Polish Restaurant - Polski Kuchnia in the Greater Manchester area

Hello,

I am in the process of opening a Polish restaurant in the Greater Manchester area, and wondered if some Polish people on this forum, could give me some advice please?

Basically, I am in the process of recruiting an award winning Polish chef, so the food will be traditional and tasty. I just have a few questions:

1. Would you visit a Polish restaurant if there was one in the area that you lived (as apparently from previous research it seems most Polish people cook at home in Poland)?

2. How often would you visit such a restaurant if you enjoyed the food?

3. Would you purchase food if a take-away option was delivered to your work place?

4. Are there any traditions that the Polish follow when sitting down to eat?


5. What do you miss from Poland that you would like to see in a restaurant? ie. polish music, magazines, appetizers before food is delivered....

Any other information would be greatfully received.

Many thanks in advance
Fusar

It's common for the Poles to stand before a meal and sing the national anthem. They then thank God for the meal by slaughtering a hen and throwing their beer glasses in the fire.

It's also considered good manners to burp loudly at the end of a meal.

Don't open it in Manchester - we need you here in London :P

I go to the polish restaurant in Sheffield :)

but every now and again as it is about 45mins on train away from me on a good day.

Is that the oen on Abbeydale Road?

I used to live in Sheffield, and keep meaning to go back there as there are lots of friends I need to catch up wth. A good restaurant tip is always appreciated :)

Many thanks for your messages, I really, really appreciate your help! Please do keep posting :-)

Gosh, Telefonitika, I didn't realise that people may travel up to 45 minutes to get to a restaurant!

I will let you all know when we open! :-)

piwko

Wodka. And a free taxi ride home.

I wish you every success with this venture, I used to go to Cafe Lech in Altrincham quite a bit until it closed down, what a loss that was. I don't know why it closed as it always seemed quite busy.

When are you hoping to open and whereabouts in Greater Manchester are you?

I went to the Polonia in Sheffield...awful!
Cheap stodgy low grade food and two of the party ended up with upset stomachs and severe sickness.
Shame really as it gave a bad impression to Polish food and I felt embarrased taking friends there.

I wonder what happened to Cafe Lech in Altrincham. Does anyone know when it closed down? Were they expensive?

Ar there any other restaurants in the North West that are open at the moment, apart from the one in Sheffield? Good luck with your new venture.

I am not sure if a Polish restaurant would work in the North West... have you researched the market well? Is there a big polish population and would they buy from a restaurant or just buy from a Polish shop and cook at home? If the majority are sending money home, would they want to spend in a restaurant?

After reading the posts above about Cafe Lech, I would be very careful before setting anything up.

You can't know the North West very well then ? It's an absolutely brilliant idea and the Cafe Lech was one place quite a few of us were going to go too when we eventually heard about it by word of mouth (didn't see any advertising for it ever) but when we tried to book it had just suddenly closed down. There is definitely a pent up demand for a good Polish restaurant. I know many 2nd and 3rd generation Polish people who would love to go to one on a regular basis.

:)

I had to travel about 30 miles to get to Cafe Lech and was happy to do so, it was a great place for meeting up with my Polish friends in and around Manchester. It's a complete mystery as to why is closed down as it had been going for a good few years and the food was well priced and of an excellent standard.

Many thanks for all of your very helpful comments.

It looks like the Cafe Lech was a very well-respected restaurant. May I ask how much a main meal would cost on average and how extensive their menu was?

Just to give me an idea, as it is quite difficult to find comparisons at the moment, as their are no other restaurants within the area.

Many thanks again

how many poles in your area? do some market (your market) research. i'm sure the data is out there.

If that's going to be the name... It won't be correct...

Me and my not Polish boyfriend used to go out to Polish restaurant almost every Saturday in London.
He loves schabowe, I love gypsy pankake. Remeber the portion shoud be big thats make it very Polish.

He's a good guy :) LoL
How's Swedish food, by the way ?

;)

Yes, he lieks Poland...
Swedish food you can find at Ikea it is meat ballas, but the best is princess torta hm mniam.



If I was thinking about design for the restaurant I would do it funky way or I would put some poster on the wall with beautiful places from Poland. In Ealing the Polish restaurant is combiened with gallery. That I think is cool idea. I was dreaming about having restaurant like that where I could have my own gallery.

I like this one

I am an accountant, with special interest in restaurants, I used to go to Cafe Lech and take food from there home as well. It closed down because of rental and establishment expenses. Beware of high costs in that regard.
I would advice you to locate not on a prime high street, as there will not be much parking and fixed costs will be high. Locate in places where a big supermarket exists, so that the parking can be used.
I am Indian and my wife is Polish, we are both accountants with lots of experience in Restaurants.
i am surprised how many people think good food= lots of customers= lots of profit. completely wrong.
I have seen lots of good food= lots of customers= lots of losses.
Get good advice on contracts, loans, fixed costs etc. or sink.

best of luck and Cheers

Wonder where in Manchester, there are a considerable amount of Polish living in North Manchester.

