Conveyor belt sushi
Encyclopedia
is the popular English
translation for Japanese fast-food sushi. In Australia
, it is also known as sushi train (as the sushi goes around a track on a train, rather than a conveyor belt). In South Korea, conveyor belt sushi has become popular and is known as 회전초밥 (revolving sushi).
Kaiten-zushi is a sushi
restaurant
where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt
that winds through the restaurant and moves past every table and counter seat. Customers may place special orders, but most simply pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving along the conveyor belt
. The final bill is based on the number and type of plates of the consumed sushi. Some restaurants use a fancier presentation such as miniature wooden "sushi boats" traveling small canals or miniature locomotive cars.
The most remarkable feature of conveyor belt sushi is the stream of plates winding through the restaurant typically in a clockwise rotation to make it easier grab the plate as it passes by. The selection is usually not limited to sushi; it may also include drink in Tetra Pak
s, fruit
s, dessert
s, soup
s, and other food
s. Beer
can be ordered from the attendants, often served with an empty plate to keep track of the bill. Conveyor belt sushi restaurants are usually considered toward the bottom end of both price and quality compared to traditional sushi restaurants but have a popular appeal nonetheless.
Busy sushi restaurants serve the best quality, as the sushi gets eaten faster and does not get dry while rotating for a long time. Some restaurants have RFID tags or other systems in place to remove sushi that has rotated for too long. Some inexpensive conveyor belt sushi restaurants may imitate an expensive dish using less expensive ingredients. For example, they may replace chopped fatty tuna
belly meat with other fish meat. Some larger chains can keep down costs for quality food by ordering in large amounts.
Condiments and tools are usually found near the seats, for example pickled ginger
, chopsticks
, soy sauce
, and small dishes for the soy sauce. Wasabi
may be either at the seat or on the conveyor belt. Self-served tea
and ice water is usually complimentary, with cups stacked on a shelf above the conveyor belt and teabags or green tea
powder in a storage container on the table. There is also a hot water faucet at the tables to make tea. On the shelves are usually wet paper towel
s and plastic
boxes to store sushi for take-out customers.
s. A button above the conveyor belt can be used to call the attendants to count the plates. Some restaurants have a counting machine where the customer drops the plates to be counted automatically.
skills are needed to read a menu or to order, and there is no danger of leftover food for small eaters or remaining appetite for big eaters due to the endless supply of small portions.
brewery. After five years of development, including the design of the conveyor belt and the speed of operations, Shiraishi opened the first conveyor belt sushi Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Osaka
in 1958, eventually expanding to up to 250 restaurants all over Japan. However, by 2001, his company had just 11 restaurants. Shiraishi also invented a robotic sushi, served by robot
s, but this idea has not had commercial success.
Initially in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, all customers were seated to face the conveyor belt, but this was not popular with groups. Subsequently, tables were added at right angles to the conveyor belt, allowing up to six people to sit at one table. This also reduced the length of conveyor belt needed to serve a certain number of people.
A conveyor belt sushi boom started in 1970 after a conveyor belt sushi restaurant served sushi on the Osaka World Expo
. Another boom started in 1980, when eating out became more popular, and finally in the late 1990s, when inexpensive restaurants became popular after the burst of the economic bubble.Recently, Akindo Sushiro became the most famous brand in 2010 in Japan.
A new variant of conveyor belt sushi has a touch screen monitor at every table, showing a virtual aquarium with many fish. The customer can order the sushi by touching the type of fish, which then is brought to the table by conveyor belt. An example of this can be seen at the Fugu Restaurant at Eureka Tower
, Melbourne
.
In recent times, the conveyor belt sushi has inspired the creation of conveyor belt dim sum
.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translation for Japanese fast-food sushi. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, it is also known as sushi train (as the sushi goes around a track on a train, rather than a conveyor belt). In South Korea, conveyor belt sushi has become popular and is known as 회전초밥 (revolving sushi).
Kaiten-zushi is a sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt
Conveyor belt
A conveyor belt consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley...
that winds through the restaurant and moves past every table and counter seat. Customers may place special orders, but most simply pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving along the conveyor belt
Conveyor belt
A conveyor belt consists of two or more pulleys, with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley...
. The final bill is based on the number and type of plates of the consumed sushi. Some restaurants use a fancier presentation such as miniature wooden "sushi boats" traveling small canals or miniature locomotive cars.
Visiting a conveyor belt sushi restaurant
Tetra Pak
Tetra Pak is a multinational food processing and packaging company of Swedish origin. It was founded in 1951 in Lund, Sweden, by Ruben Rausing. It was Erik Wallenberg who invented the tetrahedral package, today known as Tetra Classic...
s, fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s, dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
s, soup
Soup
Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...
s, and other food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
s. Beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
can be ordered from the attendants, often served with an empty plate to keep track of the bill. Conveyor belt sushi restaurants are usually considered toward the bottom end of both price and quality compared to traditional sushi restaurants but have a popular appeal nonetheless.
Tuna
Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...
belly meat with other fish meat. Some larger chains can keep down costs for quality food by ordering in large amounts.
