OPERATORS of conveyer-belt sushi restaurants in Japan are diversifying their menus and speeding up the delivery of dishes amid rising competition and costs.

    “This restaurant offers a variety of food at low prices and we never want to stop coming here,” said Yuki Suda, a 17-year-old at a Muten Kura Zushi restaurant in Tokyo.

    On top of sushi, Muten Kura Zushi restaurants also offer reasonably priced ramen.

    The company has sold more than 10 million bowls of ramen since launching in the fall of 2012. It also offers tendon bowls of rice with deep-fried shrimps and unadon rice with grilled eel. A rice bowl with Iberico pork from Spain was added to its menu in March.

    The company planned to raise the ratio of sales from non-sushi dishes to 30 percent of overall revenues, the official said.

    One competitor is the Uobei sushi chain, which is operated by Genki Sushi. Its restaurants do not use rotating conveyor belts, although their sushi is inexpensive.

    At Uobei, customers place orders on a touch panel in front of their seats. Sushi dishes are delivered in about 90 seconds on average, some 10 times faster than on a conveyor belt.

    The dishes are delivered on miniature shinkansen bullet trains or sports vehicles running on a track, a feature that helps attract children. A Genki Sushi official said the company would replace conveyer belts with “high-speed tracks.” (SD-Agencies)