What's new in the restaurant scene?
A review of the latest trends to emerge in the Malaysian dining scene, now that there is a transition to endemicity in the battle against Covid-19.
FOR the larger part of 2020 and 2021, ‘eating out’ was almost a euphemism for what not to do during a pandemic. This was compounded by the fact that a string of seemingly interminable lockdowns made dining out fairly impossible for months on end.
When restaurants were reopened intermittently in 2020 and 2021, people who chose to dine out were often thought of as engaging in potentially dangerous activity.
Strangely, what used to be a natural, social experience that people of all ages enjoy, completely ceased to be enjoyable, given the paranoia, scrutiny and level of social distancing required.
Then – thankfully – the winds of change blew in and in 2022, there has been a renewed interest and vigour in dining out once again. Restaurants everywhere now seemed to be packed to the gills on any given day.
This coincides with a shift towards endemicity in the battle against Covid-19 and relative acceptance of the fact that this is a virus whose presence will continue to be deeply entrenched in daily lives and habits.
“It’s not that people are ignorant that
Covid-19 is still around, I think people have just realised that is going to be a part of life, so let’s just make the best of it,” explains Jeremy Lim, the vice-president of the Restaurant & Bistro Owners Association.
So what sort of trends have emerged (or re-emerged) since the effects of the pandemic have waned a little?
Expenditure on dining out
What people are spending on eating out these days is largely dependent on the income group that they fall into. Top-tier income earners for instance have been spending heavily on the experience of eating at fine-dining or high-end eateries, which means many of these restaurants are often totally booked out.
“We’ve noticed a new increase in people wanting to do fine-dining, so at our restaurant Natalina Italian Kitchen for instance, it is almost impossible to get a reservation. It is even full on Mondays or Tuesdays!
“So yes, I notice that people are dining out more and have a bit more disposable income – I think they are not traveling as much because travel is so expensive so people are using that money that they would use to travel to eat out more.
“So in the fine-dining category, people are definitely spending more money on eating out,” says Abethan Kanthasamy (better known as Abbi), the managing director of the Cinnamon Group, which owns and runs restaurants like Nadodi, Natalina Italian Kitchen, Nero Nero and Kikubari, among others.
This massive interest in fine-dining restaurants has also created a new mini-trend of sorts in that many of these restaurants are now having to impose seating times. Natalina for instance has three dinner seatings a night to cater to the massive crowds!
In the middle-income belt, dining out has become a more selective exercise. After restrictions on dining out were lifted this year, this income group was jubilant about their ‘freedom’ and chose to exercise their liberties by dining out. A lot.
And then came the huge hike in food prices and other exigent realities, which hit home a lot more as their disposable income became considerably less.
As a consequence, those in this income level are still dining out, but not as much as they did at the beginning.
“In the beginning of the year when things were just relaxing, people were spending more on dining out, so the average check was higher but lately in the last month or so, it has slowed down a little, which could be because of inflation,” says Toh Tsun Yee, who runs casual restaurant Tipsy Boar.
The lowest income group is the one that has been the most cautious about dining out in the past couple of months, and this is guided by inflation and having to make cutbacks on a daily basis.
“For the B40 group, which may have spent a lot of time in mamaks and kopitiams, you can definitely see a reduction in spending in terms of dining out, especially with food prices soaring and the cost of living also rising. So people who may have gone to the mamak once a week may only be going once a month,” says Lim.
Dining in groups
For at least two years, celebrations of all sorts were not a possibility. Most people had virtual gatherings or tiny meet-ups with friends in their own homes. Gathering together at a restaurant was simply not done, and this was bolstered by the fact that for a long time, restaurants were forced to adhere to regulations on the number of diners allowed per table.
Now that all those restrictions have been lifted, people are dining out in larger groups more than they ever did before.
“Oh yeah, we have had parties of like 20 people or more and that never happened when all the previous lifting of the lockdowns occurred. This year, we have noticed quite a lot more large gatherings at restaurants, even among high-risk groups like the elderly,” says Toh.
Abbi meanwhile says that people are really in the mood for celebrations with friends and families and group dining has become far more common than it was before.
“People are enjoying the fact that they can dine together, which they couldn’t do for three years, so we do see big groups and reservations in all our restaurants,” he confirms.
To cater to this, Abbi says his newer restaurants will be designed to accommodate larger groups. Progressive Indian eatery Nadodi (ranked #62 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022 list) for instance will be moving to a new location and Abbi says the new outlet will be designed to accommodate burgeoning groups of diners.
“We stopped using round tables and are only putting in square tables, so we can combine them together if a big group comes in. So we are designing our restaurants to be able to handle this new trend, which is larger groups,” he says.
