One year after the explosion, can Chinese burgers still sell?

Author | Ah Meat

Edit | DR

Title Picture | "Criminal Investigation Diary"

If one day, you find a burger restaurant downstairs that has changed its face overnight and sold a small pot of beef, you will probably whisper in your heart like me: the tide is really a gust of wind, blowing east today, and blowing west tomorrow.

After all, one is Western-style fast food and the other is Chinese-style dinner, and in today's accelerated segmentation of the catering industry, although the two cannot be said to be unrelated, they can at least be regarded as opposites.

However, the changes in real business warfare are both magical and realistic.

According to the data of Narrow Door Restaurant, in the past few months, the "Jia Guolong China Fort" under Xibei Noodle Village has all closed its stores, some of which are in a state of direct closure, and more than 20 other stores have been transformed and remodeled in situ to start the business of "small pot beef".

You know, this Chinese-style burger restaurant, directly named after Jia Guolong, the founder of Xibei, opened 53 stores in Beijing this time last year, and also had an ambitious plan to open 300 to 500 stores across the country throughout the year.

It's been less than a year, and then there's no more.

The social software has existed for 0.9 years, and there is no such store at present. (Photo/Narrow Door Catering)

In response to the "rumors of store closure", Xibei responded that Jia Guolong China Fort has been upgraded and renamed "Dragon Fort" and re-arranged, and will use Hohhot, Inner Mongolia as a pilot to explore the sinking market.

According to the public information of Dianping, the first store of "Dragon Castle" in Hohhot has opened its doors to welcome customers, continuing the mid-end positioning route of Xibei series of restaurants, with the average price of a hamburger at 25 to 30 yuan, which is basically the same as the previous Jia Guolong Chinaburger, and is similar to foreign fast food brands such as McDonald's and KFC, and slightly higher than Tustin, which also focuses on Chinese burgers.

Jia Guolong's first "Dragon Fort" in Hohhot has an average price of 26 yuan per person. (Photo/Dianping)

In fact, since 2015, Xibei has frequently tested the water in the field of fast food, and today's "Chinese hamburger" is also the 8th attempt of Xibei in the field of fast food since the oatmeal workshop and yogurt house. In this regard, Jia Guolong also admitted frankly in a public interview: "Only by making fast food can Xibei become an international brand." ”

It's just that now, the Chinese-style hamburger track is singing and I am on stage, and Jia Guolong, who is backed by Xibei, has lost the capital in less than a year, which is really surprising.

This may mean that after a year of rapid development, Chinese burgers are about to enter the next stage.

From the air bun to the dragon castle, from the capital to the provincial capital

The legend of the Chinese burger began at this time last year.

In 2023, relying on the high cost performance of 20 per capita, the Chinese burger represented by Tustin has set off a counterattack-style cool story of "made in Western food" in China.

Jia Guolong's entry into the game last year can be regarded as catching up with the express train of this Chinese burger trend.

Before that, "Jia Guolong China Fort" also had a predecessor.

In November 2022, also in Beijing, Jia Guolong also opened up a new track, selling air buns. Less than half a year later, "Jia Guolong Air Bun" was transformed into "Jia Guolong China Fort", completely entering the Chinese burger business.

Subsequently, 53 "Jia Guolong China Forts" bloomed everywhere among the major shopping malls and department stores outside Beijing's Second Ring Road. However, if you don't see the big words "Xibei's brand" under the signboard, ordinary people will not associate it with "Northwest Cuisine First Brother".

However, from the tender egg grandmother vegetable burger, the stir-fried yellow beef burger to the braised pork burger, Jia Guolong's temperament of China Fort still has a strong "Xibei style" when tasted carefully.

Whether it is "China Fort" or "Dragon Fort", it is domineering and exposed, which is completely different from the introverted presentation of Xibei Noodle Village. (Photo/Little Red Book @ 81-year-old man)

Changing from "air bun" to "Chinese fort" is not a complete makeover. At least judging from the official information, Jia Guolong's hamburger skin technique of "special snack wine stuffed steamed buns from Tonglu, Zhejiang" is the same thing as the "new species" of air buns.

A consumer who has "punched in" Jia Guolong's China Fort told the New Weekly reporter that the taste of "China Fort" is not bad, "Grandma's vegetable tender egg burger is very distinctive, and the scrambled eggs and wine-stuffed buns are very soft." However, in the consumer's view, compared to the so-called "Chinese burger", she thinks it is more like a Chinese snack with "air bun" and meat.

However, the choice to concentrate Jia Guolong's China Fort in Beijing also means that it can only compete in a more fierce market, and if you are not careful, you may be photographed to death on the beach.

After Xibei Noodle Village, Jia Guolong urgently needed to make a side line product. (Photo/Jia Guolong Weibo)

Now Jia Guolong's withdrawal from the capital proves that Xibei seems to have pressed the wrong treasure again.

Changing the track is understandable for catering brands. After all, Tustin, the pioneer of the "Chinese-style burger" trend, also started out as a pizza maker. It's just that Xibei's operation is as fierce as a tiger, which is really confusing.

