With eating out becoming more expensive each year, people can’t go to their favourite restaurants as often as they would like. PRAKRITI ROY talks to some industry insiders to know how customers are trying to save on eating out and what the restaurants want to do about it'
Eating out (or ordering in for that matter) has never been as expensive as it is now. And yet, you can’t really stop doing that. In such a situation, what people have essentially started doing is finding various ways to get discounts or reductions on the bill.
Now the first thing that pops up is the issue of tax. Value Added Tax (VAT) is charged on the total bill, including the cost of food and beverages plus service charge, at the rate of 14.5 per cent. Being a Government-implemented tax, you can’t really avoid it. Neither can you get out of paying the service tax, which amounts to 5.6 per cent of your bill. Now, service charge is something that you can mess with.
For those of you who are not that aware about the various components of your restaurant bill, the service charge is something that the restaurant charges for themselves, apart from the Government taxes. This can be anything between 5-10 per cent. Riyaaz Amlani, president of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and CEO of Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt ltd, which owns restaurants like Social, Smoke House Deli and Mocha, tells you that the service charge is an organised and equitable way of collecting tips so that even people like the dishwasher and cleaner get their share instead of just the waiter.
“There are some places that don’t take service charge when you order in. And these places, the takeaway joints, are cheaper in general than proper restaurants,” Ankur Warikoo, CEO, nearbuy, tells you. He also tells you what sells most at his platform and why. “Buffets are the bestsellers, probably because Indian consumers like the unlimited spread. And this for weekday lunches. Over the weekends, breakfast or Sunday brunch becomes very popular, especially at 5-star hotels. If you consider dine-in during weekdays, it's much cheaper than weekends where the price goes up to Rs800-Rs1,000 per person from the weekday price, Rs500-Rs600 per person,” he says.
However, people continue to go out because they can get good deals from platforms like nearbuy. Warikoo says that on an average, one may save up to 40 per cent on eating out if they buy deals from them, although it varies between 15-65 per cent. Then there are platforms like Dineout, where one can save up to 30 per cent if they book a table through the website.
The average price of dinner is also much higher than lunch. And due to this, a lot of people are opting to go for lunch during weekdays instead of dinner, especially during weekends. That’s the time when you can get the highest discounts.
A lot of restaurants have tie-ups with certain banks and credit card companies. If you are really keen on saving your hard-earned money, then you can find out which restaurants provide discount or cashback on the particular card you use.
Some restaurants even give loyalty cards to their regular customers which entitles them for great discounts.
Fast food inherently means that it is cheaper than eating at a proper restaurant. And even then, they have great offers sometimes which you can avail to save on spending as much as you normally would. For instance, Domino’s Pizza has offers like ‘but one get one free’ and KFC has a discounted rate for their famous chicken buckets on particular days of the week. You could consider eating only starters or only mains instead of both.
Where alcohol and beverages are concerned, there is a whole other expense to consider before ordering a drink because of the 5.5 per cent VAT on alcoholic drinks. This too can be avoided by simply not ordering beverages (alcoholic or otherwise) or by going the ‘deals’ way. A lot of restaurants offer ‘happy hours’ during the non-peak hours or designate one particular night of the week as ‘ladies night’. There are also many online offers available where one may select anything from a couple of drinks to an unlimited number of drinks. “The unlimited drinks offer is bought more in places like Delhi,” Warikoo tells you.
The biggest advantage of getting a pre-paid deal is that it is inclusive of all taxes and you are free from the worry of paying the taxes or any additional amount. The restaurant owners’ take on this is a different aspect of this problem. Amlani says: “The trend has moved away from fine dining to value dining which is more casual. These days there are a lot more restaurants offering quality product.”
Amlani also explains that the restaurant business has been suffering immensely due to the taxes that have to be paid by them and their profits have reduced to less than 10 per cent. Moreover, some new restaurants offer heavy discounts through online platforms in the hope of doing more business but that doesn’t happen.
Since the NRAI is concerned about giving the best value to their customers, they are constantly trying to get a lot more restaurants in the business by easing of licenses. More number of restaurants would mean price competitiveness and, hence, more value for the customers.
Till that happens, the jugaadu people in India will always find other ways.