Covid 19 has created a bleak landscape for restaurant industry in the U.S. but apparently not for the sushi restaurants.
Although some sushi restaurants including Kura Sushi USA and Sustainable Restaurant Holdings (owner of Bamboo Sushi) haven’t done well, the sub-sector overall has done ok. For example:
- The number of sushi restaurants open in the U.S. grew by 5% last year (higher than Thai and Burgers) according to Yelp.
- Sushi was the most searched takeout cuisine on restaurant-reservation platform Tock.
- Sushi transactions processed by restaurant-management platform Toast grew 56% from March to December 2020 (higher than Thai, Tex-Mex, and Indian).
You might ask why?
- It’s hard to make good sushi at home compared to let’s say pasta.
- It’s lighter compared to burger or pizza and with people staying home and not moving as much, sushi seems a more health-conscience choice.
- It’s also easy to deliver it while preserving the quality (compare to let’s say fries that might get cold).
By the way, sushi take outs are not necessarily all $15 rolls: Masa, that used to be the most expensive restaurant in New York few years ago (and has 3 Michelin stars) now offers $800 sushi boxes with home-made soy sauce and takeout containers imported from Japan. Well, that’s a sushi box to remember!
