Wondering what a dark kitchen is? Read the article in full to find out.
Food delivery is becoming a huge trend in India. More and more restaurants and food businesses are embracing it, and technology is constantly evolving.
The best part about food delivery is that you can eat whatever you want whenever you want, without having to go to the store. It’s also a great way to avoid the time-consuming process of cooking and saves you from wasting money on groceries.
Food delivery is a great way to get the food you love delivered to your door. It’s convenient, cheap, and saves you time. The Food Delivery app allows you to order food from your favorite restaurant without having to go through the hassle of getting up and going out. The app is compatible with most popular smartphones, including iPhones, Android phones, and Windows devices.
It can also be used on tablets, such as iPads and Androids. You can add new restaurants, search for a nearby restaurant, or just browse through a list of all the restaurants in your area. You can also create a Wishlist for your favorite restaurants, and then add them to the list when you’re ready to place an order.
Dark Kitchen: Concept
Dark kitchens, also known as virtual kitchens, cloud kitchens, ghost kitchens, or delivery-only restaurants. The concept behind is simple; selling food through delivery service only. These kitchens do not have dine-in facilities, that is, they exist only virtually and serve their customers by delivering food at their doorsteps. They focus mainly on preparing food by receiving orders online through online food aggregators or food apps of their own.
Once the food ordered is ready, they are handed over to the delivery drivers to get them delivered to the customer’s mentioned address.
Dark kitchens and Covid-19
With a population of 1.3 billion people, India has had over 1 million cases of Covid-19 so far. The government has put the country on lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. India has been under a lockdown since the start of the pandemic, and it’s still ongoing.
So, what does this mean for you? Well, for starters, you can’t travel or visit family or friends if they live outside of India. You can’t take public transport, either, unless it is absolutely necessary. And you can’t attend any social gatherings or events. This is not a lockdown, but a voluntary one. If you want to go out, you need to be very careful.
Social distancing is the best way to avoid getting infected and curb the spread of the virus. Considering this situation, food delivery is the safest option if you are craving fast food. This is where the concept of dark kitchens comes from.
You can easily browse the food delivery apps or websites to select your favorite food and order it online. The dark kitchen restaurants will receive your order online, prepare your meal, and get it delivered to your address. You don’t have to move a step and can enjoy your favorite foods without visiting a physical restaurant, also adhering to all social distancing norms and being safe.
Dark Kitchens: Importance
Nowadays, being tech-savvy is the trend and people are taking interest in the latest food trends. People these days carry smartphones with them most of the time and use them for various purposes- from paying bills and entertainment to ordering food online. A lot of restaurants are coming up with different kinds of menus and the latest trend is to include healthy options in the menu.
The restaurant that we are talking about in this article is a Dark Kitchen restaurant which is a virtual restaurant that offers only food delivery services. It has an online presence only and serves its customers the same way. They provide food delivery services to your mentioned address with ease and comfort. You only need to have a smartphone and internet connection to order your favorite food.
For the restaurant owners, dark kitchens have proved to be a boon as they help in saving many of your operating expenses which are incurred in a physical restaurant. These expenses put a heavy burden on your profits leading to lower profits than you earn. All these expenses are saved in dark kitchen restaurants, which makes your profit margin greater which you can invest in expanding your business.
If you are thinking about opening a dark kitchen restaurant, then you should be sure that you can make good food for your customers. Dark kitchens are not easy to open. You should have a plan and be ready to work hard to make your dream come true. It can be difficult to keep the costs down and to provide good food. You can set up a dark kitchen at home or in a rented space.
Dark Kitchen: Benefits
- It is time-saving
Yes, you can easily save your time when you order food from a delivery-only restaurant. You don’t need to leave your home or office to have your food. You can order it from your home and get it delivered to your home in less than an hour. If you are living in a city like Mumbai then you will find many delivery-only restaurants, so you don’t need to waste your time waiting for the food.
- It is cheaper
This is one of the biggest advantages of opening a delivery-only restaurant. You don’t need to spend money on buying the ingredients of the dishes. You can just order your favorite dishes from the restaurants and get them delivered to your home.
- Easily experiment with new brands, menus and concepts
Whenever food trends change, dark kitchen restaurants do not have to worry about difficulties involved in changing the concept as in the case of physical restaurants. Pertaining to their online presence, they can easily make changes in their working style and methods, which will help them in going with the trend. They can experiment with new brands, menus and concepts with much ease than physical restaurants.
