After the layout of pizza and other innovative formats, Haidilao officially entered the pancake circuit, and opened the first pancake shop in Xi'an MOMOPARK art shopping center - pancake bus.

The store began preparations in early 2026 and took nearly half a year to finish; While still in the renovation ring period, it has attracted a large number of visiting bloggers to sign up, and as Haidilao's first specialty store featuring outerwear, the popularity has been filled.

Now, how does this new pancake format, nurtured by Haidilao's "red pomegranate program," differ from traditional pancake stalls in nature? We visited the first store in Xi'an on the ground to dismantle its differentiation logic from multiple dimensions.

Located on the ground floor, it is mainly focused on subway exit traffic + fast food gathering area

This time, Haidilao placed the new store "Pancake Bus" at the negative level of MOMOPARK art shopping mall in Xi'an Jingzhou Village business district, and the overall showing obvious site selection and business form advantages, mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

One is location advantage, and traffic advantage is significant.

According to field observations, the ground floor of the mall is divided into negative one and negative two levels, and the pancake bus was chosen to be located on negative one level; The negative second floor is directly connected to the Jixiang Village subway exit, and the exit can be directly to the business district, which is a great location and passenger transportation accessibility is extremely good, so as to absorb commuters and street shopping people.

Second, the floor layout is dominated by fast food, and the customer base is highly concentrated.

MOMOPARK negative one, negative two gathered a large number of fast food, snacks and tea brands. On the ground floor of the site, there are already a fried ao noodles, swirls of rice bowls, and hot pot. The famous snacks and specialty snacks in White Deer Yuan Guan, Bao Mao Pastries, Hot Tin and Spicy Pot, Shijiazhuang, Chen Xiao Yi fried chicken, Azhan rolls oysters, rice braised, stone pot with lids to pour rice, and other simple meals and special snacks. The overall business format is dominated by fast food on demand, homogenization is more obvious, and competition is relatively fierce.

Third, tea drinks have a strong atmosphere and strong complementarity of categories.

On the negative level, there are tea shops, Azheng tea makers, fresh taro xian, and Tamkoko tea gardens, and on the negative layer, there are lemon tea with lemon fingers, mochi cake, etc., plus other tea shops around, and the choice is very rich. At present, the entire underground floor only has a pancake category such as Haidilao pancake bus, which happens to form a "main food light food + tea drink" mix, and the misplaced competitive advantage is prominent. It can not only accept direct subway passenger traffic, but also relies on the existing dining atmosphere to achieve natural drainage.

Maintaining a "pancake + coffee" energy pairing, coffee tie-up, and snack supplements

If you look at the product design of the Haidilao pancake bus, you will see that it is also a "meal + drink" logic: with pancake as the core, coffee as a link, supplemented by other snacks.

Among all products, pancakes accounted for the largest proportion, with 12 types. Among them, the classic models are mainly two types of double egg and crispy (a total of two), while the subdivided and innovative models have 10 types, including the signature fat cow, pineapple beef, bacon sausage, and hot pot crab willow.

Beyond pancakes, the coffee line focuses on a classic + flavored combination. In addition to the classic American style and classic latte, there are also hot orange American style, ice orange American styles, hawthorn American styles and raw coconut lattes, which unifiedly emphasize the "spirit" attribute.

The goal is clear: to create a "refreshing partner" in the breakfast and afternoon tea scenario through the "pancake + coffee" packages, using affordable coffee (about 50% lower than the chain brand) to drive the main meal, thereby increasing customer unit prices.

The main selling point is pancakes, the link is coffee, and the supplemental categories are porridge and cold noodles and other snacks.

Specifically, cold dressings and cold noodles include hot hot soup / hot hot soups / flavored cold dressing, as well as jam / sugar vinegar / fresh pepper cold noodle, which focuses on localized tastes and is suitable for lunch and soothing needs. The porridge line consists mainly of red bean porridge with small balls of porridge and dried green bean soup, suitable for breakfast, curfew or with a greasy meal.

In terms of passenger unit prices, per capita consumption is between 16 and 20 yuan. For example, ordering a fat beef pancake with a cup of American coffee costs more than 20 yuan.

Broken down, pancakes cost from 9.9 yuan to 16.9 yuan. The base price for vegan and simple side dishes is 9.9 yuan; The vegetable portions featuring loins and roasted meat are controlled at 13.9 yuan; The upgraded version (roasted duck, sausage, crab willow, bacon) is 14.9 yuan; The high-end model (fat cow, pineapple beef) costs 16.9 yuan.

Coffee with pancakes is more affordable, with prices ranging from 5.9 to 9.9 yuan: the lowest of the classic American style, 5.9 yuan, as a lure; The flavored American style is priced at 7.9 yuan; Creative American styles (such as hot oranges, ice oranges, hawthorns, etc.) are uniformly priced at 9.9 yuan.

As for cool skins, cold noodles and porridge, the pricing is uniform: cool skins and porridge are 8.9 yuan, and porridge and soup are 4.9 yuan.

In order to further increase the overall fare, the pancake bus also launched a combined package: "A new pair of pancake & coffee tonic!" For example, two pancakes plus a cup of coffee or drink.

At the same time, in order to reduce the cost of choice for customers, a "TOP must eat list" has been set up, recommending four core pancakes: the signature fat cow (16 yuan), pineapple burgers (16 yuan) bacon sausages (14 yuan), and hot pot crab willows (14 RMB), making it easier for customers to order their orders.

1: 1 Recreate the yellow dining car with a word type moving line straight now

Next, let's look at the store layout.

From the outside, the shop's shape is 1: 1 reproduction of the yellow bus restaurant car, creating a movable bus hatch effect that has strong visual impact and recognition.

The store area is only 20-30 square meters, but the movement line planning is very neat, using a word-shaped layout, which smoothly connects the ordering, ready-to-order, pickup, and easy-to-serve areas.

The ordering area is located at the head of the bus and is equipped with a double-screen self-ordering machine, while a manual cash register is maintained; There is an electronic menu above that shows you 12 pancakes, coffees and a variety of snacks at a glance.

The middle section of the carriage is an open-plan open-plan operation area divided into three functional areas: pan fryer, coffee and snack preparation. The pancake oven is equipped with two professional electric sticks, which are made on the spot and can be seen throughout the entire manufacturing process. The coffee area is equipped with a professional espresso machine and a grinder, and it displays McBean Italian mixed coffee beans, featuring a professional taste that is not instantly brewed. The small food preparation area is neatly arranged for finished foods such as cold wrappers, cold noodles, marinade and other finished products, all in a separate box, clean and neat.

The color scheme avoids the cold shades of blue, gray and silver commonly used in shopping malls, and mainly uses high saturation yellow with pure white, which is high-profile and suitable for making a photo capture. The glowing sign of the round cartoon-shaped pancake bus at the front door is extremely recognizable and can be seen from a distance.

The core logic of the entire design is to change the hidden hygiene shortcomings of traditional roadside stalls into a clean standard that can be seen throughout the shopping mall, thereby maintaining a 14 yuan per capita guest list and a noticeable difference between affordable pancakes from the streetside of 6-8 yuan.

The front and back wall of the store is made into a food trust display wall, with large images and prominent text paired with the brand logo, which visually highlights the quality of the raw materials, and is endorsed by well-known supply chain ingredients such as tuna flour and Santis Egg.

On the right side of the ordering area, a transparent stand-top freezer displays boxed cool skins and cold noodles, as well as soups and desserts such as old-skinned green bean soup, black sugar pearl bean sprouts, and a wide variety of categories.

As a whole, the outlets are mainly outside the store, and only light meals are served. Two to four sets of two-person tables and lounge chairs are placed at the corner location and do not occupy the core business area.

To enhance memory points and transmission properties, there are also some interesting details in the store. For example, the store has placed bus-themed trolleys outside the store, which are filled with branded dolls, peripheral canvas bags and other cultural and creative products to further close the distance with consumers.

Written at the end

In my opinion, sea bottom fish making pancakes is also a "supply chain spillover."

At present, Haidilao's main industry growth is still at its peak, revenue is in the situation of increasing revenue without increasing profit, and the decline rate is only decreasing and not increasing year by year.

In order to break through the growth difficulties, Haidilao launched the "Red Pomegranate Program" in 2024, ready to jump out of the hot pot framework and seek a new blue sea of growth from 0 to 1 through supply chain and category advantages.

According to the financial report, by the end of 2025, Haidilao had incubated 20 sub-brands of catering, covering seafood big cuts, sushi, Chinese fast food, and so on, and only 11 in the same period in 2024. In terms of revenue, the operating income of other restaurants (sub-brands) reached 1.521 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for 3.5% of the total revenue, and 438 million yuan in 2024, accounting for only 1.1% of the total revenue.

Among them, when Haidilao selects a certain category, it naturally forms two criteria: first, the basic conditions of the track meet the standards, the selected categories must be validated over the long term in the market, the industry size is large enough, the national awareness is high, and the frequency of consumption is high; Second, it can graft its own supply chain advantages, and can directly reuse Haidilao's mature supply chain system, central kitchen prefabricated capacity and operational SOP.

In both cases, pancakes meet the requirements.

From a market perspective, pancakes are a billion-dollar breakfast / snack track that is eaten by everyone, highly accepted, and extremely low-cost to educate. More critically, there are relatively few head brands, and more than 90% of the stores are small sidewalk couples' shops, which are in a "category-free, brand-less" state, and there is a lot of room for upgrading.

From a cooking point of view, a piece of pancakes plus matching ingredients are diverse, and many hot pot ingredients can be migrated. The Shuhai Supply Chain has long made the ingredients into standardized "Lego modules" - flour, sauce, fatty cattle, bacon, crab cubes, coffee liquid - all standard items prepared in central kitchen and distributed in the cold chain.

Therefore, Haidilao making pancakes is not a "catering innovation," but a "supply chain spillover" - what the Shuhai supply chain (Haidilao supply chain) has, it replicates what it has; Switching the standardization and cost advantage of hot pot directly to pancakes, chilled ice cream, coffee and any other category that can be standardized is essentially "using supply chain hegemony to reduce the dimension of all scattered street businesses."

To get out of the difference, even more: abandon the low-end Red Sea on the street, In the mall, we will target young customers, use the food cluster to bring our own traffic, use small stores to make high-performing places, rely on the scene upgrade to achieve full-time operation, and adapt the whole model of brand influencers signing up, quality premium, and profitability of "pancake + coffee" packages.