GGB Topic cluster · 20 articles · 18 glossary terms
Control: the weekly disciplines that keep the money.
Prime cost, the P&L read, labour math, menu margins, seasonality — the operating controls that decide whether a full room makes money. Everything here feeds the transformation door.
Circular 7/2026: Abu Dhabi’s Healthy-Menu Rule — What SEHHI Classification Requires, Who Assesses It, and How to Comply Before 1 October
DCT Abu Dhabi’s Circular 7/2026 makes SEHHI-classified healthy options mandatory on every tourism-licensed menu from 1 October 2026. Who assesses a dish (the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre), what the classification reads, how to prepare recipes for it — and how to do it without losing margin.
Cost-Optimised Pricing Makes Restaurants. Reckless Pricing Quietly Unmakes Them.
A founder's case that a Dubai menu priced upward from recipe cost through the published bands — with VAT, commission and occupancy in the arithmetic — builds a restaurant that lasts, while pricing to the neighbour, discount-led launches and round-number menus quietly take it apart. Worked, illustrative, checkable.
The 20% Profit Challenge: Thirty Days, Three Restaurants, One Documented Path
GGB works with three restaurants for thirty days, without a fee, to build each one a documented path to a 20% operating margin — or to show, with the operator's own numbers, exactly why it is not there yet. Why twenty, what the thirty days contain, who it is for, and how the three places are chosen.
Why Fast Food Needs a Keto Lane
The keto guest is a repeat customer with a veto. A founder's case for why quick-service menus need a proper low-carb lane — and how to build one that holds margin instead of gathering dust.
Restaurant Menu Consultancy in Dubai: Engineering a Menu That Holds Its Margin
What a menu consultancy changes in Dubai: plate cost discipline, prep load, menu engineering by contribution, and the pricing decisions that hold margin.
A Busy Restaurant Can Still Be a Bad Business
Why a full dining room can hide a failing business — the psychology of the busy room, and the five numbers GGB reads behind any queue before believing it.
How Regional Turmoil Reaches a Restaurant P&L
How the 2026 regional escalation reaches a GCC restaurant P&L — freight, war-risk insurance, bookings and cash — the control that answers each line, and two worked scenarios against the published red lines.
Ramadan and the Seasonality Map: Revenue Planning for GCC Restaurants
Ramadan daypart inversion, the summer trough and tourist peaks — planning labour, purchasing and cash flow around the known GCC revenue curve.
The Restaurant P&L, Line by Line: An Operator's Reading Guide
The restaurant P&L, line by line — revenue mix, theoretical vs actual COGS, what hides in labour, and the three ratios that decide survival.
How Many Staff Does a Restaurant Need? The Staffing Math
How many staff a restaurant needs: the covers-per-labour-hour logic, rosters built from forecast rather than habit, and the FOH/BOH ratios that hold margin.
Five Nights to a Tighter Restaurant P&L: Food Cost, Labour, Rent, the Platform's Cut and the Weekly Read
How a turnaround reads a restaurant P&L one line a night: the 32% food-cost ceiling, labour at 30%, rent-to-revenue, contribution per delivery order, and the 20-minute weekly discipline that keeps them closed.
Restaurant Profitability Audit: The Four Lines That Decide Your Margin
How to run a restaurant profitability audit — food cost, labour, rent and delivery commission against the typical GCC bands, what each line should carry, and when to bring in an auditor.
What Does a Restaurant Turnaround Consultant Actually Do?
What a restaurant turnaround consultant actually does, when you need one rather than a tweak, and what a 120-day reset involves — diagnosis, margin rebuild, control.
How We Measure a Restaurant: The Four Numbers That Decide Profit
How GGB measures a restaurant — the four diagnostic axes (food cost, labour, delivery economics, payback), how each is measured and why it is the right signal.
Why Restaurants Fail: The Honest Reasons, From the Turnaround Chair
Why restaurants fail — the structural reasons operating restaurants close, told unsparingly from the turnaround chair, and the discipline that prevents most of them.
Restaurant Prime Cost: The 60–65% Ceiling That Decides Survival
Restaurant prime cost explained — the 60–65% ceiling, the weekly cadence and workbook walk that hold it, the classic failure patterns, and how to read it down the P&L.
Aggregator Economics 2026: What Delivery Really Costs in the UAE, KSA and India
What delivery aggregators really cost a restaurant in the UAE, KSA and India: the full order P&L, commission tiers, and when owned delivery starts to pay.
Restaurant Food Cost Control: Theoretical vs Actual, and How to Close the Gap
Restaurant food cost control — theoretical vs actual food cost, where the variance leaks (portioning, waste, yield) and the weekly discipline to close it.
Menu Engineering: How to Price a Restaurant Menu for Profit
Menu engineering for profit — classify every dish into stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs by popularity and contribution margin, and price for mix.
Restaurant Profit Margins in the UAE: What the Numbers Should Look Like
Restaurant profit margins in the UAE: the healthy cost structure for food, labour, rent and delivery, where margin leaks, and the discipline that holds it.