Sep. 27, 2023 By Rachel Butler
Flushing has welcomed its first ever revolving sushi restaurant Salute, which recently opened at the same address as the former seafood restaurant The Naked Crab.
The Japanese food eatery — located at 39-16 College Point Blvd. — has taken a unique approach when it comes to the sushi dining experience, with all of the dishes appearing on a revolving belt that the customer can take from as they please. There are also food “trains” at arms length that can deliver extra food right to customers’ tables once they have ordered it from the tablet in front of them.
Restaurant owner Danny Fok, who has been running businesses in New York for the past 20 years, said he wanted to do something different.
“When I went to Chicago last year, I saw a revolving Sushi restaurant there and I thought I would like to bring something similar to New York. I wanted to do something different and in some revolving Sushi restaurants I came across, all of the sushi on the belt was the same price so I wanted to have sushi at different prices so that the customer could have more options,” Fok said. “I run a few restaurants in New York and I know that people are always looking for something special and I’m always looking for something different to bring people so that’s why I wanted to open a revolving sushi restaurant with food trains as opposed to just a regular Sushi restaurant.”
The food ‘trains’ that deliver food to the customer at their table. Photo by Rachel Butler
Each Sushi dish is served on a different colored plate, which corresponds to different prices ranging from $3.90 to $6.90. There is also a tablet at every table where customers can order extra Sushi and a variety of other foods, including sashimi, noodle soups, sides, desserts and beverages.
“Anything you want from the belt you just pick up and if you want something extra, you just order it from the tablet and then the food train will bring it directly to your table,” Fok said. “We wanted everything to be as easy as possible for the customer, so when you finish eating a dish there is a mini chute in front of you at every table which you can put the plate down and there is a sensor inside which calculates your bill automatically and shows up on our system.”
The chute for the plates at every table. Photo by Rachel Butler
Fok said the restaurant’s design helps to reduce the amount of workers needed in the restaurant — and he feels it benefits the customers, as well.
“This system benefits us as a business because currently it is difficult to find people to work as servers, so it reduces the amount of people we need to hire and the amount of human labor required in the restaurant,” Fok said. “It benefits the customer because it is an easy system to follow.”
The interior of the restaurant is bright, fresh and modern. Photo by Rachel Butler
Speaking about the process of building the belt and bringing the design of the restaurant to life, Fok said it took around six months in total.
“It was difficult at first because we needed to look at the space of the restaurant and what we could fit in here and then design the belt that the sushi would go on,” Fok said. “Once we had everything in place we had to test what worked and what didn’t because if the food trains went too fast, for example, then the food would fall off. The speed of the belt was also important because it couldn’t be too fast that people couldn’t get the food off, but also not too slow that people would be getting impatient.”
The Sushi belt. Photo by Rachel Butler
The new restaurant currently employs 20 people, including servers and chefs.
Salute is open from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. daily. Fore more information visit saluterevolvingsushi.com.