----American Meals----
The Jimmy's group, established in 1928, now has its two restaurants named Jimmy's Kitchen in Tsimshatsui and in Central.
It is named after its owner and is a wholesome, home-style restaurant.
Said the manager of the restaurant, Mr. David Luxton: "We now have over 140 items on the menu which sticks to our basic concept-serving the food in a relaxing environment. We want to make our guests feel welcome whenever they come here.
"One of the our main themes is to maintain consistency.
"Though we are improving our standard all the time, we never change the concept of home-style cooking."
Similar to Jimmy's Kitchen, T.G.I. F, "Thank Goodness It's Friday's" in full, emphasizes the dining mood. It was established in 1965 in America and the Hong Kong branch was opened in Tsimshatsui last year.
Said Ms. Carina Cheng, marketing officer of T.G.I. F: "It's so named to build up a relaxing atmosphere.
"In America, Saturday is a holiday. We hope that when people come here on Friday, it gives them a feeling of relaxation.
"Besides the red and white striped tablecloths, the Restaurant is characterized by Tiffany lamps and different antiques.
"Each Friday's has a rowing boat high above the bar bench too.
"They all can create a casual dinning experience for our customers."
Furthermore, training is necessary to maintain the high quality services.
"We provide training courses for our staff so as to improve their skills on how to inform the customers about our dishes and how to serve drinks," said Mr. Luxton.
"Our staff have to pass two interviews.
"Chatting and singing nicely with the customers is Friday's culture. Our staff's English proficiencies and their ability to co-operate with others are tested during the interviews," Ms. Cheng said.
"The prices of the dishes in fact are proportionate to our services.
"A main course at Jimmy's costs from $125 to $161, and desserts cost from $44 to $64.
"I think the prices are not exorbitant," said Mr. Luxton. "In fact, the prices haven't been revised for years. We want to keep the consistency."
Before T.G.I. F's was opened, its target customers had been middle-class and professionals. Thus the prices had been set to adapt to this group.
"But many youngsters also come here, maybe it's because our menu is exactly the same as America's," Ms. Cheng said.
"We regularly monitor the sales figure of each item on the menu and make changes based on the figures.
"We have started conducting a questionnaire-based survey since January to collect opinions on our restaurant," she added.
Faced with the economic depression, these restaurants may need to refine their marketing strategies.
"Our restaurant was opened in September when Hong Kong people were having a hard time.
"Maybe our restaurant was a new concept to them at that time, the profit was quite satisfactory.
"However, in December, our profit declined.
"Therefore we are now promoting our discount cards and hope this can attract more people to come," Ms Cheng said.
The economic depression has also affected the profit of Jimmy's Kitchen.
"Our profit dropped from 15 to 10 percent.
"However, nothing major will be done as we always emphasize consistency.
"We have never changed in the past 70 years. Should we change just because of these two bad years?" Mr. Luxton said.
----Bargain----
Appetizers Mongkok is a food paradise. It has a great variety of foods: cheesecakes, Portuguese egg tarts, Japanese sushi, pancakes and fruit tarts are some hot examples.
The Lord Stow's Bakery started the frenzy of Portuguese egg tarts in Hong Kong.
Andy, one of the staff of the Lord Stow's Bakery, said, "We're the first shop selling Portuguese egg tarts here. Attracted by our success, many other shops tried to copy us.
"But most of them failed because they emphasized quantity rather than quality," said Andy.
"We have loyal fans who buy dozens of tarts upon each visit.
"We want to provide different kinds of delicious foods, so we also sell cheesecakes, banana cakes and croissants.
Miss Kwok, an Indian tourist, visited Mongkok hunting for food.
"I read from newspaper that there's some tasty cheesecakes sold in Mongkok. So I came here for it and also for the Portuguese egg tarts.
"The tarts are really delicious and I like them very much. I've found lots of tasty and special foods here. It's amazing. I surely will introduce this lovely place to my friends in India," said Miss Kwok.
When she arrived at the Lord Stow's Bakery, the cheesecake was not ready for sale yet.
"I'm going to wait till it's done. I came here for it," said Miss Kwok.
"Mongkok is the most unforgettable place in my trip. It's just like a large buffet.
"I want to enlarge the size of my stomach for all the foods! I don't want to miss any of them. They are marvellous," she added.
The Tanaka San Japanese Low Calories Cheesecake And Green Tea Ice Cream Shop introduced Japanese cheesecake to Hong Kong a few months ago. It became popular soon afterwards and it is said to have replaced the status of Portuguese egg tarts in the snack market.
"I've wanted to try it for a long time. However, whenever I come, there're lots of people queuing up outside," said Carey Au Ka Yi, a Form four student who was waiting for the cheesecake.
It's so famous now since the newspapers and magazines frequently introduce it and describe how tasty it is," said Pizza Wong Po Man, Carey's friend.
"We've queued for 45 minutes. It's worth it if the cheesecake tastes good," said Emma Lau Yuk Fong, their companion.
"We like to try new foods. But once it's not new, we'll lose interest in it.
"So it's important to make innovative food," they said.
Despite of the popularity of such new foods, some shops are still selling traditional ones such as waffles and meatballs.
Taiwanese Style is one of them.
"To beat our competitors, we sell not only ordinary fish balls, but also lobster balls and octopus balls," said Miss Wong Lai Chi, the owner of Taiwanese Style.
"We try hard to keep the food at a high quality but low prices.
"Diversification of products is important, too," Miss Wong added.
Said Andy: "To keep our business, it is necessary for us to be innovative.
"Quality is another key to success. We use the best ingredients to make the best products to maintain our reputation."
Another shop owner, Mr. Wong Chi Shing, runs a stall selling Malaysian pancakes.
"Running a business is not as easy as one imagines. The business now is still far from my goal.
"Competition is keen as there're thousands of choices.
"Thus I sell Malaysian pancakes which sounds more special compared to other snacks." Mr. Wong said.
