Attracting customers by good quality

Foreign customers enjoy European food at Le Domaine de Cocodo (53 Ham Nghi street). Photo: Ngoc Ha

The Queen Palace at 18 Phan Trung Chanh street, Hue city opens mainly to welcome Thai customers very successfully. The Japanese Restaurant specializing in Japanese food (on Tran Cao Van street, Hue city), or the Seoul Restaurant specializing in Korean food (on Ben Nghe street, Hue city) attracts a large number of customers.

In Hue city, there are also many restaurants serving European dishes. Some famous restaurants are the Pizza Napoli Italian (on Ngo Duc Ke street), the La Maison Café & Restaurant (on Pho Duc Chinh street), the Little Italy (on Nguyen Thai Hoc street), the Carnosa-Restaurant & Bar, the Risotto Restaurant Hue (on Nguyen Cong Tru street), the Les Jardins De La Carambole-French cuisine (on Dang Tran Con street), the Aroma, the Waterland Restaurant-Bar & Café (on Chu Van An street), the Le Parfum Restaurant-La Residence Hotel, the Céci Station - Italian & Mexican cuisine, the DMZ Bar-Restaurant (on Le Loi street)... All of these restaurants are targeted at particular types of customers.

European dishes at Le Domaine de Cocodo. Photos: Ngoc Ha

The owner of Queen Palace restaurant, Mr. Hoang Trong Dat said: "Before opening this restaurant, we had determined on the types of customers in our target. Up to now, the number of our Thai customers has been quite nice. To be honest, it is very difficult to run restaurants that cater for tourists, because we need to meet many criteria. For example, we have to determine on our type of customers, Europeans or Asians? What kind of dishes do they like? Are the services good? How is the food safety and hygiene? If food poisoning occurs even at the mildest level, it will be considered a complete failure."

Success thanks to prestige and good quality

When I came to the Pizza Napoli Italian restaurant, the menu was diverse and the prices were quite reasonable. I ordered a “meat lover” pizza, a cheese stick and a can of pepsi for just VND 120,000. However, the price is not decisive yet; the food must be delicious and typically Western to succeed. The Pizza Napoli Italian has made it. An Italian couple, who were sitting next to me, also praised the pizzas there: "The pizzas here are not different from those in my country. The chef here is really good. I will recommend this restaurant to my friends and relatives if they travel to Hue.”

My friend from Japan, Ayumi Kimura went to the Dong Kinh restaurant on Tran Cao Van street when she visited Hue. She enjoyed the Japanese dishes and was surprised that the food there was delicious.

In an assessment of the Asian-European restaurants in Hue, Mr. Nguyen Minh Hoang, Head of International Operations of Vitour Da Nang said: "I am very satisfied with the Asian-European restaurant system in Hue; as our customers are all high-class, they spend a lot of money. So we have to pay special attention to the issues of food, accommodation, travel. Otherwise, it will be difficult to have customers. Through the surveys, most customers are satisfied with the menus, service attitude, facilities and prices. We think that in this way, the Asian-European restaurants in Hue will welcome more and moreinternational visitors."

Mr. Phan Giang, who is in charge of administration of HGH Travel-Hue said: "When foreign visitors go to Hue through our tours, besides a main European-Asian course, we serve an additional Hue dish. Everyone is happy with the menu, especially the European-Asian dishes because they have the feeling of eating at home, even when they are abroad. This is success."

In order to have such a just assessment from visitors as well as travel agencies, the owners of Asian-European restaurants in Hue shared: "If you want to succeed in running restaurants that cater for foreign visitors, you have to base on the factors of honesty (prices), quality (dishes must be authentic), good services (restaurant facilities, good chefs, fast and cheerful service staff). We have already made it."

By Gia Han