What started as a survival initiative during the pandemic has turned into a new business adventure for Lin Feng and her husband Gong Yao from China. To local media JydskeVestkysten, the couple talks about how serving sushi as takeaway during the pandemic spiked their new adventure.
Lin Feng came from China to Denmark in 1997 and worked at several restaurants in both Copenhagen and Esbjerg before she and her husband Gong Yao opened the restaurant Big World and later Kong Svend’s Steak House in the city of Varde. To keep their business running during the pandemic, the couple started making takeaway sushi and it has been such a great success that they are now converting Kong Svends Steak House into a sushi restaurant serving sushi ad libitum.
Kaito Sushi is set to open on 12 May and because the owners want the restaurant to be a place where the whole family can come and eat together they are keeping a few of their popular steak dishes on the menu. The focus will however be on sushi and sushi ad libitum is the concept, 44-year-old Lin Feng explains.
Making sushi takes time because every single piece has to be decorated nicely so the couple has brought in two new sushi chefs. Lin Feng has been ready to convert their restaurant for years but it has taken her husband Gong Yao a little bit longer to let go of Kong Svend’s Steak House. “But then our takeaway sushi became so popular that he came and said that he could see that it was time for us to take the plunge”, Lin Feng explains.
The concept of Kaito Sushi is sushi ad libitum but customers still place the order at the table so it’s completely fresh sushi they get. Ling Feng emphasizes however that to avoid customers ordering more sushi than they can eat, there will be an extra cost of leftover sushi. “This is partly to counter food waste, but also because sushi is something that takes a long time to make. There is a lot of needlework in each piece of sushi. It is a small work of art that needs to be decorated and made delicious. But customers can order from the menu all the time while they are here, and there is also ice cream and coffee on the menu, Lin Feng explains.
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