Comments on: Second Chance: Thai Harmony

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Went there tonight for the first time in months. I had been unimpressed with the food the last time I was there. Well, I have to say there was a vast improvement. I got the stir fry dish – something with 2 – that came with a side of peanut sauce. It was very good. My only complaint is that they don’t offer just a chicken with peanut sauce dish or the like. But I’m glad to see they are doing better. And they have regular chicken nuggets/fingers and fries for the kids as opposed to the tempura style chicken they had before, so now my kids will eat there too.

By: CK

CK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Just wanted everyone to know that there is
Happy Hour
Monday – Friday
4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

By: THR Owner

THR Owner — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings, I would like to inform you that liquor license (wine & beer) arrived this week; and the liquor services started on Friday, Oct-31-2008.

The waiter-call-system was installed on Friday as well. This is an exiting wireless equipment. Now, you can press the “Service” button on your table for service calling. The dessert menu was updated as well with color photos. Now, you can see the photo of a “Snow ball” (one of the desert items).

Please stop by THR and enjoy with food and drink.

By: THR Owner

THR Owner — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Moreyoga, thank for enquiry and thought.
My response to “price vs. quanity vs. quality” issue is as following:
(a) Dish price: During my menu creation, I thoroughly analyzed price of Thai food in nationwide (North-East, Central, and West) and other 5 Thai restaurants in Austin area. My food price is very competive (I used the ‘PadThai’ as a reference item). The price bottle-neck is on the increased price of raw materials in the last 3 years (you can notice from gas price and food price in grocery stores).
(b) Dish Quanity: I have not altered the food quanity per dish for beep-up profit or compensating to the price increasing of food sources. The quanity is relatively same as on other Thai restaurants (referring to 3 restaurants that I was trained about Thai foods in New England and 2 restaurants that I worked for in Austin). At the same time, I have not tried to increase the food quanity for attacking our consumers here mainly due to (a) and expensive lease fee in our location.
(c) Dish Quality: As you may aware, each dish is hand-made and customizible. I have focused on kitchen sanity and ording food raw-materials from the reliable wholesale sources (Cisco, AAA, and MyThanh Wholsale). I want to make sure that we are not talking about food taste here since it is a lenghty topic and subject more to personal preference.

I’m myself sympathized with the current expensive cost-of-living here; and I have acknowledged to your concern on dish-price of $16/entrée. Actually, my menu has 36 dinner entrées with this price range:
————————————-
$10.00: 15 dishes (42%, the majority),
$11.00~$12.50: 10 dishes (28%),
$14.00~$15.75: 6 dishes (17%),
$16.00~$17.75: 5 dishes (14%)
————————————-
The mean entrée price is on about $11 (base on statistical bell curve) and I think it is very competitive to the same type (Thai food) and same service level. Using the high-end price for comparing is not fair and good practice scheme. Again, all dishes in THR are manually prepared after consumer ordered and should not compare to other type restaurants which use different food preparing scheme.

Overall, I am not profitable on the first month here and this may mainly due to my poor business management and setup. I will consider on lowing dish price when this restaurant is profitable and I am value your feedback and suggestion.

By: moreyoga

moreyoga — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Do you all have an opinion on the price vs. quantity vs. quality ? I feel $16.00 on some entrees is overpriced. I know atleast 4 families who would do more take outs from Thai Harmony if it was slightly cheaper. Everything together works out to $80 for a 4 person family. That is not affordable by many.
The only reason I am posting my comment is so that CK may need to consider — especially we have 6-7 restaurants even within Steiner.

By: Thai Harmony Owner

Thai Harmony Owner — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks Kristen and Melisa for your encouragement. The patio opens today, Friday Oct-24-2008. Folks can dine outside now. I expect to have the waiter-call-system in place by next week. Then, you can push button for calling for service (one small call-station on each table). I also expect to have liquor license (beer and wine) by next week as well. I have commit ted to make my startup business to be successful here. Again, thanks for your courtesy support.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

It is really nice to see your post, CK. It is so refreshing to see a business owner who actually cares about his customers. You have my support.

Quick question – when will the outside seating be available?

By: Kristen

Kristen — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

CK is awesome. I have a bunch of food allergies and he custom made an entree & dessert I could have (there are only 3 other restaurants in Austin I feel safe eating at). It was delicious, too!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Godo point Drunken Goat… otherwise i’m going to be a bit embarrased by going in with my own bottle of wine… I actually would really love it if it remained BYOB.
Then again, I might just do more take out when they get their licensea since I have come to love my pinapple curry (had it yesterday for lunch too).

By: Drunken Goat

Drunken Goat — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Somebody needs to post up when they get their liquor license.