Burger Fuel, McDonalds, Domino's - will you review them?

Fast Food versus Fresh Food. Unhealthy versus Healthy. Global versus Local. 


When dining out in Hawke's Bay it's great to have choice and options because sometimes we feel like eating Thai food, sometimes pizza and other times something that tests our tastebuds further than our own culinary skills will allow (explaining why chicken isn't always first menu choice). A buddy of mine from the US, put it to me succinctly saying "You don't travel the world to drink at Starbucks". However, there are some economic imperatives that restaurant owners rely on to provide the diversity of choice. 

Crab Farm Winery Friday parties

One of these is the presence of a volume of customers. Without a group of hungry people choosing to dine out regularly, choice will over time reduce. The second economic factor is quality, where diners expect and will choose places to dine that that consistently deliver a quality experience. 


Experience varies by person but there are some baseline fundamentals that we all look for. Friendly, good atmosphere, good food and reasonably priced are all commonly assessed metrics. You could also easily enough add in to the mixing bowl metrics such as the produce is grown locally, the meal is healthy or even that the business is new and deserves support to get them off the ground. Personal experience expectations differ. 


The third economic factor is dining affordability. During the difficult times, we literally tighten our belt, spending less on discretionary items such as dining out. When we do dine out, it is for a special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary, which paradoxically places even more expectation on the experience we expect on dinner out. Diners can ask Tweet2eat on Twitter for a personal recommendation and we will gladly provide it.

So what can foodies do to help preserve restaurant choice and dining diversity in Hawke's Bay? Dine at restaurants that operate solely within Hawke's Bay first. There are plenty of them, Tweet2eat chooses to support Hawke's Bay restaurants, cafe's and wineries first, and with the support of restaurant members we hope to continue to be able to do this. 


Although McDonalds, Burger King, Domino's, Starbucks and so on have a place in the dining ecosystem, we believe their marketing budgets are big enough to sustain them without our help.

Secondly, Hawke's Bay foodies can support the new guys on the scene. Adam & Eva's is a relatively new cafe in Havelock North. They also have a larder shop to pickup supplies to eat at home. Sol Cafe is the new Ahuriri cafe in town with a bright beach vibe, and the beach walkway just over the road, it's getting popular. Flight Coffee and Box Espresso are the newest coffee boys in town providing superior coffee for Onekawa workers and Clive transit's, but equally are becoming destination coffee houses in their own right. 


Then there is Raffles Cafe owner Sapphire who has taken Napier's iconic cafe and breathed fresh life (as well as a badly needed coat of paint) into this little gem. There are more and we aim to provide coverage of what Tweet2eat restaurant members are up to over the summer period when we all tend to dine out the most with friends and families holidaying in Hawke's Bay.

The last thing you can do, if you are super passionate about your local fav restaurant, is to become a 'Champion' of that restaurant. This means you write a review of that restaurant in the tweet2eat style and send it to us to publish as a Champion Review. These review help keep their brand top of mind with foodie locals and keeps them top of Google with visiting tourists.


If you are a restaurant and are looking for a more effective and commercially sustainable alternative to traditional advertising, drop tweet2eat a line, and we'll come have a chat...over a meal :)