Mixed cuisine stirs traffic in former Korean resto

Previously a restaurant that serves purely Korean cuisine, Grand Blue Buffet now enjoys upbeat consumer traffic with its mixture of food offerings that now include Japanese and Filipino dishes.

In an interview with its Manager Mildred S. Gonzales, she pointed out that Grand Blue used to be an entirely Korean restaurant when it started operations in August of last year.

But since they saw that only a few patrons kept coming by, they have decided to include Japanese and Filipino dishes in their menu as well.

And just right after they started catering to a wider segment of the market which includes Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Filipino customers,  Grand Blue has been gaining popularity as it has now increased its customer base by 300%.

Now, the customer mix of Grand Blue is already composed of 70% Filipinos while 30% foreign including Chinese, Japanese and Koreans.

Grand Blue is located at Juan Luna Street and measures 1,000 square meters with an ample space for parking. The proprietors rented the property, which used to be an antique shop called Heritage.

“We want to make it famous not only for Koreans, Chinese and Japanese clients but also to Filipino customer base. We want to be known by the food that we serve and in terms of the quality of service that we give,” Gonzales said.

So far, Grand Blue can be considered as the biggest Korean restaurant in town as it can accommodate about 150 people in one setting inside and outside its garden al fresco area.

“We already have several Korean restaurants here in Cebu because Filipinos have come to admire and like Korean dishes,” said Gonzales about the reason why Korean restaurants seemed to have grown in number these days. — Rhia de Pablo