5 Restaurant Gimmicks to Create a Unique Dining Experience

As a restaurateur, your job doesn’t stop at managing a productive team, creating an efficient business plan, and ensuring all operational processes run smoothly. As your goal is surely to bring in as many clients as possible, you also have the task of getting your business noticed.

An easy way to stand out from your competitors and attract new customers is using restaurant gimmicks. The trick is to not only choose the best ones for your audience but also stick to a budget that ensures your business remains profitable.

In this article, you will find out exactly what restaurant gimmicks are, why you should use them, and discover a couple of ideas you can use as inspiration:

What are restaurant gimmicks?

Restaurant gimmicks represent the unique ideas that a business has implemented that allow clients to experiment with something new and different.

Gimmicks is an umbrella term because anything that a restaurant does differently can be a gimmick. For example, you can have robot servers, or you can have the place constantly decorated for Valentine’s Day.

It can be the restaurant’s entire concept, such as a cat café or just occasional events with live music or wine tasting. The end goal of restaurant gimmicks is to increase your business’s popularity.

Read more: How to Write a Restaurant Concept: Complete Easy-to-follow Guide + Examples

How can restaurant gimmicks help your business?

Implementing restaurant gimmicks can take up a lot of time and money. But once you get to enjoy the benefits, the investment will be well worth it:

• Stand out from the competition: there are countless other food businesses in your area and many of them may serve good food. But, if you have implemented restaurant gimmicks, clients will become curious and give your place a try, at least once;
• Attract new clients: gimmicks create FOMO (fear of missing out) for your clients, especially if they are temporary. Therefore, they will be tempted to visit your place and discover what unique idea you have prepared for them;
• Increase the number of loyal customers: once you get a new client, it is your opportunity to provide them with exceptional customer service and food on top of the gimmicks to persuade them to come back;
• Provide marketing material: maintaining an active social media presence can often be a chore. With gimmicks, it becomes quite fun because you always have new material to promote.

5 Restaurant gimmicks ideas to try

If you want to increase your food business’s popularity, draw inspiration from these unique ideas for restaurants:

Make it fun to place an order

What if there was a way to make ordering both fun and convenient? Many restaurants often encounter a shortage of employees which often affects customer satisfaction.

You could solve this problem by relying on technology to do some of your employees’ tasks. For example, using a QR code menu that allows customers to use their phone to browse the menu, order, and pay, all with a simple scan.

If you want to create a free QR code menu, use GloriaFood to enable on-premise dining and start serving customers faster and more efficiently,

The process is clear, clients just have to scan the printed QR code. But the way the QR code is presented can be a gimmick. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Add it to the cats’ collars if you have a cat café;
• Stick the QR code in a treasure chest at every table;
• Embed the code in a bear plushie that sits at every table.

Add games to your restaurant

Spending time socializing with loved ones is great, but clients are sometimes looking for more. And as games have been the biggest part of our childhood, we are still fond of them and appreciate every opportunity to play.

Check out these restaurant gimmicks ideas that focus on games:

• Trivia night where people gather in groups to win prizes;
• Fill your tables during slow periods by providing free games that people can rent and play at their tables;
• If you have a bar, adding some arcade games in it will cause people to spend hours ordering drinks.

Incorporate art into the dining experience

If your audience is more upscale or appreciates art, why not give them what they want? Incorporating art at your restaurant gives you the opportunity to collaborate with local artists and strengthen your bond with your community.

Try out these creative restaurant marketing ideas:

• Organize art exhibitions paired with wine tasting where you adorn your walls with paintings or illustrations to enchant customers;
• Collaborate with local ceramists to create unique tableware specific to your business. You can also sell some as restaurant merchandise;
• Work with light artists to create a projection for an immersive food experience;
• Invite local bands and singers to perform at your restaurant on special nights.

Read more: 15 Restaurant Event Ideas to Get Customers Through the Door

Add a photo booth or photo corner

People enjoy sharing their unique experiences on social media. If you give them an incentive to take photos at your place, you will get free user-generated content that promotes your restaurant.

Therefore, make it a goal to encourage customers to take photos by:

• Adding a photo booth, like the ones usually seen at the metro. Ensure it is out of the way so it doesn’t affect service;
• Create a photo corner, with your restaurant’s name in the background so it appears in every picture;
• Get on top of your plating technique so every dish is worthy of a picture.

Bring the nature inside

Green is seen as a calming color and mild-appetite stimulant. Plants and flowers also make great photo backgrounds for your customers. If you are searching for restaurant gimmicks that don’t require a big investment, turning your business into an oasis may be the best choice for you.

Read more: How to Take Advantage of Restaurant Color Psychology

Tips to pick the best gimmicks for your restaurant

While there are many restaurant gimmicks out there, not all of them will be the best choice for you. For example, if your place is in the middle of a busy city, it will be ill-advised to run a small café with exotic animals.

Here are some factors to consider when you brainstorm restaurant gimmicks:

Consider your target audience

Not every person who lives in your area will become your client because people have different culinary preferences. Before you pick a gimmick, identify your target audience with demographics and preferences.

This will help you come up with ideas that are to their liking and that will determine them to keep visiting your restaurant.

Read more: Restaurant Target Market: How to Identify It and Why It Is Important for Your Business

Research the market and your competition

What if you decide to stick to a nature concept and there is another restaurant down the block with the same theme? To be unique, you must first do some research:

• Competition: are your competitors using gimmicks? What type? Are they successful?
• Market interest: what gimmicks would local people be interested in? How much money are they considering paying for it?
• Trends: be aware of food and social media trends that you could integrate into your gimmick strategy to maximize awareness.

Read more: Market Research for Restaurants 101: Guide to Long-Term Success

Stick to your budget

Whatever gimmick you choose, you must create a financial and business plan for it including your goal, methods, and expenses. It can be easy to get carried away when organizing an event or decorating a space, but costs will easily add up and eat into your profit.

Read more: How to Write a Restaurant Business Plan: 6 Practical Tips & Tricks

Final words

Restaurant gimmicks can be a real help when you are trying to get noticed in a sea of competitors. If you choose the best one for your business, you will constantly gain new and returning customers, ensuring your long-term success.