With a decade of experience specialising in light Western dishes, alfafa is committed to creating healthy and innovative dishes with new ingredients, which has successfully made classic Western dishes healthier. alfafa became a three-star EatSmart Restaurant (ESR) in 2019, which proved that its development strategies were successful.

Clear Positioning is the Route to Success

Clearly positioning itself as a restaurant serving healthy Western dishes, alfafa successfully attracted health-conscious customers. Mr Henry Chan, Senior Restaurant Training Manager of alfafa, said, “We value customers’ preferences and feedback the most. A questionnaire survey conducted by us revealed that customers patronised alfafa for our ‘healthy and delicious dishes’.” The research and development team of alfafa is highly sensitive to customers’ preferences and is aware that “superfoods” are appealing to customers. The “alfafa Super Salad” is the restaurant’s signature dish and one of its “3 Less” dishes. It contains a variety of healthy ingredients which are high in dietary fibre and low in calorie, such as avocado, kale, broccoli, romaine lettuce, almond slices, organic chia seeds and organic tricolour quinoa. The lemon chia seed dressing is thoughtfully served on the side.

Although the restaurant has a clear positioning and has gained customers’ recognition, its business was not always smooth. “The supply of many imported ingredients was affected by the pandemic last year. Our team has to maintain close communication with the suppliers and monitor the quality of the ingredients. We adjusted the menu when necessary to ensure stable supply of the popular “EatSmart Dishes” and meet customers’ strong demand.”

Cater to Customers’ Needs by Offering Diversified Options

alfafa has launched healthier versions of classic Western dishes to satisfy the needs of vegetarian customers. “Oven Baked Veggie Lasagna with Gratinated Mashed Potatoes”, one of the “More Fruit and Vegetables” dishes, is prepared with a lot of ingredients such as eggplants, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini as well as mozzarella cheese. The mouthful of vegetables enable customers to have sufficient dietary fibre intake even when they are eating out. This vegetarian lasagna is healthier than the classic dish “Baked Meat Lasagna”, but the appearance and taste of the two lasagnas are almost the same. This has successfully changed customers’ impression on vegetarian dishes and attracted more customers to try the “EatSmart Dishes”.

Henry observed that customers were becoming more and more aware of healthy eating. He added, “When ordering meals, many customers proactively requested that we use ‘less oil’, ‘less salt’ or ‘less sugar’ for the dishes. We therefore envisage that healthy eating will become the trend in the future. I believe offering ‘EatSmart Dishes’ that surprise customers is the key to alfafa’s success.”