only your entire offer, but also a lot of useful information. Besides your regular in-room dining offer that will secure your guests breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Room Service app gives you the opportunity to present other hotel services as well. That way your guests can see all those fabulous spa treatments you’re offering and make a reservation while already relaxing in the comfort of their rooms. You can offer them transport services, extra towels or maybe dog walking services. While your guest is relaxing at a spa treatment, his best friend will be taken care of. Tempting, right?

Faster information

No one is happy if they catch a cold or maybe get a toothache while on holiday but we need to be ready for such situations as well. If you’re in a foreign city or, even better, in a foreign country, getting the information on which physician is on call can be difficult. The daShef Room Service app is a place where you can secure important information for your guests. That way they can quickly find the important numbers if they need them. This will make your guests even more safe and satisfied while staying at your accommodation. A great review is guaranteed

Just a few clicks to a tourist trip and extra income

If you’re offering bike rental services, organized touristic activities, various sightseeing trips, show them to your guests via the Room Service app. That way they can think about your offer and plan their activities while resting in their rooms. Describe the itinerary, show them beautiful photographs and encourage them to make reservations. If you don’t offer such services, you can make a deal with one of the local tourist services providers, to whom you can offer advertising services or with whom you can make a sponsorship deal. They can advertise their offer via your Room Service menu, which can bring you extra income per each reservation your guest makes. You can also arrange for your sponsor to pay out your monthly rental of the daShef Room Service app. Convenient, isn’t it?

These are just some of the ways you can use the daShef Room Service app, but the possibilities are various. Contact us for more information about the product, we will gladly help you with the ideas on its implementation into your accommodation facilities!

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It’s holiday season and everyone is looking for presents to buy for their loved ones. Every shop keeper is considering the same issues: how to be different from the rest and how to sell more. For the buyer, the advantage of the hospitality industry is its diverse offer that enables everyone to find something to their taste. Everyone will gladly try some new meals and foreign cuisines. But for the caterers, the competition is quite big. So what is the best way to present a restaurant’s offer and to distinguish yourself from others? We have already answered this question several times, but the old Latin phrase says that repetition is the mother of learning. The correct answer is the daShef digital menu!

There’s nothing nicer than seeing a photo of a delicious meal except for that delicious meal being served in front of you. In that moment, the satisfaction is couldn’t be greater. The daShef digital menu will provide precisely that ‘mmmm’ effect to your guest. Using the menu, you will present the description, a photograph and maybe even a video of the meal preparation. Your guest will order it, happily eat it and then he will enjoy sitting in your restaurant for a while longer. You’re slowly sweating because you have counted the revenue you could have earned on that table in that time but your guest is not planning to leave any time soon. But if you use the full marketing potential of the daShef digital menu, the main course does not have to be the only thing your guest will order and the digital menus can pay for themselves.

Two birds with one stone

The first one is the guest himself. Besides the possibility of adding the description, photograph and video of the meal, highlighting the allergens and diet types, you can also add recommendations. What does that exactly mean? Take a look at the photograph below:

It’s possible to add recommendations below each meal and drink on the digital menu and in such way suggest to the guests which drink fits the best with the meal he ordered or which dessert will finish the rhapsody of flavours he has just tasted in your restaurant. This brings us to the second ‘bird’: the potential sponsor. Seeing as the contents of the digital menu can be presented with various options, it is ideal for producers and distributors who can advertise their products using the menu and this won’t be a case of direct marketing, but a suggestion from what is possibly their favorite restaurant.

A special category for the chosen ones

The daShef digital menu is arranged in such a way that your offer is presented as clearly as possible. There are categories inside the main sections and their purpose is to make the menu as user friendly for the guest as possible. The categories can contain a countless number of items, which makes it possible to present your entire offer. This is where you can use one more marketing potential of the daShef digital menu. For sponsors who are willing to invest a little bit more you can create a special section reserved exclusively for their products. Make sure that the photographs are visually similar to the other ones on your menu and everything will be very subtle.

