Opening a sushi bar - how to do it and what equipment you need

In recent years, Japanese cuisine has gained tremendous popularity in our country. Today, sushi and rolls are on the menu of almost any cafe or restaurant.

Even in a small city you can find a huge number of sushi bars.

Therefore, the business idea of making and selling sushi rolls at home has good prospects. Let's look at all the nuances.

Choosing a format for selling sushi and rolls

There are several options for starting a business selling Japanese cuisine.

The format of the business largely depends on the size of the start-up capital, the location of the outlet (main street or residential area) and the locality.

Option 1. Shop - trading island

They open on the first or second floor of a large shopping center. This format involves organizing a small catering outlet offering customers ready-made Japanese cuisine. They can be prepared at the point of sale or supplied from a separate kitchen.

How to open an “island store” in a shopping center

To organize a business, you need to buy a trading module in the “island” format (from 250,000 rubles), refrigeration equipment and a microwave (from 80,000 rubles) and rent a retail space with an area of 6-8 m2 (from 20,000 rubles per month). Investments to start the project will amount to 350,000 rubles. From the working staff, two cooks, a cashier and an administrator are needed.

The advantage of this format: you are located in a place with high traffic, which means you are guaranteed a flow of clients. The main disadvantage is the high rental rates, the amount of which depends on the administration of the shopping center.

Option 2. Store “everything for sushi at home”

This format involves opening a store selling goods necessary for making sushi and rolls at home. These stores sell rice, soy sauce, chopsticks, ready-made sushi sets, nori sushi, wasabi and other ingredients for preparing Japanese dishes. Unlike the first option, this format does not involve opening your own kitchen. This is not a catering outlet, but a specialized grocery store.

Choosing premises for a “everything for sushi” store

To organize a business, you will need to rent a room with an area of 10 m2. If the premises are larger than 25 m2, then you can open a store in a self-service format and offer visitors a wide range of products. The main costs of starting a business are associated with the purchase of commercial equipment, minor repairs to the premises and the purchase of a product range.

Financial investments

The total investment amount is at least 600 thousand rubles and depends on the area of the premises. You can open such a store even in a residential area, if there is effective demand there.

Option 3. Point of sale of rolls at the food court

These points are located on the site in the shopping and entertainment complex. This format involves opening a small cafe in large shopping and entertainment centers. Such establishments are located, as a rule, on the third or fourth floors in specially designated areas next to other catering outlets. If this is a visited shopping center, thanks to the large flow of visitors in such a place, you can make a stable profit - even despite high competition.

How much does it cost to open a sushi roll point in the food court?

Investments to open such a business start from 700,000 rubles.

The main costs are the purchase of kitchen equipment, display cases, establishment design and a deposit for renting the premises. Among the personnel, the first things needed are good cooks, several cashiers and an administrator.

Option 4. Shop for ready-made sushi and rolls

This format is very similar to the second option for starting a business, described just above. The difference is that in addition to goods for making sushi and rolls, they also sell ready-made dishes. This establishment is designed not only for those who like to make their own rolls, but also for those who don’t have time to cook at home. The store can operate as a grocery department or as a catering outlet with its own kitchen. Read more about this format in the article: “We are opening a store of ready-made sushi and rolls.”

Option 5. Mobile sushi bar

Another business format is opening a mobile cafe selling Japanese cuisine. To organize a business, you need to buy a trading trailer or a mobile shop and convert it to prepare sushi and rolls.

What equipment to choose to open a mobile sushi bar

Basic equipment: rice cooker, sushi machine, roll cutting machine, sushi case, refrigerator. Companies that sell mobile shops and commercial trailers usually already have ready-made solutions for this format.

How much money do you need to invest to open a mobile sushi bar?

The estimated cost of a fully equipped food truck for preparing sushi and rolls will be 700 - 900 thousand rubles.

The main advantage is the mobility of the outlet, that is, the ability to quickly change location to a more profitable one. The downside is the high costs of starting a business.

Option 6. Sushi delivered to your home

In this case, the main point of sale may be in a less traveled location with a lower rent, and the main focus of the business is on advertising.

How much money do you need to invest to open a sushi and roll delivery business?

Major business investments:

rental and arrangement of premises for preparing sushi and rolls,
purchase of equipment,
advertising campaign.

