Fast-food restaurant operator Yoshinoya Holdings Co. started selling on Thursday a bowl of beef on vegetables, instead of the usual steamed rice, responding to requests from health-conscious people.
The restaurant chain said Wednesday its first-ever beef bowl without rice had been made in collaboration with fitness club chain Rizap Group Inc. Yoshinoya operates in the United States, China and other countries, but the new product is expected to only be sold in Japan, according to an employee.
Yoshinoya's typical beef bowl dish, known as gyūdon, consists of a bowl of steamed rice served with cooked beef and sweet onion.
Its new dish will use the same beef and onion, but will also be prepared with chicken, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and beans and a soft-boiled egg. It will cost ¥540 (about $4.90) per bowl.
Although the product weighs more than 300 grams, the new bowl has 30 percent fewer calories and 80 percent less carbohydrate compared with a medium-size serving of gyūdon, the company said.
A single bowl can offer one-third of the recommended vegetable intake per day, it also said.
"We tried to respond to requests from customers who want to eat gyūdon but are worried" about staying in shape, Rizap said in a news release.
