Noodles & Company

Noodles & Company is a restaurant leading the way in the quick casual dining world. In their rapid ascent into a growing n The company has spent significant time and energy focusing on their business processes and functions, all in order to ensure hot, fresh food served to their customers in a very efficient manner. In today's rushed and stressed environment, quick food is often essential, but Noodles & Company was founded on the radical notion that customers shouldn't have to sacrifice quality when they need speed. Quick casual is really born out of the, really a personal need for me to have high quality food fast. I was in such a hurry all the time and I was always forced to eat what I considered to be really low quality fast food, and I felt there must be a better answer. Most of the pioneers in quick casual were seeking the same thing, this really high quality premi To offer the optimal experience for customers, Noodles & Company carefully examines every aspect of their procedures and locations. From the lobby, to the kitchen, to the dining area, the company has leveraged every opportunity to balance quality food and quick service. Starting from the moment customers step into the restaurant, the company plans interactions to make them feel welcome, and to ensure the best, most desired food comes their way. The colors we pick, the things that are on the wall, where we place our menus, all those things are important to make it an easy experience, a comfortable experience, because frankly, if you don'think about it, then it's probably right. If I think about it, then something's wrong with this, I'm having to figure out, well where's a menu? This entry point for customers is absolutely critical for Noodles & Company. They are intently focused on matching customers with the food they're hungry for. So our guests walk in and the first thing that they see is this how to noodle plaque, which explains the ordering process at Noodles & Company, as well as it gives them an opportunity to look at a menu right away. If we don't have a greeter here, this really helps the flow of the line and helps the guests connect to the dish that they want, and really helps the process so that we're not guessing what we want to eat that day. One of the ways that we also can help the flow through the line is the guests have an opportunity to grab a beverage here from our ready to drink cooler. If the guest doesn't want that and they can go to our fountain station, you get your cup when you order and pay, and then you go and get your drinks while we're preparing the dish for them in the kitchen. As the guest takes an order, one of the ways that we officially move them into the flow of a restaurant is by offering a no signing of your credit card through DHL for any purchase under $50. Also, we have a n You can go and get your beverage, you can sit down, you can get yourself all comfortable, and the dish will be out to you in around five minutes. Tomato basil bisque, a small Caesar salad flatbread, two hands. Once the customer has chosen their dish, the clock is running. Noodles & Company promises a hot, fresh dish served in about five minutes. Nobody wants to spend a lot of time waiting for their food. So whether I plan to spend an hour or 15 minutes eating, I want my food quickly. And so that relative place of quick we found that about five minutes is really what really pleases people in about the time. That's enough time that I feel Back in the kitchen, Noodles & Company works to give their team members the right tools for success. Every aspect of the kitchen is made as efficient as possible. When the guests orders, each dish pops up on the monitor. We have one here for the noodle station and one over here as well for the saute line. The reason that the dishes are prepared so quickly and that we can hit that four minute and 23 second throughput time here in the back of the house is because of the division of tasks. So it really creates this operational efficiency. The way we set up our line is very important. There is a specific way to set the line up so that the vegetables flow in the process of the dish. So we have the Japanese pan noodle dish here, panerosa here, n Every little step makes a difference to help achieve the throughput that we desire. Each station has a job aid that allows the team member to succeed. You've got to have the right tools if you're going to set yourself up for success. So the job aid gives the appropriate weights and the ingredients for each dish at Silver Bowl and Saute station. So the saute cook, even if you're a new person on the line, you've never done it before, you can glance up and see when you're supposed to turn the heat on, when you're supposed to turn it off and the appropriate amount of sauce that goes in so that it's in the proper order and we get the best flavor for each dish. So the preheated pan is critical to throughput, but first and foremost we use 30,000 BTU burners and that really helps us get to the average of about three and a half minutes for each dish through the saute line. The entire process is really quick, about 30 seconds with the guest interaction at the point of purchase. About a 15 to 30 second process here at the Silver Bowl station, three and a half minutes through saute and about another 30 seconds at the garnish station gets us to under six minutes every time with a steaming hot bowl of noodles for our guests. We're a no tip zone, we really don't want people to tip because we don't want that added pressure of having to worry about it, having to worry about well, yeah but when I go there it costs me this plus a tip, or how much should I tip or those kind of things. So we really have made that an important part of our brand as well and again it streamlines the process. Our guests don't have to clean up their table and take the stuff and go throw it away. We take care of that so we bust the tables and we clean it up for them because So we're in our walking cooler and I just wanted to share with you how fresh our vegetables and our produce and everything really is. We've got everything prepped today on Friday the 19th. We prepped this morning, we prepped again this afternoon. They're very clearly labeled and marked for use first. The FIFO first in first out rotation is critical to making sure that we get the freshest ingredients to our guests. And it's also a just in time inventory program here where we only prep what we need. By focusing on every element from entry to exit, visible and behind the scenes, Noodles & Company is able to deliver on their ambitious promise. Through efficient and smart operations, they're able to create the overall brand. A customer experience including quick, fresh, customized food in a welcoming setting. Everyone that we hire in every discipline goes through some operations training so they know the environment in which they're consulting in, in which they're working in. Because in the restaurant business, no matter we have a bunch of smart people in our central support office, they all create stuff because they're smart and they're competitive. All that stuff lands on a manager's plate. And the constant challenge is keeping them focused to only roll out the most important things that make the dining experience better and the restaurant manager more effective.