Do you loathe the acceleration of restaurant culture?  Get a grip.  Having spent the last couple of years admiring the queue at the fast food place on the other side of the road, casual dining is abuzz with the radical idea that delivering food to busy guests in record time may be a good idea.

And whilst fast food as a concept may make us uneasy, just because food arrives quickly doesn't make it bad food.  Wasabi, Abokado, Leon, Now, Itsu, Pret, Chilango.. in fact the entire quick service sector has grown fatter off the recessionary phenomenon of the last couple of years with the new players dishing up cool, healthy, high flavour alternatives for around £6.  And the A3 operators are getting restless.

During the last years excellent Allegra Strategies UK Restaurant Leaders Summit 2011, Jillian MacLean who heads up Drake & Morgan described how investment in QSR computerised kitchen systems was integral to the success of their breakthrough brand.  You've got to hand it to them, a 500 cover City lunch and main courses are hitting the table in 6-8 minutes.  Of course, there's more to it than just the system with the offer engineered for speed throughout.  Same at Jamie's Italian who use a CST system and aligned kitchen equipment, even down to the hot bricks (irons) placed atop burgers and meat to double the cook speed.  A further manifestation is Café Rouge's new unit at Euston Station (excellent article here) which offers a streamlined faster version of the brand.

Operators need speed so they can get back into the lunch market.  But its more than that because we (the guest) appear to be happy going along for the ride.  The him! consultancy's 2010 Ontrack survey of 15,000 pub customers, found that while promotional discounts would only encourage 17% of pub customers to order a starter or dessert, 26% of people would order three courses if it was guaranteed they could be in and out in an hour. A significant number of us want faster service if it means we don't have to compromise on quality, so better we do it at places that seek to serve above-average food, quickly.

So, in this age of revolution expect to see..

1. •    A rise in new concepts centred around speed..  look at Phasta
   

2. •    Asian food is particularly well-positioned to tap into the trend for quality, fast turnaround dining.  Wagamama and now Tampopo are gaining traction fast (and doing it at 80% GP!).  Newer entrant Pho and now Dishoom are similarly well placed.
   

3. •    And in addition, established brands are beginning to question their large unwieldy menus learning from smaller fast casual operators like Franco Manca with simpler faster offerings eyeing scale ambitons.
   

4. •    American brands such as Chipotle are entering the market bringing with them their speed expertise.
   

5. •    And more than anything, guest expectation is changing.  The guest is beginning to expect that while dining with you, that they remain in control of the situation - that they can choose to make the experience as long or as short as they would like.  And that has implications for the whole service cycle.  From dispense to food speed to check-down to bill payment - for gods sake don’t make them wait !!