Highlight your offer!

The colder days have arrived and we all love to warm up by drinking good tea, mulled wine or eating some good traditional holiday meal. The digital menu gives you the possibility to highlight specific foods and drinks inside the categories. In just a few clicks your holiday meal, mulled wine or tea will be at the top of a category, highlighted in a different colour and appearing a bit larger that the other items like the large Vesuvio pizza on the photograph below. This way you can promote a higher consumption of trending meals and drinks, which is one other interesting marketing potential of the daShef digital menu. Why not use it and pay off the monthly licences or even the tablets?

Complete exclusivity

We have saved the best for last and we can say it is a truly exclusive offer for your sponsor. Generally speaking, screensavers were initially created for plasma monitor protection, while today they are used mostly for showing entertaining content. The daShef digital menu screensavers can be used to present you sponsor’s content in various time intervals, like a slideshow. Just like any other screensaver, the one on the daShef digital menu also covers the whole screen of the tablet leaving enough space to display the content.

Using various combinations of the marketing possibilities of the daShef digital menu, create sponsor packages and pay off your restaurant’s digital presentation!

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Every day, while surfing on social networks, we run into at least one photograph of a meal published by our favorite restaurant or food blogger. The first thing that happens is that we get hungry because the food on those photographs always looks so delicious that no other reaction is possible. And it has occurred to us at least once: ‘Next time when I eat lunch, I’ll also take a photo of it and post it so everyone will like it.’ But it is not so easy to take good photos of food.

Since one of the main features of our digital menu is precisely the display of food photographs to the guests of a restaurant, our clients often ask us for advice on how to take good photos, so we have decided to share a few good tips. In order to get the best tips, we contacted our longtime associate, Nina Đurđević, a professional photographer who says that a photograph has to present food as attractive, tasty and fresh – the more positive effect it has, the better.

1. The way food is served
   The first thing we need to think about is the way we’re going to serve the food. Will it be on a plate, in a bowl, on some background or maybe on a tablecloth? Also, do we want only food in the photo or are we going to put some props around it, such as cutlery and a few extra details? So first we need to figure out what we want to show and how we want to show it. One of the most important things here is the background on which we’re going to place the setting. Today black, white and rustic boards are popular, but we won’t make a mistake if we use a wooden one.
   

2. Natural light
   Light is one of the most important elements to consider when taking photos. We can have the most beautiful food setting ever but, if the lighting isn’t good, a shot can be completely ruined. Natural lighting is always the best. So, if we’re in a position to place the setting by a window, we’re on the right track because that’s how we’re going to get that soft, non-direct light. This way we’re going to prevent losing the natural colours of food.
   

3. Image stabilization
   It’s very simple – if we don’t want our photos to be blurry, we need to stabilize our camera.
   Professional photographers use camera stabilizers or tripods. That way they can set the height of the camera and the view angle. But if consider photography to be a hobby, it will be enough if we place our camera on some stable surface, using maybe a few books underneath to ensure the right height. Most of today’s smartphones have cameras of great quality so we’re actually able to take really good photos with them as well. There are small tripods, that are also very cheap and easy to find, that can be used instead of much more expensive professional ones.
   

4. Macro photography
   When taking photos of food, it’s desirable to use a macro lens because it enables us to magnify the food in such a way that it seems like we’re actually ‘entering’ that delicious bite. With a macro lens we can sharpen the picture from small distances and get a bigger frame of a small bite. Today’s cameras all have the macro function in their settings, including most smartphone cameras. Also, the camera angle is very important when taking photos of food. In practice, the best food photos are those taken from above or from the side. Plus, it’s good to remember that the concept we see in our head might not always make the best photo so it’s good to take photos from various angles and then choose the best one.
   

To summarize – we need to pay attention to food setting, think about the decoration (the background, the surroundings, the details), natural lighting, camera stabilization and we need to be creative and quick!

