Photo taken by Sabrina Liang
As international students from China, we frequently get questions about Chinese culture. One of the most common questions is “Are Chinese restaurants here authentic?” The answer is usually a big shake of the head. American-style Chinese food is (I hate to admit but) great as an independent cuisine. If you are looking for authentic Chinese food, especially from the mid-South, inland region of China, there’s a restaurant called Meet Noodles (面对面) near campus that you should check out. There’s also more to it than its food – in November, after a deep conversation with one of the employees there, we gained a more nuanced perspective of running an authentic Chinese restaurant.
Straight from China
Meet Noodles was opened in 2019 by Yuzhang Wang who had prior experience running Chinese restaurants in Murfreesboro. As its name suggests, the restaurant is known for noodles. When it was first launched, the menu offered a “build your noodles” option, where customers could select soup flavors, toppings, noodle types, and other components. While this feature remains, the restaurant has added pre-designed noodle dishes based on popular customer combinations.
We had the pleasure of speaking with one of the employees, Jiawen Liu, who provided more insights about other popular dishes in the restaurants including their Chongqing Spicy Chicken and Pumpkin Cakes.
According to Liu, Meet Noodles imports spices and sauces directly from China to ensure the authenticity of their flavors. For perishable ingredients, such as meat, Wang sources them locally from supermarkets like Costco. As the owner, chef, and ingredient sourcer, Mrs. Wang typically partners with an American shareholder. The shareholder usually contributes investment, provides input on management, and handles administrative tasks, while Mrs. Wang manages the restaurant’s daily operations. However, these partnerships often don’t last long, and the role of the American shareholder has repeatedly been left vacant and filled by different individuals. The most recent partner, Matt, resigned in November 2024, two weeks before our interview with Liu.
Fruitless Partnerships
The primary reason for Matt’s departure, Liu speculates, was a cultural conflict in operational approaches. Mrs. Wang tends to be more conservative and cautious about spending money, while her American partners pushed for innovation and investments. For instance, Matt built outdoor seating, introduced iPads for taking orders, and a service style where plates and utensils were brought to the table instead of being pre-set. He also added new dishes to the menu. However, after his departure, Wang undid many of these changes.
Mrs. Wang’s hesitation toward innovation might come from her unfamiliarity with navigating in a society entirely different from China. Liu noted that Wang feels uncomfortable applying for a liquor license due to language and cultural barriers when dealing with U.S. institutions. A liquor license is an important feature that could attract more local consumers and boost the restaurant’s profits. The barrier to the license might explain why she initially sought American partners who can help with both the language barrier and dealing with U.S. institutions. From our past observations and conversations with many business owners in the U.S. with foreign backgrounds, this is a common challenge
Reflecting on the current situation, Liu highlighted areas for improvement by recalling the time when the former American shareholder was involved. He noted the changes the restaurant experienced after the shareholder’s departure, including the loss of digital technologies like systems for managing employee shifts, which had previously streamlined operations. While hoping to reintroduce those innovations, Liu also emphasized the need for stronger marketing and advertising efforts, as many Vanderbilt students—including Chinese students—remain unaware of the restaurant.
Vanderbilt-Centered
Like many other restaurants around campus, Meet Noodles attracts Vanderbilt students by accepting Meal Money. According to Liu, restaurants cooperating with Vanderbilt typically receive 85% of the payment and 15% goes to Vanderbilt. Most restaurants thus were forced to adopt different strategies in order to cover the extra cost of using Meal Money, such as increasing the price by 15%. Last semester, Meet Noodles kept their prices unchanged, looking forward to making up for the 15% loss from customers’ use of Meal Money by getting more customers from being on the meal plan. This semester, we re-visited the restaurant. It has started charging a 15% extra processing fee if students choose to use commodore cash to offset the fee.
When we asked about Vanderbilt students’ customer behavior compared to his past restaurant experiences, Liu joked about the tipping culture. He recalled working in restaurants in certain upscale neighborhoods where tips ranged from 25-35%, which he feels is less common here. Out of curiosity, we asked Liu his perspective from the service industry on a standard tip. Liu said 18% for dinner is a fair amount and noted that it can legally be added to the bill for groups of six or more.
Price of Authenticity
The price for a meal at Meet Noodles is higher than most American Chinese food restaurants. For instance, a one side, one entree meal at Panda Express costs under $10, while a bowl of noodles at Meet Noodles is over $15. It is typical that authentic Chinese food in the U.S. is usually more expensive than American Chinese food. Liu explains that one possible reason is that authentic Chinese food requires each dish to be cooked individually, rather than in large batches.
Additionally, American Chinese food appeals to a broad audience of different ethnicities, resulting in a higher daily turnover and busier operations. For Meet Noodles, the restaurant earns around $1,000 on weekdays, $2,000 on weekends, and occasionally reaches $3,000 on particularly good days. However, Liu noted that the American Chinese restaurant he worked at—despite being in a less favorable location—regularly exceeded $3,000 in daily revenue.
The interview with Liu was incredibly insightful to us: seemingly similar Chinese restaurants turn out to develop very different business strategies and have unique challenges due to the preferences of the owners and their target customer groups. Not only does this provide us with a unique perspective on the restaurant industry, but it also sparks our curiosity about the complexities present in other industries such as retail and e-commerce where businesses have to tailor their strategies to the specific circumstances.
