New way of serving Omakase On The Go, a brilliant idea to fight the crisis! Go and create Omakase sushi delivered right to your doorstep.

Whether it's a small restaurant or a premium restaurant, when the COVID-19 crisis arrived, everyone was affected and had to find ways to adapt in almost the same way. As restaurant owners try their best to survive, we've seen some pretty cool ideas emerge. Some shops have not only managed to save their business but have also admirably maintained their core identity.

Similar to the famous premium omakase sushi restaurant 'Fillets' by 'Chef Randy-Chaichat Nopprapa' The mobile Omakase kitchen delivers umami to customers’ homes, satisfying Japanese food lovers with the same delicious taste as eating at a restaurant. Let’s take a look at this unusual and interesting idea.

One of the first famous Japanese and Omakase restaurants in Thailand

“Our restaurant has been open for almost 10 years, since there was not much omakase in Thailand. At that time, I had just returned from overseas. Both myself and our partners saw that the market in our country was ready to serve omakase-style sushi, which is a 'chef's choice' and the chef will select the best to serve to the customer. This was the origin of Fille, which was one of the first omakase restaurants in Thailand. After that, many other omakase restaurants followed.”

The impact of Covid hit hard. What needs to be done is to 'cut out the cancer' and preserve the 'core' of the shop.

“We were hit hard by COVID because after opening for about 7-8 years, we were quite successful, so we expanded the restaurant to include a bar and an a la carte zone. We became a large restaurant with a capacity of about 140 seats, which meant we had quite high monthly expenses. For example, we had about 20 employees. When the first wave of COVID hit and customers started to disappear because people had to practice social distancing. The first thing we did was to resize and restructure it to a smaller size to fit the situation.

Luckily, our lease at Lang Suan was up at the time, so we decided that we would move to a smaller place and cut out anything that was malignant. So we cut out the a la carte and bar parts, leaving only the omakase, which is the core of our restaurant. When the changes are made, it becomes 'Mini Me by Fillets' Omakase is now served for only 10 seats per round. One of the advantages is that we can focus on what we do best, so the results are better than before, both in terms of food and service, which is more meticulous.”

Overcoming the crisis strategically: From delivery to omakase food truck 'Fillets Go'

When COVID-19 hit, the number of customers at the restaurant dropped by more than 60 percent. Chef Randy said that in addition to deciding to adjust the model of the restaurant to be smaller, he also added strategies and ideas, one of which is definitely delivery, which is the survival of almost every restaurant. And what followed next was food trucks that moved the deliciousness to make sushi and deliver it directly to customers' homes.

Make a delivery menu as a series. It can be reheated, safe, and feels like it was just cooked.

“At first, when the government announced that all restaurants would close their stores in the first wave, we started to do delivery by adjusting our menu. When we did it, we felt that the response was not as good as it should have been. The main reason for that was because people were afraid of COVID safety, so they didn’t dare to eat raw fish. Since the recipe we had wasn’t really suitable for takeaway, we finally adjusted it. When wave 3 arrived, we made it D-Pot Don Khao, which is self-heating. We calculated that it was only 80 percent cooked, and when it arrived at the customer’s home, we asked them to heat it up another 20 percent, so it was like eating freshly cooked food from the restaurant. This is to solve the problem of fear of COVID from eating uncooked food. We also cook food in various series such as Kamameshi Series or Donburi Series so that customers do not get bored and can choose to eat as they like with peace of mind.”

Got the idea for a food truck from Pok Pok noodles, making sushi and delivering it to customers at home, more delicious than delivery.

“Actually, the restaurant itself has a service called ‘Omakase at Home’, where a chef is sent to make omakase for customers at home. However, due to the worsening COVID situation, I think that this service is not really suitable for this situation because we are afraid of our customers and our customers are afraid of us. Most importantly, we should not put ourselves and our staff at risk to that extent. Therefore, we decided to stop this service and focus on something that is sure and reduces risk.”

