Why is sushi on the street so cheap, but a meal of self-service Japanese food costs more than 200 yuan?

I think what you may want to ask is why the price gap is so big.

In fact, it is very simple. The environment, service, ingredients, and cooking skills are all problems.

Japanese food is not all about sushi. Now we are most familiar with the two big pieces of sashimi and sushi. If that's all, add the basic grilled eel. For grilled squid, you can find a buffet for 90-100 yuan.

But in fact, it is much more than that. A large restaurant that truly makes Japanese cuisine, appetizers, sashimi, grilled meats, grilled food, teppan desserts, and ice cream are indispensable.

Not to mention the rent, let’s talk about the ingredients. The rice you eat on the street or even in some conveyor belt sushi is mostly Chinese rice with some glutinous rice and fragrant rice. And better Japanese restaurants, such as Matsumotolou, use sushi rice imported from Japan.

There is also seafood. Salmon, tuna and tuna are all marine fish, which are basically stored at ultra-low temperatures after rapid cooling. Otherwise, there will be a lot of bugs. Smaller stores simply don’t have this condition, so it’s actually not hygienic. And there are many businesses that use rainbow trout as salmon.

The Japanese food you mentioned for more than 200 yuan will definitely include sea urchin sashimi, sweet shrimp, arctic clam, octopus and other high-end seafood sashimi. Taking Matsumoto Restaurant as an example, the 258 yuan sashimi includes These high-end seafood sashimi are valuable in themselves. You will definitely not be able to eat these in sushi restaurants or small Japanese restaurants on the street.

There is another big piece of beef that people don’t know much about, which is Japanese beef. Do you know Kobe beef? It’s extremely expensive. Good beef is no cheaper than seafood. Frost Beef itself is valuable. The taste is completely different from what we usually eat. Add in beef tongue, short ribs, and oxtails. What you eat is the same as turning around or making it yourself. The sushi ingredients are definitely different. And there is an elegant environment where the chefs work, so the price is different.

I love eating at street restaurants, but I haven’t found any restaurants in Beijing that do good Japanese food and are cheap—the ingredients for seafood are expensive, and keeping them fresh requires a lot of investment. People still make money from doing business.

So the price for a good Japanese meal in Beijing is basically around 200 per person. In addition to Matsumoto Tower, which is close to me, there should be a few good ones. It depends on your discovery~