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Since recently, one more Zagreb restaurant presents its offer through daShef digital menu. We present you a Russian restaurant The Pushkin’s Office, who will delight you with it’s story and it’s offer.

In early February, The Office restaurant, owned by a couple, Jana and Slobodan Varga, expanded it’s name to The Pushkin’s Office, in order to emphasize that it’s a Russian restaurant which offeres something new to Croatian market – Russian cuisine. They decided to be authentic and offer flavors and aromas of the original Russian dishes and to hold on to the Russian national cuisine. They want to be consistent and provide only what is considered the ‘Russian cuisine’. Fact that shows they’re on the right track is that they have a lot of Russian guests, living in Zagreb or just passing through, who say the taste is totally authentic.

The owners had a lot of experience on ‘the other side’, as guests, but not as caterers. This is their first step into the world of hospitality, but believe they’ve learned a lot that in the past few months. Three months since opening, the owners are more than happy with the idea and the success of the restaurant. To them it is essential that their guests feel comfortable, like at home, while they are doing everything in order to achieve that. Mr. Varga stressed that the only difference between their family guests and guests in their restaurant is that the guests in the restaurant pay for their order, but the approach is same.

As for the the restaurant specialties, it’s difficult to single out just one. The list of recommended dishes is quite long. Nevertheless, we will highlight some of them. There are pancakes with caviar, pancakes with salmon, the three most typical Russian soups – clear soup, borscht soup and soup saljanka made from several types of dried meat. From main courses there is shashlik, one of the most famous Russian meat dishes, Peter the Great Easter Egg dish, pork fillet stuffed with cheese and neck, wrapped in bacon and baked. One of the specialties is the Russian hunter’s stew with four types of vension, which is cooked in a cauldron over an open fire, after the meat stayed in a special marinade of red wine, spices and vegetables for four days, and than cooked in the same marinade, without adding any water. There are also pierogi, bags of dough, stuffed potatoes and wild mushrooms, and some upcoming new desserts that the owner doesn’t want to talk about to much in advance, but has hinted that it will be one of the most famous Russian cakes.

Mr. Varga highlighted that, in The Pushkin’s Office, vodka is served as it needs to be served. It must be cold, hypothermic and poured into an icy glass. The temperature of poured vodka is -18 ° C, and prior to consumption temperature rises to -10 ° C or -5 ° C, the temperature at which vodka needs to be drunk. In addition, the owners give their guests the specific tips on how to drink vodka and don’t get drunk.

The restaurant presents not only an excellent cuisine and pleasant atmosphere, but also a number of events. In fact, every Saturday there’s a live band, and the owner especially praises Oridano band, which plays a great gypsy jazz. In December, the owners organized a series of events for children’s home in Nazorova. With great support from the Finnish Embassy and the ambassador, they organized several parties, where they collected money for Nazorova, so that the entire earnings from December were donated. On that occasion, children were invited to lunch, which was attended by 20 children and their guardians, when they also received few small gifts.

Since opening, Mr. Varga had an idea about restaurant’s offer being displayed on tablets, but was not prepared to engage himself in developing an app. He was thinking of setting up a website on the tablet and that way provide all the necessary information about the restaurant and its offer. On hearing of digital menu daShef, he decided to go a step further and to display the entire menu in a digital form. In his words, daShef is a system that is much stronger than his original idea, which was the main reason for embarking on this whole story. He considered it a very interesting solution and something that only few restaurants can offer to their guests.

Mr. Varga is extremely pleased with daShef digital menus, and especially with the fact that the complete offer of the restaurant is displayed in graphic form. From his experience, guests often opt for something other than their original intent solely on the basis of photos and descriptions of the selected dish. He believes that it’s very important to show the dish photos to the guest, which is why they try to put a lot of photos in classic paper manus, but the whole expirience not be compared.

