CASE STUDIES / RESTAURANTS & CAFÉS / Y93 SUSHI CRAVE
25–30% more new guests in the first month.
Y93 Sushi Crave, a family-owned Japanese café in Calgary, worked with us for the first time this year. Using organic social only, customers began coming in after discovering Y93 on TikTok and Instagram.
300K+ organic views, 800+ new followers and $0 in paid social spend since July 2026.
WHAT CHANGED
Same menu, same kitchen, same team. Every number below is a screenshot of Y93's own dashboard.
FROM Y93'S OWN DASHBOARDS
THE CLIENT
Y93's Instagram profile, September 2026
Y93 Sushi Crave is a family-owned Japanese café in Midnapore, SE Calgary, serving Calgary since 2018: made-from-scratch curry, ramen, sushi and handcrafted drinks.
When we started, the account already had 2,805 followers, real and built over years. What it did not have was a repeatable way to reach people outside that circle, or any active presence on TikTok. Today it sits at 3,565 followers, and most of the reach comes from people who had never heard of the place.
HOW WE WORK
Four stages, repeating every month.
STAGE 01
We write the month: which dishes, which angles, which stories. Then a written brief per video with exact shots, order, length and a reference Reel for pacing. You approve it, nobody invents an idea at closing time.
STAGE 02
You shoot the clips from the brief between service and send the raw footage over. No film crew, no studio day, no closing the kitchen. At Y93 this is about a few minutes per dish.
STAGE 03
We pick the takes, cut every Reel, write the on-screen text and the caption, adapt each cut per platform, then publish and schedule to Instagram, TikTok and Facebook from our side.
STAGE 04
We stay in touch all month: what performed, what guests actually said at the table, what to film next. Next month's plan is built from that, not from a template.
The kitchen supplies raw footage on a phone. We run the whole account around it: strategy, briefs, editing, captions, publishing and reporting. There is no production crew to pay for and no retainer built around a film day, which keeps it affordable enough to run every single month, and content still ships every week.
THE TOP REELS
The first paired Fish & Chips inside a Japanese café with recognition from Culinaire magazine: 52,894 views on Instagram, 39,106 people reached, and another 21,000 views on TikTok.
The second reached 45,149 separate people, held them for 15 seconds on average, and 982 of them sent it to somebody.
In the comments people added the place to a to-go list, said they were coming that week, and asked what to order first.
TIKTOK
Before we started there was one legacy post and no active audience. In the first 28 days the account did 63,100 views, 596 shares and 786 profile views, and went from nothing to 226 followers.
32,100 of the 33,600 people who watched had never seen the account before. That is about 95% brand new reach, which is the number that matters for a restaurant trying to be discovered.
THE RESULT
“I will say increase about 25–30% new customers in the weekend. Which is a very good number.”
OWNER, Y93 SUSHI CRAVE · MONTH 1
THE SAME THING IN THE COMMENTS, UNDER Y93'S REELS
RESTAURANT SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT, CALGARY
Your kitchen already makes something worth crossing the city for. Our part is making that obvious on a screen: the dish shot so it reads as delicious, Reels built to travel, and captions that give a stranger a reason to pick your place this weekend.
There is an audience sitting in Instagram and TikTok right now, scrolling to decide where to eat. Reaching them is a craft, and food culture is the one we work in every day: what makes someone save a video, send it to a friend, and walk in.
Want this running for your restaurant? Book a call and we will tell you what we would do first.
WHAT IT COSTS
8 to 10 videos a month. Enough to stay visible and keep the account moving.
Regular $700
12 to 15 videos a month. This is the volume that grows an account instead of holding it steady.
Regular $1,000
You film from our briefs, on a phone. If you would rather we came and filmed it, that is quoted separately per shoot.
QUESTIONS OWNERS ASK
Does social media actually bring customers to a restaurant?
It works when a post gives a stranger a reason to choose you tonight. Views on their own do not fill tables. Shares and saves do, because a share is someone sending it to whoever they are eating with, and a save is someone keeping it for later. So those are the numbers we manage against, along with profile visits and direction taps. We are also straight about the limit: we can show you reach, shares and comments where people say they are coming in. Tying a specific view to a specific bill needs tracking at the door, and we will tell you that rather than claim credit for your whole weekend.
How often should we post?
Two to three times a week, without gaps, beats posting daily for a month and then going quiet. Silence is what actually costs a restaurant account: three dead weeks lose more reach than a modest steady schedule ever would. Fewer posts with a real idea behind each one outperform filling a calendar for the sake of it.
Is TikTok worth it, or is Instagram enough?
It depends on what you need. Instagram mostly reaches people who already follow you, which is right for reminding regulars about a special or a new menu. TikTok puts your food in front of people who have never heard of you, which is what you need if the goal is new faces. Most restaurants want both, and the same footage serves both, so it is not double the work.
Do you film, or do we?
Either way works. Most restaurants film it themselves from our shot list, on a phone, between service. It is faster, it costs less, and the footage looks like the actual place rather than a commercial. If you would rather not think about a camera at all, we come and shoot it, and that is quoted separately per shoot.
Nobody here wants to be on camera. Does this still work?
Yes. The food carries a restaurant account. Most of what performs is the dish, the kitchen, the room, hands plating, steam coming off a bowl. A face helps when someone is willing, but it is not the requirement people assume it is.
Do we need to pay for ads?
Not to start. Organic content tells you which dishes and which angles people actually respond to, and it tells you for free. Paying to promote a post nobody has reacted to yet is paying to guess. Once something proves it travels, putting budget behind it makes sense, and we will say when we think you are at that point.
How much does it cost, and how long before it works?
Management starts from $500 a month and both tiers are on this page, with filming quoted separately if you want us to shoot. On timing: treat the first month as finding out what your audience reacts to, then expect month two and three to compound as the account builds a pattern. Anyone promising a full dining room in week one is selling you something.