Such a business can successfully develop in cities with a population of at least 100 thousand inhabitants. The main emphasis in this case is on promoting the site from which orders will come (creating a site will cost 50 - 80 thousand rubles) or social networks. According to Yandex.Wordstat, the phrase “Sushi delivery” is searched for by about 11,000 people per month in St. Petersburg, about 6,000 people in Moscow, and 5,000 people per month in Novosibirsk. These are your potential clients.

Sushi preparation technology and financial costs of production

Depending on the chosen recipe for preparing rolls, the ratio of the elements listed above varies, but in general the technological process is the same in almost all cases.

Boil the rice until tender, remove from heat, and, without draining the water, let it brew in a saucepan under a terry towel for 25 minutes.
At this time, prepare the dressing. Heat half or the entire volume of sous vide over low heat, add a little salt and sugar (1 teaspoon each) to the solution.
Place the steamed rice mass in a rectangular container or any other bowl, cover with a paper towel, and let cool.
Next, take a wooden spatula, and while slowly stirring the rice in the bowl, pour the dressing on top of the spatula.
Take a sheet of nori and align the bottom edge of the plate with the makisu mat, place 4 tablespoons of cooked rice on the sheet. Spread the filling in an even layer, leaving a distance of 1 cm on top and 0.5 cm on the bottom.
Raise the bottom edge of the makisu upwards and forwards and wrap the roll in dense layers. At the end of the work, lift the edge of the makisu slightly up and make several pumping movements with your hand along with the product, as if compacting it.
We cut the product into santoku pieces 3-4 cm wide. Before slicing, the knife is dipped in the soy solution. We wrap each piece with meat or fish fillet, which is subject to preliminary beating with a kitchen hammer, heat treatment and cutting to the appropriate size.

In the course of organizing and developing a home business, individual entrepreneurs will have to spend on additional expenses:

payment for kitchen appliances, if there are none;
increased payment for utility bills;
wages for hired employees - 2 cooks;
costs of paying for fuel for a courier vehicle and a monthly fee for the driver;
expenses for the purchase of new batches of food products.

Which OKVED code to indicate when registering a sushi and roll business

For business, OKVED code 55.52 is suitable - “Supply of public catering products.”

Professional business plans on the topic:

Business plan for a sushi bar (37 sheets) - DOWNLOAD ⬇
Business plan for sushi and roll products (51 sheets) - DOWNLOAD ⬇
Cafe business plan (64 sheets) - DOWNLOAD ⬇

What documents are needed to open a sushi and roll business?
You will need permits from the SES and firefighters, an agreement for the removal of production waste, an agreement for the provision of utilities, an agreement with suppliers.
Cooks and all workers must have health certificates.

Investments and profits

Basic investments at the start:

purchase of equipment, inventory and products - from 20,000 rubles.
business registration - from 0 (for self-employed) to 10,000 rubles, taking into account payment of fees, registration of medical records and all necessary permits.
advertising campaign - from 20,000 rubles.

You can open a business with a minimum investment of up to 50,000 rubles.

There will also be monthly expenses - for the purchase of products, for gasoline, for paying staff and for advertising.

On average, one serving of 6-8 sushi or rolls costs 200-250 rubles. Sets for several people cost from 600 rubles to 2000. Delivery is usually free from a certain order amount (for example, from 500 rubles). You can increase the average bill by adding other dishes and drinks to the menu.

Selling 10 portions of rolls a day will bring you at least 2,000 rubles, approximately half of this amount is net profit. So in a month you can earn from 30,000 rubles.

If you sell not 10, but 50 servings, your monthly income will increase to 150,000 rubles. With high turnover, it makes sense not to cook at home, but to scale the business: open a store and hire additional employees.

Menu and services

What should you offer to reach the largest number of customers?

Rolls (at least 10 types);
Sushi (at least 5 types);
Noodles;
Pizza (at least 5 types);
Hot and cold drinks;
Alcoholic drinks.

Good income comes from take-out and delivery dishes . To do this, you need a website with a full menu and your own delivery service. To get started, one courier with a personal vehicle is enough.

Sushi bar staff

Regardless of how many people work in your establishment, it is important that they all have a work uniform and a completed health book. For a small sushi bar you will need:

Several cooks;
Administrator (specialist who accepts orders);
Kitchen worker (person who will wash dishes and clean the room);
Waiters.

