What Would You Like From A Fast Food Outlet?
By Louc74
@Louc74 (620)
November 29, 2009 7:19pm CST
My friend and I are setting up a snack bar at the beginning of next year. Obviously, we want to make money, but we both have a conscience, and don't want it to be your usual "greasy spoon" place.
We have decided that we have to have things like burgers, bacon, black puddings, etc, but they won't be fried, and the burgers will be made by ourselves, so that we know what we're putting in them. We're also going to have a range which will have a points value, regarding diet plans such as Weight Watchers, or Scottish Slimmers diets, and healthy choices, and of course we'll be using "lo-salt" to try to make our food as healthy as possible.
We are even going to have some vegan choices, because we think it's pretty unfair that vegans don't have that many places where they can just pick up a quick bite to eat.
But I thought that the best idea would be to ask people what they thought may be missing from the fast food industry. Is there anything you'd like to see that you can't get at the moment?
And do you think it's a good idea to introduce healthier versions of fast food?
4 people like this
11 responses
@msfrancisco9369 (10002)
• Boston, Massachusetts
30 Nov 09
Hi Louc,
promoting healthy lifestyle, healthy choices and healthy eating is the fad today especially among food chains. You can do it. Lots of people are health conscious and they're looking for healthy places to eat out and even have a take home packs. so it is timely that you're planning to promote healthy foods in your food chain.
@msfrancisco9369 (10002)
• Boston, Massachusetts
30 Nov 09
you're right but don't give up . explore more. i am happy that you are taking all these things and details into consideration just to make sure your food is healthy. i will be one of your loyal customers. LOL.
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Hi, Msfrancisco. Hopefully it's the right time.
Thing is, it's being exposed more and more that the so called "healthy" choices aren't that healthy! Even pre packaged smoothies have been exposed as being laden with additives, so above all, we want to be really honest. Where we can't substitute because of taste, we'll use the bare minimum, and just make sure people know it has cheese, for example.
Thanks for the advice! :)
@dramaqn (1990)
• United States
30 Nov 09
I think that is very nice of you to think of the vegans. Also, if you all do pretty good, maybe you can also add a small celiacs menu. It's very thoughtful if a fast food place can be healthy conscious. If you aren't sure about what a celiac is, it's a person who is allergic to wheat.
1 person likes this
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Hi, Dramaqn. Aahh. I knew the word, but would have had to go and look it up! Lol!
Although the wheat allergy we were already thinking of, we just need to do much more research on it. We want to have a bread maker. Obviously, we're going to have to order a lot of our bakery products, but we want to make our own wheat and gluten free products as well, and I love experimenting, so that will definitely give me a chance to do that!
Plus, the smell of fresh baked bread should have the customers flocking in! Hehehe!
Thanks, Dramaqn! :)
@rogue13xmen13 (14403)
• United States
30 Nov 09
Healthy food! Veggie burgers, more salad choices, tea, low salt, non-greasy, and absolutely no trans fat.
1 person likes this
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Hi, Rogue. Ok, so we're on the right track, then! Lol!
We were also worried that the second we said "healthy", people would think NO, we want greasy, and laden with calories, salt, fats, etc.
Cheers for bringing my attention to the trans fats - I'll do some research on that.
Just going to check to see if you're in the US. You're so much more aware and savvy about food over there. Well, I suppose over here, we know a lot about the bad stuff, but people just keep stuffing their faces with it!
Thanks Rogue!
@snowy22315 (180472)
• United States
30 Nov 09
maybe delicious vegan burgers. Burger king has avegan burger but it is not particularly good in my opinion. I think you should experiement with vegan burgers until you come up with a healthy combination and go for that particular combo. That would be good.
1 person likes this
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Cheers, Snowy! Well, the friend that I'm setting up with is a vegan. Recently she has had poor health, just in general, nothing specific: aches and pains, and getting every bug that's doing the rounds.
So I asked about her diet, and she's eating the same (very limited!) kinds of foods all the time, and not getting the nutrition she needs. I told her off! Lol! So we've been looking at vegan recipes online, and we're definietly going to have some choices on our menu - and she's the ideal person to test them. Lol!
Thanks Snowy!
@harmonee (1228)
• United States
30 Nov 09
I would like to see more fresh produce and burgers that don't taste so fake. It would be cool if you have french fries that you make them yourselves instead of the frozen variety that is at all the other fast food joints. I would love to see the "meals" come with some fresh fruit instead of all the other greasy options.
@Louc74 (620)
•
1 Dec 09
Hi, Hamonee. That's exactly what we want to provide - fresh, proper home made food, without all the additives, fats, salts, etc. The fries, or chips, we'll definitely be making ourselves, from real potatoes. Unfortunately, there's no other way to make them, other than frying, but I wouldn't want to cut anyones choice either, and fries are always popular.
But we're not going to do that thing with sandwiches, where you think you have "salad" on it, then open it up to find a shred of lettuce, and two paper thin "slices" of tomato! I hate that!
Noted: fruit salads, with real fruit, (and no huge amounts of sugar added!)
