Thinking of opening up a Greek restaurant in Poland, bad idea or good? Jenkei

Just head to your local friendly restaurant "The Mexican" to sample such delights ;)

(the cocktails in there are fine, but the food..blurrrgh)

Great minds think alike. The very place I was thinking of :)

Poles are stingy in regards to food consumption.Poland also lacks the ingredients necessary to make tasty greek food.(it is not like Ukraine where they don't even have olive oil but it is not like Germany).In my opinion in Poland it is better to open a shop selling heavy greek drinks and wines or even a club like bouzoukia.Poles like always to drink and dance.

What possessed anyone to create that muck?

I remember reading a Polish recipe for something particularly bland, even by the standards of '90s Poland which ended with the sentence "If you want to make it spicy, add a tomato"!

The OP's idea for a Greek shop in Podkarpackie is in teresting but ambitious - better make a decent Greek cafe and have a product range of retail stuff for sale - thereby having 2 income streams.

There is a fair amount of talk in economic circles regarding Greece's financial longer term prolems, and there is expectation that noticable numbers of Greeks will disperse through EU countries. The market for Greek items demanded by ex-pat Greeks is going to expand greatly.

That's an interesting thought, and presumably Greek products will be cheap due to their need to export as much as possible.

My feeling though is that Warsaw or Poznan are more likely bets for a dedicated Greek shop, since Podkarpackie is more a place of emigration than immigration.

Hi All

I am Azeem living in Dubai last ten years and now want to open fast food restaurant in Poznan city poland ... please advice me is this god idea or not ??? my mail add. is azeemnaz1@yahoo

Hi Azeem, no this is not a good idea.
Specially that between Mcdonalds, Subway or Bk and your fast food, most people will opt for those that they already know and rely.

It's a great idea - there's a big market for fast foods in Polish cities. especially good kebabs. One very important thing though is to find exactly the right premises and have plenty of start-up money. There are also Subway franchises available, however these are less popular than kebabs.

10 years ago I would have said yes but now? In my opinion there are far too many kebab places in the bigger cities already. I remember when I lived in Krakow, someone had the great idea to open a kebab shop in a street that already had a number of them. The guy closed after a few weeks.

Unless you are doing something exceptional with the kebabs that nobody else does, I would not bother opening a kebab shop.

Yes there are a lot of crap ones although I'd say the at the better ones with bigger premises, better locations and better menus (in Warsaw anyway) have long queues.


Have a look at King Kebab (a chain) or Amrit (bigger premises, excellent food) next time you're in Warsaw - they are doing exceptionally well.

I will, thanks for the recommendation. Will give you my verdict on it after.

King Kebab in particular (I've never eaten there) is doing a roaring trade - big brightly lit shops, easy menu, carefully chosen locations. Amrit is a little classier with more tables and very good food (but crap service). I suspect they've put some of the smaller ones out of business.

As youngish people start to go to bars more rather than drinking at home, kebab shops on busy streets near bars could be a growth area. You are right though - there are lots of little ones (there used to be 10 identical plastic kebab caring in front of Lodz station none of them with customers) which don't make much money.

Definitely not. The market was way over-saturated ten years ago, and since then, a lot more kebab shops have closed than have opened. A lot of pizza joints have added kebab to their menus, which greatly increases competition and reduces demand for dedicated kebab stands. There are precious few, if any, virgin markets that are not already served by existing players in the market.

Of all the businesses to get into, gastronomy is hellish even in the best of circumstances. Expect the worst to happen, and you will not be disappointed.

I disagree - the market is now consolidating in the larger cities. The little stands are going and the better shops are growing.

I'm sure the OP is not naive about the risks of the food business. Incidentally (this is not a criticism of yourself) you say gastronomy. I always find it irritating when Poles say they work in 'gastronomia' when they actually mean hot dogs or kebabs or bigos!