I recently moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and I have been traveling around looking for things to do and places to eat. I wanted to see what the Italian cuisine here is like, so I decided to look for a restaurant in advance to take my family to. For me to find the best Italian restaurant successfully and efficiently, I had to follow the steps of the consumer decision making process.
The first step is the recognition of the problem. The problem here is that my family and I are craving Italian food. We would like to find a casual Italian restaurant where we can dine-in, has a welcoming environment, has at least a 4-star rating, has a great wine selection because my parents love their wine, and delicious, good quality food. Although we are looking for something causal, we want a restaurant that keeps the authenticity of the Italian food. The second step is the information search. I started off by entering “best Italian restaurants in Salt Lake City, Utah” into the search bar on google. I proceeded to scroll through the different websites with lists of restaurants. I decided I wanted to use websites that I have experience with when looking for somewhere to go, so I then went to yelp.com and tripadvisor.com. I clicked on several restaurants, looked at the ratings and reviews left by people that ate at those places so it would be reliable. I also made sure to pay attention to the images of the inside of the restaurants and images of the food. All these factors come into play when deciding the best place to go. The third step is the evaluation of alternatives. I looked at a few of the high rated Italian restaurants in Salt Lake City, Utah and evaluated them. After looking at ratings, reviews, photos, and the menus, I was able to cut my list down to 4 restaurants. These restaurants are:
- Salt & Olive: 4.3 stars, welcoming environment, reasonable prices, small wine selection.
- Matteo Ristorante: 4.6 stars, high quality/authentic, welcoming, owner and staff make you feel at home, large wine selection.
- Sicilia Mia: 4.3 stars, nice Italian vibe, large wine selection, menu has high variety.
- Bartolo’s: 4.3 stars, smaller menu, inside not too welcoming, high quality/ authentic, small wine selection.
After much consideration, I decided to take my family to Matteo Ristorante. I made this decision because it had the highest rating at 4.6 stars, the food looked very high quality and looked like authentic Italian food. It is also a very welcoming restaurant, as I read in multiple reviews that the owner and staff make you feel at home. Lastly, they had the best wine selection out of all the restaurants I looked at. The process of consumer decision making helped me to realize that although people have different preferences, this process can be used by anyone and will still be efficient and helpful. It is important to be aware of all aspects of a place when searching for somewhere new to go because even a small factor can have a huge impact on one’s overall liking of it. One preference that most likely made my decision different than the decision of other consumers is the large wine selection I was looking for. My family and I were very happy and satisfied with the restaurant I chose to go with, all the factors I loved about it, they also enjoyed, thanks to my successful use of the consumer decision making process.