Manchester City Centre would be an ideal place.
Rents & rates may be an issue...but if you combined other EU communities, it would be ideal.

Bit too expensive i would have thought in the City Centre for a small restaurant but Chorlton or Stretford would be pretty good area's I think ?

definetly
i wil love to go there and i will go there soon
i love polish girlfriend and its an good way for dating and having good relationship

just remember that three in four restaurants close in the uk within the first year. Opening any kind of restaurant is a huge gamble. Including populer ones likes italian, indian etc.

People may visit a polish restaurant but a polish restaurant will not retain a customer base. The british will likely visit it once and not again, this will be down to a preferance of indian, italian, chinese, spanish tapas restaurants etc.

many british people will take out indian or chinese, I dont think ill ever hear a brit saying fancy a polish.

it would be the same if someone opened a british restaurant abroad.

And what research did you base that on ? Are you an authority on restaurants ?


A Polish restaurant has an extremely good chance of doing well in the North West, they just have to ensure they do the right marketing, best location, excellent food and service etc.....

I am actually very interested in cooking, I read a lot about it and I have distant family members who own restaurants in bristol and london. It is actually a very well known fact just ask a specialist financial adviser.

any business venture into hospitality specifically restuarants is a hig risk venture. You obviosuly are not familiar with the concept of financial risk management but if you want me to educate me just private message me

if polish takeaway food surpasses indian and chinese takeaway then ill eat my hat

That's probably true. But then again, it's true of any new business and lots of new businesses fail in Year 1 or 2 of starting up.

You have no experience of Polish restaurants so you are incorrect to make the assumptions you have, it's just your view. I know it will do well if they position it in the 'best' place possible :) And that's my view........

You also missed the point in your own message....the fact that there are many Chinese, Indian and Italian restaurants around and many new ones fail to make a go of it. This may well be due to market saturation of the same old tired restaurants setting up....the British palate is quite discerning and is probably looking for different types of cuisine (especially with more and more of us travelling further and further afield these days) How many Polish restaurants do you think there are in the North West ? There is definitely scope to make success of such a business.

its true of any new business yes, but there is a significant discrepancy between the failure of new restaurants and other lower risk new business.



thank god you do not work as an an investment analyst, because you 'know' it will do well, then obviously it must.

What sort of 'investment analyst' are you referring to ?

You mean one who works in a Bank ? An independent Financial Adviser or what ?

small business analyst

Thats the one called Polonium :)



Yeah .. we dont have a polish restaurant in Doncaster yet



Must have been just you then as i eat there without any complaints ....

Oh I see <s>


I have some experience too......lets leave it at that. Trust me I do happen to know a bit about it <g>

hello

I am not polish but would love to visit a polish restuarant in manchester.

Noimmigration is quite correct in terms of the risks associated with opeing any restaurant/take away business. The overheads are huge in relation to the return and its just about one of the most competitive markets out there, add that to staffing issues and the risks are just not worth it in my opinion.

Polish food works well in Poland as the local produce is second to none and super cheap, where will any UK based Polish restaurant be able to source the fresh produce required to make the meals come from without pushing the GP deeper into the red.

Best of luck though.

Weve alwasy got Gordon Ramsay to save the day, go'on Gordon.

Just to be frank wih you Fusar, polish people don't tend to eat in resteurants, especially the polish migrating to work in the UK. A polish resteurant targeting the British is a different story, that's what i'm thinking of setting up in Cardiff. As I'm polish myself i can tell u don't cout on polish workers visiting resteurants. We're more keen on shopping for tha polish basics in polish shops where prices are still reasonably low.

Best regards and good luck

Kristof

I live in Altrincham and ate at Cafe Lech once with friends. It was a good experience, but I have to say that (as a Brit) I did not find the food that exciting, I don't know if this is just Cafe Lech. But I have visited Poland and I think that what they served was fairly similar to what I got in Poland. Perhaps this needs to be considered if you want to keep non-Poles visiting your restaurant.

I am sorry to see that Cafe Lech has shut, I can easily believe that rent/rates will have been a problem in Altrincham. However - I think the name was a bad choice too - I have nothing against Lech Walensa, but a "Lech" in English is a name given to certain people who are sexually perverse - Lecherous. So it was not a good name to attract locals!

We are always willing to try new restaurants, but there are a lot in Altrincham, so you need to work hard to keep people coming after the initial newness has worn off.

Good Luck

Nick

I'm from Manchester and went to Cafe Lech a couple of times - I have also been to the Polish Church in Rusholme for food and the Polish Circle Social Club in Cheetham Hill - one thing is that i'm not Polish! (My BF is though!)
One thing that Gtr Manchester is lacking is a good inexpensive Polish restaurant - Cafe Lech was too expensive - it was about £10 each for Bigos and Pierogi!! The final bill for me and my BF was £40 and that was for 2 starters, 2 mains, a polish beer and a diet coke! We weren't impressed... if you're going to open a place i would advise that you make it more affordable so people would go there more often. (we only went to cafe lech twice because we couldn't afford to go more often - otherwise we would have been there at least once a week - i think this was its downfall to be honest, along with lackof advertising.)