I had an absolutely superb meal last weekend at Lochiel House in Kurrajong Heights which I wanted to tell you about. A SMH Good Food Guide find, Lochiel House has one “chef’s hat” and came personally recommended by a twitter “friend” and the guide's co-editor Simon Thomsen, so I was expecting something pretty special but even so it exceeded all my expectations... From the moment we were greeted and seated by the charming waitress to the last mouthful of upside down peach cake with vanilla bean ice cream, everything was amazing.
Now any food blogger worth his or her (Murray River pink) salt would have been scribbling notes and snapping not so surreptitious photos of the food throughout the meal but sadly, I was woefully unprepared. No pen and no paper. No mini Dictaphone secreted up my sleeve. No chance of, ahem, “borrowing” one of the menus. Short of writing the names of the ingredients on the back of my hand with Raspberry Kisses lip liner I was just going to rely on my memory. Not to worry, I thought, I’ll log on to the website if I need to check any details.
And therein lies the rub: Lochiel House doesn’t have a website. The web address on the business card I picked up diverts to the Which Restaurant website, except that their page appears to have been removed.
Yes, Lochiel House is a country restaurant, and no, you can’t necessarily expect the same level of busy savvy as a city venue but I still would have expected a restaurant as sophisticated as this one to have a dedicated, not to mention operational, website.
I’m sure I’m not alone in turning to the internet first whenever I want a restaurant’s address or phone number (does anyone even bring the Yellow Pages inside anymore?), or information such as opening hours, price range and BYO-policy. I regularly drool over, sorry, I meant peruse, menus online and forward the links to friends I’m dining with. Listing your restaurant on a website like Which Restaurant certainly get the basics out there but a proper website can also help to establish a restaurant’s “personality” and to create a relationship with diners. The website for Surry Hills taqueria Mad Mex, which I stumbled across the other day, is a great example of one that does just that.
In the case of Lochiel House, if they had had a website I probably would have used this 400+ words to write about their miso and sake marinated roasted toothfish rather than blathering on about the internet...
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I totally agree with you that all good restaurants need to get a working website up that as a minimum lists their contact number, opening hours and menu. Oh, and they should remember to UPDATE it. There's no point if their menu is different from the one you ordered from in the restaurant!
ReplyDeleteI agree - but I wonder whether so many of us are "embedded" in the web and our expectations are different.
ReplyDeleteThat said, trying to find out tonight when Vulcans in Blackheath will be closed over the holidays took me to a slew of bad reviews (despite high scores) on eatability. I'm not swayed, I'm still going, but that's because I'm very determined. A site of their own that harvested the traffic and bypassed the bitching seems sensible
I totally agree - I sometimes pore over the menu online before going somewhere to get an idea of what to order (although I'm easily swayed by the specials).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been to Lochiel House and had a sublime experience.
Rilsta, I completely agree with you about restaurants that don't update their websites - frustrating!
ReplyDeleteGood point Zoe - bypassing the review sites makes very good business sense. Restaurants need to "own" their online presence. I find the high score, bad review dichotomy interesting. I'm all for community reviewing but I wonder if the format of the review sites encourages people to be overly nit-picky?
Yas, the only thing wrong with Lochiel House is that it's too far away...
Hi Ylla, I'm a first time commenetr, long time admirer to your blog. As a web developer I am in total agreement Ylla. In an online world a business must see every opportunity to help make their business grow and assist their client base.
ReplyDeleteSeeing a menu online will no doubt help people with vegetarian diets or food allergies, or to be able to make a booking online.
It's all about enriching the customers experiencing!
Hi Ylla,
ReplyDeleteI've just read your above post and as a matter of fact, I happen to work at Lochiel House in Kurrajong Heights and am happy to tell you that we launched our website only days after your visit, at the start of December, 2009.
Please go to www.lochielhouse.com.au for any info you might need.
(And I agree, as a lover of dining out, I do like to be able to go to a restaurant's website before and/or after the experience if I thought it was a good one).
Hope this helps you out!
Coincidentally I stumbled across the new Lochiel House website this week - it looks great. Good for you guys Jen.
ReplyDelete