Samurai Sam's Tests Asian Fusion Concept

The quick-service restaurant explores Pan-Asian cuisine and customization to stand out in the Asian segment.

By Maya Norris, Managing Editor -- Chain Leader, 6/4/2008 3:24:00 PM

Samurai Sam's Asian Fusion features more Pan-Asian dishes and allows customers to customize their meals.

If all goes well, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Samurai Sam's Teriyaki Grill may evolve into Samurai Sam's Asian Fusion. Parent Kahala Corp., which owns 12 other quick-service and fast-casual concepts, debuted the new brand in April at a test unit in Los Angeles. Brand President Sean Wieting spoke to Chain Leader about how rebranding the Teriyaki Grill concept will help the 79-unit chain differentiate itself from competitors and set it up for expansion.

Why change Samurai Sam's Teriyaki Grill into Samurai Sam's Asian Fusion restaurant?

There are some things that we identified as deficiencies such as speed of service, the customer's ability to customize their menu, customer satisfaction ultimately and guest service. And those were all areas we felt that we could improve upon and ultimately increase our top-line revenue. We didn't feel like we had to change food so much as change the presentation and the service style. So it's more of a shift of service style than anything.

And then the name of Asian Fusion brought in a couple of different categories, bringing in Chinese to what formerly was purely Japanese, and we also brought in some Thai items.

Why did you decide to expand the menu?

Really to appeal to a broader customer base. When you look at the statistics that are out there in terms of the appeal of Asian food, it is not really necessarily the appeal of one particular food, of Japanese or Chinese. We want to try to incorporate the best of all worlds. The fusion concept is something that has been growing throughout the country in small pockets, but no large group has tried to capitalize on that.

Can you give me an example of some of the new menu items that are representative of this fusion cuisine?

One of the most popular so far has been Orange Peel Chicken, which is very familiar with the Chinese

Samurai Sam's expanded it's menu with Chinese items such as Orange Peel Chicken.

customers. It's something that we've never had. The misconception with a lot of customers is that Samurai Sam's is Chinese food, it's Asian. Especially in new markets, we have people coming into our stores looking for popular Chinese items, not knowing that Samurai Sam's is a Japanese concept. So we're able to capture the people that have identified Chinese with Asian food.

And also some Thai items as well: The Coconut Curry is a new product that has done well. We also have a Fire Cracker Beef.

And we've also tried to broaden our range of levels of spiciness. We've done some research that customers appreciate varying levels of spiciness.

You had also mentioned that the customer experience has evolved. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Guests can now customize dishes such as Fire Cracker Beef with a variety of vegetables and sauces.

At the end of the day, when a customer leaves Samurai Sam's, we want them to have the best experience they could possibly have, meaning that they get a product that is exactly to their liking. It's tough to do when you have a menu board that's up above a countertop, and they have to sometimes read the fine print as to what comes in which dish.

We've seen a lot of success in concepts that have put that customization piece right to the customer. A customer can pick and choose the items that they would like. In the past, for instance, if you came to Samurai Sam's and would like a yakisoba with steak but you didn't know it came with green pepper, and say the customer sits down, they don't like green pepper, suddenly they're picking those out. We didn't fully satisfy that customer.

Now with the Asian Fusion concept, they have the items right in front of them and have the ability to build their own. As they move down the line, our staff will help them pick the vegetables that they would like. And if there's something that they would like more or less, they can tailor that to their liking. There shouldn't be anything in their product that they're not going to be familiar with or happy with. And if there's something that might be a question mark, we give them the ability to put it on the side.

What about the decor?

Samurai Sam's added Lettuce Wraps to its appetizer section.

We wanted to go with a modern Asian feel that incorporated some Japanese themes and some Chinese themes. But ultimately we want our customer to have a comfortable place to dine and also a place that moreso gives them a comfortable place to dine in the evening. Our lunch sales have always dominated our evening sales. So that's one of the pieces that we're evaluating most closely is the decor items.

We're evaluating all pieces of the decor including our product photography, the floors, countertops, everything, because we're also looking at bringing our cost of entry for this concept to as low a cost of entry as we can. We're not comfortable saying what that cost of entry is yet because we're still evaluating. Obviously the lower it is, the more people who can afford to get into a Samurai Sam's Asian Fusion.

How do the changes help Samurai Sam's stand out from its competitors and position it for national growth?

What Asian concepts out there give their customer the ability to customize their menu? Other than a few local restaurants, there really aren't any. The predominant national Asian chains, our competitors, they really don't give the customer the ability to easily customize their menu. They may have the option out there, but the customer may not be familiar with how they even pursue that option. We allow a customer to easily make a menu item to their liking.

The second is, you look at how do you prepare a product and keep it fresh and have the appearance that everything is fresh. All of the cooking going on is all within view of the customer. You can see every piece of equipment that we're using. Our grill that we use is in plain sight. Our steamed rice cookers. Everything is right in view of the customer so that they can see that the food is made fresh. They can literally see our grill cook. They can see him taking the temperature of a chicken, making sure that it's the appropriate temperature and taking it off the grill, cutting the chicken and replenishing it into our service pan. It's all very fresh.

And the other aspect is, we're a healthy concept. We don't have deep fat fryers. We don't dominantly fry everything. The only thing that we have that has a small fried aspect to it is our Chinese chicken that is a wok-seared chicken and shrimp. So we're very healthy. We've seen already in our test stores that customers are really capitalizing upon the fact that we are healthy. And there are many studies out there that show America is gravitating towards a healthier lifestyle and healthier eating. And we're trying to serve that segment of that population.

What metrics do you have in mind to gauge success of the brand?

Sales are always a good indicator, but I also look at speed of service. So that three minute number is a key number. The faster that we're able to serve the customer and keep the integrity of our product and keep the freshness aspect-all those things are what's going to take this concept and how we're really going to get repeat customer traffic.

That's the other thing too. At the end of the day, you want your customer to come back, have a good experience and return another day. And I tell crew members and management this all the time, our goal from the time a customer walks through the door is to give them an experience and a meal that makes them want to come back another day. And if we're able to do that, then it's a win.