50-0 yuan per capita, expensive noodle restaurant again?
The expensive noodle restaurant with a bowl of 50 yuan is back again!
This time, the protagonist has changed from Lanzhou beef noodles to "Benbang Noodle Restaurant". With labels such as "freshly fried toppings" and "local characteristics", it is crazy to attract money in first- and second-tier cities, and there are even stores with a monthly revenue of millions.
What is the origin of these local noodle restaurants? Is the expensive noodle restaurant really good again?
Every Shanghainese has their own collection of local noodle restaurants, they may be just an inconspicuous small door in the alley, there is no decoration at all, a few tables in front of the door can be opened, a bowl of noodles about 40 yuan.
However, for a long time, this gang noodles have only been the favorite of Shanghainese, and there is no popularity in the country. In the past year, in addition to Shanghai, a number of local noodle restaurants have also emerged in Beijing, Harbin, Dalian, Changsha, Hefei and other cities, and they are quite popular.
"The most popular shopping malls in Beijing all have Shanghai local noodle restaurants, and every family is queuing up, and business is very good." Wang Nan (pseudonym), who runs a noodle restaurant in Beijing, told Red Food Network that in the second half of last year, local noodle brands such as A Da Pai Stall, Fu He Noodle Restaurant, and Wang Fanxing Noodle Restaurant entered Beijing, and there were often long queues at the door.
據瞭解，阿大排檔北京首店開業當月營收上百萬元。上海16年的老品牌——福和麵館，去年7月在三裡屯開出北京首店，44.8元的單人套餐，半年賣了1.6萬份。
The popularity of this noodle restaurant is not limited to Beijing.
“自從這家麵館開業，我就想去吃，每次路過看到排隊就給勸退了。”阿麥（化名）所在的城市青島，去年9月開了一家王繁星麵館，位於青島萬象城。
At noon last Saturday, she finally made up her mind to check in, although she had already picked up the number on the online platform in advance, and waited for an hour and a half when she arrived at the store.
△ Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
據合眾合創始人姚哲分享，王繁星麵館門店月均收入60萬，也有一些門店做到了月營收150萬。
目前，南京、杭州、大連、合肥等城市，大眾點評麵館熱門榜上都有本幫麵館的身影。社交平臺，本幫麵館的熱度也一路飆升，小紅書#本幫麵館相關筆記已經有上萬篇，抖音相關話題播放量也突破2千萬。
At the same time as the popularity is rising, the process of branding and chaining of this noodle restaurant is also accelerating.
2023年在鄭州起家的王繁星麵館，不到2年時間在北京、青島、杭州、長沙等十多個城市開出了近40家店，目前其在蘇州、天津等城市的首店也在圍檔中。
△ Image source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
同年在哈爾濱誕生的阿大排檔，去年5月在北京朝陽大悅城開出首店，不到一年時間就在北京開出了6家門店，現在全國總共有18家店。
Shanghai's local noodle restaurant brand is also trying to go out of Shanghai, Fuhe noodle restaurant, which has been operating in Shanghai for 13 years, upgraded its brand last year, and then opened from Shanghai to Beijing, Nanjing, and Hefei, with a total of 0 stores.
This noodle is characterized by "thick oil red sauce", and the soul is the "topping", which pays attention to freshly fried and freshly cooked, so as to ensure the freshness and taste of the toppings, and the pot is full of gas.
Compared with the traditional Benbang noodle restaurant, the new Benbang noodle restaurant further enlarges the "freshly fried toppings", and directly puts out slogans such as "freshly fried", "one piece and one stir-fry", and "no prefabrication".
For example, Ah Da food stalls emphasize that "it must be fried on a fierce fire" and "chicken soup is freshly stewed" in many places such as the door, wall, and bright stall window, and Wang Fanxing Noodle Restaurant and Fuhe Noodle Restaurant have posted slogans and posters of "freshly fried and freshly made", claiming to use fresh ingredients and toppings to be fried freshly on the same day, and each bowl of noodles also insists on freshly fried in a single portion.
△ Image source: A food stall Dianping account
Some noodle restaurants also show the process of the chef stir-frying the toppings on the spot through the bright kitchen. For example, Ah Da food stall puts raw ingredients such as eel, beef, pork liver, kidney flower, and shrimp in a stainless steel tray, which is convenient for the chef to take the ingredients and fry them at the same time, so that customers can intuitively feel the freshness of the ingredients.
On the menu, this batch of new local noodle restaurants continues to strengthen the attributes of freshly fried and made by greatly streamlining SKUs, especially cutting out non-freshly made products.
For example, Fuhe Noodle Restaurant, which went out of Shanghai in 30 years and opened stores in other places, reduced the number of SKUs from 0 to 0-0, and removed the category of "prefabricated topping noodles". Shanghai's Internet celebrity brand Viper Noodle Restaurant, in the new store opened last year, cut the series of "ready-made topping noodles", and only kept 0-0 SKUs.
On the basis of streamlining SKUs, the new Benbang noodle restaurant has added a series of special snacks and buns.
Shanghai's traditional local noodle restaurant is mainly noodles, with some toppings that can be ordered a la carte. On this basis, the new Benbang noodle restaurant has added representative delicacies of Shanghai, such as pork rib rice cake, fried pork cutlet, Benbang smoked fish, and crab roe xiaolongbao. Cutting-edge brands such as Wang Fanxing Noodle Restaurant and Ah Tai Food Stalls have added a series of sweet waters/desserts.