‘Digital menu is something completely different than paper menus because a person can browse and view photos as a picture book.‘ (S. Varga)

Since implementing digital menus, Mr. Varga’s experiences are two-fold, what in the first place, he says, depends on the customer. There are guests who do not want digital menu regardless of seeing pictures and more information about the food, which in the case of The Pushkin’s Office is very specific, because the food has a Russian background. On the other hand, the owner pointed out a case where the whole family came to dinner and the youngest member of the family was not interested in food. As he was bored, g. Varga gave him a digital menu and at the end, thanks to the digital menu and attractive photographs, the child found something of interest, what especially pleased the parents because it was not necessary to further plead the child to eat. Another positive experience is with foreigners. Since the menu is translated in several languages, it is much easier to provide the guest with a menu in their own language, and when the offer is accompanied by an image content, the customer knows exactly what to expect on his table. There is a strong interest in digital menus among foreigners and the practice so far has shown that these kind of menus are better accepted by foreigners than by domestic guests. Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that it’s somewhat of a novelty in Croatia, but Mr. Varga is confident that this will change soon.

“I definitely think that this is something that any serious caterer should implement in his restaurant or bar. Especially where the clientele is relatively young and is accustomed to the use of tablets and smartphones. Sometime such novelties are the first thing that attracts them to the establishment, and when they see the quality of what’s behind it all, things go perfectly. ”

What else to say in the end, but advise you to visit this nice Russian restaurant, try the real Russian vodka, feel that pleasant atmosphere, take a tablet in your hands and find a dish to your liking.

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Read more tips how to make your menu attractive and interesting and how long it takes to provide your guests with more information.

Guest comments

Another interesting feature of digital menu is the possibility of leaving comments about food and evaluation of the same by your own guests, who have already tried it. Thus, the presentation of food, made by caterers, is complemented with impressions of its consumers. People tend to have greater confidence in people with whose positions they can identify. This is a very useful feature and will certainly contribute to the popularity of your restaurant.

Recommendations

Digital menus offer the possibility of creating a recommendation in a way that with each dish you can recommend some drink, desserts or a side dish. In addition to make it easier for your guests to complement their order to perfection, you encourage them to additional consumption, which results with the mutual satisfaction.

Time of a food preparation

Menus offer the option of entering a cooking time, which actually informs guests about the time they’ll have to wait until the selected dish, and thus avoids resentment because of the possible long wait to serve. Regardless of how long it takes to prepare the food, your guests will have fun studying your restaurant offer. How many times have your appetite suddenly opened by only looking some tempting images of food? Probably a lot. Why would your guests be any different?

The problem with standard menus is that they are monotonous, they offer only words, but most of your guests will not have time or interest to study all your menu. After they confirm their order, it’s not likely that they will return to browse your menu again. With digital menu, it is quite opposite. Since they are very simple, transparent and full of visible and full of systematized information, guests will be pleased to meet again with your offer.

Allergens and nutritional value of food

Today, there is an increasing number of people allergic to certain foods. Therefore, at the end of 2014, the Union made the provision that all restaurants must have indicted allergens on their menus. Penalties for not having it done are very high. But even more importantly, someone’s life may depend on it. Explore whether your meals contain certain allergens and avoid paying penalties. Digital menus allow entry of allergens in a simple way, as well as their possible change, depending on further improvements to the provisions on allergens.

Some people do not tolerate certain foods solely for health reasons. But some people do not consume certain foods for religious, cultural, moral and other reasons. In order to facilitate the selection to such people and let them know you to respect their needs and beliefs, digital menus have the option to search the offer by type of food. There is also the possibility of entering the calories and nutritional value, again with the aim of get your guests informed about what they are ordering. After your guests provide as much information about your restaurant offer, the sense of trust, security and respect is created.

But how long it takes to input all that content and to manage the application?