“What really works and meets the requirements is Food Truck Fillets Go When I was a kid, I loved eating Pok Pok noodles. Have you noticed that when you order noodles to eat at home, they don't taste as good as when you eat them at the restaurant? But when the Pok Pok noodles are delivered to you, they taste good. So I thought, If we drive a food truck and park it in front of the customer's house, make sushi and give it to them to eat inside the house, this would be better in terms of both the customers' delicious food and the safety of both parties. So we started to modify our partner's old truck. When we finished the truck, the first wave of COVID was over, so we didn't put it out to use yet. We just put it out to use in the third wave.

We are the only ones in the market that do this, so the response has been overwhelming, bookings are full, about 2 weeks in advance. When I thought of doing this, I didn’t expect the response to be this good. The first thing we thought of was to be able to continue running the business and to be able to keep all the employees so that everyone has income. And then we thought about how to not let the customers disappear from us. But it turned out that the response was overwhelming, so it turned out that we could make income equal to opening a physical store.”

How To Run an Omakase Food Truck?

● Emphasize communication. Because anything can happen when a car is on the road, such as traffic jams, rain, or a broken car, the shop and admin must be prepared to communicate at all times. When you are about to travel to a customer, you should send a message to inform them of how long the journey will take. If there is any reason that may cause a delay, you must immediately inform the customer.

● Select appropriate ingredients and menus. Because food trucks have limitations in terms of storing ingredients, for Filley restaurants that offer omakase sushi, they focus on menus that use aging and pickling processes quite a bit because it helps in keeping the food safe.

● When arriving at the customer's home, the car must be disinfected and cleaned again. Then the staff will prepare and put on protective gear and start making sushi and placing it on a plate to hand to the customer. There will be absolutely no direct contact between the staff and the customer.

●The shop's safety standards must be very good and must be communicated to customers. Because during this COVID situation, there are still customers who are worried that they may be infected from eating raw fish. Fillet Restaurant requires its employees to undergo regular tests. Just the ATK alone requires two tests per week. In addition, there are measures in place behind the scenes, such as requiring employees to report where they have been and who they have met each day to assess the risk on a daily basis.

● Spread the risk by rotating teams. Philly's food truck crew will be split into three rotating teams, and the teams will not meet each other at all, so that if one team is infected, the other teams will still be able to provide service.

● Regularly check the condition of the vehicle to ensure it is in good condition. Because if the car is not ready, problems may occur, such as a car breaking down on the customer's important day, which may cause damage. If the car really breaks down, there may be an emergency number to call a tow truck to come to the customer's house or appointment place because we will not disappoint the customer.

Strategy and situation assessment are important.

“For doing business during a crisis like this, I think it's like playing poker. The important thing is to have a strategy and know how to assess the situation. For example, assess yourself first to see how much strength you have, how much you can handle, whether you can wait, whether you need to do this or that right away. Having the will to fight is good, but fighting headlong without considering anything can lead to damage. I think the most important thing in a situation like this is: We have to think very wisely about whether what we spend will actually generate income. Because in this situation, it is not the time to try and make mistakes or take risks. Now is the time to be sure.

When we are confident that we can do it, then we will do it. For me, I have many restaurants. Now I have to choose to close some of them because I am not confident that if I do it, I will survive in this situation. It is better for me to save the remaining money first. When everything is over, at least we will have capital to fight again. It is better than suffering and losing the lump sum and having more debts.”

“Listening to news is also very important. Because how well we can adapt depends on the information we have. Most importantly, don't just think about what we want to do, but listen to the voices of our customers a lot to find out what they really need. Use that as a challenge, and then we can think of ways to meet the customers' needs. For me personally, I see that the thing that customers are most concerned about right now is safety. We have tried to solve that problem by implementing various measures for the restaurant and its employees, as well as providing a food truck service to bring omakase sushi to customers’ homes. This ensures that they will receive safe food.”