△ Image source: Dianping accounts of various brands
These product combinations also allow the noodle restaurant to operate from morning, noon, evening to supper, so as to meet the needs of more consumer groups.
Another important change in the new style of Benbang noodle restaurants is that they have moved from the street to the shopping mall, and many of the noodle restaurants are located in the core business districts of popular shopping malls, such as Wang Fanxing Noodle Restaurant, Ah Tai Pai Stall, Fuhe Noodle Restaurant, and Sanlitun, Chaoyang Joy City, Chaoyang Hopson Hui and so on in Beijing.
Shanghai's Fuhe Noodle Restaurant has been opening stores on the street before, and since 2024, newly opened stores have also entered shopping malls, opening to Songjiang Impression City, Jing'an Qicaili, etc.
In addition to improving brand potential by opening shopping mall stores, most of the new local noodle restaurants open stores in provincial capital cities, or first-tier and new first-tier cities, and only open 2-0 stores to maintain brand scarcity.
In this regard, Yao Zhe once said that this batch of local noodle restaurants mostly gathers customers in the core location of Class A business districts, so the number of stores must be controlled, otherwise the unit price of customers cannot support the rapid outbreak of customer flow, and it is easy to have the problem of declining same-store sales.
"Maintain scarcity, first meet the taste, and then retain and repurchase. If the number of stores in a single region is rapidly encrypted, the brand will gradually weaken after the hot period and enter the normal. Yao Zhe said.
The gang is gaining momentum, but in the long run, there are still some problems to be solved.
First of all, a bowl of noodles sells for 50-0 yuan, will consumers really continue to pay?
Around 30 years, a number of expensive noodle restaurants with a unit price of 0-0 yuan became popular, affected by the rational trend of consumption and the general environment, many expensive noodle restaurants began to reduce the unit price of customers in the past two years, such as Hefu Lao noodles have lowered the price of many rounds, and the main products have dropped to below 0 yuan.
"Now there are not many consumers who are willing to spend 50 yuan to eat a bowl of noodles." Wang Nan bluntly said that one of the core factors of whether a category can be opened all over the country and gain a firm foothold is whether its price is in line with the perception of the general public. 0 yuan for a bowl of noodles, consumers may be willing to try it, but it is difficult to guarantee the long-term repurchase rate.
In fact, at present, the new Benbang noodle restaurants are also mostly concentrated in the first-tier and new first-tier cities with relatively higher consumption capacity, but a bowl of noodles for 50-0 yuan is a high price in the entire noodle restaurant track, and it is still a big unknown whether it can open stores nationwide in the future.
Taste is another factor that should not be overlooked. For a long time, this noodle has only been popular in Shanghai and its surroundings, which has a lot to do with its taste limitations. This group of noodles pays attention to the "thick oil red sauce", and the overall taste is oily, sweet and salty, which is not suitable for everyone's eating habits, and the universality is not high.
△ Image source: Fuhe Noodle Restaurant public account
After trying it, many consumers commented, "It's a little salty, it's still very greasy after eating too much", "It's sweet and salty, I can't get used to this taste", "The pork liver noodles I ordered, it's super fishy and salty, it's really not delicious"......
At a time when the "freshly made style" of catering is prevalent, freshly prepared food has become the standard in restaurants, and the core selling point of this noodle restaurant is stir-fried toppings.
Red Meal Network noticed that there are many noodle restaurants on the market featuring "freshly fried toppings", among which the Sichuan and Hunan cuisine stir-fried toppings are more popular.
比如在全國擁有近400家門店的重慶酸辣粉品牌萊得快酸辣粉，去年8月推出了“萊得快·現炒澆頭面”子品牌，主打重慶現炒澆頭，目前在重慶、杭州等地開了6家店。2021年成立於湖南紹興的喜鵲拌面，主打辣椒炒肉等湘菜澆頭面，去年品牌名增加了“澆頭現炒才夠味”的後綴，在上海、深圳、杭州等城市有近40家門店。
The per capita consumption of these Sichuan and Hunan fried toppings is lower, basically 30-0 yuan, and it is mainly spicy, the taste is relatively universal, and the addiction is stronger. This will cause some competitive pressure for the new local noodle restaurants that are expanding.
△ Image source: Magpie mixed noodles merchant account
Perhaps considering this problem, many new local noodle restaurant brands have integrated Hunan cuisine elements into their products, and launched toppings such as fried yellow beef, spicy shredded chicken, and hot and sour chicken offal.
At the same time, these new-style local noodle restaurants have also learned the characteristics of the previous batch of expensive Lanzhou beef noodles, most of which provide free noodles, self-service soup, tea, etc. For example, Wang Fanxing Noodle Restaurant and Fu He Noodle Restaurant can also change the bibi noodles into soup noodles or rice bowls, giving customers more choices.
At present, these new Benbang noodle restaurants are still in a period of rapid development, how is their subsequent expansion in the national market? Red Meal Network will continue to pay attention.
This article was originally published by Red Meal Network (ID: hongcan18), author: Li Jinzhi; Edit: Fang Yuan.