This is a question that most caterers will point out. Sometimes the only thought of all that preparation of materials can result with a big delay, but things are actually much simpler than it seems at first sight. How much time is needed to ‘transfer’ your whole classic menu to digital format? Just so long will be needed to enter the same in digital format, and perhaps even less. You certainly invest much more time in preparation of classic menu than you need to spend on bidding in digital menu. But once you enter all your current offer, all subsequent amendments are a piece of cake. Simply assign a new food to a particular category, and it becomes part of your offer. If you wish to remove a certain dish from your restaurant offer, just deselect it in the back-end application and it remains registered in your database, but not counted as a part of your menu.

You can change all information about your offer on a daily basis, including the price. If there is a change in the price of an item, simply type the new price in the back-end application. So the creation of a new menu is not required.

In one of our blogs, ‘Improve your restaurant with simple tricks “, we mentioned that the position of some dishes on the menu is very important because the human eye holds on what takes place on the first page. The advantage of digital menu is in the fact that it allows a large content management.

If you wish to put accent on some food during a particular day or period, switch it to the desired location using a simple drag & drop method. All in all, this is the menu in which you can make all necessary changes by yourself and it is a long-term profitable investment.

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Wondering how to use digital menus in every sense and attract more guests?

Digital menus offer you a multitude of options, but it’s up to you how much time and effort are you willing to invest in it. We offer you some interesting tips that will make your offer more attractive to your guests and open their appetite. The very idea of introducing digital menu in your restaurant shows that you care about the satisfaction of your guests, and the richer the information you display to your guests are, the more they’ll appreciate the time you have put to present them your offer and make the selection easier.

Here are a few tips on how to make the most of digital menu options.

Photo content

We will start with photographs, which are actually the first thing your guests will pay attention to while reviewing your menus. It is not said in vain that pictures speak louder than words. Beautiful and representative photos of each dish make it more desirable. How often guests ask themselves how food looks and about the way that it’s served? With the help of digital menu boards and, of course, a good photographer, you have the opportunity to present your dishes in the best possible light. Add more photos and, if possible, insert a video content related to the preparation of certain dishes or with its presentation. To make your photos look better on the tablet, it is recommended that the ratio of photos is 16: 9 and a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and that a little space around the dish is left since the app automatically cuts the photo. Here are some examples:

First (wrong) example:

And how it should look:

Description of dishes

Next thing that is important to your guests when choosing a food is a description of the food, ingredients it contains or the way it is served. That way your guests will get a better insight into your offer, and will help choose a dish that suits their taste. It often happens that guests, because of a wrong selection of dishes, ‘classify’ some restaurant as ‘bad’ or ‘unsatisfactory’, believing that it did not satisfy their expectations. But with descriptions and photos of dishes, guests become more familiar with the whole range of restaurants, choosing a dish that fits their desires, know in advance what it contains, and reviewing this information, open them and appetite. It increases the desire to try dishes from your offer and will most likely return again to the restaurant to satisfy his curiosity. It is recommended that you enter as much details and interesting descriptions as possible, the story of the origin of the food or some specifics of its preparation. Intrigue your guests and awake their curiosity.

Multilingualism

Many restaurants offer translations in various global and minority languages due to the large influx of tourists, in order to avoid possible misunderstandings and long explanation, and with the aim to attract foreign visitors. No translations of the entire menu in several foreign languages greatly increases the number of pages of the same, thus it becomes unwieldy. The advantage of digital menu boards is that they do not change their size. Changes can only see in a particular language. Needless to say, it is better to have as many languages in which displays your offer, but with digital menus it becomes much simpler and clearer. Its clients are always advised to start with the Croatian and English language this time slowly and include translations into other languages, depending on the need that arises.

Events and special offers

Digital menus are fully focused on the best possible advertisement of your restaurant. Not only to its offer, but also on its history, specifics and events that are taking place in it and the organization of the restaurant. Menus offer an a story of the restaurant as an intro. They also provide information of events. In this way, you can inform your guests about the activities that are taking place in your restaurant and about some future events, which can attract more guests. Entering notice of an event or promoting your new dishes to your menu looks very interesting and informative, and does not require a lot of work. Just enter the required information and insert a representative picture in the back-end application.

