What is it like to eat in the subway cafeteria?

Recently, Suzhou launched the country's first subway canteen, attracting many netizens to check in, and the subway station is crowded with people who come to eat every day.

Red Food Network learned that the subway canteen in Suzhou is located at Guangji South Station of the transfer station of Line 280 and Line 0, formerly known as the staff canteen inside the subway station, which is a state-run community canteen. According to public information, the canteen has an operating area of more than 0 square meters and can accommodate about 0 people at the same time.

In terms of dishes, the Suzhou Metro Canteen offers a wide range of choices. The dining table has set up six stalls, including Suzhou-style ingenuity stalls, self-selected energy stations, light food bars, and teppanyaki claypot corners, covering Suzhou-style classic noodles, cured clay pot rice, casserole and other special dishes. According to the Suzhou Rail Transit Company, the canteen is currently able to provide 60 kinds of dishes per day.

In addition, the Suzhou Metro Canteen also emphasizes the "non-prefabricated" attribute and sets up a "transparent kitchen live broadcast room" to display the kitchen situation in real time. On social platforms, many netizens who have consumed also said: "The dishes are not prefabricated dishes visible to the naked eye."

Gu Yajun, general manager of Suzhou Rail Transit Urban Operation and Maintenance Service Co., Ltd., said in an interview with China News Weekly that since its opening, the canteen has been welcomed by many consumers, with an average daily supply of more than 2400 meals. They will aim to open community canteens in more metro stations within the year.

The popularity of Suzhou subway canteen has brought the model of subway canteen into the public eye. Red Meal Network found that following the successful test of the water in Suzhou, Kunming also followed suit and announced that it would soon open a subway canteen.

據雲南網3月16日報導，昆明地鐵大食堂將於今年4月中旬對外營業，該食堂不僅針對通勤人群，推出9-15元的套餐服務，還將通過中央廚房的形式，在東風廣場站、火車北站、昆明南站等各大換乘網站設置早餐車。

From the popularity of the Suzhou Metro Canteen to the upcoming opening of the Kunming Metro Canteen, will the subway canteen become a popular catering format in 2025 years?

"From the perspective of market demand, the subway carries a large number of commuters every day, and the real-time dining demand of this volume is undoubtedly a great opportunity for the subway canteen." In the view of Tang Xin, executive director of the Red Meal Industry Research Institute, the subway canteen has a natural traffic advantage. In addition, the subway canteen in the state-run context obviously has a more reliable health quality, which is also the reason why the subway canteen is favored by consumers.

Many consumers also shared the popularity of the subway canteen on social platforms: "The biggest disadvantage is that the flow of people is a bit large, and there is still a queue." "There were too many people in line, and it took a long time to eat." "The queue went around three times!"

△ Image source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu

Although the Suzhou subway canteen has exploded on the Internet, in fact, the opening of the subway canteen is also facing many unavoidable business problems.

比如地鐵食堂的規模與數量很容易受地鐵空間限制。谷亞軍在接受《中國新聞週刊》採訪時就特別指出，各地規劃建造地鐵時，主要著眼於交通功能，站內商業空間相對有限。因此相比廣濟南大食堂這樣規模達千平方米的食堂，在地鐵站內小型餐廳模式或許更易推廣。

In addition, according to Kunming planning and construction news, the image store model will be the priority choice of Kunming subway station in the subway station in the future.

In addition to the space factor of the subway station, the price of dishes is also the focus of attention in the subway canteen.

Generally speaking, when the subway canteen is used as an internal canteen for subway employees, it is known for its "low price" on social platforms. However, after facing the market, the price of Suzhou Metro canteen did not meet public expectations.

It is understood that the price of meat dishes in the Suzhou Metro canteen is 10-0 yuan, and popular meat dishes such as "braised pork", "Jiwei shrimp" and "sweet and sour pork ribs" all need to start at 0 yuan. Many consumers bluntly said that the unit price of Suzhou Metro canteen is almost the same as that of the same type of catering brand in the market, and even lacks cost performance.

"A bowl of large intestine noodles is 15 yuan, which is really expensive." "It's expensive, the portion of the dishes is small, and it's not very special, it's no different from the fast food restaurants outside." "A cup of kumquat lemon tea and other drinks cost 0 yuan, and there are so many drinks in Xicheng Yongjie upstairs, and the price is not cost-effective at all." ……

It can be seen that although the subway canteen has unique development advantages, it still needs to be adjusted in a timely manner in order to achieve more long-term development in this era of catering pursuit of cost performance.

Author: Zheng Ying of Red Meal Network; Editor: Li Tang