Commercial Banquets in Major Decline! The Era of "No Banquet Without Luxury Ingredients" Has Ended

The future of dining is not just about taste, but also about leading lifestyle trends.

Beautiful dining has become the top topic at the start of the year. Recently, the trend of beautiful dining from Yun-Gui-Sichuan, mountain wild hotpot, to local cuisines, noodle shops, skewers, and spicy hotpot has swept the entire restaurant industry.

Unlike in the past, today’s beautiful dining is no longer about new brands emerging out of nowhere, spending heavily on decoration and marketing. Instead, it’s about ensuring quality while making the presentation and environment more attractive. Besides innovative brands, there are also leading brands using the beautiful dining model to upgrade their store formats or brand image.

In this context, some believe that almost all restaurant categories are worth reimagining with the beautiful dining mindset.

Behind this is a comprehensive upgrade of professional capabilities in the restaurant industry—from decoration, equipment, and food quality to brand building. The aesthetic standards of operators are embedded into every aspect, becoming one of the key factors influencing consumer decisions.

△Image source: TuChong Creative

This logic is easy to understand. As the restaurant industry enters an era of stock competition, when two brands in the same commercial district have similar quality and prices, the one with higher visual appeal and better experience naturally attracts more customers.

Looking deeper, for consumers today, the value of a meal often goes beyond just “food.” It’s about a pleasurable experience, a way to indulge oneself, and a form of lifestyle expression.

Over the past few years, consumers’ lifestyles have been reshaped multiple times—from seeking novelty and luxury, to favoring low prices, and now to evaluating consumption based on “self-pleasure.” Each shift has brought significant changes to the restaurant industry, reshaping business models, operational logic, and product philosophies.

In these cycles of transformation, some have leveraged the trend to become leaders, while others have fallen behind and exited the market.

1. The era of “buying expensive but not right” is over,

The decline of traditional business banquets

In the past, the term “lifestyle” mainly appeared in marketing, and for many in the restaurant industry, it was a somewhat unfamiliar concept.

At the 2026 Black Pearl launch event, Meituan’s core local commerce CEO Wang Puzhong summarized its definition: “Lifestyle is consumption and social interaction based on personal values.”

In other words, lifestyle has now become a core factor influencing consumer decisions, deeply affecting the underlying logic of restaurant operations.

Taking the example of beautiful dining mentioned earlier, the functional aspect of eating has expanded beyond mere sustenance. It’s now a way to satisfy small pleasures in life at a low cost. Since it’s about spending money to enjoy oneself, the meal needs to be not only delicious but also visually appealing, and the restaurant environment should help people relax.

This “happiness” experience doesn’t necessarily require luxurious decor or expensive ingredients. It stems from visual appeal, spatial harmony, and human scale. For example, besides many fine dining places with per capita spending over 200 yuan, there are also more “small beautiful dining” options with a check average of 40-50 yuan. The key isn’t the price but whether the experience offers good value for money.

From a psychological perspective, the function of dining out has shifted from “socializing and entertaining” back to “self-reward.” Essentially, the public’s lifestyle has transitioned from “outward expression” to “inner harmony.”

This lifestyle change manifests in many ways. For instance, in the past, consumers believed buying luxury brands was a matter of face. Now, brands matter less; consumers focus more on product quality, with logos becoming more discreet or even absent altogether. The era of “buying expensive but not right” has ended.

△Image source: TuChong Creative

This isn’t just about shifting from high-price to low-price consumption; it’s about “self-pleasure.”

For example, in recent years, trendy collectibles like blind boxes and figurines have become popular. A blind box or a figurine might sell for 69 yuan, which seems overpriced based on material costs. Yet, they still attract many consumers because of the design and IP that satisfy emotional needs. Opening a blind box and getting a favorite style makes people happy. This is a concrete expression of the “inner harmony” lifestyle—caring less about whether others understand the value of the “plastic figurine,” and more about personal liking.

In the restaurant sector, this lifestyle shift is most evident in business banquets.

In the past, business banquets were the backbone of high-end dining, often resembling performances. The logic was to pile on expensive ingredients—abalone, shark fin, bird’s nest, fine wines—to signal wealth and status. These familiar luxury ingredients were used to make guests feel the “price” of the meal. The core wasn’t about pleasing the palate but about impressing others and gaining resources through “showing off” and “face.”

As the focus shifts to “self-pleasure,” this logic begins to loosen. People care more about their own experience than about “face.” Instead of piling on luxury ingredients that may not be appreciated, they prefer comfortable environments and distinctive dishes that make everyone happy.

In this shift, the era of “no shark fin, no banquet” is over. Coupled with external factors, traditional business banquets are declining, and many restaurants relying on them are gradually exiting the market.

2. Pinpoint every “self-pleasure” need of consumers,

Finding certainty in the “new market”

The changes in beautiful dining and business banquets are just part of the broader lifestyle reshaping the restaurant industry. Today, every aspect of the market is in continuous flux.