If you deliver food, then you also need a courier. If the qualifications of the administrator, kitchen worker or waiters are not particularly important, these may be people without work experience, then the preparation of rolls and other dishes should be done by professionals who know how to properly prepare this or that dish.

Premises requirements

The premises you choose must comply with marketing and legal regulations. Legislative provisions include:

The room should be zoned into a kitchen, an order counter and a hall for visitors;
Access to the kitchen should be closed from outsiders, and the kitchen should not be located in the basement;
A separate area should be allocated for processing meat and fish;
Kitchen walls up to 180 cm in height should be painted or tiled in light colors;
The kitchen floor should be made of waterproof materials;
The client room should be provided with natural and artificial lighting;
Ventilation is also an important element of a sushi bar;
Separately for the staff it is necessary to arrange a rest room and a bathroom;
It is necessary to have a utility room in which cleaning equipment, detergents, and disinfectants will be stored.

Unlike legal regulations, marketing requirements are not mandatory, but they contribute to quick profits:

Room area from 40 m2;
The room should be in a place where a lot of people pass by. It would be ideal to place a sushi bar in a shopping center;
The location must be chosen in such a way that you can install a banner, your own sign or advertising pillars.

It would be most profitable to combine a traditional cafe with food delivery to the buyer’s address.

Equipment and furniture for a sushi bar

When opening a sushi bar, you need to purchase equipment and furniture:

For visitors.
For service area.
For kitchen.

Furniture for visitors should be stylish and comfortable. To decorate the room, you can invite a designer or furnish everything to your own taste. An additional advantage would be the presence of a TV with music or an audio system. Customer service area includes:

Bar counter;
Cash machine;
A laptop with which orders are generated;
Phone number for taking orders.

The choice of kitchen equipment needs to be approached more carefully, since the speed of preparation of dishes and their taste will depend on the quality of the equipment. Basic kitchen equipment:

Furniture - tables, work surfaces, shelving, sink.
Inventory - containers for storing finished products, cutting boards, knives, spatulas.
Stove - electric or gas.
Refrigerator and freezer.
Kitchen scales.
Rice cookers.
Equipment for washing rice.
Equipment for preparing rolls and sushi.
Deep fryer for baked, fried rolls.

The cost of equipment depends on its model and characteristics. In the company “TSORM Torgtekhnika” you can choose refrigeration and heating professional equipment. The company cooperates with reliable manufacturers, therefore it guarantees the performance of each type of equipment located in the catalog.

Menu and services

What services the establishment will provide and what dishes will be included in the menu are decided by the business owner. This could be a mini-cafe with a counter, a showcase and a small number of seats, home delivery or a full-fledged cafe with a large number of seats. In addition, some entrepreneurs combine Asian cuisine with Italian, which allows them to expand the menu and increase the number of customers. The standard sushi bar menu consists of:

Rolls - there can be up to 15 types.
Sushi - up to 10 types.
Wok noodles - 3-4 types.
Fillers - up to 4 types.
Salads - up to 3 types.
Desserts - up to 3 types.

It will not be easy for you to attract your first customers even with the best menu, so when opening a sushi bar you should worry about advertising, promotions and discounts. Advertising can be on social networks, in the form of billboards around the city or advertising brochures.

Pros and cons of opening a sushi bar as a business idea

Russian people have long loved all kinds of rolls, sushi and other dishes of Japanese cuisine. Every day a large number of people come to restaurants serving Japanese cuisine; in addition, such food is often ordered to the office for lunch or home for dinner. There are several formats of sushi bars: a restaurant, a market with delivery and a food court.

Advantages of opening a sushi bar:

big revenue;
quick payback (subject to competent marketing);
quite small initial capital;
ease of cooking technology;
no need to rent a large area;
constant growing demand for these products.

Flaws:

big competition;
high rental costs;
lack of staff, namely possible difficulties in finding a good chef for Japanese cuisine;
There is seasonality - the highest demand for these products occurs in autumn and winter, with a slight decline in spring and summer.

Choosing a restaurant location

The first thing you need to open a sushi bar is a good location, chosen based on the following criteria:

Traffic that influences the formation of a customer base
Proximity to major transport hubs, social institutions, office and shopping centers
Absence of major competitors at a distance of 1-2 km

It is equally important to think over the interior of the establishment, which should not only be stylish and organic, but also comply with the standards and requirements of the SES and fire service.

