Dive Brief:
- Noodles & Company is in the process of placing three new and improved dishes in test locations to assess guest satisfaction, operational feasibility and financial implications like menu mix shifts, CEO Drew Madsen said Wednesday during an earnings call.
- The menu items currently in this testing phase are Crispy Chicken Bacon Alfredo, which is an update on its Alfredo MontAmore, Lemon Garlic Shrimp Scampi and Chipotle Chicken Cavatappi. These three dishes are expected to roll out in October.
- To drive traffic, the brand is in the process of improving and updating its menu, which will touch about two-thirds of its menu. Given the implications of the menu refresh, the chain is staggering the national introductions of the items over several months, Madsen said.
Dive Insight:
As part of its assessment, Noodles & Company found gaps in the chain’s ability to offer light and healthy fare, as well as a relative lack of Latin-inspired flavors. Madsen previously told Restaurant Dive the chain also wants to serve twists on classic flavors. Its menu has generally featured Italian, Asian and American favorites.
The three menu items performed well during an early testing phase at a central location. The Crispy Chicken Bacon Alfredo is selling 50% higher and has stronger guest satisfaction scores than the Alfredo MontAmore, which it will replace. The Lemon Garlic Shrimp Scampi, which falls under the light and fresh menu category, is “selling well and has guest satisfaction scores well above our menu average,” Madsen said. The Chipotle Chicken Cavatappi, which ends Noodles’ lack of Latin-inspired dishes, is also seeing similar results.
The chain removed its Zucchini Roasted Garlic Cream, Leanguini Rosa and Leanguini Fresca as part of its initial refresh at the test location, Madsen said. Last week, the chain added five new or improved dishes and removed a dish from the same central testing locations. The company plans to introduce the next round of dishes after the holiday season ends, during Q1 2025, Madsen said.
Noodles & Company has regularly included limited time offers to “bring excitement to our guests and help drive traffic until our menu transformation is complete,” Madsen said.
In the past few months, many of the chain’s LTOs have been chicken-centric: Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Prosciutto Tortelloni and Baked Alfredo with Garlic Chicken. Noodle’s also had a beef LTO: Steak Stroganoff.
The Baked Alfredo didn’t perform as well as Steak Stroganoff, even though the former had “stronger concept test scores and similar media support,” Madsen said. The Baked Alfredo was too similar to the previous Italian-centric LTOs to generate significant interest from guests, Madsen hypothesized.
Those results led the chain to shift its upcoming featured menu item. In mid-August, the brand will highlight its existing Spicy Korean Steak Noodles, as the dish has low awareness, but high guest satisfaction and strong appeal with younger consumers, Madsen said.
One thing the chain isn’t pursuing is significant discounting, which would generate an artificial improvement in value perception, Madsen said.
“We're really focused on things that will fundamentally, sustainably improve our experience and improve the value perception basically driven by what our guests are feeling in the restaurant with the experience we're getting and we're really going to see more of that with our menu transformation,” Madsen said.
