Fast food chain’s first-ever Christmas restaurant serves to break away from the nation’s fried chicken tradition.
With December already upon us, Christmas is just weeks away, which means one thing in Japan – it’s time to put our orders in for KFC chicken. As the Christmas meal of choice for many households in Japan, KFC is in hot demand at this time of year, and to drive that point home, the chain is making its presence known with a limited-time Christmas restaurant in Tokyo’s Roppongi Hills complex.
Opened on 2 December, this limited-time pop-up is said to be the chain’s first-ever Christmas restaurant, and it’s serving up an exclusive menu you won’t find anywhere else, as a way to provide customers with “a new Christmas experience”.
▼ The restaurant-exclusive menu consists of nine dishes, which look nothing like the regular meals you’d usually find at KFC.
This is a bold assortment that aims to broaden customers’ horizons beyond simple fried chicken as the Christmas meal staple, and what makes it particularly unique is that these meals can be recreated at home. So how do you elevate KFC from a casual meal to a celebratory dinner? Well, let’s take a look at the chain’s suggestions below.
▼ Smoked salmon and coleslaw salad in a glass (500 yen [US$3.22])
▼ Smoked chicken Caesar salad (1,500 yen)
▼ KFC French fries with thick truffle sauce (900 yen)
▼ Crispy chicken tenders with lime mint tartar sauce (1,500 yen)
▼ Christmas BBQ Chicken Plate with Grilled Vegetables (1,900 yen)
▼ Holiday plate of roasted chicken breast with a rich cheese cream sauce and five-grain flavours (1,900 yen)
▼ Smoked chicken and mushroom peperoncino (1,400 yen)
▼ Tomato cream pasta topped with roasted five-grain chicken breast (1,400 yen)
▼ Biscuit vanilla ice cream sandwich with honey maple syrup (600 yen)
As you can see, the dishes above don’t look like the normal fare you’d eat at KFC, and that’s largely due to the absence of the chain’s signature menu item.
▼ Fried chicken.
Although there are hints of KFC in the fries, coleslaw, and biscuits, it really doesn’t feel like a KFC meal without the fried chicken, and that’s the whole point of the restaurant. With more and more people looking for healthy meal options, KFC hopes that its customers will come to associate it as more than just a place to buy fried chicken, especially as this year it’ll be adding a new option on the menu for Christmas.
▼ The garlic and herb roast chicken leg (1,690 yen)
The restaurant acts like a taster for the new roast chicken product, which bridges the gap between KFC and a Western-style Christmas. We never thought we’d see the day when Kentucky Fried Chicken would sell a chicken that isn’t fried, but Colonel Claus seems to be giving it his approval.
Whether or not KFC’s plan to reposition itself as a Christmas roast chicken provider will work when it’s already well established as the place to go for fried chicken, well…time will tell. It’s certainly a brave move to break away from Japan’s KFC fried chicken Christmas tradition, but with rival chains like Mos Burger providing roast chicken alongside its fried options, it seems that KFC is keen to capture as much of the market as possible during one of its busiest times of year.
The recipes for all nine of the restaurant’s menu items have been published on a special website, so even if you aren’t able to stop by the pop-up during its 2-7 December event date, you can still get a taste of what the chain is offering in Japan.
Now we wait with bated breath to see if KFC will be messing with its annual Lucky Bag and multi-tier Osechi New Year’s meal come January.
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