Thanks for your comment! :)
@dong88 (795)
• China
1 Dec 09
Well,engaging in fast-food diet, is a good choice. As you and your friends to consider,make sure the health of fast-food diet .I think that,more fast food restaurants to good learning,as much as possible to collect relevant information,and then from inside the will,and formed its own characteristics;right,and the vegetarian has not done quite distinctive,and that remarkable.I wish you success!
@Louc74 (620)
•
1 Dec 09
Hi, Dong! Welcome to Mylot!
I had a look, and see you'e in the food business. Well, we've had certain laws passed in the UK regarding fast food premises, forcing them to offer healthier alternatves, but I can't see any evidence of it - they all seem to be selling the same old greasy slop that they always have.
I'm doing some research into nutrition, food allergies, etc., and OMG, there's a lot of information out there! We'll probably do a lot of learning as we're going along as well, but this posting has been really helpful!
Good luck with your restaurant as well!
Thanks for your advice! :)
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
30 Nov 09
I think it is a good idea to have a place that has healthier versions of fast food, but the taste will need to compete with the less healthier version. I also think it is good to offer some vegetarian and vegan choices, that is so rare and hard to find outside of Indian Restaurants. We have one Vegan restaurant within a 2 hour radius of us, so I am sure they do quite well. My husband went a fast food kabab place about a month ago, he has been talking about it ever since. I would love it if there was a some kind of fast food restuarant where I could pick up something that would be similiar to a homemade meal, but that I could get through a drive thru, right now Boston Market is the closest, but I have to go inside, at the end of a long day I just want to go through a drive thru and get something that I won't feel bad about feeding my family.
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Hi, Ladym. I agree with you; we're going to have to make our healthy versions appealling. I definitely think they will be tastier than a greasy burger though, because really, they mostly taste like sawdust anyway! Lol!
Aaaahhhh. I'm really glad you brought up the family fast food takeaway, because I spoke to my friend about that the other night. We want to do specials, things like a mac cheese, lasagne, carbonara, steak pie, fish dishes, etc, and these would be completely made from scratch, and with healthy ingredients. I don't like using jars of sauce, it's much better made from scratch. So I had just skimmed over the idea of that, but I think tapping into that kind of market would be brilliant.
Was the fast food kebab place really good?
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
30 Nov 09
Hi Lou, with business the bottom line is always profitablitly and whilst your vegan option maybe well meaning its not going to make you any money as you won't get the volume of custom to make it viable. Personally I'm not sure that fast food combined with healthy would be a a good business plan so make sure you do plenty of research first locally.
Good reliable fast food options are toasties, filled jacket potatoes (you buy them vacummn packed and finish off in the microwave with a filling), even options like mushrooms on toast and scrambled eggs on toast are fast choices which are very popular.
I'd recommend a range of healthy home baked cakes as well. Whatever you make start with the necessary amount of profit worked in first and make sure that the food is always fresh.
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Hi Thea. Yeah, we have been a bit worried about that. The workmen who will use fast food places like ours will want their bacon/burger on a roll, so we have to cater for them, and just make the prep a bit healthier; griddle instead of fry.
But we're hoping that we can appeal to offices, who will have female staff members, as well. And yeah, we'll only have a very small amount of vegan supplies to begin with, to see if it's viable. We're going to have a potato oven, with choices of fillings, so they're pretty healthy (until you slather them with loads of butter!)
I just don't want to be reponsible for giving anyone a heart attack! Lol! And we were really worried about our packaging as well, bt we've sourced compostable food boxes. We just want to be conscientious as well, but you're right, it can be difficult!
@happy6162 (3001)
• United States
30 Nov 09
I would like a salad that has more than just lettuce and a few carrots on it. Maybe a chef salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese and black olives would be good. The salad at fast food do not have much on them and really are not very good.
@Louc74 (620)
•
30 Nov 09
Hi Happy. We were thinking of going for the shredded, wilted, brown edged salad type. Only kidding! I know what you mean - I like salad, bt with fast food outlets, they would be as well not bothering. Salad options are pretty cheap as well, so we will be making a bit of an effort there as well.
@kelly10 (678)
•
30 Nov 09
I would also consider some foreign foods. With people travelling more tastes have changed and are becoming more exotic. Although I would think beyond Indian, Italian and Chinese foods as these can be food on most, if not all, high streets now.
I think anything that is different to the normal burger and chips is a step in the right direction. I don't eat burgers and at times choice is very limited if you just want a snack or lunch. We always end up in a Weatherspoons or another pub that does food, which means we are eating similar foods each time.
@Louc74 (620)
•
1 Dec 09
Hi, Kelly. I had been looking at all sorts of recipes for foreign foods, then had to reign myself in a bit! Lol! When we start, it will just be the two of us running the place, so the more choices, the more prep, and that could have people getting annoyed because we're taking too long.
But we defnitely want to vary our menu, so that we can introduce new things. As my very wise friend Thea pointed out, we have to be careful about profit margins as well, because it won't do any good if nobody will eat our new exciting menu, then we'll be out of business!
I'm heartened to find, though, that people are looking for something different. Sounds like we might just have to increase our new, healthy choices bit by bit, and make them really different and appetising.
Thanks so much for your input! :)
