Here are two fast food chains that I think are interesting in Hong Kong.
The first, Café de Coral, is from Hong Kong. It has a very distinctive board at the entrance where meal placards are hanged and moved manually by waiters dressed like flight attendants. Other smaller chains have also this system and I don’t know if Café de Coral was the first one to use it. But it still makes the experience feel different. It materializes a menu that is changing day by day, even hours by hours between the breakfast, lunch, dinner and meals being sold out. But the fact that it is updated manually makes it somehow more playful and trustworthy than a digital screen, even though the entire process flow seems to be anyway automated.
The second, Pepper Lunch from Japan, is a genius marketing concept. People are served food on hot iron plates while it still sizzles. People can then ‘cook’ there meal according to their own preferences. The plates are intriguing, make a lot of noise and are always grasping attention even in a food court full of competitors. TV screens explain customers how they can mix there food, which might be useful for newbies but more importantly reinforces the message that there is a specific way to eat a Pepper Lunch, for newbies and experts, which adds to the buzz and playfulness. One disadvantage for them though: the hot iron plates are not children friendly.
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