Design and Facilities in Curry Leaf Restaurant is the United Kingdoms Finest Indian Restaurant - Assignment Example

Design and Facilities Curry Leaf Restaurant is the United Kingdom’s finest Indian restaurant for night outs and hangout place with friends. This warm and cosy restaurant is located on St John’s Hill in Clapham Junction of the United Kingdom. The restaurant’s main focus is on Indian food such as Sag Gosth, chicken Tkka Koria with creamy, garlic and onions lamb with spinach curry, praw pathia in hot and spicy lemon and tomato sauce (“The Curry Leaf Restaurant,” 2012). The dining rooms in Curry Leaf are decorated with flowers, and its walls are painted in dark ruby red paint. These project a beautiful inner view that attracts both locals and visitors making Curry Leaf restaurant the preferred place by many. The restaurant has a main objective of making sure that, it provides not only Indian cuisine but also an Indian environment for its customers. Therefore, the restaurant management has come up with two concepts on how to go about realizing this goal. The first one is that the management proposed to establish an Indian garden with an Indian touch. The management had in mind a place that gives its Indian customers and all its customers a pleasant interaction with the garden’s natural beauty. A garden is referred to as a place to grow plant and exhibit a variety plants for ornamental purpose or practical use. However, since the restaurant is located in town and space is limited, a good layout plan is needed to realize a natural Indian garden look. For instance, to come up with a house a professional architect is needed the same case with a garden. In order to realize satisfactory results from a garden, the garden should be designed carefully considering its permanent and semi-permanent features (Miller et al, 2012). An Indian garden combines the aesthetic Indian beauty, artistry from India and knowledge on growth and development of plants as well as principles of garden maintenance practices. May it be arranging trees, climber, shrubs, or any other flowers, a design is relevant. This is because designs outline the character of an object or a place in serving its sole purpose. Design may either be aesthetic of economic in such away it attracts only for a purpose (Miller et al, 2012). Therefore, there are a number of fundamental factors to consider. The first one is that the garden layout should be convenient and comfortable to the owner. The second one is that the design should be simple and selective. For example, in this case the garden is an Indian garden; therefore, the design should be simple where even an American Indian will recognize the Indian touch at a glance. The third one is proper utility of the space provided. The designer should give a limit on the exact number of items to be used in establishing the garden not to have too much in a small place. The fourth one is that Indians value certain objects such as gods, cows and their heroes. Therefore, incorporating monument of their gods and a variety of plants in the garden gives a complete Indian touch. Finally, it is vital to consider the colour and contrast in the garden. Most gardeners think by having so many shades of flowers portrays beauty but instead end up having a disorganised and undesirable garden. However, follower beds of same colour have a softer tone and beauty than the ones with a mixture of colours (Miller et al, 2012). The other concept the restaurant management had in mind is establishing a car park for its customers with an Indian touch. Therefore, a designer is required in case the restaurant plan to effective utilize the space available. For more than 35 years now, in United Kingdom alone there have been over 5000 parking lot structure which makes it difficult to decide the best design (Miller et al, 2012). However, research has shown that about half the population in United Kingdom is comfortable with the circulation layout. Although the dimensions may change depending on the parking lots there the recommended dimensions. This includes 90 degrees corner spaced plot, a length of 2.400m x 4.800m, with of 6.000 m for one way drive and 7.000 m for a two way flow and a concrete height of 3.000 m. In order to accomplish the two goals the management had to strategise on a number of issues, especially on the financial issues. For instance, the company needed 140 pounds for paint, 1150 pounds for decoration and artwork, 395 pounds for storage, 700 pounds to buy furniture, and 3235 pounds to establish a bar. The management, therefore, came up with four strategies on how to go about the conceptual process. The first one is to maintain an exceptional quality of services and dishes exclusively on Indian cuisine. The second provided high standards of the already existing operations. The third one is maintaining the same prices for the food on offere but increasing only the prices for the new dishes. Lastly, the management decided to establish a system that help run every operation smoothly and efficiently (“The Curry Leaf Restaurant,” 2012). Hakkasans restaurant is among the top restaurant in the United States and United Kingdom known for its outstanding Chinese foods and beverages referred by many as Cantonese cuisine. Hakkasans restaurant first opened its doors to the public in 2001. The founder of Hakkasans restaurant