One of the best things about the cash only places I frequent is that they don’t have to deal with delivery services injecting themselves into the business model and consuming kitchen capacity for people not actually present.
This leads to faster service overall and at worst the speed of service slows down proportionally to the number of customers at the location at any given point.
And usually these places are family run so you’re always seeing the same folks behind the counter and they actually care.
All combined, these factors lead to the elevated status that many ascribe to cash only places.
But my perception of business's that don't take card these days (post pandemic at least) is that they're more likely to be slightly dodgy and skimming the books. That or stubbornly stuck in there ways.
"Ok, here's my money."
Or you just leave money on the table and go.
There's no messing with cards or paper and signing. The back and forth etc.
That goes like triple for bars where you just hand over money vs, asking to open or close and putting it in the computer etc.
Quality because they are so good they don't need to do worry about alternative forms of payment.
Affordability because the price is the price, no fees and they are making so much money they aren't worried about maximizing tickets and table time metrics and all that.
It's definitely not going to be a corporate establishment. The owner is probably in the business and they want it to be good because that's where they eat.
