Building Sustainable Service concept for Buffet Lunch Restaurant in Nepal

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to create a sustainable service concept for buffet lunch Restaurant in Nepal. XYZ Restaurant will imply local and seasonal food found in Nepal targeting Nepalese people of the different age groups in the Kathmandu Metropolitan area. XYZ restaurant will be formed based on the different research done in the Finnish lunch buffet market, with the intention of implementing good practices of Finnish restaurant in Nepal. The thesis consists of background topics of Nepalese food culture including basic elements, general, local and seasonal food of Nepal. This thesis also includes the customer behavior, their experience and eating habits. In addition, to introduce sustainability and accessibility in the restaurant, the background theory is supplemented dividing into two different topics of food waste, leftover, recycle management and customer with special needs. To support the theory background, the authors will use several sources which includes published literature, online books and articles.

The research methods used for the service development of this thesis are benchmarking through observation and online interviews. The first method, Benchmarking through observation was conducted with three different kinds of buffet restaurant in Helsinki metropolitan area who runs their business with the same concept, obtaining information about their service concept and strategy. The observation was done for one week during lunchtime with every individual restaurant. Various data were collected during the observation which includes menu type, pricing, total number of seats available, reservation service and the availability of infrastructure for people with special needs. A service blueprint was obtained by doing participant observation by one of the authors. To gain the customer eating habits and their choices for designing the menu and customer personas, an online interview was conducted through email by sending questionnaire related to the restaurant field. Interview participants are students, bartender, restaurant manager, study graduates and insurance company manager with residents in the Kathmandu metropolitan area and some Nepali living in Finland as well. Interview questionnaire efforts their restaurant and food type choice.

The outcome of this thesis is a sustainable service design concept for buffet lunch Restaurant in Kathmandu metropolitan area, created and developed by understanding the existing service culture of buffet restaurant in Helsinki metropolitan area as well as the customer experience and their habits from Nepal. Four cores activities of Service design methods are used to build this concept which includes Research, ideation, prototyping and implementation in which prototyping have been skipped by the authors. At a glance, the restaurant menu is inspired by the richness of Nepalese food culture and tradition along with the customer expectations using local food taste and paying attention towards better customer service and sustainability of the restaurant.