A play to 'rock and roll,' Rock and Seoul incorporated three concepts into one restaurant: the growing fondness of Filipinos for K-Pop, the increasing awareness for healthy eating, and the consistent love of Filipinos for rice.
"Innovation is very key to the group. We’ve come up with strong concepts over the years and we continue to stay relevant by coming up with new products and new concepts," said Linfred Yap, managing partner of the Relish Group.
Rock and Seoul is a 'make your own bibimbap' fast-casual restaurant, which serves Korean-fusion meals. Yap explained, 'rock' was for the rock dish the bibimbap is cooked in and 'Seoul' is in homage to Korea.
He said they had a consultant on Korean cuisine who is also knowledgable on different foods around the globe.
Before launching the restaurant, Yap and his partners first had to test their food and the branding they were to execute. They also settled into a fast-casual food concept to reach a wider base of customers.
Meanwhile, Relish Group's Kumori offers traditional bread with a Japanese spin as well as the famous half-baked Japanese cheesecake called Juku.
"Bread is a staple part of our everyday life in the Philippines—people have it for breakfast, people have it for merienda, snack and some have it also for light lunch," Yap said.
Kumori was so well-received by Filipinos that the Relish Group is already mulling opening it for franchise.
Yap attributed their five years of steady success to a strong team, starting from his partners to their management teams on ground. Awareness of customer feedback, he added, also helped them fix problems immediately.
But with more and more competition going into the market, he maintained "it’s gonna be the survival of the fittest and we’re really going to have to stay on top of our game to make sure that we can continue to stay productive."
He noted that while they're not as fast in expanding as other restaurant chains, they see new opportunities in bringing fresh concepts into the Philippine market, like Peruvian-Japanese cuisine.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
