Food festival to upgrade service
By Lenah Susianty
JAKARTA (JP): If you have never heard a waiter or waitress wish you Selamat makan (enjoy your meal) at a restaurant, try one of Jakarta's 39 restaurants participating in the Jakarta Food Festival.
Launched with the motto "salute to restaurant service", the first food festival aims to improve services in restaurants, as Jakarta carves out a bigger segment of the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions market.
"This market and our growing economy have attracted more business people to carry out their business in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta," Fauzi Bowo, head of the City Tourism Office told The Jakarta Post.
In its Nov. 14 edition, Fortune magazine rates Jakarta as one of the world's best cities for doing business. "Of course, eating will always be one of the most important things during their stays. However, many business people are reluctant to eat outside their hotels because they do not know where to go and they are not sure about the standard of hygiene," Fauzi said.
Lack of information about restaurants in Jakarta, which offer good healthy food, in pleasant surroundings with the proper service, has made tourists and business people hesitant in exploring restaurants in the capital, he said.
"Hong Kong and Singapore are good examples. They are not only famous for doing business but also for their good restaurants. It encourages people to do more business in these two cities or to hold their meetings there," said Roy Tan Hardy, Marketing and Sales Director of the American Express Travel Related Services.
Therefore, in a bid to become a more competitive city for doing business, the City Tourism Office, the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board and American Express Travel Related Services are holding the food festival, which winds up tomorrow.
"This is not the kind of food festival which features food from a particular region. Despite its name, the Jakarta Food Festival actually presents restaurants which are located in the city but offer international foods such as Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean as well as Indonesian cuisine," Fauzi said.
The 39 restaurants
Some of the restaurants involved in the festival, which began in late September, include the Arirang, Cafe Marco, Country Kitchen, Forum Shark's Fin, Happy Valley Seafood, Il Punto, Koi Gallery, Le Bistro, Le Matsuzaka, Oasis, Palki Pub and Indian Restaurant, Red Lobster and Zigolini.
During the festival the 39 restaurants offer vouchers which are valid for use on the next visit to the same restaurant. Patrons of a participating restaurant are asked to fill in a voting form with their opinions about the restaurant. The voting forms are collected and entered into a database system which will sort and select the best restaurant in town. The voting forms will also be used in a lucky draw, with three prizes.
"We hope, by organizing this festival, restaurants will be aware of the need to give the best of service to their patrons. We also hope to set a standard for good restaurants. By surveying patrons we have found that many business people do not put prices at the top of the list when they go to a restaurant. But for the money they do pay, they want good service and of course good food," Roy told the Post.
He said people tend to forget where they can get the cheapest food, but not where the best food can be found.
Commenting on the small number of restaurants participating in the festival, Roy said that when Hong Kong organized such a festival for the first time, eight years ago, there were only eight restaurants taking part. Last year 286 restaurants participated.
Organizers expect more restaurants will take part in the event next year. The festival is scheduled to be an annual event of Jakarta. Currently the only restaurant to take part featuring Indonesian food is The Oasis.
"The first festival is very important. If a participating restaurant provides bad service, bad food and a gloomy atmosphere, consumers will think that other participants are of the same quality. Therefore, we were very strict in choosing which restaurants joined the festival," Roy said, hinting that most of the Indonesian restaurants have not met the criteria yet. That criteria includes the food, service and atmosphere.
Fauzi acknowledged that Indonesian restaurants are usually identified with bad hygiene and that if the festival is successful, there will be more Indonesian restaurants wanting to participate, and for that purpose they have to upgrade their food, service and atmosphere.
"There will be a certain standard of Indonesian restaurants and more restaurants will try to meet that standard," Fauzi said. With time, not only top quality Indonesian restaurants will benefit from and apply the standard, but the more common ones as well, he said.
There will be more Indonesian restaurants applying for participation in the coming festivals because the festival not only benefits them in term of quality but also in term of income, Roy said optimistically.
During the first five weeks of the festival (September to October), sales increased by 166 percent over the same period last year with total spending valued at US$1.2 million.
"This is only the income calculated by American Express from purchases using American Express cards. Therefore, the total amount is actually much bigger," Roy said.
American Express and the City Tourism Office are also planning to publish a guide book on Jakarta's restaurants. And, of course, only the best will be mentioned. (als)