By Jennifer Williams

Kura Sushi USA recently raised prices more aggressively than is typical of the chain, and anticipated a potential blow to customers' willingness to dine. Instead, traffic improved.

The revolving sushi bar chain lifted prices after receiving survey feedback from diners on Kura Sushi's value compared with competitors. Executives zeroed in on the restaurants with the highest scores and then combed through menus item by item to determine which ones could withstand a price increase. The result: A 3.5% hike on Nov. 1, higher than the typical 1% or 2% lift.

"Anytime you take a menu price increase, there's going to be some degradation to your mix, there will be some people who just order less," said Jeff Uttz, Kura Sushi's chief financial officer. "But this menu price increase was taken very well."

Kura Sushi's price bump comes as Americans are exasperated with paying more for food in grocery store aisles and when eating out. Restaurant prices on average were up 3.3% in the last three months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, and up nearly 30% from the end of 2020, according to market-research firm Circana.

Kura Sushi has felt the sting from inflation before with consumers pulling back on restaurant spending generally in the face of higher prices. But with tariffs on fish and other menu items as well as on the popular toys that come with Kura Sushi meals, executives looked for a way to offset some of the company's own higher costs.

The company took a more surgical approach than it normally does to rolling out its price increases, Uttz said. Tablets around the restaurants allow diners to share feedback on the quality of the food and cleanliness at a particular location. Last summer the company added an additional survey question asking Kura Sushi patrons to share feedback about their perception of value tied to the meal.

With that feedback, executives then determined which menu items to take prices up on and which to leave alone. Side dishes such as gyoza and ramen offerings were mostly untouched, according to Uttz, adding that the 3.5% price lift is a blended figure of all the increases. Uttz assumed diners would pull back in response. But "our mix improved, and our traffic improved," he said.

Sales for the three months ended Nov. 30, at $73.5 million, were up nearly 14% compared with a year earlier. The company posted a loss of around $3 million for the period. The sales improvements from the quarter continued into December and January even with the price lifts, and traffic has improved from previous months, the CFO said. Same-store sales were down 2.5% for the period ended in November, but positive momentum that started in the last month of the quarter continued into December and January.

One appeal for diners is that Kura Sushi's menu is still a value relative to other sushi spots, said Jeremy Hamblin, an analyst at Craig-Hallum. Two pieces of nigiri, typically raw fish with rice, tend to cost just under $4 at Kura Sushi, which can easily be double that at other restaurants, he said.

Diners also frequent Kura Sushi for the sought-after toys. Customers get small prizes such as a badge or figurine after selecting a certain number of dishes, 15 plates for the first reward and 25 for the second. There are also limited giveaways when a dining party hits a certain dollar threshold. The toys tend to be collaborations with popular brands such as Nintendo's Kirby and popular series "One Piece."

Diners love them, Hamblin said. Last year, the company did away with the prizes for roughly five months, which the analyst said contributed to softer sales.

People also order more to get the toys. Roughly a year ago, the threshold for a second trinket dropped to 25 plates instead of 30, enticing people to up their plate count from the low 20s to 25, according to Uttz, the CFO. The importance of the toys, which mostly come from China, means the company won't do away with them again even with a "fairly significant" impact from tariffs, he said.

But Uttz is considering moving suppliers to cut the toys' costs. "We are always looking at our supply chain opportunities, even if that involves partnering with a new supplier," he said.

Write to Jennifer Williams at jennifer.williams@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2026 06:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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