Stay tuned for more tips!

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We visited our first Zagreb client, VIP restaurant, and were warmly welcomed. Because of its interesting position in centre of Zagreb, the restaurant is a target of various domestic and foreign passersby. It’s frequented by many public figures from different social spheres. But with a rich selection of dishes, it finds a way to satisfy everybody’s taste. Guests are able to choose between local cuisine, Italian cuisine, fish dishes, salads and many other things. In order to maintain a high level of food preparation, the food is prepared by several professional chefs, where each of them is specialized in a particular type of food. We were especially intrigued by the way of preparing dough in which it is not cooked, but placed raw in a hot sauce and served. Beside of a various types of dough, there are also grilled octopus, Štrukli (a Croatian specialty), VIP salad, veal soup, Zagorska soup, tuna steak, souffle… It was a hard choice. But on the recommendation of the Head of the restaurant, we tried the specialty of the day, veal soup and pancakes with ice-cream in a sauce of sour cherries. Excellent choice!

The restaurant organizes various events for people of different age and different tastes. Taking care of the guests and their needs is an important element of this restaurant business. Therefore, each guest can feel welcome and respected.

Besides the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere in the restaurant, we have noticed many details, such as fishing nets on the walls, some wooden elements, piano and painted walls. And there is also a friendly, cheerful staff, who were kind enough to pose for us.

The restaurant went a step further and is the first in the city of Zagreb that introduced daShef digital menus on tablets. From now on, the offer of restaurants is presented with detailed descriptions and authentic photographs, so you can enjoy in a completely new experience of choosing dishes. Because of the good response to digital menus, the plan of the restaurant is to increase their number. Tourists are especially enthusiastic about digital menus because they can see the offer of the restaurant in their own language. Simple interface, image content and detailed information provided by digital menus, have delighted the numerous guests.

So take a step in the VIP restaurant, take a tablet in your hand, find the dish that best suits your taste and enjoy.

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Although already popular in the world for some time, digital menus have just recently appeared on the Croatian market. They are designed as a tool to facilitate business caterers and guests to decide what to eat in a more interesting and more creative way. These digital format menus give you an entire restaurant’s offer through tablet application. Every food / drink is accompanied by a detailed description, image or even video content. The meals are classified in categories to allow easier access to restaurant’s offer and full navigation through the menu. Since people are visual creatures, attractive pictures often speak louder than words and present meals in the best possible light. A great option that digital menus have to offer is the possibility of introduction of detailed and interesting description of the dishes and adding your own recommendations. Guests are able to rate food and drink and leave their own comments for each dish, which is also a useful option because other guests can easily select foods based on their tastes and recommendations, not only from restaurant owners but also other guests who have already tried those dishes. Application allows you to enter menus in several languages, depending on desire and needs of caterers. That way, guests from foreign countries can overview the menu in their own language, which makes them feel welcomed and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings.

Besides just browsing the menu, guests have a possibility to order food themselves and later add up the food / drink in their order. This makes the ordering process much easier, faster, and more fun. It reduces the waiting time; there’s no unpleasant waving or turning around with the purpose of calling the waiter due to various queries. This results in more satisfied guests and waiters, who can devote more time to their clients and do not have to apologize for the long wait or misunderstanding during the ordering process.

No matter how tempting it may sound, the mere mention of digital menu to a waiter often causes an uneasy feeling that the increasing need for digital menus means less need for waiters. That could only be the case if tablets could listen, talk and give advice, and if they could serve the food. Since it is neither objective nor the purpose of digital menu, the waiters can be free to breathe, relax and take tablets in their hands.

