About The Lane Sydney

Discuss about the International Journal of the Behavioural Nutrition.

The Lane Sydney is a popular dining restaurant located in central Sydney. Located at 3/16-20 Curtin Pl, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia, the restaurant is popular for its trendy and laid back style with a unique offering of fusion dishes. Their value proposition is quite simple and they aim to offer simple but good quality food at affordable prices (The Lane Sydney. 2018). The restaurant offers Breakfast, Lunch and dinner options from Tuesday to Friday. It is one of the most famous restaurants in Sydney. The restaurant can also be hired for various functions with exquisite seating facilities at the Terrace Room and European casual dining and wine bar area. The restaurant also facilitates catering services for its customers. The diner is open from 7 am to 4pm.

The given report will be throwing light on the menu analysis of the restaurant which was conducted after analyzing its menu online and visiting the restaurant (VanEpps et al. 2016, pp.72-80). After the menu has been evaluated, the personal experience will be compared against it to analyze the effectiveness of the menu to reflect the restaurant’s vale. The importance of being true to menu will be discussed and certain recommendations will be provided.

Menu often serves as a representation of the organization. It helps the customer to gain a first impression regarding the restaurant and the food it offers (Magnini & Kim 2016, pp. 42-48). In the given section, the three given aspects will be analyzed based on the menu.

The menu of the restaurant followed a simple black and white color theme with a good quality paper. The menu was eye catching and easy to read. The psychology behind the menu was that customers generally view the first item and the last (Lee-Kwan et al. 2014, pp.581-584) therefore, the best dishes were placed in that manner. Even we ordered the last dish on the menu

The Lane Sydney offers authentic Australian cuisine. The restaurant states that their main motto is to provide simple but authentic servings to the consumers with rich tastes formed by adding additional flavors. The menu reflects that the restaurant has four main dishes which are the Entrees, Mains, Side Dishes and Dessert (Thelanesydney.com.au. 2018). The restaurant offers dishes like:

• Buffalo Mozzarella
• Crab Spaghetti
• Saffron Risotto
• Baby Spinach Salad
• Crispy Skin Atlantic Salmon Fillet
• Classic Steak Sandwich
• House made Mini Pavlova
• Farm House Cheese Board

The kind of cuisine which a restaurant tends to offer goes a long way in determining the kind of customers it wants to entertain or the kind of image it wants to build in the minds of the customers. Lane Sydney offers fine dining cuisine which creates an ambience of a huge end image. The prices of the dishes can be described as ranging from Average to high with set menu shows a price of 65$ pp and the average meal or a single dish being priced at $20pp (Thelanesydney.com.au. 2018).The restaurant also has a bar which serves all kinds of Dessert Wines, Single Malts and Liquers.

Menu Analysis

In its menu, the restaurant described that it offers Australian cuisine like Pavlova, Cheese Board, Fillet and Risotto. However, during our visit, we found that the taste was rather ordinary and that there was no richness involved. Hence, this false aspect in the menu would tamper the image of the restaurant in the minds of the customers. The Pavlova we ordered was prepared and served in a traditional manner with no fusion twist, which led to disappointment.

 The dishes offered cannot be termed as casual and thus this restaurant can be on the visit list of those customers who have an occasion to celebrate or enjoy living life the luxurious way. After visiting the restaurant, we witnessed that the crowd generally comprised of well dressed, well to do customers who enjoy healthy eating. The food quality offered by the restaurant was fresh and tasted good. Hence, in this aspect, the restaurant offers good quality food and lives up to its image that it has built for itself on the menu.

The food service which is used by the restaurant is dining service (Lee-Kwan et al. 2014, pp.581-584). The ambience and the service that the restaurant delivers to promote can be described as that of a high end and unique service.  There are adequate staffs present which will help the customers during their needs.

The kind food service is closely related to the target market. The restaurant offers table service to the customers. The menu reflects that it is a table service because the a la cart menu option. A restaurant offering this menu is a table service one. Table service is a food service whereby the customer`s are offered their dish on their table by waiters (Biediger-Friedman & Banda, 2014, pp.281-287). The restaurant offered adequate food service whereby the waiters were courteous and polite. Hence, families and business associates appear to be the intended target market.  I visited during the afternoon and witnessed that the consumers there were all well dressed and came in groups of 5-6 for a birthday celebration, business meeting and similar occasions. The environment in the restaurant was serene which further enhanced customer`s experience of a fine dine aspect.

Hence, after critically analyzing the menu against their actual offer it could be stated that the restaurant us being true to its offering and satisfying the customers (Anzman-Frasca et al. 2014, p.81).

