Interview With Mr Michael Lu, Managing Director of Sono Restaurant ...

As part of my ?restaurant and food establishment? posts, Mr Michael Lu of Sono Restaurant has been kind enough to do a short interview about his business.

What made you want to start Sono Restaurant? I love Japanese food! It has become of the fastest growing cuisines in Australia, especially among the high-end and fine dining restaurants. It is the most popular cuisine of the moment. I was also presented with a good opportunity to purchase my first business at a very good price.I really like the Japanese restaurant industry and that is what appealed to me, and the growing trend for Japanese cuisine.

If you had to pick one thing out of your day, what?s the most exciting / favourite? A favourite part of my day is when I visit and walk around each of the three Sono Group restaurants, greeting all my happy customers and listening to all their positive comments about the good food.

Who is your ideal customer? Or perhaps, what?s the focus for your restaurant in terms of customers. Everyone is an ideal customer. The Sono Restaurant Group strategy is to cover all the market segments. This also helps the business when there is an economic crisis.

• The Sono Portside restaurant focuses on the high-end market.
• The Sono City restaurant caters for the middle market and the Nagomi Restaurant covers the bottom end of the market.

A balance with your customers is the ideal concept to have over the ideal customer. At Sono, we look to embrace everyone.

What do you consider your biggest weakness? I?am a perfectionist! Sometimes I take things too seriously and have extremely high expectations of myself and of my staff. I am very particular about the quality of the food and presentation that comes out of the kitchen. I have noticed, especially in the food industry, that you can be a perfectionist, but sometimes my expectations are set at too high a standard, even for myself and staff.

How are you improving on that weakness? I am trying to put myself in my staff?s shoes and look at my ?standards? from their angle and situation. I have realised that you need to be flexible and a little more understanding in business. I am also giving my staff more encouragement for their achievements and acknowledgement for reaching their standards.

What is your biggest strength? I never give up on anything. When I first bought the business, there were a few big problems at the start, so it was extremely hard work. Japanese restaurants are hard, as you need to hire authentic Japanese chefs, which is already a challenge. I was also young and the chefs were all around my father?s age. At first, no one really wanted to listen to me because of my youth and inexperience, but I kept improving and never gave up. The second restaurant we opened, Sono Portside, was even more complicated to set up, but I kept trying new things and never gave up. In some cases, people will give up when it gets to difficult but I found the more you persist, the better the results.

What?s the best part of running Sono Restaurant? Seeing happy customers enjoy the Sono experience and also satisfied employees. I am very happy if my employees are happy! Restaurants are labour intensive but if everyone is happy with the job then that?s extremely important to me. Basically customer and employee satisfaction and happiness are both equally as important.

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If you could change one thing about your businesses day-to-day routine, what would it be? We have a great routine set up and I wouldn?t change anything.

Any new specials you can tell your customers about? The Sono City store now has monthly specials, so customers will have a new special to try every month. The Sono Portside store has a new dessert menu, which has a combination of Japanese and Western inspired desserts. And of course the traditional Green Tea flavoured desserts.

If you had a chance to say one thing to a brand new customer, before they walk in the door, what would it be? Don?t be afraid of Japanese food. Try new things, you will be surprised!!? And most important, there is also cooked food in Japanese cuisine.

You can read about Sono Restaurant and contacts here?Sono Japanese Restaurant Portside Brisbane 2012

Source: http://www.marketingasmallbusiness.com.au/local-business-interviews/interview-with-mr-michael-lu-managing-director-of-sono-restaurant/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=interview-with-mr-michael-lu-managing-director-of-sono-restaurant

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