Overview
The series pits five couples, one each from Australia's five largest cities, to compete against each other in opening a successful restaurant.
In initial episodes of the show the couples are given a vacated restaurant space in their home city that must be renovated. They also compete for additional money that can be used for renovation from a panel of judges based on a presentation of their mission statement and plan for their proposed restaurant. The judges also make further appearances later on in the series in both critiquing the restaurants and offering rewards to the contestants.
After a number of weeks the elimination process begins in which the restaurants (and their owners) are reviewed and judged for nomination. The nominated restaurants then compete for votes from a phone poll, with the victor moving on and the loser being forced to shut down. This process continues until a single competing restaurant remains.
Despite the process of elimination that sees almost all competing restaurants shut down, it is interesting to note that every single restaurant featured in the programme was successful and operated in the black. This may be because of the exposure the restaurants are given via the show. Moreover, some eliminated restaurants managed to re-open at new locations.
Read more about this topic: My Restaurant Rules