Two weeks ago, my family and I did some “market research.” We ate dinner at the Kura Sushi restaurant in Austin, TX. Pictured above is my eldest daughter checking out the conveyor belt of sushi plates.
It had been a couple years since the last time we had eaten there. Just in two years, the experience was different and, in many ways, improved.
Let’s hand out grades…
FOOD QUALITY: B-plus
The yellowtail roll, the sockeye salmon roll, the American beef roll, the wasabi, the fried dumplings… all delicious.
The diversity of sushi is another selling point. Some people might want to eat just one kind of sushi. Many people like to experiment a little and try out new flavors and proteins. Kura makes it easy.
The miso soup wasn’t great and the cheesecake was okay, thus the grade.
FOOD SERVICE: A
The food kept moving on the conveyor belt and just as I was wanting more, I’d just choose from the next few sushi rolls that came by. Grab, eat, get another. There also seems to be a psychological effect happening. Grabbing one of the “scarce” yellowtail rolls— before another table can grab it— feels like… winning?
When we ordered specialty plates— fried dumplings and miso soup— those dishes arrived on the upper conveyor belt right at our table, hot and fast.
When we ordered drinks, a robot delivered them…
ROBOT DRINK SERVERS: A-minus
These robots blew away my expectations. On our way to our table, I stepped in front of one of these robots and it swerved to dodge me. No problem! It just went around me like any waiter would have done. But it’s… a robot.
When we got to our table, I used the table-side ordering screen and ordered 2 waters. A minute later, a robot arrived, rotated to face us, and then paused with our waters, which we then grabbed.
The obvious benefit of robot drink servers is they are much cheaper than human drink servers. Kura enhances the customer experience while eliminating the labor costs of taking a drink order and delivering a drink order. This is a big deal for efficiency.
The less obvious benefit of the robots is they are fun! My toddler loved watching them zoom by— which, when they are empty, they go faster. Smart!
The robots aren’t perfect, which is why the grade isn’t an A-plus. And, of course, it was us who caused the hiccup. We parked our stroller next to our table, and that caused a traffic jam when 2 robots needed to get by at the same time. There just wasn’t enough floor space. A (human) staff member had to come and press the red button (see in photo) on the top of the robot and manually maneuver it. The traffic jam lasted 45 seconds.
PAYMENT: A-minus
Truth be told, my wife thinks this is an A. We checked out right from the table. On the touchscreen (where we order drinks and specialty dishes), we just hit CHECK OUT AT TABLE. Then, a QR code popped up. My wife scanned the code on her phone, and proceeded to make the payment from her phone. I watched every step of the way. 90 seconds from start to finish. No credit cards. No server. No signatures. Easy as pie.
The prices have gone up significantly from 2 years ago. Each Kura plate was $3. But that hasn’t seemed to deter customers. We went on a Sunday at 4:45pm, and there was a 30-minute waiting time.
I’m a tough grader, so I want payment to be even more frictionless, but table-side payment is 10x superior to the old restaurant method: call for server to come and give check —> give credit card to server —> server goes and runs credit card —> server brings you check —> sign check —> wait for server to come and collect signed check.
APP / WAITLIST: B-plus
Popular restaurants are annoying in that you have to either A) wait in a long line or B) make a reservation. Kura solves this problem by having a waiting line that you get into from the comfort of your own home. For us, the wait time was said to be 45 minutes, giving us just enough time to get the toddler and baby and baby backpack and everybody in the car and blah blah blah. Kids.
The app is still not great. The management team is migrating to a new app technology.
The benefit to the business is getting customers to download the Kura Sushi App and have it on their phones. Membership numbers for Kura are astounding, which I’m guessing is motivated by being able to wait in line from home. Excellent job in leveraging that wait time by Kura. It remains an opportunity to the company to further leverage the membership base of customers (as Starbucks, for example, has done).
“KURA SUSHI EXPERIENCE”: A
It’s rare for a restaurant to hit so many demographics, but it sure seems like Kura gets everyone. High schoolers like it. Toddlers like it. Sushi lovers like it. Tourists like it.
Kura truly is fun for the whole family. There was a grandfather waiting with his family to be seated. As one robot zoomed by, the grandkids shouted excitedly. The grandfather begrudgingly said, “Oh… so is that why you love this place?” There you have it. Kura is winning over skeptics one at at time ;)
OVERALL: A
We stayed for 45 minutes. We spent $50 (including tip). We enjoyed the food. We enjoyed the place. We’ll be happy to come back, eat the sushi, and conduct more market research.
PS I’ve been nibbling shares of KRUS 0.00%↑ the past two weeks as the company is executing above expectations on its strategic initiatives like table-side payment and robot drink servers.