If we wonder what is the main goal of every caterer, the answer is simple – a full restaurant and a large table turnover. As we have written in several articles, which you can read in this blog, waiter’s courtesy is a very important factor, which significantly affects whether the guests come back to your restaurant. With the help of digital menu’s ordering options and option of calling the waiter, waiters can pay more attention to their guests. They don’t have to constantly walk around the restaurant looking who is calling for them. They don’t have to keep coming back to the same table to check whether the guests have decided what to order and if they want to add something to their order. They can focus on their work and quickly, efficiently serve the guests. There are no more wrong order complaints, long waits to make an order and anxious guests. Digital menus are a simple tool that allows better and faster communication between guests and waiters, serving more than one table at the same time, increased circulation of guests, introduction of menu changes on a daily basis if needed and boundless creativity in preparing the menus. It’s up to you to introduce the digital menu in your restaurant and taste the charm of the digital age.

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There is an increasing demand in recent years for international cuisine, especially Oriental, Italian and Mexican. Wanting to try new flavors, unusual combinations of foods and foods that are not typical for our country, people are increasingly choosing restaurants that would enable them new experiences and implement them through the exciting world of world cousine.

One such restaurant is situated in the picturesque town of Varaždin. Only a look at the restaurant provokes a desire to set foot in it, and if you do, you will want to do it again and again. The friendly staff, interesting and unusual decoration, a rich and varied food, affordable prices and innovative menus are reason enough to say ‘yes’ to this restaurant. How restaurateurs focus on the wishes and needs of customers, it can be seen in the sizable menu, which offers a variety of snacks, Mexican food, Indian, grilled meats, pasta, fish, healthy foods, sweets, more than 70 types of pizza and a kids menu, so that no one would leave wanting. There is something for everyone, regardless if you are a fan of fast food or care for a healthy life, if you enjoy traditional dishes or are an adventurer, hungry for new experiences. There are dozen of waiters working in the restaurant who will serve you as soon as possible and assist you with choosing the dishes that best suit your needs and tastes, all prepared by a skilled, experienced chef.

The restaurant also sports digital menus, which offer thorough description of dishes alongside with pictures and guest reviews to help you find the perfect dish to satisfy your taste buds. Digital menus are just a part of an engrossing amount of details offered by this restaurant. With decoration that will absolutely delight you with its vibrant colors and tones, and numerous, unusual trinkets that stick to your eye, the restaurant exudes positivity and provides a warm, welcoming atmosphere. If you’re visiting with your young ones, don’t worry about them pulling your sleeve to go home because the restaurant is in the midst of opening a children’s playground. You are sure to feel welcomed, and will leave with full stomach and a smile on your face, wanting to come back as soon as possible.

Which restaurant are we talking about? Restaurant ‘Santa Maria’, which in 2003 started as a catering service and a year later became a well-attended and praised establishment that has not ceased to develop. In twelve years since opening, the restaurant has regularly won medals in competing in various competitions, and in 2005 won the first place at the prestige Pizza Show, held in Zagreb. Restaurant works diligently to maintain a high level of interest from their guests by constantly following market trends. Since last year, the restaurant spread its business and moved to a different, larger, nearby location, soon planning to open another floor for visitors. Whether you live in Varaždin, or just passing through and looking for a restaurant where you can relax with your family and friends, get away from the everyday worries and, above all, eat nice, take a look at the ‘Santa Maria’, enrich your experience of Varaždin in a completely new way.

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A simple idea of introducing changes in order to improve your restaurant is a big step forward. But where to start?

For start, try to take a look at your restaurant’s business in the past few months. Ask yourself what worked well, and what are the weak spots. Focus on the type of guests who visit your restaurant and consider whether you want to attract new customers, and what kind of customers. Talk to your staff and listen to their suggestions, advice and criticism. Pay attention to the advertising of your restaurant, how well it works and how to improve it.

