Restaurant businesses have been adversely impacted all across the globe due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, and the owners have been extremely resilient during these challenging times encountering numerous uncertainties and restrictions. ’Let’s go out and eat’ has become a dialog of the yesteryears with the global pandemic hitting the world. Further, with rules and restrictions being put in place, restaurants are forced to adopt trends that allow them to keep a pulse with the current times.
As a whole, with the businesses thriving to survive, there have been numerous shifts in trends that restaurants have adopted to combat the pandemic’s challenges. But what are the significant changes that you are prone to witness? Here we pen down a few Food service trends 2022 that we may expect in the coming year:
Contactless order and delivery
With the pandemic hitting the world badly, contactless orders and delivery have become the new norm that cafes and restaurants are sure to follow for some more time until such an epidemic comes to an end. Thus, you can expect contactless delivery strategies and concepts to improve with each passing day to offer customer safety.
Ranging right from having a contactless menu card to digital payment methods for touchless transfers, you can expect all such things to take mainstream in the upcoming year. Thus, smart technology methods that can reduce costs for the restaurant, cut down the chances of errors, ensure safety for customers and enhance their experience will surely witness an upscale trend.
Ghost kitchens
Though this may sound a bit scary, in reality, it’s just the opposite and is a safe option for customers. But let’s first discuss what a ghost kitchen is? Ghost kitchens are an upcoming trend that saves restaurant owners from renting huge spaces for their restaurant in the name of dining space. Such kitchens only operate with a space where they can cook with no dining space allowing only pick-ups and deliveries.
It is one of the emerging and biggest trends for the restaurant industry that proves to be a boon for the restaurant owners as it saves on the hefty rents and also cuts down the operational costs by not employing service staff. All they require is a good website or an app to mark their online presence, further allowing the customers to order with ease from their favorite ghost kitchens. This hot trend is continuously rising and is highly popular at places where property leasing is a big task.
Advanced and easy online ordering
With the world going gaga over online ordering and restaurants being vulnerable to sanitary regulations and lockdown restrictions, online ordering is the current Restaurant Trend to look for getting your favorite food and snacks. Thus, you can expect the third-party apps and other direct apps for ordering food to take an upward trend to get their customers treated with their favorite restaurant food at their dining table. Also, you are prone to witness advancement in the online ordering system with integrated platforms.
New tastes and cuisines to be introduced
Staying at home and working from home induces new cravings and yearning to satisfy your taste buds. All thanks to social media and other online apps that have made global food options trending and spread like fire over the internet, making people crave different cuisines.
With that said, there are more and more people who long to try out new varieties of food and menu. With customers seeking more food options, restaurant owners are sure to introduce new meals and snack varieties to meet customer demand.
Delivery robots to replace staff to some extent
Delivery robots have also been trending since the last year owing to the pandemic no-contact delivery restrictions. Thus, you can expect to see fewer staff and more delivery robots in restaurants that operate with a futuristic approach. Also, to handle the increased demand with efficiency taking into account the cost-savior approach, delivery robots will become more prevalent in big cities by the end of 2022.
Vegan cuisines to face a huge rise
With people cutting down on their meat consumption year after year, vegan cuisines need to be given priority to retain customers. Vegan cuisines didn’t have many options a few years back. But with more and more people going vegan and opting for veggies on their plate over meat, vegan diets and cuisines need to be worked on to offer more appealing menu cards. An increase in demand for vegan food has made restaurants think about the veg menu and are expanding their plant-based dishes to relish the foody desires of their customers.
Grab and go and self-service to increase in the upcoming days
These two modes also serve to be a savior for following contactless deliveries. More and more restaurants are adopting pre-decided menus and self-serve counters to cut down the crowd and queues at restaurants. Automation is also taking a hike and giving way for readymade meals that people can just grab, pay, and leave to enjoy their meals at their convenience.
Conclusion
Running a restaurant is not a piece of cakewalk, and with this pandemic claiming lives and making it difficult for the foodies to move around and dine at restaurants, it has become a real tough not to crack.
Ranging from practicing contactless services to automation and a hike in delivery options, there are numerous things that restaurants were forced to adapt to run their business. While no one would like to look back and become habitual of the norms that the pandemic has imposed, we might still have to look up for such Restaurant Industry Trends taking us to a new era that has changed the picture of dining and eating out altogether.
