@disco: Sounds pretty weird to me - no pilau (pilaf)? no chalau?

No basic authentic food. That's probably why the place was empty. Bosphorus in Guangzhou serve authentic food and are always full.

What do you mean by Chinese menu? Like gong bao kebab, mala yogurt, sticky pilaf and jian bing naan?

fail

haha. Ok.

that wasn't directed at you yankee btw, it was directed at the amusing failure of a 'Persian restaurant' to serve what we would think of as Persian food. In that same place, there used to be (perhaps still is) a Thai restaurant, I had a look at the menu, but couldn't see any of what I would think of as Thai food. Something about that area perhaps...

I have seen a number of food outlets kill themselves off by trying to 'localize' their menus. I can understand the temptation to try and appeal more to local tastes, if business is poor. However, this is very hard to do.
If the strategy is to open a Venusian restaurant, then sticking with the strategy is usually the best bet, even though it may be a struggle in the beginning. Move too far away from Venusian food and you will lose those who come to eat Venusian food.
Tweaking the dishes can work, e.g. putting sugar in the dough, or offering fruit pizza. But offering Chinese fusion is hard to do, as many local customers have very fixed views about Chinese dishes. Try asking a local what they think of food from other provinces, and most will tell you that their local food is the best and most others suck.
I have also seen businesses downgraded by well meaning local chefs, who are trying to save money by not sticking to original, or branded, ingredients.

Spot on Tiger. If you have a vision, you have to be brave enough to stick to it. But the key thing is not to embark on a business without thinking carefully about things like location, advertising, and every detail of how customers should be served (and just as importantly, training the staff to carry out that service plan exactly). Make a good enough product, and the people who like that product will buy it. Repeat business is the name of the restaurant game.

I went to Pho Q, the little British(?) owned Vietnamese style restaurant a while back. I thought the food wasn't bad, but I am sure that the business will fail because of its location down a little alley. Foreign customers will be pretty essential to its survival, for what local or Chinese visitor wants to pay 25元 for what they see as a bowl of mixian? It struck me as the sort of restaurant which would do fine in the right location: Hong Shan Dong Lu, or Wen Lin Jie, but not hidden down an alley where no one can see it. Can anybody confirm that Pho Q is still going? I would like to go again, but don't want to make the trip to find it has shut down.

@Haali

Where is/was Pho Q? i'd like to try it.

here's the listing mPRin:
www.gokunming.com/en/listings/item/33537/phoq

PhoQ looks very closed. I know it hasnt been open last few weeks. Too bad, I never got to try it.