I second this. I have a lot of family in the restaurant business, and you don't need amazing food. Don't poison people, of course. But it doesn't have to be special.

Booze is the easiest thing to make money on. The only labour involved is opening the bottle and pouring. My parents were always happy to keep the place open if there was a table of drinkers at the end of the evening.

Buy into a brand that is cool. Not an actual brand like coca-cola, but a cuisine type like Thai or Vietnamese. Those are way more in fashion at the moment than Chinese (bad rep for unhealthiness), but you can make them with the same staff.

Decor and ambience matter more than anything. Being in a fine restaurant is as much about being seen in the right place as eating good food. It's like art; most people can't tell the difference between mediocre and great. But a gallery in Chelsea sends a different signal to one in Shoreditch.

Finally, running a restaurant is indeed difficult. You're competing with people's own cooking, ready-made meals, and every other eatery in the area. Sure, there's three meals a day to sell to each person, but there's also a constant influx of people wanting to give it a go.