OUGD603 - EP - Eatery - Research

Choosing a Restaurant
Leeds

For my next brief, I have chosen to rebrand a restaurant of my choice in Leeds, collaborating with a designer on my course. As we are both very interested in Japanese Design we made the informed decision to brand a Japanese restaurant. The other informed decision made was to choose a restaurant situated in Leeds so that we can visit the site, eat there, experience the place as well as closely document the existing branding.

The first step is to choose a Japanese restaurant from the many in and around Leeds City centre. Below is a map containing all of the possibilities.

Sushi Waka

Google rating : 3.9

The description given by Google is a Chinese menu with hot pot dishes where diners cook their choice of meat and vegetable in stock.

This is very confusing as the name implies they serve sushi and comes up when searching for Japanese restaurants in Leeds. As well as this, they currently don't have a website which is very rare of restaurants these days and will have a big impact on their success.

These problems present a perfect opportunity for a rebrand as this confusion should be dealt with as well as a website being built.

Koibito

Google Rating : 4.7

Clearly a more successful restaurant and highly rated, Koibito is described by Google as  Japanese restaurant which is supported by the images. There is no confusion as to what food they serve, unlike the previous example.

The restaurant itself has large murals on the walls communicating typical Japanese art and design adding to the experience.

When trying to view their website, I came across this page stating that they are 'working on something awesome' implying that the website is being updated. This means that their branding is already getting attention and so would be pointless for us to carry out.









Issho

 Google Rating : 4.1

This is a very recently opened restaurant situated at the top of the new Victoria Gate complex. It is very high end fine dining which I personally enjoyed a lot.

Their branding is highly professional and successful. Their website is slick and very Japanese looking. The navigation around the website is thoroughly enjoyable. This is an example of the effect a good website and branding can have on potential customers.

Highly professional and high resolution imagery paired with a good consideration of type.

This will be inspiration for our own development. However, this is much more high end than the other restaurants.

Little Tokyo

Google Rating : 4.4

Little Tokyo has a decent rating and has had a a reasonable amount of publicity.

However, their website tells a different story. This is another good candidate for a rebrand. The website is incredibly basic and has no consideration for aesthetics or navigation. The colours used are contrasting and offensive.