what noodle restaurants can learn from global fast casual about the essence of product development
In the previous BLOG POST, we looked at successful restaurants around the world and discussed how noodle restaurants can no longer rely on dine-in sales alone.
This time, we will examine the most important theme that serves as the foundation for everything else.
That theme is how to create a strong product for your own restaurant.
- Increase the number of revenue channels
- Start takeout
- Offer delivery
- Introduce digital ordering
- Develop corporate demand
- Create products for home use
All of these are important.
However, there is something that must come first. That is a core product that makes customers think “If I go to this restaurant, this is what I want to eat”.
The essence of fast casual lies in offering a product that is one level above
When you look at fast casual restaurants around the world, this becomes very clear. Fast Casual is not simply fast food.
- The food can be served quickly
- It is easy to use casually.
- And yet, the product itself is one level above ordinary fast food.
That is where the essence of its success lies.
CHIPOTLE
Chipotle made Mexican food into something that could be eaten casually and quickly in everyday life, while still delivering a product that feels made with real ingredients. By assembling the food in front of the customer as the order is placed, it achieves both speed and a feeling of freshness.
Its strength lies in making the meal not just cheap food, but something satisfying that customers can customize themselves
Shake Shack
Shake Shack did not treat hamburgers as mere fast food. By combining higher-quality ingredients, cooking after the order is placed, a made-to-order feeling, and the atmosphere of the restaurant, it elevated the hamburger into a product experience that is one level above.
- You can eat it quickly
- But it does not feel cheap
That is where we find hints for creating a strong product.
CAVA
turned Mediterranean cuisine into a bowl format, making it a product that today’s customers can easily choose. Allowing customers to freely combine ingredients, it brings together a sense of health, satisfaction, and customization within a single product design.
SWEETGREEN
elevated salad from being merely a side dish into a product that can stand as a main meal. By connecting high-quality ingredients, a sense of health, digital ordering, and an urban lifestyle, it made salad into a product that customers choose as an everyday meal.
RAISING CANE
does not spread its menu too wide. It competes with a highly focused product lineup of chicken fingers, sauce, fries, and toast.
By narrowing the product range, it is able to refine quality, speed, and operations.
FIVE GUYS
is the same. It centers on hamburgers and fries while emphasizing made-to-order freshness, volume, and a strong sense of ingredients. Rather than relying on a complex menu, it has earned support by raising the level of its core products.
Perspectives that noodle restaurants can learn from
When thinking about Japanese udon restaurants, it is not only low-price udon chains that are worth studying.
Rather, there is much to learn from restaurants like Tsurutontan, which have elevated Udon itself into a product experience that is one level above.
Tsurutontan does not stop at presenting udon merely as an everyday meal that is cheap and quick.
- Large bowls
- Memorable presentation
- A refined atmosphere
- A wide variety of creative Udon dishes
- An environment suitable even for business meals
- Product design that appeals to female customers and urban customers
In other words, it turns a familiar product like udon into a dining experience that people are willing to go out of their way to enjoy.
This is an extremely important lesson for noodle restaurants.
- It is not just cheap Udon
- It is not just quick Udon
- It is not just large portions of Udon
- It is something customers want to photograph
- Something they want to tell other people about
- Something they are willing to pay a little more for
- Something that makes them want to try another item as well
Noodle restaurants today are being asked to refine their products to this level
Strong restaurants have a signature item people associate with them
Global fast casual brands and successful restaurants like Tsurutontan share one thing in common: they elevate the product itself by one level.
- Serve quickly
- Make it convenient
- Increase the number of locations
- Digitize operations
All of these matter. But before that, the product itself must be one level above ordinary. The stronger the restaurant, the clearer its core product is.
CHIPOTLE
is associated with burritos and bowls
SHAKE SHACK
is associated with premium burgers
TSURUTONTAN
is associated with its memorable oversized bowls and creative Udon
CAVA
is associated with Mediterranean bowls
SWEETGREEN
is associated with salads that can stand as a full meal
RAISING CANE
is associated with chicken fingers
FIVE GUYS
is associated with made-to-order burgers and fries
In the customer’s mind, there is a clear answer to the question: “If you think of that restaurant, what is it known for?”
