Fukuryu Ramen increases efficiency and order volume with Otter

Fukuryu Ramen, a restaurant concept created by Southern Japan's best Ramen companies, first opened its doors in March 2014. Originally located in what's regarded as the food capital of Australia, Melbourne's very own Chinatown, the restaurant was an instant success amongst locals, tourists and foodies alike. Fukuryu Ramen was born from a passion for flavor-packed authentic ramen, with the intention of sharing Japanese soul foods with the masses. Owner-partner, Jeff Tsao, an alumni of the Culinary Institute of America and The Ohio State University, brought the concept of Fukuryu Ramen back with him to Columbus, Ohio – a test market and melting pot overflowing with innovation and evolution. The first US location of Fukuryu opened on Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington, and from there, Tsao quickly went on to open a flagship store in Dublin's downtown urban center, Bridge Park.

What makes Fukuryu's ramen so special is the time and detail put into crafting each bowl. All soups are made in house, which is true for every location around the world, but the noodles themselves are distinctly regional: produced and pulled locally to a standard of specs for optimum texture and chewiness, with top-quality toppings ordered from local vendors to ensure freshness and flavor.

In 2020, Fukuryu Ramen expanded its footprint to include a ghost kitchen location in downtown Columbus, Ohio, to serve the surrounding area through delivery. Read on to learn more about what Jason Lam, Creative Director & Head of Marketing at Fukuryu Ramen, has to say about succeeding in delivery with Otter.

Finding a great product and a great partner in Otter

"Almost one year after launching our downtown ghost kitchen and working with numerous third party delivery services, we struggled to find an order aggregation partner that met all of our needs. We were approached by an Otter representative and discussed not only key features we value in a product, but the need for a real-time client success executive and IT support should something come up. The team at Otter has delivered on all of the things we were looking for in a partner."

Sending delivery orders straight to the kitchen with Otter's Revel POS integration

"We provided them with key credentials and access to our system, and the onboarding and integration team took the lead and orchestrated the complete integration of our third party menus into Revel. The team at Otter also took it upon themselves to ensure there was consistency in our menus on all four of our third-party delivery services across items, modifiers, prices and more."

Once all of Fukuryu's menus were consistent and their delivery orders were flowing straight into their Revel POS, Jason and his staff began using Otter's Order Management and Menu Management solutions. "The ability to close storefronts individually or all at once, easily view order and customer information, and instantly deactivate items that become unavailable for all services are some of the key features we value within the Otter platform."

Partnering with Otter's support team to expand Fukuryu's reach and revenue

"We were able to fully integrate Otter into the operations of all of our stores within a month of our initial launch, and have never been happier with a partner. We love that the tablet alerts our team of incoming orders, with tickets and receipts automatically being pushed and printed to our KDS and POS sometimes even before the alert goes off!"

"The real-time support, sense of urgency and strong communication the Otter team provides is what ultimately sold us on pushing this out to all of our locations. Any hiccups that we experience are resolved quickly, and we've developed a strong relationship with our dedicated integration representative who is quick to answer all questions and look into any occurrences that happen on our system."

Support Fukuryu Ramen by ordering from their restaurant on Uber Eats, DoorDash, Caviar & Grubhub.