Dubai has a deep bench of F&B consultants, and most of them are good at the part they sell. The mismatch owners run into is buying brand and concept work when the problem was food cost, payouts and a month that never closes. These ten questions sort one from the other in a single call — including with us.
| Ask | What a useful answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| 1. What is the deliverable, in a number? | A named figure in dirhams and where it comes from — a cost gap, a recovered payout, a removed price error. Not "a report" or "a roadmap". |
| 2. What does it cost, and when do you stop? | A fixed fee and a defined end, quoted on the first call. Open-ended hourly work rewards the slow version of the project. |
| 3. Who does the work after I sign? | The person in front of you, named. Not "our delivery team". |
| 4. What do you need from me, and how much of my time? | Read-only access to POS, aggregator portals and statements, and a few hours from the manager. If the answer needs weeks of your team's time, you are paying twice. |
| 5. Do you handle the licence and the food-safety approvals? | "No — that is your PRO and a specialist consultant; we sequence them and hold the dates." A yes to everything is a flag. |
| 6. Will I need to change POS or buy software? | "No, we work on what you have." Then ask whether they resell it. |
| 7. How do you calculate food cost? | Both versions — theoretical from registered recipes, actual from stock counts — and an explanation of the gap. One number only means one of them is missing. |
| 8. How do you treat delivery sales? | Net of commission, reconciled against the bank. Anyone using gross platform sales will hand you a flattering food cost. |
| 9. What happens after the engagement? | Who keeps recipes, prices and counts true once they leave, and what it costs to have that done rather than hoping the manager does it. |
| 10. Tell me about last week in a restaurant. | Specifics from the last seven days: a supplier price that moved, a variance on a count, a statement that did not tie. Operators have them. Slide-makers do not. |
A concept, interiors and brand consultancy is the right buy. Dubai has strong ones. Operations work at this stage is premature — there is nothing to measure yet.
You need someone who has walked lease to first service in this city and will hold the sequence and the budget, coordinating the licensing and food-safety specialists rather than replacing them.
This is a numbers problem, and it is usually three or four data failures rather than one big theft. It is worth a fixed-fee audit before any strategy work.
It would be unfair to publish that list and duck it. Backhouse delivers findings as dirham amounts with causes; quotes a fixed fee before starting and names the end date; the person on your call does the work; needs read-only access and a few hours of your manager; does not file licences or food-safety paperwork and says so; never resells a POS and works on the one you have; calculates both food costs and reports the gap; counts delivery net of commission against the bank; and offers Monthly Ops precisely because systems decay when the consultant leaves. As for the last question — we are inside a working Dubai kitchen every week, and that is where these questions came from.
Something that changes a number. A concept deck, a menu engineering matrix and a set of SOPs are inputs, not outcomes. Ask what the deliverable is in dirhams — the gap found, the cost point removed, the payout recovered — and how you will verify it after the engagement ends.
Less important than how you pay. Hourly and open-ended retainers put the consultant's interest against yours, because a slow project earns more. A fixed fee quoted before the work starts, with a defined deliverable and a defined end, aligns them. Ask for the number on the first call; a consultancy that cannot quote until after a discovery phase is selling the discovery phase.
Be careful with anyone who says yes to everything. Trade licences, municipality submissions, kitchen layout approvals and food safety registration are specialist and PRO work in Dubai. A good operations consultant sequences those specialists and holds the deadlines rather than claiming the filings themselves.
No, and it is a warning sign when it is the first recommendation. Most restaurants do not have a POS problem; they have a recipe, price and reconciliation problem that follows them onto any new system. Ask whether the consultant resells the software they are recommending.
Ask them to describe last week: what they saw on a P&L, which supplier price moved, what the stock count showed. Operators answer with specifics from the last seven days. Ask who does the work — the person on the call, or a junior who joins after signature.
Thirty minutes, no charge. Bring last month's POS summary and one aggregator statement and we will answer all ten with your own numbers on the screen.
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