The target market which the restaurant caters to is the High end family and business group. With its food offerings, it can definitely be stated that it tends to serve the elite group of customers who often like to eat fresh and unique food (Magnini & Kim 2016, pp. 42-48).

Target Market and Food Service

Sosa, Biediger-Friedman and Banda (2014, pp.281-287) state that the target market which any restaurant aims to serve is a major component of setting up the menu. It also determines the kind of food service which they offer. Lane Sydney offers fine dine food service which gives a unique and smooth experience to the customers. There is ample number of waiters to serve the customers. During my visit I noticed that the restaurant lives up to its fine dine image and offers premium services to the visitors (Ultrariskadvisors.com. 2018). The customers present were having a good time and this shows that the restaurant has been able to serve their desired market. The manager is always on the round that looks after the needs of the customers. Hence, in this aspect, the restaurant was able to live up to its menu offering that the customers will be in good hands.

Menu serves as the true image of the restaurant to the consumers. Menu`s not only consist of the various offerings that the restaurant intends to make but also the ingredients of each dish with their price (Kirkpatrick et al. 2014 , pp. 924-931). Many restaurants tend to provide the ingredients that the restaurant makes use of and they must see to it that they remain true to these as a divergence may cause serious image damage and health damage to the customers who might be allergic to a certain ingredient. The size of the offering is also an important aspect as serving too less would hurt the sentiments of the customers.  It is important to keep the menu bright and attractive in order to increase customer orders (VanEpps et al. 2016, pp.72-80). A bright menu has the tendency to attract the customers. Keeping up to its image, The Lane Sydney offered a rather aristocratic menu style with rich fonts.

Conclusions

Therefore from the given analysis conducted on The Lane Sydney, it could be stated that the restaurant is a perfect example of what a restaurant should be doing and how it should be carrying out its competitors. The restaurant is true to its menu and realizes that it is the first impression that any restaurant has on the customer. Therefore, Lane Sydney sees to it that it offers exactly what is on the menu and stays true to its fine dine image.

However, certain recommendations with respect to the menu of the restaurant can be made. The restaurant can add details of the following on its menu.

• The origin of items- This can be details of the origin of the meat used in the meal or where does the dish originally descend from can be provided.
• Health benefits if any- These days, people have become highly conscious about their health and if the restaurant can provide health benefits of the dishes it serves, it will appeal more to the customers.
• The restaurant can try to make the menu more attractive by placing the pictures of the best selling items alongside the name in the menu. This will give some idea to the existing customers regarding the look of the product.

References

Anzman-Frasca, S., Dawes, F., Sliwa, S., Dolan, P.R., Nelson, M.E., Washburn, K. and Economos, C.D., 2014. Healthier side dishes at restaurants: an analysis of children’s perspectives, menu content, and energy impacts. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 11(1), p.81.

Kirkpatrick, S.I., Reedy, J., Kahle, L.L., Harris, J.L., Ohri-Vachaspati, P. and Krebs-Smith, S.M., 2014. Fast-food menu offerings vary in dietary quality, but are consistently poor. Public health nutrition, 17(4), pp.924-931.

Lee-Kwan, S.H., Pan, L., Maynard, L., Kumar, G. and Park, S., 2014. Restaurant menu labeling use among adults–17 states, 2012. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 63(27), pp.581-584.

Magnini, V.P. and Kim, S., 2016. The influences of restaurant menu font style, background color, and physical weight on consumers’ perceptions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 53, pp.42-48.

Sosa, E.T., Biediger-Friedman, L. and Banda, M., 2014. Associations between a voluntary restaurant menu designation initiative and patron purchasing behavior. Health promotion practice, 15(2), pp.281-287.

The Lane Sydney. ,2018. Home. [online] Available at: https://thelanesydney.com.au/# [Accessed 25 Mar. 2018].

Thelanesydney.com.au. ,2018. [online] Available at: https://thelanesydney.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Menu-Autumn-2018.pdf [Accessed 25 Mar. 2018].

Thelanesydney.com.au. ,2018. [online] Available at: https://thelanesydney.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Two-Course-Menus-AUTUMN-2018-55-pp.pdf [Accessed 25 Mar. 2018].

Ultrariskadvisors.com. ,2018. [online] Available at: https://www.ultrariskadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/MHR_Menus.pdf [Accessed 25 Mar. 2018].

VanEpps, E.M., Roberto, C.A., Park, S., Economos, C.D. and Bleich, S.N., 2016. Restaurant menu labeling policy: review of evidence and controversies. Current obesity reports, 5(1), pp.72-80.