Restrictions are eased. Your restaurant’s open and ready for the end-of-year festivities. There’s a chance of the restaurant to be busy with customers who are waiting to sit and dine at the restaurant. This is the golden opportunity you have to seize to maximize your sales. It’s even better if your restaurant has signature menu items, because customers often ask, “What’s good in this restaurant?” This is a chance to promote signature menu items you’re definitely the best at making, the ones you definitely have ingredients for and the ones you can definitely earn a profit from.

3. Create a dish name and arrange your menu to better communicate with customers. Try giving your dish an outstanding name or just name it after your restaurant like Serve Feel basil stir-fry from Serve Feel Restaurant and ‘Mao Tender’ fried chicken fillet with a special sauce from Mao Chicken Restaurant. In addition, you have to arrange your menu to make the dish clearer and stand out or you can make a separate ‘recommended dishes’ page. Some restaurants put the recommended dishes on the first page, or printing it on a separate page communicates with the customers well. And don’t forget to communicate with customers more broadly through social media by taking nice, appetizing and outstanding pictures.

4. Select simple dishes you can teach your employees to make. Many people wonder how simple dishes can be called signature dishes. Imagine how many more orders you’ll get for the dish all of the employees are promoting than the other dishes. This is why your signature dish shouldn’t be complicated. It should have a fast serving time and shouldn’t take too long to make, but preferably with characteristics unique to your restaurant. This, of course, also prevents situations where you can’t keep up with orders or you can’t make it because something unexpected happened to the chef. The restaurant owner should be able to make it and also teach the other employees to make it.

5. Think about the ingredients first and you’ll need to specify the recipe in order to determine the cost. This is important because different dishes have different prices. Although you can promote your signature dish until it sells well, if the dish costs more than the other dishes, the restaurant will still be earning less profit. Therefore, before determining what your signature dish is, you have to understand the pricing mechanism which requires a clear recipe. All of the ingredients need to be categorized and calculated in order to know the true cost of each menu item and the profit percentage when compared to the selling price.

You can learn about pricing in “Professional Price-Setting Techniques” by Pornchai “Tai” Nitmethawong, click
Also, don’t forget, the following essential components of a restaurant’s signature dish

1. Ingredients: Each type of ingredient needs a source like ingredients specific to each province and region such as fresh seafood from the Thai Gulf, premium tea from tea farms in Chiang Rai, mackerel from the Mae Klong River or mangoes from orchards in Chachoengsao, etc., or even imported premium ingredients such as wagyu beef from Japan and salmon from Norway, etc. Outstanding ingredients make the dish look more interesting and valuable than regular dishes, so you always need to tell the ingredients’ story and background when you communicate with customers.
2. Mention the People: This means the story of the person who invented the recipe, for example, ‘Grandma’s traditional congee, a special recipe we’ve been selling for over 20 years’ and ‘Je Nee’s pork blood soup, secret bouncy pork recipe’. Otherwise, mention the chef’s background story and experience, for example, ‘Panda shabu with a special sauce by a chef with 15 years of experience. Guaranteed by Krua Khun Toi’ and ‘Ka-tok ka-tak fried chicken by Chef Chanon from Master Chef Thailand’.

3. How the Dish is Prepared:  Tell a story about how the dish is prepared and how the method is unique. Show the care and attention to detail. Examples include dishes in the restaurant prepared by steaming using charcoal, such as ‘charcoal grill steamed buns at Hua Hin Market’, ‘charcoal grill pad thai at Wat Liab’ and ‘noodle shop that still uses firewood to make soup’ or soups that take days to make like ‘black tofu, tofu that’s cooked in palo soup for 3 days and 3 nights’ or ‘Simmenghuad original stewed duck from Bang Bon’. Even the ingredient preparation can be told as a story, for example, ‘Je Im palo duck. Every duck is cleaned meticulously and guaranteed to be odorless,’ ‘Grandma Ung’s zongzi, simmered until a rich flavor is achieved before being wrapped and steamed. It’s slow to make but tastes so good!’ and ‘Jinhu noodles, fresh homemade organic noodles’, etc.

4. Culture: This means including unique cultures from different counties in the food’s story. Right now, you can clearly see the Korean culture trend and more Korean restaurants opening. Try mentioning the Korean food culture such as eating kimchi with every meal as a side dish or as a recommended dish. The grilled pork needs to use pork belly with fat. Sauce must be poured over the pork before grilling. The dish is to be eaten with vegetables and you can add flavor with soju. Even local cultures can be used, for example, ‘Betong noodles, using a secret recipe for bouncy and tender noodles’ and ‘Je Noi’s salty pork knuckle with peanuts recipe in Nakhon Sawan’.

5. Seasons: Menu items that change according to the seasonal ingredients stand out because some ingredients are only available in certain seasons. They can be used as signature dishes for certain periods.  For example, Phuket lobsters are in season in September, so you can use lobster dishes as the signature dishes in that period. Another example is strawberries, which are available in December. You can make strawberry cake or desserts with fresh strawberries.