Our Home to quadruple TAKE buffet outlets after strong reception at first location

Our Home's first TAKE outlet, near Jonggak Station, had 90,000 cumulative visitors at the end of August and passed 100,000 in September, about 10,000 more in a month ^[2]. TAKE launched in May ^[3], so the first 90,000 came in four months at most, an average of at least 22,500 a month ^[13]. September ran at about 44% of that pace ^[14], or roughly 330 diners a day ^[15]. The Seoul Economic Daily reports that peak-hour reservations filled early and walk-in queues formed ^[2]. A dining room booked out at every peak sitting would not normally shed more than half its monthly traffic, and an opening rush settling to a lower level fits the figures better.

Our Home is building on that lower level. Outlets two through four add 2,730 square meters and 820 seats ^[16][17]. The Jamsil branch opened on Oct. 2 on the third basement floor of Lotte World Adventure ^[1]. The Gangbuk and Dongdaemun sites follow in November and December, putting TAKE in four Seoul districts within seven months of launch ^[4]. An Our Home official said the first outlet had been warmly received and that the company would accelerate expansion with TAKE's varied menus and content ^[11]. The report does not give the first outlet's seat count, the cost of the fit-outs or any menu price, so seat turns and payback cannot be worked out from it.

The reported profits belong to E-Land Eats. Its Ashley Queens chain went from more than 140 stores to about 50 and back above 120 ^[5], replacing roughly 70 of about 90 closed sites ^[18]. The company lost 63.8 billion won at the operating line in 2020 and 19.4 billion won in 2021 ^[6], 83.2 billion won over the two years ^[21]. It earned 6 billion won in 2022 and 45 billion won last year ^[7]. Last year's profit alone equals about 70% of the 2020 loss ^[19]. The paper reports those results for E-Land Eats as a company, not for Ashley Queens by itself.

The latest visible investment at Ashley Queens is in size per site. In July it rebuilt its NC Songpa outlet from about 661 to 1,124 square meters ^[9], with up to 30% more dishes and 13 new or upgraded stations ^[10].

Lotte GRS opened a second Bokjugeok Korean buffet, at Lotte Mall in Gwangmyeong, in April, eight months after the first in Busan ^[12][22]. CJ Foodville's VIPS has not kept pace. It fell from more than 60 outlets to 25 by 2022, reached 35 last year and has held near that level in 2026 ^[8], under 60% of its old count ^[20].

The Seoul Economic Daily ties the demand to fixed-price variety at a time of rising dining-out costs ^[23]. The store and visitor numbers allow three readings. TAKE's September pace could be its steady state, in which case four outlets at that rate would draw about 40,000 diners a month ^[24]. The new Seoul sites could instead split one pool of diners among themselves and with Ashley Queens. Or VIPS's flat count could reflect CJ Foodville's view of how many sites the format supports.

I think the comeback is proven at E-Land, where profit followed the reopenings. At Our Home it is still a forecast, with floor space committed before a settled month of data. The view is wrong if Jonggak holds at or above 10,000 diners a month after the Gangbuk and Dongdaemun outlets open.