WB005: Sukiya
I lunch at Sukiya (Japanese: すき家) regularly, sometimes up to three times a week.
Sukiya is Japan's leading gyudon (Japanese: 牛丼) restaurant chain with over 2,000 outlets nationwide. The Sukiya near my home is open 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.
Gyudon means "beef bowl", and Sukiya says its gyudon is "a bowl of rice topped with thinly sliced beef and onions simmered in a mildly sweet soy based sauce". If there are three adjectives I'd describe gyudon with, it'd be "tasty", "simple" and "good value".
What's not to like?
Why Sukiya?
Sukiya's menu is anchored on variations of gyudon and other staple Japanese meals like curry or grilled fish on rice. You can order different sizes: small, medium, medium-extra, large, extra-large and MEGA (never tried before!).
You can either go a-la-carte, or have a set meal by picking and choosing one or more side dishes. These include salad, Japanese tsukemono (pickled vegetables) , raw egg and miso soup.
For creatures of habit like me, Sukiya offers a consistent but not overly repetitive (and boring) experience. For picky eaters, there is definitely a meal for you with the many meal permutations on offer.
Last but not least, there are also seasonal dishes! It is summer now and a popular ingredient in Japan is unagi (freshwater eel). Sukiya's seasonal item is "Unagyu don".
Sounds impressive, though it is simply a gyudon with an additional serving of unagi. You get the best of both worlds, I guess!
What I've eaten at Sukiya
Who owns Sukiya?
The Sukiya brand is owned by Zensho Holdings Ltd (TSO: 7550), a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company valued at ~JPY900 billion (~US$6 billion).
Zensho was founded by Mr. Kentaro Ogawa in 1982 and the company owns as many as 24 different restaurant chain brands.
Zensho has a bold corporation vision: Eradicating hunger and poverty from the world. The company's mission statement is to "provide safe and delicious food at affordable prices to people throughout the world".
This is true in Sukiya's case - it offers good value food popular among all walks of life: salarymen, blue collar workers, families and students. Sukiya is also expanding in countries including China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico.
The origins of Zensho's company name is interesting. According to the company, Mr. Ogawa named the company based on three words that sound similar to "Zensho":
- 全勝: Win everything
- 善商: Good business
- 禅商: Conduct business under the Zen Buddhism spirit
How can you forget a story like that? Crafting an appealing name, corporate mission or vision is something I feel many Japanese companies are good at. Other examples:
- Fast Retailing (owner of UNIQLO): Changing clothes. Changing conventional wisdom. Change the world.
- All Nippon Airways: Uniting the world in wonder
- Mitsui & Co.: Build brighter futures, everywhere
Anyway, you know your product is good when you have equally impressive competitors.
Other competitors
Sukiya competes with the likes of Yoshinoya (Japanese: 吉野家) and Matsuya (Japanese: 松屋).
Sukiya's competitors
These chains are also owned by Japanese listed companies, Yoshinoya by Yoshinoya Holdings Co., Ltd and Matsuya by Matsuya Foods Holdings Co Ltd, respectively valued at ~JPY200bil (~US$1.36bil) and ~JPY105bil (~US$0.72bil ).
I have tried the Yoshinoya but not Matsuya.
At the end of the day, I stick to Sukiya not for any particular reason, but more due to its good value and convenience: on my walk to the train station, Sukiya is there, 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.
--Ends
