Diners tuck into more for less at budget restaurants

Dubai: A convenient location, a kitchen that can serve up hot platters of ethnic food thick and fast to the patrons, and a budget price.

Mix these ingredients in the right proportion and you are more than halfway to being a successful restaurateur.

Going by the numbers queuing up to take tables — be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any meals in between — at the Kabayan and the neighbouring Al Fai restaurants serving Filipino cuisine in Satwa, you will realise their owners have a good thing going.

And the clincher has to be the fact that the meals cost a flat Dh10.

"It's our way of helping people deal with the financial crisis — we are giving them an option to eat a full, quality meal for less," said Paul Angeles, owner and manager of the Kabayan Restaurant, which came up with the Dh10 concept in April when it opened for business.

His wife helps him run the business. "This is our second company, which is also based in Satwa, that's why we already had an idea of the demographics and a business analysis of the area," Angeles added.

For Dh10, you do get a lot. There's the mandatory serving of rice, two viands of your choice and a soft drink. There's also al fresco dining for anyone wanting to enjoy the dining out.

The Kabayan Restaurant even offers free karaoke and screening of The Filipino Channel on the second floor. Angeles said he used to manage a restaurant and catering service in Saudi Arabia, with the same concept "and it seems to be okay".

Aside from the food, the restaurant also scores in ambience. The façade and al fresco dining area have been designed like a traditional Filipino hut. Angeles said the homely ambience is meant to remind diners of their native land.

The plan seems to be working, especially since Filipinos have an innate trait to splurge on food whatever be the state of their finances. Of course, the majority of the restaurants' customers are Filipinos, though on rare occasions they also have had some palate-adventurous Arabs, other Asians and Europeans dining in.

Long-time Satwa resident Edgar Gregorio and his wife Jackyline visit the restaurant three times a week on an average for dinner, "especially when none of us has the time to cook". "It turns out cheaper to eat here because for Dh10 I get to enjoy Filipino food with a drink," Gregorio said. "It doesn't hurt my budget."

The increased frequency of the dine-outs has seen his monthly budget for food and beverages shoot up to Dh1,200 from Dh800. But Gregorio does not mind the additional expenses, and certainly not when it comes to tucking into his favourite dishes.

There continues to be a market — and an expanding one at that — for ethnic budget meals, Wendel Solamo, senior staff at Al Fai restaurant, said. "People are looking for ways to save money," he said.

Cheaper than fast food

The eatery even has menus for Indian and Pakistani diners, but the majority of the patrons are Filipinos.

Rose Ann Sipat, a sales associate and another Satwa resident, often orders a take out. "I come when I am not in the mood to cook because I get two viands for Dh10," she said. She spends up to 40 per cent of her salary on food and beverages.

Jocelyn Serwelas, another sales associate, said a budget meal works out to be cheaper than fast food she is forced to buy at the mall where she works. The Satwa budget restaurants don't feel the competition because there is never a lack of customers.

"We are earning enough to sustain the business," Angeles said. "We know that in business there will always be a competitor beside you. This also makes us strive to do better."

He considers repeat customers as the high point in his business. And the negatives? "Well, the rising costs of commodities such as rice, chicken, beef, vegetables and LPG," he said.

Will the budget meal promo stay? "That is the core concept of the restaurant," Angeles added emphatically, who now plans to open restaurants in Deira, Karama and Bur Dubai.

He also dreams of opening a branch in Abu Dhabi.

Gulf News dined anonymously at the restaurant and found the servings huge, and surprisingly tasty at that. The ambience was a real plus. And at Dh10, there were many thinking along the same lines.

Key to success