Hello.
i am thinking of moving to Kunming to open a traditional Greek fast food take away. Greek Food has been popular all over the world, wherever it went. My family went to the US and did very well for themselves initially so i have lots of experience in this area. I have read the articles about Chinese int'l food cuisine and understand about the fusion of food. I am just curious as to how you all view this kind of service there.

Thank you for your time!

I think you would have a number of expats interested in having a Greek restaurant here in Kunming (myself included), but not sure what the response would be from locals. It seems that a majority (not all, but most) of the local people are pretty set in their taste of local cuisine. That said, please open a Greek restaurant for those of us who miss having that as an option here :)

how's the ex pat community there? is it large? could it support such an endeavor? Is it worth the risk? :S I am looking through this forum and i am trying to get a bead on things with western eyes. and i will at least have one local contact there that speaks English and with whom we have some history.

i hope i am not asking silly questions on this server... :S I really am pondering the idea of moving to china. Any reading material would help.

You cannot open a successful restaurant if you are mainly relying on expats to support it because it will fail. I have seen several "foreign" restaurants fail for just this reason... and these restaurants were good but if Chinese people are not going there then it will fail. You need to appeal to the masses. I have opened several restaurants over the years in China and expats don't eat out all the time. If they do, they don't always go to the same place.

That being said I'm sure most expats would love a new type of food here.

Do you plan to do this legally with all required permits or not?

@goldie Sals could probably run on foreign customers alone, as could Brooklyn & Fubar. But they wouldn't be making the good profits I assume they are making with the combined local and foreign customers.

@logos I think the idea of it being a takeaway is smart. Your costs will be lower and you won't have to pay people to be hopeless and rude waiters/waitresses. Finding a good location will be absolutely crucial to the success of your business. Wherever you are there will be Chinese people, though I suspect the vast majority wouldn't dream of ever trying Greek food, so you need to be in a location that foreigners can find and reach easily enough from their homes. Foreigners are spread all over the city, but unevenly. There are pockets where there are a lot of them and pockets where there are very very few. I suggest you come here and explore the city, making a note of how many non asians you see in each neighbourhood. You could start with the area to the west of Green lake, that area is probably the most 'cosmopolitan'.

Well there is always a few foreign places that do well and a bar is different than a restaurant. I'm just saying the restaurant business is hard, many fail and the start up costs are high. Not trying to be negative, but it is easy to lose or just break even.

@goldie Absolutely, it's a very tough business.

Kunming actually has too many expat foreign operated restaurants given the number of Western expats that reside here. As a consumer that's great for me, but must be tough as an owner. As others have said, your success depends on if local Kunming Chinese like your fare. I would choose Beijing over Kunming to open a Greek takeout. But if you have lots of capital and patience, try Kunming. Weather and air is nice here.

Getting Chinese customers will indeed be crucial, and it probably won't all happen at once. However, I don't see why it couldn't work - hope you decide to try it.