After austerity, restaurants regain their appetite

Nanjing Impression is highly popular, customers sometimes having to wait for up to an hour to get a table. Meals priced usually at about 50 to 60 yuan per head.

The restaurant had only three branches in Nanjing until five years ago, but it now has 27 outlets in big cities throughout the country, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen in Guangdong province. A new outlet was opened in Wuhan, Hubei province earlier in December.

Its success can be attributed to its distinct, authentic Nanjing-style food and its impressive vintage-looking decor and furnishings, which help attract consumers, says Yang Wen, a market executive with Nanjing Impression.

Another secret, and as equally important, Yang says, is that the restaurant chain gives consumers wide options of good-flavored dishes with a wide range of prices, and customers can either spend lavish or be thrifty depending on the dishes they opt for.

"We have menus that cost hundreds of yuan per person, but also provide noodles, snacks and small dishes that cost only a few yuan each," Yang says, adding that a diner can have a hearty meal that costs only 20 yuan or so.

Flexibility in pricing has been pivotal in helping the restaurant chain expand rapidly even as high-end eateries started to feel the pinch as the government crackdown on lavish public spending began to exact a heavy toll on takings.

Most of Nanjing Impression's new restaurants opened after late 2013, about a year after the government crackdown kicked in, and the austerity drive has had little influence on the restaurant chain's overall revenue, although it has eaten into revenue in the high-end market, Yang says.

Nanjing Impression cooperates with Internet companies to allow customers to book tables via app, order dishes and pay online, and that helps increase staff productivity, Yang says.

Feng Enyuan, vice chairman of the China Cuisine Association, says it is highly likely that the total revenue of catering business by the end of this year will have exceeded 3 trillion yuan, and he is confident about the vitality of the country's catering industry, as well as huge market potential.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn