Yoshi’s Brand Experience & Design.

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Yoshi’s Brand Experience & Design.

Former sushi chef exploring how restaurant branding, menus, and guest decisions shape better businesses. Less about aesthetics.

Sharing observations from Japanese and Western restaurant perspectives. More about why restaurants succeed.

09/10/2026

I saw that Chipotle had launched two limited-time items at the same time for the first time in the brand’s history.

It made me think of McDonald’s and Starbucks in Japan. I used to see several seasonal items come out together pretty often. At least for me, choosing between them always felt natural—and honestly, that was part of the fun.

I sometimes wonder if food culture has something to do with that. In Japan, a set meal can put several small dishes in front of you at once, with each one being part of the same meal. Maybe that has some influence on how people feel about choosing from several new or limited-time items. And maybe the same kind of launch lands a little differently depending on the country or food culture. I don’t know, but it made me curious.

What I kept thinking about, though, was the restaurant’s intention.

Say a restaurant already knows it’s launching a new food item and a new drink next month. There’s a reason each one is there. They might be intended to share the spotlight, or one may clearly be the main attraction with the other playing a supporting role. In some cases, the point may be for everything to come together as one seasonal menu.

But is that how the guest sees them?

That’s the part I find interesting. Not simply how many new items are being launched, but whether guests see how those items are meant to fit together.

If you were launching a few new things at your restaurant at the same time, how would you want guests to see them fitting together?

Source:
Chipotle Newsroom
“CHIPOTLE MARKS A BRAND FIRST WITH ALL-NEW POLLO ASADO AND THE DEBUT OF CHILI LIME CHIPS”
August 31, 2026
https://newsroom.chipotle.com/2026-08-31-CHIPOTLE-MARKS-A-BRAND-FIRST-WITH-ALL-NEW-POLLO-ASADO-AND-THE-DEBUT-OF-CHILI-LIME-CHIPS

09/03/2026

When I worked as a sushi chef, I was taught that takeout sushi wasn’t just about putting it in a container and calling it done.

Would it fall apart on the way home? Would it shift around? You had to think about what would happen after it left the restaurant.

The first time I saw ramen to go in the U.S., it made me think about the same thing. They kept the noodles and broth separate. But ramen eaten right away at the restaurant and ramen taken home and eaten later just aren’t the same.

Of course, packaging can do a lot. A different container. A different way of packing it. For some dishes, those changes can make a big difference in how well the food holds up as takeout.

But I think there’s another question worth asking. “Can we make this dish work for takeout?” And also, “If we think about the condition it may actually be in when the guest eats it, do we still want to offer this dish as takeout?”

Once the food leaves the restaurant, we can’t fully control how long the trip takes, how it’s carried, or when the guest actually eats it. So being able to make a dish work for takeout and actually wanting to offer it that way aren’t quite the same thing. That’s something I’ve been thinking about lately.

For some dishes, better packaging may be enough to make takeout work really well. For others, after thinking it through, the decision might be: “We don’t offer this one for takeout.” And I think that can be a valid decision too.

It’s not only about whether the food can be offered as takeout. It’s also about what you want the food to be like when the guest eats it.

If you picked just one menu item your restaurant currently offers for takeout and pictured what it might actually be like when the guest eats it, would you still want to keep offering it for takeout?

08/27/2026

You already know what you want to order. Then the server comes over, and suddenly you realize you have no idea how to say the name. You pause, point at the menu, and say, “this one.”

When I worked in Japanese restaurants, I saw this a lot with names like karaage and gyoza. They were romanized, but that didn’t make the pronunciation obvious to English-speaking guests.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it. These days, I catch myself doing the same thing at restaurants serving food from languages I don’t know. If I can’t figure out how to say the name, I point.

Of course, I don’t think keeping the original dish names is the problem. The name itself can carry part of the food and culture, and I don’t think everything needs to be replaced with English.

And pointing works. The server understands, and the order goes through. At the most basic level, the restaurant has done what it needs to do.

But does that mean the guest felt comfortable ordering?

I don’t think those are quite the same thing.

When you look at a menu, it’s worth noticing not only whether guests can choose a dish, but what happens when they actually have to order it. That small moment can be easy to miss when the order still goes through.

In your restaurant, how are guests actually ordering those dishes?

08/20/2026

Compared with when I worked in restaurants years ago, it feels like guests now spend more time quietly waiting with their phones. Social media, videos, messages—maybe having more ways to occupy the time is part of it.

But lately, watching people wait has made me notice something else. There’s the wait at the door for a table. Then, after they sit down, there can be another stretch before a server gets to them. Once they order, they’re waiting again for the food. Thinking about it this way made me realize how many separate moments of waiting there actually are in a restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, those moments are handled as different parts of the operation. The host may be keeping track of who’s next; once guests are seated, the server takes over; after the order goes in, the kitchen has the ticket. Everything can be moving along normally, but the guest can’t necessarily see all of that happening.

