Assessment of service quality in a la carte restaurants within the mega city of Istanbul: A mystery shoppers’ study

Business Information	Options	n	%
Restaurant Type	FDR	93	29.9
Restaurant Type	TR	112	36.0
LR	106	34.1
Ownership Structure	Chain	163	52.4
Independent	148	47.6
Year of Service	< 1	19	6.1
	1–4	62	19.9
	5–9	71	22.8
10–14	110	35.4
15–19	34	10.9
> 20	15	4.8
Management style (By...)	The boss(es)	123	39.5
Management style (By...)	Department heads	133	42.8
Professional CEO	55	17.7
Number of Branches	No	101	32.5
Number of Branches	2–10	109	35.0
11–25	66	21.2
> 26	35	11.2
Number of Personnel (people)	< 10	18	5.8
	10–49	127	40.8
	50–99	76	24.4
100–149	58	18.6
150–199	25	8.0
> 200	7	2.3

Table 2:

Business Operation information

Business Operations	Options	FDR		TR		LR		TOTAL
Business Operations	Options	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
A’la carte service meal	Just dinner	66	71.0	32	28.6	15	14.2	113	36.3
A’la carte service meal	Lunch & Dinner	22	23.6	71	63.4	5	4.7	98	31.5
All of them	5	5.4	9	8.0	86	81.1	100	32.2
Guest profile	Local guests	10	10.8	73	65.2	72	67.9	155	49.8
Guest profile	Foreign guests	24	25.8	12	10.7	2	1.9	38	12.3
Both of them	59	63.4	27	24.1	32	30.2	118	37.9
Culinary preferences of foreign guests	Turkish cuisine	28	30.1	73	65.2	106	100.0	207	66.6
Culinary preferences of foreign guests	Foreign cuisines	18	19.3	11	9.8	0	0.0	29	9.3
Both of them	47	50.6	28	25.0	0	0.0	75	24.1
The culinary preference of local guests	Turkish cuisine	38	40.9	73	65.2	106	100.0	217	69.8
The culinary preference of local guests	Foreign cuisines	20	21.5	10	8.9	0	0.0	30	9.6
Both of them	35	37.6	29	25.9	0	0.0	64	20.6
	TOTAL	93	29.9	112	36.0	106	34.1	311	100.0

Table 3:

Measurment Model

Construct	EFA	EV	*t-values*	p	CA	AVE
IQ		56.7			.890	.672
IQ1	.771		fix	^***
IQ2	.758		43,529
IQ3	.730		30,644
*PEQ*		57.9			.930	.710
PEQ1	.901		fix	^***
PEQ2	.682		28,982
PEQ3	a		29,360
PEQ4	.909		26,744
MQ		59.1			.920	.719
MQ1	.945		29,930	^***
MQ2	a		fix
MQ3	b		34,179
MQ4	.945		25,742	^***
OQ		74.4			.950	.725
OQ1	.937		21,363
OQ2	a		fix
OQ3	.931		21,528	^***

Notes:

*** p<0.001

EV = Explained Variance; CA = Cronbach Alpha; AVE = Average Variance Extracted.

a Dropped during EFA

b Dropped during CFA

Table 4:

Interaction Quality (IQ) Assessment

Management Quality		Control
		1	2	3
		M±SD	M±SD	M±SD
FDR		2.47±1.25	3.89±1.15	4.57±1.30
TR		2.83±1.15	3.73±1.14	3.49±1.15
LR		2.55±1.10	3.45±1.05	3.10±1.11
Kruskal Walls H	X²	21.303	33.661	32.175
Kruskal Walls H	p	0.000	0.000	0.000
Friedman	X²		979.035
Friedman	p		0.000

Table 5:

Physical Environment Assessment

Management Quality		Control
		1	2	3
		M±SD	M±SD	M±SD
FDR		3.74±1.23	4.37±0.92	4.30±0.96
TR		2.82±1.20	3.66±1.17	3.42±1.18
LR		2.34±1.22	2.91±1.31	2.58±1.27
Kruskal Walls H	X²	221.921	259.730	336.944
Kruskal Walls H	p	0.000	0.000	0.000
Friedman	X²		793.741
Friedman	p		0.000

Table 6:

Management Quality (IQ) Assessment

Management Quality		Control
		1	2	3
		M±SD	M±SD	M±SD
FDR		3.74±1.14	4.39±0.93	4.27±0.97
TR		2.59±1.13	3.58±1.10	3.28±1.05
LR		2.45±1.12	3.31±1.14	2.72±1.16
Kruskal Walls H	X²	180.395	156.274	244.322
Kruskal Walls H	p	0.000	0.000	0.000
Friedman	X²		810.226
Friedman	p		0.000

Table 7:

Output Quality Assessment

Output Quality		Control
		1	2	3
		M±SD	M±SD	M±SD
FDR		4.44±0.82	4.72±0.47	4.69±0.55
TR		2.60±1.08	3.27±1.02	3.41±1.20
LR		2.09±1.43	2.73±1.32	2.64±1.38
Kruskal Walls H	X²	388.656	391.208	343.686
Kruskal Walls H	p	0.000	0.000	0.000
Friedman	X²		548.971
Friedman	p		0.000

References

Authors

Metrics

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ejthr-2025-0012 | Journal eISSN: 2182-4924 | Journal ISSN: 2182-4916

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Language: English

Page range: 167 - 182

Submitted on: Jun 12, 2024

Accepted on: Sep 30, 2024

Published on: Aug 14, 2025

Published by: Polytechnic Institute of Leiria

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

Tourism,

Gastronomy,

A la Carte Restaurant,

Service Quality,

Secret Shopper

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Business management,

Business management, other,

Industries,

Tourism, hospitality, travel,

Event industry, leisure industry,

Sports and recreation,

Sports and recreation, other

© 2025 Ümit Sormaz, Neslihan Onur, Gürkan Akdağ, Mustafa Yılmaz, published by Polytechnic Institute of Leiria
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 15 (2025): Issue 1 (August 2025)

Assessment of service quality in a la carte restaurants within the mega city of Istanbul: A mystery shoppers’ study

Figures & Tables

Figure 1:

Table 1: