In early 2025, the “Freshly Cooked Beef Noodle Soup” was a popular choice for many aspiring entrepreneurs to join. However, just a few months later, this trend took a sharp nosedive with numerous stores across the country closing down in rapid succession and entrepreneurs facing financial losses. The rise and fall of this fast-paced phenomenon reflects the nature of the food and beverage industry as a whole, characterized by fleeting trends.
According to a report by the WeChat public account “Professional Catering Network” on August 24, the “Yunshanshan Freshly Cooked Beef Noodle Soup” that opened in Shanghai Aiqinhai in February, as the second beef noodle soup store in the business district, had a sign that read “Freshly Sliced Beef Shank Only 8 Yuan”. Just 3 months later, a similar store named Qiaosansan Beef Noodle Soup, located directly across from it, announced a price of “Freshly Sliced Beef Shank Only 7 Yuan”, leading to the closure of Yunshanshan. In a popular shopping district in Guangzhou, there are 5 beef noodle soup stores within a 500-meter radius featuring the signature dish of “Freshly Sliced Beef Shank for 7 Yuan”.
These beef noodle soup stores often use the gimmick of “7 Yuan Freshly Sliced Beef Shank”, with a bowl of noodles priced around 15 Yuan and an average customer spending of around 20 Yuan when combined with side dishes and beverages. Leveraging on the “30-second serving”, low customer spending, and short video marketing, a large number of stores emerged within a short period of time.
“Professional Catering Network” reported that top brand stores have expanded to over 500 outlets with contracts signed for 700 stores. In May, Hongcan Network reported that several top brands had opened over 300 stores within a year in regions such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.
However, the trend quickly turned into a bubble. According to the report by Professional Catering Network, since May 2025, there have been cases of stores in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Chengdu opening and closing within three months. A store near Nanjing Wanda opened in May and was empty by July; a store in Shanghai Minhang District closed after only two months of operation; and a previously bustling store in Tianhe North, Guangzhou, now sits closed with a “shop for rent” sign posted.
Hongcan Network interviewed several entrepreneurs who had incurred losses: a franchisee in Changzhou invested around 100,000 Yuan and sold the business after just over ten days; a store owner in Shanghai invested over 200,000 Yuan and suffered losses of over 100,000 Yuan within two months; an entrepreneur in Guangzhou invested 180,000 Yuan to open a store but had losses of 150,000 Yuan within four months and had to hastily shut down.
On platforms such as 58.com and Douyin, there has been a surge in listings for “selling of beef noodle soup stores” and “store for rent”, with second-hand equipment being sold at discounted prices, marking the end of the trend.
A columnist for Hongcan Network, Jiang Yi, pointed out that small-scale projects have increasingly shorter lifecycles. The more eager one is to chase trends, the more likely they are to expand excessively and decline rapidly, leading to a vicious cycle.
According to Sohu News, the rapid popularity of freshly cooked beef noodle soup is attributed to a set of strategies used in creating viral food items: by using labels such as “handmade” and “organic” for consumption symbolism and employing unique interior designs, ethnic-themed decor, and the visual spectacle of “freshly sliced and cooked”. The process of beef cooking and soup pouring is given a theatrical flair, along with interactive activities such as “pouring soup five times for a free meal”, which attract diners to take photos and share on social media. These theatrical dining scenes have garnered over 500 million views on short video platforms.
According to Hongcan Network’s investigation, behind the theatrical performances highlighting “de-industrialization”, the operational model is highly industrialized, with beef, noodles, and soup bases processed by central kitchens, while the store is responsible only for final cooking and assembly, thus achieving a chain model of “performance + industrialization”.
Consumers in various regions have reported that the so-called “freshly sliced and cooked” experience loses its novelty after one try and offers limited distinction from regular beef noodle soup. Reviews on platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin have indicated that after trying it once, consumers generally feel that the taste is average and the value for money is not high, suggesting a lack of repurchase motivation among consumers.
Professional Catering Network stated that the drastic shift from the nationwide craze to mass closures of freshly cooked beef noodle soup stores reflects the common dilemma of all “flash-in-the-pan” food and beverage categories, where marketing gimmicks overshadow the product itself, mass production replaces differentiated competition, and the exuberance of joining and expanding through franchising ignores market realities, eventually leading even the most bustling trends to end up as bubbles.
As reported by Hongcan Network, the allure of freshly cooked beef noodle soup skyrocketing rapidly lies in its “low customer spending, low cost, high turnover, and quick return on investment”, presenting an apparently perfect business logic.
With an average customer spending staying below 20 Yuan; an investment of 150,000 to 250,000 Yuan in a small store ranging from 50 to 80 square meters, one can start operations. Social media is flooded with stories of wealth creation such as “turning tables 20 times a day”, “daily revenue of 20,000 Yuan”, “return on investment in one month”. “Seeing the long queues outside the stores and daily revenues of 8,000 to 10,000 Yuan, you would be tempted as well,” said a former franchisee.
However, the other side of these stories is the many entrepreneurs who are “harvested”. Many store owners enter the race with visions of high turnover but end up retreating within a few months: some invest 100,000 Yuan and sell after just a few days; others spend over 200,000 Yuan and incur losses exceeding 100,000 Yuan within two months; while some suffer losses of 150,000 Yuan within four months and hurriedly close shop.
In this cycle of “creating a trend, mass franchising, intense competition, rapid elimination”, those often “harvested” are inexperienced novice entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry. Initially enticed by long queues and impressive turnover rates, they overlook the high foot traffic, demanding locations, and intense competitive pressures behind the scenes.
In the end, when the market saturates and foot traffic diminishes, these entrepreneurs often become the “first wave of exits” after the trend recedes.
Restaurant consultant Li Qiang (a pseudonym) pointed out that such projects have low entry barriers and require minimal investment, naturally attracting a large number of cross-sector entrepreneurs and couples to join. Lacking core experience in location selection and operation, they ignore the fact that this category heavily relies on foot traffic—once multiple stores appear in the same area, customers are severely diverted, and the myth of high turnover vanishes.
Zhao Yi (a pseudonym), a food and beverage practitioner interviewed by Hongcan Network, revealed that many brands deliberately inflate individual “successful store” data while recruiting franchisees. “Those numbers are real, but not every store can achieve them, maybe only one out of ten will be successful. It is a common tactic to present the best-looking data in franchise recruitment.”
The rise and fall of freshly cooked beef noodle soup serve as a microcosm of the “flash-in-the-pan” trend in the food and beverage industry in recent years, similar to the cycles experienced by projects like 2 Yuan bread, sour soup beef hotpot, and pearl milk tea. This phenomenon serves as a reminder to entrepreneurs that hype driven by foot traffic and marketing hype of “returning investment in 10 days” are merely sales performances that draw people in.