Beef Noodles @ Master Kong 康师傅私房牛肉面

Master Kong (康师傅) is one of the top selling instant noodle brands in China. So when I passed by this restaurant along Fuhua Road (福华路) near the Huaqiangbei (华强北) shopping area, my interest was piqued. And of course, I stepped inside.



Allow me explain why I had my curiosity aroused. Beef noodles is Master Kong's best selling flavour of instant noodles. This brand extension into a restaurant specializing in beef noodles would not only boost Master Kong's credibility as a beef noodles expert brand, the restaurant also becomes a trophy piece and brand spokesman. Of course, the restaurant is also an income generator so what better way of having your own brand advertisements that actually makes money for you.

This is all very well in theory. In practice, there are many potential pitfalls in this strategy.
Firstly, Master Kong as a company is a manufacturer and not a restaurant operator and they need to invest in this core competence and learn to trust the restaurant's professional management and not interfere. It would certainly be something that is quite difficult for a company as successful as Master Kong. Secondly, as both businesses share the same brand name, any incident affecting either business would automatically affect the other. And it is so easy to mess up with a restaurant. Someone gets food poisoning, whether it is the fault of the restaurant's or not, creates a major media stink and even the instant noodles business would be affected. It is so easy to create that media stink too, with the internet empowering every individual with his or her own media platform and with traditional media reporters and editors scouring the internet daily to get in on the latest scoop, bad publicity becomes harder and harder to extinguish. Then there is the product experience and whether both products, the restaurant and the instant noodles, provide a uniform level of experience that the consumer expects. So then, the Master Kong restaurant walks a really thin tightrope. Do the food too well and the consumer wonders why the instant noodles are so terrible in comparison. Do the food just like the instant noodles and customers do not see the point paying to be served when all they need is to add boiling water.

A scan of the menu revealed a range of items meant to boost Master Kong's brand reputation within the domain of beef noodles. There is even a high end halo product in the menu - some special rib noodles for 108 RMB for a bowl! Apparently, the restaurant picks a specific rib in the cow and there are only four of this particular rib in each cow. The main reason why this particular four ribs are picked are because of the texture and tenderness of the meat. Seems a bit extreme and it also reminds me of another taiwanese restaurant in Shenzhen that makes similar claims for their steak, Taiwan Rubber-Wangpin Beef Steak Restaurant (台朔王品牛排). The rest of the noodles clustered around the 20-30 RMB price range which is relatively standard for fast food. In the posters and promotional materials found around the restaurants, they proclaim their choice of fresh choice beef which makes the noodles much more satisfying. In all, I thought Master Kong could not have done a better marketing job to boost the image of their brand. However, all this would be a complete waste if the food could not live up to the high claims.

Unfortunately, the restaurant did not allow photography and I respected their request. So, no photographs of the food, which was a pity, as the food looked pretty good. I ordered their chef's special beef tendon, tripe and meat noodles (招牌牛三宝面). The noodles arrived beautifully presented in a large bowl. Portions are generous and the food looks appetizing. So I tucked in and then I found out where they went wrong. Firstly, the food while looking good, tasted just like instant noodles. The noodles had no texture to it and were soggy. The soup tasted like it came from the instant noodles spice packet too. The only good parts was the bits of fresh beef on it. At this point, the entire experience unraveled completely. What the restaurant served is a bowl of instant noodles with beef topping.

At this point I am not sure if this was the right move on the marketing front. It certainly was not from a restaurant perspective. Who would go to a restaurant that served instant noodles? From a brand perspective, I am not sure how it would work for the Master Kong either. In attempting to boost the image of the instant noodles, Master Kong has sacrificed the restaurant. In that process, it could also do irreparable harm over time to the instant noodles business as well.

The address:
Master Kong's Chef's Table, Fuhua Road (junction with Fuxing Road), Futian District, Shenzhen 康师傅私房牛肉面
Directions to get there using my Shenzhen Food Map