PepsiCo opens China’s first Lay’s potato-themed restaurant to redefine snacking
The debut of the Lay’s Potato Restaurant in Shanghai goes beyond celebrating the intrinsic value of the ingredient; it redefines the entire experience around the “farm-to-table” concept.
CHINA – PepsiCo’s potato chip brand Lay’s has officially opened China’s first Lay’s Potato Restaurant in Shanghai’s Xintiandi district, an immersive, limited-time brand experience that reimagines the potato and the Lay’s chip through menu innovation, design, and collaborations.
The restaurant combines a potato-focused menu, branded design, and collaborations with chefs and a fashion label, and is framed by PepsiCo as part of its efforts to grow in the away-from-home channel and create new consumption occasions for the Lay’s brand beyond traditional snacking.
Set in a two-storey building in the heart of Xintiandi, the restaurant is hard to miss. Drenched in Lay’s trademark yellow and framed by the district’s restored 1920s Shikumen architecture, the exterior features playful installations created with Shanghai fashion label 8ON8, charting the potato’s journey from soil to snack in a way that is part art installation, part brand theatre.
The menu, curated by Michelin-acclaimed chefs Francesco Bonvini and Tian Shuai, highlights potato-forward dishes that reinterpret Lay’s iconic flavours, from a Shanghai-exclusive creamy mashed potato paired with tropical fruit and seafood to signature potato-inspired beverages, transforming traditional snacking into a refined, multi-sensory dining experience.
“As part of PepsiCo’s growth strategy, we’re connecting our brands to the food experiences consumers are increasingly seeking, creating new ways to enjoy Lay’s beyond traditional snacking and helping unlock new occasions in the away-from-home channel,” said Nina Mu, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater China Foods, PepsiCo.
“Shanghai is an exciting test-and-learn market for us, and this restaurant brings together culinary creativity, culture and partnerships in a way that can inform how we build brands across geographies.”
This latest attempt to stretch the snack brand well beyond the chip aisle is the second such global restaurant from the brand, following the inaugural opening in Madrid in March.
PepsiCo described the Shanghai opening as a test-and-learn model intended to inform future experiential activations across markets.
In a competitive consumer landscape where shelf differentiation is increasingly difficult, the restaurant signals the brand’s ambition to deepen cultural relevance and consumer loyalty in one of its most strategically important global markets.
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