Dinners- Where Food Quality Doesn’t Matter
Kunming's best foreign-run restaurant is called Salvador's, serving an eclectic mix of Mexican, Italian, sandwiches, coffees, ice cream, and alcohol at reasonable prices. Recently, its American owners hired me to teach their waitresses English; a necessity for a restaurant that is listed in Lonely Planet and draws a lot of customers who can't speak Chinese. In exchange for teaching three hours per week, I eat and drink (everything but alcohol) for free. A good deal for everyone.
This morning Josh, one of its owners, explained the curious economics of the restaurant trade in China. Salvadors, despite its good to excellent food, attracts very few middle to upper class Chinese. One reason, Josh posited, is that its prices are actually not high enough. Because the Chinese tend to eat in groups, and because one person always pays, going to a less-than-expensive restaurant is considered a loss of face for whomever picks up the tab. As such, expensive restaurants serving mediocre to bad food remain very popular for the simple fact that the prices are high. And as Chris pointed out recently, this phenomenon isn't limited to restaurants serving foreign food.
October 22nd, 2007 - 18:22
Um, actually, the point I was making was that this ridiculous, obsequious service one would’ve expected of Western restaurants in the foreign settlements pre-’49 has not disappeared; it’s moved to upscale restaurants. At the restaurant in question, the food was actually quite reasonable, which surprised me, because in such a fancy restaurant, I’d normally just pick at the shitty food and guzzle the beer. What pissed me off about this place was not the food, it was the spineless lump of shit fawning at my feet while completely ignoring my boss.
That said, I fully agree with every point you make in this post. In fact, as I said as a side-point in my post, in my experience, the higher the price, the worse the food. And of course, at the more expensive restaurants, you get large crowds of loaded gits trying to save or gain themselves some face by shouting their “friends” absurdly over-priced garbage.
And I don’t think the economics in question are curious: A higher price equals higher prestige. Let’s face it, your average Honda is just as good as the most expensive Merc. There are differences: The Honda is likely more fuel efficient; the Merc probably has leather seats. The Merc costs more, and is therefore the “prestige” investment. Same deal with restaurants.
October 23rd, 2007 - 14:26
I’m not sure your analogy of cars to restaurants holds water- in my (albeit limited) experience of gourmet dining in the US and Europe, fancy restaurants tend to have excellent food and the relationship between cost and quality is more positive than in China.
October 23rd, 2007 - 16:46
Yeah, my analogy only applies to my experience in China.
October 24th, 2007 - 23:54
I disagree that there is a direct correlation between cost and quality of food in the States. If anything, I think there is an inverse correlation. At expensive places, you are generally paying for atmosphere as opposed to food. At the real shma-shma places, you even get extermely small amounts of food. I will take a taco stand out of a truck before going to a fancy place with tablecloths serving “Mexican” food, even if the prices were the same.