Mongo'S: All you can eat

 
Spiridon Soukas, co-founder and co-owner of Mongo’S is Greek by birth and has grown up in Germany. Together with his business partner, Christian Blech, he started the first Mongo’S in Essen, Germany, in 1998:

• a modern Asian restaurant concept with Mongolian BBQ
• a place which offers a real ‘experience’, where you can mix your own individual and creative selection of raw ingredients, toppings and eight home-made marinades
• a culinary escape from everyday life
• system catering for individualists.

 
At Mongo’S, customers select their ingredients from a great variety of fresh food at a ‘market buffet’- and a chef prepares the food on a hot stone. But Mongo’S is not at all an à la carte restaurant; it is more of an all-you-can-eat establishment. ‘Mongolian’ describes the concept – and the food, too, is Asian-inspired. “We want our customers to use their own creativity in selecting combinations from something like 50 fresh, raw ingredients. And we want them to use the opportunity to make contact with our other guests.”
 

 
The design of the restaurants is highly attractive and an important part of the formula. Hence the founding duo is using the tenth birthday as an opportunity to invest €1 m in a facelift. Soukas describes the new design as: “modern but not minimalistic, with an exotic touch to reflect a modern-day lifestyle.” Main materials: wood and stone. “We want everybody to feel comfortable.”
 

 
“We expect 470,000 customers by the end of 2008,” Soukas predicts. They are anticipated to generate a turnover of between €600,000 and €2.5 m depending on the size of the store. The sizes of the ten restaurants in ten major cities vary between 330 and 635 sq m with seating for 100-190 people indoors. F&B – 65:35. Average bill for dinner: €26. Important to know: 80-90% of the customers chose the All-you-can-eat-option ‘Total Mongo’S’ prized at €20.90 after 6 pm. Investment per unit: €500,000-700,000.
 

 
“In terms of food, our top seller is beef and, as far as beverages go, the top seller is draft beer,” says Soukas. “An important feature is the fact that our concept is extremely attractive to female customers (65%) – because they love our fresh products and they are very health conscious.”
 

 
The most important lessons Blech and Soukas have learned in the ten years of Mongo’S development are:
 

• listen to your stomach and to your customers
• refresh your brand before people get too used to it
• good performance is cheaper than advertising
   
  

Their targets for 2015? Spiridon Soukas suggests that Mongo’S will try to maintain their trendy image (slow-cooked food, emphasis on organic foods, exotic experience) whilst still keeping their feet on the ground. “We want to be the market leader in Asian style restaurants.”
 

 
www.mongos.de
 

 
Please click here for the full article

 

 
| 12 January 2009 |