Rolls - a type of sushi

The secret to the popularity of this dish is its low calorie content, tart flavor bouquet and nutritional balance. Essentially, rolls are the same sushi, but in the form of rolls and more varied in ingredients:

the flavor basis of makisushi is in the filling, and the “background” to it is rice;
all this is wrapped in a “cloak” of seaweed, which determines the shape of the roll and introduces notes of sea aroma;
ginger brings out the flavor of each product, and soy sauce and wasabi add piquancy.

Well, to fully experience the oriental flavor, you cannot do without bamboo “cutlery”. With the advent of everything necessary for makisushi on the open market, home cooks are interested in how to prepare rolls at home in order to more often pamper their household with Japanese exotica.

How to form sushi?

To prepare a portion of sushi you will need the following set of products:

seasoned rice;
red fish fillet;
nori seaweed;
sesame;
wasabi;
soy sauce;
pickled ginger.

You should start making sushi by preparing the filling. If you are going to cook them from fish, then use fillets from the abdominal part. Here the meat will be most elastic and will not fall apart. The pieces are cut diagonally, their thickness is about 3-5 millimeters. Shrimp also works well as a filling.

Before you take a handful of rice, you need to dip your fingers into the prepared solution. This procedure will prevent pathogenic bacteria from getting into the roll. Then scoop out about 20 grams of rice with your right hand and form it into a small ball. Take a piece of fish in your left hand, put rice on it, press down lightly, and then turn it over and smooth out the sushi. You can use strips of nori and sesame seeds for decoration. To cut seaweed, it is better to use scissors, as the knife can become dull very quickly.

Choose sou, wasabi, nori, gari

The miniature rolls are easy to make, although some skill is required in rolling the filled rice roll. But the main secret to preparing successful makisushi is the “right” ingredients.

So, the main ingredients for rolls :

rice;
vinegar for rice (su);
soy sauce;
leaf seaweed (nori);
wasabi - Japanese analogue of Russian horseradish;
pickled ginger (gari).

The range of these products is varied, but not all are suitable for making rolls at home .

Rice

It should not crumble, otherwise the roll will not hold its shape. Ideally, these are Japanese varieties with a high gluten content. For example, Sen Soi, Blu Dragon, Urutimae, Motigome. If you don't have special brands on hand, regular rice with round short grains will do. Long-grain rice and steamed options with any type of grain are absolutely “contraindicated” for rolls.

Rice vinegar "su"

It differs in its sweetish taste and softness from its scaldingly sour Russian counterparts. Therefore, make rolls at home with real sous. His crafts or simply a low-quality product will negate all efforts even with the best ingredients.

Soy sauce

For juiciness, makizushi is soaked in soy sauce while eating. High-quality sauces are produced without dyes or flavors, so you need to carefully look at the composition. Soy sauce obtained by natural fermentation is suitable for making rolls. No matter how much you would like to save money, if you are going to make rolls at home , refuse the product in plastic. The aromatic and flavor bouquet and beneficial properties of the sauce are preserved only in glass packaging.

Seaweed

Nori is sold in sheets of 20 centimeters or cut into thin strips. If you don’t have enough culinary experience, it’s better to give preference to a whole plate. An indicator of quality is the color of algae: the darker it is, the brighter its aroma and taste. Nori does not keep well after opening the package, so purchase seaweed so that you can use it all right away.

Choosing wasabi

Before making rolls at home , you should purchase wasabi - a spicy green addition with tart notes. Let’s say right away that you won’t find authentic “sava” sauce in the supermarket. It is too expensive, and the Japanese are not generous in supplying their national symbol abroad. Retail chains usually offer seyo.

It is better to take the powder and prepare fresh wasabi shortly before serving the rolls. The composition is mixed with water, and after 10 minutes the Japanese “horseradish” is ready for use.

Pickled ginger - gari

Both in sushi bars and at home, rolls are prepared without ginger: these leaves are not included in the recipe. He has a different task. Ginger perfectly refreshes the mouth and removes the flavor trail of the previous dish. These properties are useful for makizushi with different fillings.

When choosing, pay attention to the color. White ginger is spicier, pink ginger is softer, and therefore will better help evaluate the taste of the rolls.