Looking to indulge
When the Covid-19 pandemic first started, many Malaysians were looking to boost their immune systems and lead healthier lifestyles. As a result, there emerged a trend of healthier eating habits, bolstered by concerns about contracting the virus. But now that the bad times are not as bad, people are indulging in more ways than one.
“We don’t see the healthy eating trend as prevalent as 2020. Of course, there are people still keeping up with the healthy routine, but a lot of Malaysians have reverted to their usual staple of nasi lemak and goreng (fried) stuff,” says Lim.
This need for indulgence has also translated to a growing number of top-earners looking for more exotic, premium fare in their restaurant experiences.
“People are experimenting more because they want to try new things, so there is a big push to make more exotic dishes. Like at our Sri Lankan restaurant Aliyaa, we are introducing a mussel sothi (sothi is a Sri Lankan coconut milkbased gravy dish) and lobster curry because people seem to be pushing for better, high-quality ingredients. They don’t want the same old boring stuff, so customers are really raising the bar,” says Abbi.
Japanese omakase eateries are blossoming
If you haven’t already noticed, Kuala Lumpur has been invaded this year by a deluge of Japanese omakase restaurants. According to Lim, there have been no less than 70 omakase restaurants opening in the Klang Valley since the start of 2022.
“By and large, since the reopening, we have seen traction for Japanese omakase restaurants and they come in a multitude of price ranges from RM250 to RM1,500 so that is the clear winner for the entire pandemic season,” says Lim.
According to Lim, this huge supply of Japanese omakase restaurants is likely fuelled by the fact that Japan’s borders have remained closed to individual travellers (the country is only open to travellers on guided tours organised by Japanbased travel agencies). Consequently, eager Japanophiles who have long been deprived of food from the country are flocking to local variants instead.
“I think that’s why these Japanese omakase restaurants are getting so much momentum – all the produce is freshly flown in from Japan, so this is the next best thing to actually traveling to the country,” says Lim.
Takeaway and delivery
Food delivery was a big winner at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when delivery was literally the only option available if you wanted food from all your favourite restaurants. But since restaurants have reopened for dine-in this year, there have been some changes.
Among mid-tier restaurants, delivery and takeaway sales have taken a dip, possibly because people are opting to either do physical dine-ins or limit their expenditure altogether.
For larger groups for instance, there has been a conversion in the sense that just last year, people were opting to order meals for celebrations at home whereas now they are doing this at restaurants itself.
“Delivery orders are still there, but order values are not as high as before – we just get single meal orders or orders for two whereas before orders for families or big groups were very likely,” says Toh.
For premium dining outlets on the other hand, delivery orders have never been higher. Abbi for example says that delivery and takeaway orders are now triple what they used to be before the advent of the pandemic.
“People have gotten used to the convenience of delivery services and some people are now permanently working from home. So for people who want to go to different restaurants for example, they can do this virtually by ordering in and enjoying the food at home,” says Abbi.
Among the higher-income group, this affinity for enjoying good food at home has also created a sustained interest in private chef experiences.
“I think with the elite, they can afford it, so up to now, we still get requests for private chef experiences so people can have celebrations or special occasions in the comfort of their own homes,” says Lim.
Labour shortage has created new trends
The F&B industry has continued to suffer from a woeful lack of manpower. Restaurants everywhere are being crippled by the fact that labour is in short supply – a situation that is unlikely to improve anytime soon.
Given this harsh reality, many restaurant owners are responding in various ways. Toh for example says that at her restaurant, they now close for a day to catch up on prep work and other things that need to be attended to – given that they now no longer have enough staff to open seven days a week.
“It’s just been interesting, because while the crowd is back and sales are back, now we are trying to solve issues on the back-end – because if you don’t have people to work or cook the food, then there is no point in having the crowd. Like for us, we now take an extra day off just to work on the back end, prep and clean food because we just cannot find enough labour,” says Toh.
Toh says she and her partner Suren Krishnan have also had to streamline their menu and cut out menu items like their pork satay, which is quite labour-intensive.
“We launched it during the Covid19 pandemic, and it was quite popular, but we had to take it off the menu because of the work involved in making it,” she says.
Many other restaurants have also had to cut their operation hours just to cope and not have existing staff work to the point of exhaustion.
This in turn, has created a new trend of sorts, especially as there was once a culture of mamak restaurants being open 24 hours a day. These days, many have had to shutter their doors at midnight at the latest, which means in the future, the sight of Malaysians eating and socialising past midnight at these neighbourhood haunts will no longer be a regular thing.
“I have peers down to 20% to 30% of their original work force, so now they have to close at 10.30pm or 11pm in mamaks. This is just the new norm, I guess,” says Lim.