How to Find the Best Business Dining Options
Near Your Hotel
Intro
Business dining is often a crucial detail that you’ll need to utilize on business trips—especially if you’re committed to expanding your networking opportunities and strengthening your connections with different clients, colleagues, or prospects.
But here’s the thing:
You need to know what you’re doing and make sure to have your ducks in a row first.
Setting up a meeting with a client at the wrong restaurant could spell disaster for your efforts.
Choosing a restaurant with the wrong vibe, in the wrong part of town, that serves the wrong types of food, or that’s even in the wrong price bracket are all mistakes that can cost you contracts, jobs, sales—and client confidence.
So in this post, you’re going to learn how to find the best business dining options near your hotel.
These are the main points that you’ll need to know.
1. Find A Good Location
Hopefully, your business hotel is located in a commercial-centric area of the city.
In other words, you’ll want to choose a restaurant that’s located in the right part of town.
By ‘right,’ we mean a part of town that’s trendy, upbeat, professional, and attractive.
You want this meeting to feel like it’s happening in an ‘exciting’ and ‘distinguished’ nightlife location.
So locate the closest area to your hotel that has that ‘vibe,’ and start looking for restaurants within it.
2. Find The Right Type Of Restaurant
This is one of the more difficult, yet important parts of finding the best business dining possible.
If your meeting is important, it is highly recommended that you take a couple of hours (if you have them), and actually scope out the area of town that you’ve chosen as a ‘hub’ for your business meetings.
As you walk around, get a feel for the layout—and keep an eye out for interesting restaurant options that stand out.
(Need some help identifying the ‘good spots?’ Check out this post from Delish.com.)
To speed up this process, you can also use your smartphone to do an internet search for ‘fine dining restaurants near me’ or ‘bar and grill near me,’ or whatever specifics you happen to be more interested in for this particular client.
If you locate what you believe to be a nice option, it’s highly recommended that you check it out first.
Walk inside, ask for a menu, check out the vibe, and just in-general see if this seems like a cool enough place to bring a business contact.
Things you’ll want to look for include:
- Menu options that would appeal to the type of person you’re trying to network with (you’re usually always safe with an array of steaks, salads, seafood, and traditional fine-dining options)
- A peaceful, ambient atmosphere that’s quiet enough to discuss business, but busy enough that you’ll still have privacy
- A beautiful, chill visual vibe that just ‘feels’ trendy, cool, and professional
- Prices that are within your price range, but that are NOT considered ‘cheap’ by any stretch of the imagination
- An on-site bar or wine menu is an excellent thing to look for as well
3. Ask About Reservations
If the restaurant is really nice and busy, you may need reservations to consider getting in.
This is an important detail to ask about in advance.
In other words, what you don’t want to do is show up at a restaurant with your client, expecting to have a meeting or to talk about a project over dinner—only to be told that there’s a 2-hour wait if you don’t have a reservation!
4. What If You Don’t Have Time To Scope It Out?
If you’re slammed with meetings and need to find a restaurant on the fly, here are some steps to take before inviting your client or colleague along for the ride.
- Find a restaurant online, near your hotel, that looks nice in the pictures and seems to be located in a nice part of town
- Look at their menu to make sure that they’ve got good prices and food options (need some help figuring out per diem? Check out this post by Hotel Engine.)
- Scan the reviews to make sure that they’ve got a good rating
- Call the restaurant to make a reservation (just to be on the safe side)
Conclusion
There you have it.
A simple, but foolproof method for finding the best business dining options near you.
All that’s left now is to get out there and make it happen.
You’ve got this!
Good luck with your next meeting.