was Alan Yau, a hong kong restaurateur with the Wagamama chain group, who sold the restaurant to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan in 2008. However, Hakkasans group is currently under the Abu Dhabi investment company, Tasameen. The restaurant has got two restaurants in London, one in Miami, and another one in Abu Dhabi. In addition, the company plans to expand its empire in Mumbai and Dubai before the end of the financial year. In the long term goal, the company aim to open its doors to populaces in Los Angeles, shanghai, Las Vegas, New York and Paris which will cost about 50 million pounds (Chomka, 2012). In 2009, the restaurant management took another face with a new chief executive officer Mr. Howard. During that year, the restaurant had made a loss of 6.4 million pounds, but Mr. Howard managed to turn the misfortune into 700,000 pounds profit the following year (Chomka, 2012). However, this did not happen by coincidence, but by the directions of Mr. Howard. For 30 years, before Mr. Howard joined Hakkasan he was working with oil companies managing up to 3,000 employees. Howard also once worked as a demi-chef in his early youth. This, therefore, explains his contribution in realizing the tremendous profit only a year after a great loss. According to Chomka (2012), Howard defined his style of management as an “open door management” where everyone has a role to play and their suggestions are appreciated. The approach includes formal appraisals and meetings in the efforts of trying to encourage a free communication environment. According to Howard the approach gives employees a platform to air their views and ideas. The same system goes ahead to support implementation of viable ideas. Howard believes that success does not originate from power but from the feeling of being in control. Most of the chefs in the kitchen tend to feel isolated or undervalued which may lower their self esteem, directly affecting their work. Therefore, Howard spent most time ensuring the chefs felt in control of their work. The restaurant has two main concepts that they consider as their main objectives. The first one is that the company plans to introduce a new brand known as Chrysan. The company’s main aim in introducing Chrysan is to create a Japanese cuisine in the same way they did with Chinese cuisine. In realizing this goal the company management plan, to spend approximately 500 dollars and 1,000 dollars per sq feet in renting a space in town centres (Chomka, 2012). For example, in New York, a space to establish a retail shop around the time Square cost about 1200 dollars per sq foot. Therefore, Chrysan is a significant investment for the company considering the financial implications. Chrysan is designed to have two dining rooms, one to be a chef table and the other a bar referred to a NeNe with a capacity of 3000 peoples. Each room will have a separate menu, but all the food offered will be Japanese food. However, the company does not plan to stick too much on the traditional Japanese food but instead plan to deliver dishes that are original Japanese. To achieve this, Howard has partnered with Murata, a professional chef in preparing Japanese food, to assist and coach other chefs in the same field. Chefs will use local ingredients to prepare Chrysan to maintain a Japanese originality, although, in a western style. A Japanese-western style will be known as Kaiseki which according to Murata refer to fun. The kaiseki menu will include dishes such as sushi, duck confit, and grilled lobster. For instance, sushi is made up of confit of smoked Solomon, parsnip and duck foie gras plus truffle flavoured dashi soup, dry Angus rib aged 35 days, Mongolian soy sauce plus yuzu egg yolk (Chomka, 2012). The second one is that the company plan to focus in preparing healthy Chinese dishes using medical herbs and spices. Chef Tong, a specialist in cooking Chinese food will be chief chef in the Chinese kitchen. Chef Tong is known for his 11 years cooking experience and outstanding signature dishes such as roast Peking duck and glass duck oven (Chomka, 2012). In both cases, the company welcome customer’s feedback and also acknowledge the diversity in the current world. Therefore, apart from training the other chef the chief chefs will be expected to come up with new brands that are compatible to the western life style. In conclusion, the two restaurants portray two different management styles, despite their common goal of excelling in the provision of cultural excusive dishes with a western touch. The first difference is that Curry Leaf management body is rigid while Hakkasan management embrace diversity. Curry leaf only focus in Indian cuisine while Hakkasan is moving to Japanese cuisine and still improves the Chinese cuisine. Lastly, Howard of Hakkasan encourages open door management style in decision making while the management in Curry Leaf is the sole decision maker. References Miller, L, R., Swensson, S, E., & Robinson, T, J. (2012). Hospital and Healthcare Facility Design. London: W. W. Norton & Company. Chomka, S. (2012). Business Profile: Hakksan. Retrieved from http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Business/Business-Profile-Hakkasan n.a. (2012). The Curry Leaf Restaurant. http://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/the-curry-leaf-restaurant/Location?oid=1337136 Read More