Things to Know Before Opening a Dark Kitchen
Dark kitchen restaurants are becoming popular these days and they are giving a new meaning to the word food. There are many people who are willing to spend their time and money on food but they don’t want to go out of their homes.
Opening a dark kitchen restaurant has its own challenges. You need to carefully consider the location of your restaurant, its menu, and the types of customers it attracts. These factors should be taken into consideration when deciding on the right restaurant location, and the right menu to attract the right type of customers. You also need to consider the different types of restaurants and their prices, and how they differ from one another.
Thus, opening a dark kitchen restaurant requires a lot of planning and preparation. However, once you’re ready, here are some things to keep in mind for a smooth start.
1. Choose a location that has good visibility and traffic flow.
The most important thing is that you need to have a good location. No matter what kind of restaurant you are planning to open, the first thing you need to have is a good location. Because people who are looking for food will always search for a place near their home and if your restaurant is far from their home, they will think twice before ordering food from your restaurant. All of your customers must be within the delivery zone of three miles.
This is a necessary factor for the owner too, as you do not want to travel too long distances with the same delivery fee as applied on nearby customers to deliver the food. This would only add to your losses. Also, if you increase the delivery fee for far-off locations, those customers would not want to order food from you as it would make the price of their meal costlier. They would switch to those restaurants which are near them and deliver food at a cheaper rate.
2. You need to have a good menu
If you want your customers to return to your restaurant again and again then you need to have a good menu. You need to give them different types of food that they can’t find anywhere else. And if you are not able to do this then it is very difficult to make your restaurant successful.
Also, when you are starting your own dark kitchen restaurant, you need to make sure that you have a good idea of what you are going to sell. Are you going to sell only pizza or are you going to have different types of food? You need to know the answer to this question.
3. Choose a proper delivery model
You need to make sure that you have a good delivery service. A delivery-only restaurant needs to have a good delivery service. If you are thinking about opening a dark kitchen restaurant then you should choose the right delivery model. The delivery-only restaurants are different from the normal ones. They don’t have a physical store so there is no need to worry about parking, maintenance, etc.
But in the case of normal restaurants, you need to maintain a parking space, clean the place, etc. So, before you open your restaurant, you should know all these things. If you don’t have a good delivery service, then your restaurant will fail. So, you need to start with a good delivery service and then you can add other products and services.
4. Reliable working staff
Make sure that your restaurant will be well-maintained by having reliable workers who can handle all the cleaning, food preparation, and delivery services. As the existence of cloud kitchens is virtual only, maintaining a personal touch is a challenging task. So, it depends heavily on the staff working in your dark kitchen. You need to have transparency and trust between you and your staff and maintain a certain level of control over the working of your staff so that the necessary standard is maintained.
5. Create a user-friendly website
Create a website for your restaurant, so potential customers can learn about it and check out its menu, hours, and contact information. You need to have a good website. It is not enough to just have a good website, you also need to use it. Your website needs to be attractive and it should be user-friendly. You must have an idea of what features you want on your restaurant website.
Consider hiring a local marketing consultant to help you with the business plan and get your business off to a good start. One of the best ways to create your website for your online delivery restaurant is to use WordPress. It’s an easy-to-use CMS platform that allows you to build an attractive, user-friendly website with ease. It also comes with a free theme called the ‘Twenty-Eleven’ which you can customize to fit your needs.
Dark Kitchens: The Takeaway
Cloud kitchens are very popular nowadays because they offer food delivery services. These services are very useful as they allow you to serve food to your customers and even deliver it to their doorstep. If you want to start a dark kitchen restaurant, then you need to consider various factors involved as mentioned in this article. This article has given you the necessary information about how you can open your own dark kitchen restaurant.
You can also hire a local marketing consultant to help you with the business plan and also to get your business off to a good start. If you have any other suggestions please share them with us in the comments section below.
Digirestro for Dark Kitchens
So here you read all about the concept of dark kitchens. But if you want to start a dark kitchen restaurant of your own and don’t know where to begin with, don’t worry, as Digirestro has all your answers to your queries. Dark kitchens are primarily internet-based, so you will need good restaurant management software for your dark kitchen restaurants. Digirestro is an all-in-one restaurant management software developed by people who closely worked with restaurants and cafes with the latest cutting-edge technology with an easier user interface.
So what are you waiting for? Get started with Digirestro now!
Also read: Multi-brand Cloud Kitchens: Concept, Benefits & How to manage it?