In Beijing, many diners were caught off guard by the "small pot beef" that was remodeled on the spot, and the "Dragon Castle", which was mainly roasted and made in the first place, was quite well received, but it also had to sacrifice the special selling point that it was proud of before, and had to compete with the "Tustin" that had been opened all over the streets and alleys, and continued from the mid-end route of Xibei Catering's positioning, so that it did not have an advantage in price.

Is it a "Chinese-style hamburger" or a "meat bun"? (Photo/Xiaohongshu @ Daxing Shijun)

After all, the so-called Chinese-style burger, from the outside, looks no different from the meat bun we are familiar with. And the price of "street stall snacks" to sell foreign fast food is destined to be difficult.

Is the Chinese burger with "steamed buns" a pseudo-concept?

Compared with the "Dragon Castle", which is only now turning its head and sinking, the "Tustin", which initially focused on the county, has played a round of tailwind in the past two years.

This representative of the current Chinese burger restaurant can be said to be a model of "the county surrounds the city".

In 2018, Tustin launched a vigorous expansion under the banner of "redefining hamburg". In mid-March 2023, Tustin has more than 3,500 stores nationwide, but most of them are concentrated in second- and third-tier cities. It wasn't until August 2023 that Tustin opened its first store in Beijing, and it was not surprising that it was welcomed by migrant workers in the imperial capital.

As of February 2024, Tustin has achieved more than 7,000 stores nationwide, doubling the number of stores in one year.

Under the influence of Tustin, in the past few years, a large number of Chinese burger brands such as Chu Zheng, Limburgburg, and Hua Bao Dan have emerged, and even many old fried chicken restaurants have added the label of "Chinese burger" behind their own signs, and there are also fast food brand giants such as Xibei entering the game.

In this wave, "Guochao" is the indispensable traffic password, and everyone is racking their brains to make their own stories closer to the definition of "Chinese" in terms of product taste, marketing story and façade decoration.

For example, Tustin's main "Chinese pastry making process" freshly baked hamburger embryo just uses a very "Chinese" definition to poke at the pain point of people who want to eat fresh. And emerging brands like Limburgburg are also exerting their strength in the emotions that the Chinese people know and empathize, relying on the "egg burgers" that were common on the street in their childhood, and playing a wave of sentimental cards.

Keeping the egg burger a street food clean and hygienic is also one of the highlights of Limburgburg. (Photo/Little Red Book@Fourteen)

The rise of Chinese-style burgers also benefits from higher cost performance.

At least today, we can't be sure that 9.9 yuan can still buy a cup of coffee downstairs, but what is certain is that you can buy two pieces of fried chicken in Tustin; with dozens of yuan, you can basically eat in emerging burger restaurants such as Dington and Limburgburg, plus the discounts superimposed on the e-commerce platform, you can completely achieve a more cost-effective "burger freedom" than the foreign fast food "Royal Three".

On social platforms, the strategy of sharing the "poor ghost package" of Chinese burgers. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

However, after the outbreak of concentration, the problem of Chinese burgers was gradually exposed.

For example, the product positioning and signature dishes are highly homogeneous.

Most Chinese burger joints continue the Western-style fried chicken burger, and even among the most out-of-the-circle Tustin burgers, the best-selling is still the Western-style burger "Spicy Fried Chicken Burger". This also makes people wonder whether the so-called Chinese burgers that "satisfy the Chinese stomach" are "real Chinese" or just stay at the stage of making gimmicks.

Because of the high degree of standardization and low threshold of hamburger fried chicken, a large number of investors and chain restaurant brands have entered the game. In 2023 alone, there will be brands such as Oddington, Chu Zheng, and Limburgburg that have received financing. Most of these emerging burger brands were founded in second- and third-tier cities in coastal provinces, and gradually expanded to second- and third-tier cities in neighboring provinces.

A large amount of capital has entered the game, and new brands have come out frequently, which has also made this track fall into involution.

After the ongoing price war, many brands are beginning to show the problem of inability to follow. The food safety problem under cost control is also becoming more and more severe, and many people are beginning to find that the quality control of these once-prosperous burger joints is becoming erratic, and the suspicion of "half-cooked pre-made dishes" lingers in the hearts of diners who cheer for affordable burgers.

Netizens reported on social platforms the problem of eating raw meat in fast food restaurants. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)

The retreat of Dragon Castle to the provincial capital also sounded the alarm bell for the Chinese-style burger.

Just like the booming new Chinese baking and new Chinese tea, after a vigorous expansion, the primary issue for brands is to maintain their brand innovation. Although continuing the idea of "steamed buns and stir-frying" is a safe and comfortable zone familiar to Chinese food brands at present, with more and more flowers, such as "stir-fried cattle burger" and "stinky tofu burger" and other unbelievable products have come out one after another, Chinese burgers have been questioned more and more.

Whether it's Chinese or Western, at the end of the day, it's the good food that comes first. Instead of making a splash in the name, it is better to make a good taste and try whether your "signature burger" is delicious.

Proofreading: Meet

Operation: Lu Zirui

Typesetting: Jiang Jiahong

[1] The Chinese burger that has sprung up can really conquer the "Chinese stomach"?

[2] Xibei listing: not just a problem of lack of money / Sina Finance