South Australian restaurants drop a la carte service in favour of fixed-price menus

Set menus and prices are becoming the norm in SA restaurants forced to make tough choices to fix crumbling profits.

Lot 100 restaurant head chef Shannon Fleming with a high-end plates, and Tom Bubner with pizza. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Restaurants are increasingly dropping ‘a la carte’ service in favour of fixed-price menus to survive in a post-COVID world.

Of the restaurants listed in the new delicious. SA: Regional 50, more than a third have replaced the choice of entree, main and dessert with a set menu. It’s an effort to guarantee minimum spend as social distancing rules restrict the number of bookings restaurants can take.

Lot 100 in the Adelaide Hills has made one of the biggest changes, offering two set menus – a seven-course degustation with matched drinks for $149, and a $49 pizza and daily special option in the courtyard.

Chef Shannon Fleming said the switch was essential for the restaurant to be viable and would help minimise waste.

“Before COVID-19, we had a table that could be worth x-amount of dollars on the “Feed Me” menu, but it could also have six people walk in and share pizzas and the spend goes through the floor,” he explained.

Main dining space and bar at Lot 100.

“If you are offering a la carte with a large amount of choices you are running a risk.

“We want to make sure the diner is getting the best possible experience, while understanding that hospitality is a business and we need to make money.”

Fleming said early response to the new degustation menu has been positive. “Everyone has been over the moon with what they have had and particularly talking about how much value for money it is,” he said.

Last year’s top-ranked restaurant in The Advertiser delicious. 100 has also made the move. Gather at Coriole in McLaren Vale now offers only five-courses ($75) or seven-courses ($90) in which the diner has a choice of main and side dishes.

A short drive away at d’Arry’s Verandah, owner/chef Peter Reschke has extended the minimum two-course format from weekends to every day.

“We have to make sure we get a good dollar return for the seats that we have,” he said. “It seems to be working and people respect that this is the case.”

It’s not only the regional restaurants going this way. City hotspot Africola has introduced a $75 set menu which owner/chef Duncan Welgemoed said can be tweaked to suit customer preferences.

“We have fewer heads in the restaurant – that means less money coming in the door,” he said. “So this is a bit of insurance that diners coming in are having the full experience … and not just a tea sandwich and a beer.”

While agreeing the change only happened because of COVID restrictions, Welgemoed says there will be no going back.

“This is how we will stay. The feedback we’ve had has been incredible.”

Discover our Top 50 Regional Restaurants