Anyone used to eating at upscale, or even less-than-upscale, establishments is apt to find most kosher eateries overpriced, the tables too close together, and the service less than exemplary—even when the food is very good. Anna Rahmanan explores why this might be so:
“Kosher restaurants can’t be open 365 days a year—the number is probably closer to 200-and-something because of Shabbat and all the holidays,” explained [the kosher-food blogger] Dani Klein. “Right off the bat, then, they are losing almost 30 percent of the year.” It is only logical, then, that to be financially viable, kosher restaurants have to earn more than similar non-kosher establishments during the days that they are fully operational.
In addition to buying kosher ingredients, restaurateurs . . . have to pay for kosher-certification and a mashgiaḥ (basically, a supervisor who will make sure all kitchen-related activities abide by kashrut laws), [which] can cost upwards of $100,000 a year. To account for these additional expenditures, a lot of kosher eateries end up cutting corners in other aspects of the business, such as service, and, of course, raising the price of their dishes.
Add to it all the fact that finding waiters, chefs, and busboys willing not to work on Fridays and Saturdays—historically, the busiest and most tip-heavy days for a restaurant—automatically lessens the quality of the staff, and you’ve got yourself a pretty dire situation.
Even in cities like New York, where kosher restaurants are abundant in number, strictly kosher customers are relatively forgiving: no matter how bad the food or the experience as a whole, the majority of consumers tend to go back to an eatery because, after all, there are only so many kosher ones around.
More about: American Judaism, Food, Kashrut