Restaurant without seats – the number of virtual restaurants is growing

Pizza Cartel is a chain that does not have its own restaurants. Pizza Cartel

Food is ordered online and after about half an hour you will have a hot meal in front of you. This is already a familiar operation of food delivery services Foodora and Wolt.

But what does a restaurant that has no customer seats sound like, and you can’t even walk in there?

Director of Foodora’s Concept Restaurants Anna Lumme believes in virtual restaurants and their growth.

– There are large industrial properties in the world with kitchens in several restaurants. From there, orders leave for the location requested by the customer. In that case, there is no need for hall staff or customer seats, Lumme states.

In the same breath, however, he goes on to say that there is always a demand for a traditional restaurant. The experience offered by the restaurant cannot be taken home.

Lumme has worked in restaurants for a long time, developing their activities as both a restaurant manager and a restaurant manager.

– The same formula can never go too long, you have to be awake all the time.

Although Lumme does not meet customers on a daily basis in his current job, he still has a good idea of ​​what Finns eat and when, which is a rising trend.

– Finns eat a variety of foods around the clock. It has no particular emphasis on lighter or greasy. What is certain, however, is that we are a pizza people, Lumme laughs.

Every year, pizza is a clear number one in Foodora’s statistics, but the burger trend has also raised its head, as has sushi.

Lumme is developing Foodora’s own virtual restaurants. Development starts with what food would be quick and easy, but still super good. Foodora’s virtual restaurants will be set up in connection with an existing restaurant.

– In the development of the new concept, the equipment of restaurant kitchens must be taken into account, as we do not want to sell any large investments to restaurants. A fryer is found in every kitchen, making the chicken restaurant easy to set up.

Wing It, which specializes in chicken food! is Foodora’s most popular concept restaurant chain. It operates in more than thirty locations in Finland with more than fifty restaurants.

For example, Peka’s pizza can serve as the kitchen of a virtual chicken restaurant. The only difference is that a customer visiting Pekka’s pizza doesn’t notice any signs of chicken in the restaurant, but if he goes online on his mobile phone, there is a chicken restaurant.

There may be more than one virtual restaurant attached to the original restaurant, but only dishes from the original restaurant can be eaten at the restaurant.

If there are problems with uniformity in restaurants, they will be talked about. Often the reason is a new employee, but sometimes it only helps to take the concept away from the restaurant.

Lumme has noticed that Finns easily give criticism. When all goes well, we are quiet. But even the slightest mistake provokes criticism. If even one thing goes wrong, only one star will be given in the online reviews.

– Five stars are very rarely given. I don’t know what it would take to stand on, Lumme jokes.

Foodora’s virtual restaurants are not the only ones that take advantage of the cuisine of another restaurant. The Pizza Cartel chain has grown at a rapid pace in recent years. In contrast to the Foodora concept, the customer also sees the pizza Cartel logo and list in the physical restaurant. In addition to the network, Pizza Cartel can also be ordered in a restaurant.

Cloud kitchens and virtual restaurants existed before the corona, but now the number of entrepreneurs has grown exponentially.

– We have dared to try something new.

One opening is the Food Court by Huuva, which opened in Tapiola, Espoo last autumn.

It is a virtual food district. There is no dining room at all in the block kitchen, but the restaurant is set up purely to take food home.

Lumme believes that long 150-course menus are a thing of the past. Instead, a 10-serving list that doesn’t bring a loss to the restaurant can work really well.

Not all food can be taken home as such. The dishes at the fine dining restaurant in particular suffer from it. During the corona closures, fine dining restaurants developed restaurant bags to be finished at home. Many became a hit and the bags were sold out in an instant.

There is currently pasta on Lumme’s desk. Here, too, transportation is critical, but tests are underway.