The same applies to noodle restaurants
udon
restaurant, what is its strongest item?
RAMEN
what is it remembered for?
SOBA
which item is chosen the most?
PASTA
which dish becomes its signature?
Sometimes restaurants try to increase sales by increasing the number of menu items. However, if there are too many products, the restaurant’s identity can actually become blurred. Customers do not remember every item on the menu.
In most cases, they remember one:
That restaurant’s
Beef udon
That restaurant’s
Kamaage udon
That restaurant’s
curry udon
That restaurant’s
chicken paitan ramen
That restaurant’s
100% buckwheat soba
That restaurant’s
tsukemen
Whether or not a restaurant can create that one item is what changes its future
Five conditions a strong product must meet
There are several conditions necessary for creating a strong product.
FirsT
it must be easy to understand
It should be a product that customers can describe in a single phrase.
Second
it must be memorable
There should be something impressive about the taste, aroma, texture, appearance, bowl or plate, atmosphere, or overall experience.
Third
it must make people want it
It should not be a product that surprises people only once, but one that makes them want to come back as part of their daily life.
Fourth
it must work operationally
No matter how delicious it is, if it cannot be provided consistently in the actual restaurant operation, it cannot become a strong product.
Fifth
it must be expandable
It should have the potential to go beyond dine-in and extend into takeout, home-use products, be suitable for corporate demand and pre-order sales.
Product value that noodle restaurants should refine
For noodle restaurants, what matters especially is the level of completion of the noodles themselves.
- The texture of the noodles
- How they are cooked
- How well they match the broth or soup
- Aroma
- The bowl or serving vessel
- Presentation
- The product name
- The sense of satisfaction when eating it
- How its quality changes over time
- Its quality when sold as takeout
- How well it can be reproduced when reheated at home
By studying each of these one by one, a product can be raised to the next level. Successful Fast Casual restaurants are not simply fast.
They made their products fast, easy to understand, and suitable for repeat use without lowering the product level.
Successful restaurants like Tsurutontan are not simply serving Udon either. They enhance udon by adding appearance, atmosphere, the enjoyment of choosing, and a sense of specialness, thereby elevating the product experience itself.
What matters is refining your restaurant’s core product until it reaches a level above the ordinary.
- Noodles one level above
- Broth (stock) one level above
- Texture one level above
- Aroma one level above
- Bowls one level above
- Presentation one level above
- Product names one level above
- An in-store experience one level above
When customers can feel this “one level above” the restaurant becomes strong.
The first step toward becoming a high-AUV restaurant starts with creating a strong product
When aiming to become a high-AUV restaurant, in other words, a restaurant with high sales per store, the first thing to work on is not digitization.
It is not takeout, it is not delivery.
What is needed first is to create a strong product that customers will remember.
- A strong product is what allows dine-in sales to grow
- A strong product is what makes takeout expansion possible
- A strong product is what can be developed into corporate demand
- A strong product is what gets chosen through digital ordering
- A strong product is what becomes a brand
If the product is weak, increasing the number of sales channels will not produce lasting results.
But if the product is strong, every new sales channel expands the restaurant’s sales potential.
Yamato’s view on product development going forward
Can customers describe that product in one sentence?
- Would they want to recommend it to someone else?
- Would they want to eat it again?
- Would they want to take a photo of it?
- Can it be expanded beyond dine-in?
- Will customers feel that it is one level above what other restaurants offer?
Yamato is not only a company that makes noodle-making machines, but also a company that studies noodle-making itself.
- Noodle quality
- Texture
- Water absorption and hydration
- Aging (maturation)
- Boiling time
- Compatibility with broth (stock) and soup
- Balance with the serving bowl
- Visual impression
- Systems that allow stable production even with a small team
- The possibility of expanding into takeout and home-use products
Yamato will continue to study these areas and provide information that helps with our customers’ product development, restaurant development, and sales growth.
Yamato will continue to study these areas and provide information that helps with our customers’ product development, restaurant development, and sales growth.
To begin with, take one product at your restaurant this week and look at it again.
What global fast casual brands and successful restaurants like Tsurutontan teach us is clear.
・Strong restaurants begin with strong products
・Strong products change a restaurant’s future
Fujii ‘Rocky’ Kaoru
