Ideas - Kilo Restaurants in the UK

This idea is inspired by a visit to Brazil in late 2002, where I visited a couple of them.

Basically, a kilo restaurant is like a very varied carvalry restaurant. You pick up a dinner plate at the start of the process, then pass by a system of trays where you can choose the food you want. The one I visited in Rio had various meats and fish on offer, then various vegtables and different preparations of rice. There was about a dozen or so main dishes, then a similar number of vegtables and others. You load up your plate with as much as you like of whatever you like (self-control is a benefit) then go to a counter where they weigh the plate, they give you a receipt and you go to a cashier to pay.

Very simple, and it has the advantage that when you're with a group of friends, everyone can have their preferred type of meal, whether it's pie and chips or curry and rice, without any arguments about where to go. The ones in Brazil seemed to be popular with people at lunch time, and it would take at least a couple of weeks just to go through a basic selection of all of the food.

The main problem with the idea is the restaurant will have to be willing to prepare a wide variety of food. In Brazil preparing lots of fresh food seems to be normality, in the UK this might be a rather different story, but I hope someone gives it a try, it's something I definitely miss from Brazil.

Paul Silver, 31 August 2003