At the door, someone may be wondering whether they’re actually checked in and in line. If they’ve been sitting for a while and no one has come by, they may wonder whether anyone has noticed them. And if the food seems to be taking a while, they might start thinking about whether it’s still being made or whether something happened. The amount of time can be similar, but what they’re waiting for in each moment is a little different.

Waitlist, service speed, and ticket time are all different things to watch operationally. But to the guest, each one is still time spent waiting, and what they’re expecting from the restaurant can change with the moment. So I don’t think the number of minutes tells you everything about the wait.

The next time you see someone waiting in your restaurant, what are they actually waiting for?

08/06/2026

Even on a relatively large smartphone screen, there are moments when enlarging the text on a QR menu makes it harder to understand where you are in the menu.

The dish names are readable. The prices are visible. Yet you may still find yourself moving around the screen, trying to remember where you were and what you were comparing. It begins to feel less like reading and more like searching.

With a paper menu, it is easier to understand where you are within the page. Categories, dish names, and prices can remain within the same field of view. Comparing, considering, and deciding can happen simply by moving your eyes across the page.

A smartphone removes that overview. The screen only shows a small section of the menu at any given moment. The words can be enlarged, but their relationship to the rest of the menu cannot. It can feel like viewing the entire menu through a small opening.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a QR code. It provides quick access and makes updates or corrections easier. But those are primarily operational advantages for the restaurant. They do not automatically make the menu easier for guests to read.

Reaching the menu quickly and choosing from it without getting lost are not the same thing.

What would you notice if you opened your restaurant’s menu on the same screen your guests use?

08/03/2026

The bill only shows part of what a guest is paying for.

Food and price are visible. But service, atmosphere, comfort, cleanliness, and the ease of the experience all shape whether that total feels worth it.

This Reel is based on L.E.K. Consulting’s “The End of Price-Led Growth: The 2026 Restaurant Playbook.”

Read the full post on the Feed.

07/31/2026

Before you change anything, decide what must stay.

A restaurant can update its look without losing what regular guests recognize—the familiar details, atmosphere, and experiences that made the place matter in the first place.

This Reel is a short introduction to my recent post:

NEW LOOK. SAME MEMORY?

Read the full post on my Page.
The direct link is in the comments.

07/22/2026

If you had to raise your prices, what would give your guests a reason to keep choosing your restaurant?

Many restaurant owners have raised prices recently or are considering doing so. When food and labor costs increase, adjusting menu prices may be unavoidable.

In its 2026 Restaurant Playbook, L.E.K. Consulting argues that price-led growth is reaching its limit. The report suggests that restaurants will need to focus more on traffic, visit frequency, and the value guests feel they receive.

What stayed with me was not the price increase itself. I kept thinking about what makes a guest feel that a higher price is still worth paying.

A restaurant bill is not only about the food. Guests also experience the service, atmosphere, cleanliness, sense of comfort, ease of ordering, and the time they expected to enjoy when they chose that restaurant.

If the food and service appear largely unchanged while the price rises, guests may simply feel that the same experience now costs more. If the experience itself feels weaker, accepting that increase becomes even more difficult.

Guests are not paying for food alone. They are also paying for the feeling that the full experience is worth the price.

This is not an argument against raising prices. It is a question of whether, at the same time, a restaurant is strengthening the value guests recognize and care about.

If you needed to raise your prices today, what would your guests be able to say had become better besides the price?

07/16/2026

Station Casinos just marked 50 years in Las Vegas with a new brand identity. The company says it was built from its history, inspired by the original Bingo Palace mark from the 1970s.

https://stationcasinosblog.com/2026/07/celebrating-50-years-station-casinos-unveils-new-brand-identity-rooted-in-its-history/

My first reaction was more mixed.

Looking at the old and new marks, what I noticed first was the change. The original Bingo Palace logo felt very specific to its era and place. The new wordmark looks cleaner and more contemporary.

I imagine some people might see it as not so different from many recent rebrands. That was honestly close to my first impression too.

Station Casinos says its history is embedded in the details. But looking at the visual alone, I kept wondering what from the original was actually carrying forward.

The same question can apply to restaurants.

When a place expands or refreshes, the things regulars recognize may have nothing to do with the logo. It could be a dish that has always been on the menu, or the feeling of the place on a busy night.

What must still feel familiar?

With respect to the original visual identity developed for Station Casinos' 50th Anniversary campaign, this cover reinterprets elements of its visual language for editorial commentary. It is an independent editorial work, created solely for commentary and discussion, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Station Casinos.

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