Itsu has launched its sushi-free restaurant, in Regent’s Place, with the menu solely focused on hot food.
As revealed by Itsu founder Julian Metcalfe at MCA’s Food to Go Conference last month, the Asian-inspired fast food brand is looking to expand its focus on its hot menu, with this new concept restaurant designed to enable the brand to challenge traditional QSR operators such as McDonald’s and KFC.
The new hot menu at Regent’s Place near Warren Street Underground Station will be the first of three hot food restaurants to open this year, as part of Itsu’s plans to open 18 sites this year, including a location in Wood Green.
During a fireside chat at the conference, Metcalfe said its new format stores would have an improved menu, new equipment and better lighting.
The brand said the decision to focus on dishes such as bao, broths, dumpling and noodles – made with sustainable ingredients – is due to consumer demand for nutritious affordable food, with these types of dishes seeing a significant uplift in sales.
Metcalfe commented: “Although sushi has been the bedrock on which itsu was built, in order to provide healthy fast-food that will challenge the McDonalds’ of this world we need to build on our success in hot food innovation.
“We’ve been busy perfecting how to serve healthy food fast, using our new steamers, the antithesis of the deep fat fryer. It’s now, thanks to our 20-year journey of innovation with cooking techniques, equipment and building a brand people trust, that we’re able to get the ball rolling.”
New dishes include chicken big’bao which is a fluffy bao stuffed with a signature blend of finely diced chicken, spring onion, soy sauce and shitake & wood ear mushrooms, as well as a new frozen dessert for Easter – a chocolate bao bun.