Special orders
If customers cannot find their desired sushi, they can make special orders. Sometimes speaker phones are available for this purpose above the conveyor belt. If a small quantity of sushi is ordered, it is placed on the conveyor belt but marked so other customers know that this dish was ordered by someone. Usually, the plate with the sushi sits on a labeled cylindrical stand to indicate that this is a special order. For large orders the sushi may also be brought to the customer by the attendants.Condiments and tools are usually found near the seats, for example pickled ginger
Gari (ginger)
is a type of tsukemono . It is sweet, thinly sliced young ginger that has been marinated in a solution of sugar and vinegar. Gari is often served and eaten after sushi, and is sometimes called sushi ginger...
, chopsticks
Chopsticks
Chopsticks are small, often tapered, sticks used in pairs of equal length as the traditional eating utensils of China and its diaspora, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Northern provinces of Laos, Thailand and Burma. Generally believed to have originated in ancient China, they can also be found in some...
, soy sauce
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
, and small dishes for the soy sauce. Wasabi
Wasabi
, also known as Japanese horseradish, is a member of the Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. Its root is used as a condiment and has an extremely strong flavor. Its hotness is more akin to that of a hot mustard rather than the capsaicin in a chili pepper,...
may be either at the seat or on the conveyor belt. Self-served tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
and ice water is usually complimentary, with cups stacked on a shelf above the conveyor belt and teabags or green tea
Green tea
Green tea is made solely from the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea originates from China and has become associated with many cultures throughout Asia. It has recently become more widespread in the West, where black tea is traditionally...
powder in a storage container on the table. There is also a hot water faucet at the tables to make tea. On the shelves are usually wet paper towel
Paper towel
A paper towel is an absorbent textile made from paper instead of cloth. Unlike cloth towels, paper towels are disposable and intended to be used only once. Paper towels soak up water because they are loosely woven which enables water to travel between them, even against gravity...
s and plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
boxes to store sushi for take-out customers.
Billing
The bill is calculated by counting the number and type of plates of the consumed sushi. Plates with different colors, patterns, or shapes have different prices, usually ranging from 100 yen to 500 yen. The cost of the different plates is shown on signboards or posters in the restaurant. In general, cheap items come on plain plates, and the level of plate decoration is related to the price. The most expensive items tend to come on gold colored plates. Expensive items may be placed on two plates, with the price being the sum of the prices of the individual plates. Some conveyor belt sushi restaurant chains, such as Kappa Sushi or Otaru Zushi, have a fixed price of 100 yen for every plate. This is similar to the phenomenon of 100-yen shop100-yen shop
100 Yen Shops are common Japanese shops in the vein of American dollar stores. Stocking a variety of items from clothing to stationery, housewares to food, each item is priced at precisely 100 yen. A recent variation of the 100 Yen Shops are 99 Yen Shops. Daiei also operates 88 Yen stores...
s. A button above the conveyor belt can be used to call the attendants to count the plates. Some restaurants have a counting machine where the customer drops the plates to be counted automatically.
Targeted customers
Conveyor belt sushi restaurants are often frequented by value-minded consumers and those who may not have time for a leisurely meal. They are popular among foreigners and families with children: No Japanese languageJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
skills are needed to read a menu or to order, and there is no danger of leftover food for small eaters or remaining appetite for big eaters due to the endless supply of small portions.
History and economics
Conveyor belt sushi was invented by Yoshiaki Shiraishi (1914–2001), who had problems staffing his small sushi restaurant and had difficulties managing the restaurant by himself. He got the idea of a conveyor belt sushi after watching beer bottles on a conveyor belt in an AsahiAsahi Breweries
Asahi Breweries, Ltd. is a leading brewery and soft drink company based in Tokyo, Japan. The company has a 40% share of the Japanese beer market....
brewery. After five years of development, including the design of the conveyor belt and the speed of operations, Shiraishi opened the first conveyor belt sushi Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
in 1958, eventually expanding to up to 250 restaurants all over Japan. However, by 2001, his company had just 11 restaurants. Shiraishi also invented a robotic sushi, served by robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s, but this idea has not had commercial success.
Initially in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, all customers were seated to face the conveyor belt, but this was not popular with groups. Subsequently, tables were added at right angles to the conveyor belt, allowing up to six people to sit at one table. This also reduced the length of conveyor belt needed to serve a certain number of people.
A conveyor belt sushi boom started in 1970 after a conveyor belt sushi restaurant served sushi on the Osaka World Expo
Expo '70
was a World's Fair held in Suita, Osaka, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. The theme of the Expo was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese Expo '70 is often referred to as Ōsaka Banpaku...
. Another boom started in 1980, when eating out became more popular, and finally in the late 1990s, when inexpensive restaurants became popular after the burst of the economic bubble.Recently, Akindo Sushiro became the most famous brand in 2010 in Japan.
A new variant of conveyor belt sushi has a touch screen monitor at every table, showing a virtual aquarium with many fish. The customer can order the sushi by touching the type of fish, which then is brought to the table by conveyor belt. An example of this can be seen at the Fugu Restaurant at Eureka Tower
Eureka Tower
Eureka Tower is a skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officially opened on 11 October 2006...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
In recent times, the conveyor belt sushi has inspired the creation of conveyor belt dim sum
Dim sum
Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates...
.
External links
- Japan's Sushi Industry Seeks Opportunities Overseas History of Conveyor - Kaiten sushi
- Conveyor belt sushi - More picture and video