You haven’t published anything on social media or your website for a long time? It is time to change that. We live in the age internet and social networks. The first information your potential guests can find about your restaurant is the one they get over the Internet, whether it be through your corporate website or through various forums and blogs. Refresh your page by inserting photos and video content, or some interesting things, such as recipes, new dishes on the menu. Also, link your website with social networks. In this way you can advertise your restaurant in easy and free way.

When you start to introduce some changes of the interior design of your restaurant, it is important to keep in mind what kind of clientele you want to attract, what kind of food do you prefer and what message you want to send to your guests. Pay attention to the furniture, the choice of plates, glasses and cutlery, and the decoration of the restaurant itself. Take care of the lighting inside the restaurant because it can greatly fix or spoil the impression of the entire space. Also, take care of the music that you play in your restaurant. Try with un-imposing, moderate tunes that target the kind guests you want. Sometimes even the smallest changes can make a difference and a positive reaction is a good motivation for further work. You know how hard you worked to attract guests in your restaurant, and it’s still not enough? But when the guests are already here, it’s important to hold on to them, try to make sure they return, and have them spend as much money as they can.

One of the crucial elements in this is the menu. From the desire for new flavors and contacts with foreign, exotic cultures, of which we have a lot of information at this time of globalization, all the popular restaurants spread its offer beyond the country’s borders. Review your menus. Throw out foods that are not sought out, and try to introduce new recipes. Have faith in the creativity of your chefs. You might be surprised.

Many menus contain small marketing tricks that play our minds to help us ‘choose’ a particular dish. It’s practically a science of arranging the menu. It’s size, color and type of paper, the design, and order of dishes. For start, keep in mind that the human eye tends to dedicate most attention to what is on the top and bottom of the page, and if it comes to the menu in the form of a book, the left side is more attractive than the right. Therefore, those are good places to put dishes that you want to sell.

Another thing that attracts the attention of the guests are inscriptions such as ‘specialty’ or ‘local’ because in this way certain food looks different from other food and gives the impression of uniqueness. Colorful descriptions of dishes, which include words such as ‘organic’, ‘out of the oven’, ‘home-grown’, ‘crunchy’ and ‘marinated’ have interesting effects on the human brain and induce cravings, while words like ‘fried’ an ‘cooked’ have the opposite effect. One good strategy is to put the expensive and succulent dishes among the simplest ones because they can stand out, catch an eye, and people often do not even look at their price. It is recommended to install dishes adapted to different tastes and preferences of guests. Therefore, make sure your menu includes vegetarian and vegan dishes, dishes with low calories or those adapted for diabetics. Think about special offers, happy hour, cheaper meals at a certain time of the day. If necessary, adjust prices. Or adjust the ingredients of which the meals are prepared. You can also put a basic dish in your offer, but charge any extras that can go with with it.

Choose a color that suits your style of restaurant. Arrange the category of menu logically, from breakfast to dinner and from appetizers to desserts. Make sure to offer non-expensive food, as well as some specialties. Customize your menu depending on the season. You can prepare seasonal dishes as specialties of the house or include them in a special offer. That way your menu will always be updated. By entering new dishes to your offer, you retain your regular customers because they sustain their interest and curiosity.

In addition to your food offer, it is very important that your menus are compact, easy to read and interesting to guests. Think about what kind of impression you want to make. Take some dishes that you are proud of and feel they are the most profitable to you, and put them on top of the menu. Add a description of the dishes that you want to offer and, if possible, insert photos. We are visual creatures, and beautiful photographs can contribute ordering certain dishes. According to some studies, a good description of dishes and interesting menu design can increase customer spending by 20 to 30 per cent.

Digital menus are definitely a great choice. They offer you a variety of descriptions and photos, and there is also the option of adding video content. The whole menu can be changed daily, adapted and complemented. You can put labels or tags on every dish that’s gluten-free, contains alergens, or is suitable for vegetarians. The entire menu is simple and easy to navigate, making ordering dishes much faster and more interesting. Show your guests that you invest in your restaurant, that you care about their satisfaction and that they can feel comfortable and welcome.

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