Prix fixe menus are a restaurant trend that is here to stay. Often used for special occasions or events at upscale establishments all over the world, incorporating a prix fixe menu at your restaurant is a great way to enhance your guests’ dining experience. Restaurateurs know it's important to keep up with lasting trends in the food and beverage industry, and prix fixe menus offer many features that attract both customers and business owners. If you’re looking to add a new enticing deal to your restaurant’s menu to attract new customers to your establishment or catering service, consider creating a prix fixe menu.
What Is A Prix Fixe Menu?
The name ‘Prix Fixe’ comes from the French term for “fixed price”. Prix fixe menus are restaurant menus with a fixed price that feature a certain number of courses and a limited pre-selected list of dishes guests can choose from for each course. These menus can be created to include the popular items customers enjoy at your restaurant or feature special items made specifically for the prix fixe menu. Typically, there are three different kinds of prix fixe menus that can be used at dining establishments:
- Daily Prix Fixe Menus: This option is made for restaurants that are looking to offer a prix fixe menu on a daily basis with a limited selection of courses and options.
- Tasting Menus: This menu is often used at high-end restaurants and consists of a prix fixe menu filled with up to a dozen limited courses of selected small plates that are often curated by chefs.
- Prix Fixe Menus For Special Occasions: This option is used for restaurants that are looking to create a prix fixe menu for holidays or special events and feature a selection of courses with a limited number of options.
Depending on what your restaurant is looking to offer customers, you can choose from the different kinds of prix fixe menus to create a deal that works best for your establishment. The prices of prix fixe menus can be set to a certain amount per person. Some restaurants also create packages for couples or families of four.
The Benefits Of Offering A Prix Fixe Menu At Your Restaurant
Curating a prix fixe menu at your dining establishment offers a variety of benefits for both your business and your customers. For customers, the allure of prix fixe menus is mainly centered around the idea of enjoying multiple courses with dishes they usually wouldn’t try, all at an affordable price. For restaurateurs, prix fixe menus are a great way to attract customers and increase sales at their business.
Relieve Staff On Busy Holidays
Restaurateurs and employees alike know how busy holidays can be for their dining establishment. Many restaurants often experience delays in getting meals out to customers or face pressure to create a large number of different menu items, which can be overwhelming for chefs. If your restaurant creates a prix fixe menu on busy holidays, like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or New Year’s Eve, you’ll be able to offer staff a way to manage the rush of customers. Offering a menu with a limited number of dishes and courses means that kitchen staff will be able to easily prepare large quantities of selected meals, instead of cooking different dishes as guests order.
Makes Decisions Easy For Customers
Prix fixe menus simplify the process of deciding what meal to eat for customers. Instead of going back and forth through the menu, unsure of what dish to choose, prix fixe menus offer little-to-no decision-making needed for guests. Because prix fixe menus offer a limited number of dishes per course, customers don’t have to spend much time thinking about what they want to eat, and instead can enjoy the experience of having multiple courses. For guests with dietary preferences, prix fixe menus can offer dishes that meet the needs of their dietary restrictions, which eliminates having to modify menu options or look through the menu for a meal they can enjoy.
Increases Sales And Traffic At Your Restaurant
Prix fixe menus are the perfect way to attract new customers to your restaurant. Guests looking for a unique dining experience will enjoy the appeal of a prix fixe menu that offers multiple courses. Customers also looking for a bargain when dining will most likely choose a restaurant with a prix fixe menu. For restaurants, prix fixe menus mean that there will be a consistent stream of revenue coming towards your business, and you can set the price based on the prices already found in your current menu.
How To Create A Prix Fixe Menu
When curating a prix fixe menu for your restaurant, consider what kind of prix fixe menu would suit your business best. Daily prix fixe menus, tasting menus, or prix fixe menus for special occasions all have their own benefits. Choose a style of menu that you feel would attract customers while also fitting into the budget of your establishment.
When To Offer Your Prix Fixe Menu
You should also decide on what times or days of the week work best for offering a prix fixe menu. What are the busiest times of day at your restaurant? Are weekends busier than weekdays? It would be beneficial to offer a prix fixe menu for breakfast, lunch, or dinner to attract customers at the busiest time of day to your restaurant. If weekends are busier than weekdays at your establishment, consider offering a fixed menu deal exclusively for the weekends.
Find Inspiration
Do some research on popular prix fixe menus offered in your area, in different states, and around the world. Because prix fixe menus are a relatively new concept in the industry, it would be great to pull inspiration from restaurants with established prix fixe menus when creating your own. Be sure to analyze the number of courses and dishes per course offered, as well as drink packages that can be bought with a prix fixe menu.
Include Best-Selling Menu Items
Consider including the most popular food items at your restaurant in your prix fixe menu. This is a great way to offer guests the opportunity to enjoy their favorite dishes along with menu options they might not have tried before. To keep costs down, it’s important to include dishes that can be made with low-cost food ingredients, or ingredients commonly found in your establishment’s kitchen. Since you are creating a menu with multiple courses, each course should flow into the next seamlessly. When choosing dishes for your prix fixe menus, keep in mind that you are creating an experience for guests so curate a list of options that work well together.
How Prix Fixe Menus Can Help Your Restaurant
Ultimately, creating a prix fixe menu at your dining establishment is a great way to bring customers a special experience while increasing sales for your business. Prix fixe menus can be the more-dressed-up version of your regular menu or a completely unique menu curated for a special occasion. These menus help drive traffic to your business while providing customers with an easy way to order multiple courses at an affordable price. From the dozens of small plates found in tasting menus to themed prix fixe menus offered on special occasions, there is a menu style that fits your restaurant.
