A unique and innovative start up company is giving Chinese take away a fresh paint job, by combining the fast food favourite with innovative flavors mixed with traditional Chinese courses. Junzi kitchen, a fast casual Chinese outlet chain is focused on developing their consumers pallets, while bringing a fresh competition to established chains like P.F Changs, and Panda Express.

In the U.S the demand for the Chinese food market is huge, with over 46,000 physical outlets in the country. Despite having such a strong and loyal fan base, Junzi's research and data analysts found that less than five percent of those locations are branded chain stores.

"Over the course of the last three decades a large number of Chinese immigrants made their way to America, but did not hold the necessary sources and support to create a large and competitive brand." Yong Zhao, CEO of Junzi Kitchen said in an interview this week.

Established in 2015, Junzi Kitchen started with their first location in New Haven, where the company's four co founders, collaborated on the idea for a new and improved chain of Chinese delicacies. Zhao said the inspiration for the chain came from the lack of authentic Chinese food outlets near their university. “It was very hard to find something very convenient but also healthy and authentic as we had back in China,” Zhao explained.

Zhao and his colleagues wanted their customer base to be able to see that the food was fresh and made to order, which impacted the design and layout of their restaurants. Once they made the decision to display the food in front of their customers, the team decided to create a menu that would really show the best that Chinese Cuisine has to offer.

The chain recently closed a $5 million USD pre series A financing round, and secured a partnership with Zuul Kitchens to meet the huge surge in demand for their delivery services, as their client base grows rapidly.
The hugely popular quick service restaurant sector in the U.S generated a revenue in excess of $250 billion USD in 2018 according to economic data from our analysts. In the modern world, with many people having less and less time to stop for a sit down lunch, fast casual restaurants have become the popular choice for many working class people, however Chinese food has always been largely absent from the scene.

The large number of Chinese restaurants in the U.S are individually owned family run businesses, but they do not have a strong footing in the U.S, according to Zhao's market research, around 10% of operable Chinese restaurants closed in 2018. “Last year was the first year Chinese restaurants in America declined because of retirement and the young kids don’t want to take over,” Zhao concluded.

James Hugh
Bennet Global
[email protected]