Simply put, as a consumer and service industry, the core of restaurant business is to meet consumer needs—what motivates a person to walk into a restaurant?

As mentioned earlier, “full stomach” is no longer the primary need. More importantly, it’s about creating a unique experience and memory for the consumer, to express a “self-pleasure” lifestyle.

△Image source: TuChong Creative

Wang Puzhong pointed out that today’s consumption is increasingly segmented and diverse. The core logic of reimagining restaurant service is to provide end-to-end experience memories—not just what to eat, but how the customer feels and what kind of memories they want to create.

It sounds abstract, but for restaurant operators, it’s not an unreachable concept. Many restaurants are already doing this daily.

For example, making the product better-tasting than competitors is one way. Eating delicious food is about self-pleasure; the reason consumers come is to enjoy good food. “Delicious” is subjective, but what objective standards or actions can make food seem better? There are plenty of examples in the market.

For instance, the “Shan Kala” farmstead that has become popular among young people in recent years. This type of venue was more common among older generations, but has recently been rediscovered and embraced by younger consumers.

“Shan Kala” farms are often located outside the city, in the mountains, requiring winding roads to reach. Some are even hard to find on maps. Most have simple decor and minimal service. Yet, these difficulties don’t deter diners, who are drawn by extremely fresh ingredients—live chickens, freshly caught fish, freshly picked vegetables. The dishes are simply seasoned, with no complex cooking techniques, relying on freshness to satisfy self-pleasure needs.

△Image source: Hongcan News

If “Shan Kala” farms are considered unique or non-standard, there are also more mainstream examples. For instance, Chuan Xiao Bai BBQ, which doesn’t choose prime locations or luxurious decor, with ingredient costs over 50%. They focus all costs on quality ingredients, making it a queueing favorite in the barbecue scene.

Besides focusing on ingredients, another approach is craftsmanship. For example, Fuzhou’s famous Zheng Chun Fa Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, which pursues meticulous quality—boiling the broth for over 10 hours—becomes a popular choice among many consumers.

All these are ways to meet the core need of “deliciousness,” using product logic to satisfy self-pleasure. Creating memorable scenes or rituals for special occasions, like birthdays or dates, is also a way to fulfill self-pleasure needs.

For example, some restaurants offer special services for birthday celebrations, not just standard dishes, but scene arrangements, small gifts, handwritten cards, and sincere warmth to create unique memories.

△Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

Similarly, local cuisines and ingredients are gaining popularity. The flavors from memory evoke stronger emotional responses than luxury ingredients.

Under this influence of creating segmented scenarios, restaurant operation logic has also evolved.

In the past, social dining was centered around large tables, whether private rooms or open seating, designed for groups. For dates or small gatherings of 3-4 people, large tables often felt uncomfortable.

To better accommodate more segmented scenarios, many restaurants now reduce seat numbers and portion sizes, providing more privacy and avoiding awkward situations like a 10-person table with only two diners. This also allows customers to taste more dishes at similar or even lower prices.

Besides “making smaller and more refined,” another key detail is that, under this trend of scenario segmentation, restaurant operations extend into online channels. With faster lifestyles and work rhythms, people want to make decisions more efficiently when dining out.

Before choosing a restaurant, consumers often consult authoritative lists like Black Pearl or Must-Eat rankings to avoid “bad experiences,” since “bad experiences” hinder “self-pleasure.”

After selecting a restaurant, they often look for recommendations on social media or check group deals in advance. In group dining scenarios, customers often ask, “Is this enough?” or “Will this be too much?” to better manage portions. Many restaurants offer combo deals tailored to group size, helping customers make decisions faster.

Conclusion

All these changes reflect a deeper transformation in the consumer market. Consumers are not becoming more picky; they are becoming more aware—they understand better why they spend money and are more willing to pay for what truly moves them.

For restaurant operators, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The old logic of relying on stacking ingredients and luxurious decor is becoming less effective. The opportunity lies in meeting clearer consumer demands: delicious, memorable, and worth the experience. These seemingly simple standards are actually the hardest to replicate and form barriers to competition.

Understanding what consumers are thinking may be more important than studying competitors. As lifestyles continue to evolve and the restaurant market reshapes, those who truly put consumers at the center of their decision-making are unlikely to fall behind.

As Wang Puzhong said, the future of dining is not just about taste, but about leading lifestyle trends. This shift from “face” to “inner substance” is reflected not only in rational choices at the common table but also in the elevation of fine dining within a global perspective. On March 23, the 2026 Black Pearl Restaurant Guide (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas) will be released in Singapore. This authoritative benchmark will continue to provide discerning diners with a taste coordinate that reflects the times.

This article is an original publication by Hongcan News (ID: hongcan18), authored by Wang Lu.