Fishbowl among nation’s booming fast food businesses

In five short years, Fishbowl has gone from having one small, store in Bondi to becoming one of Australia’s most successful fast food businesses. Find out how they did it.

In five short years, Fishbowl has gone from having one small, 28 sqm store in Bondi to becoming one of Australia’s most successful fast food businesses — and is set to make $60m in revenue this year.

The casual dining restaurant specialises in made-to-order salads with a Japanese style twist and was founded by uni student friends Nic Pestalozzi, Casper Ettleson and Nathan Dalah — the partner of top model Georgia Fowler.

The Fishbowl founders at their Parramatta Square store. Picture: Nikki To

“As students we were super annoyed at how hard it was to eat healthy food if you weren’t in a restaurant,” Pestalozzi said on the decision to open their first store in Bondi.

“There was an element of youthful naivety there.

“If we knew more than we did about what it takes to open a hospitality business, in a global pandemic, we might have been too scared to take the risk.”

Fishbowl founder Nic Pestalozzi at his newly opened store, in Cronulla. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“But we were young and ambitious and we knew we didn’t want to work for anyone else. And it was a fun excuse to get out of University.”

That fun excuse has become an empire with Fishbowl becoming Australia’s fastest selling quick service restaurant.

The Fishbowl Group has forecasted a $60 million revenue for FY22 and employs 450 staff.

In 2020, when the pandemic was forcing hospitality businesses to close, Fishbowl was growing by 50 per cent.

Nathan Dalah with his and partner, model Georgia Fowler.

Two weeks ago it launched a new store in Cronulla but it’s also got a host of stores away from seaside suburbs.

Their store in Parramatta is one of the most popular, and they’ve also got a branch in Melbourne.

Next month, they will take the franchise north of the border and open two stores in Queensland. All in all they are looking to open 12 more Fishbowl Stores bringing the total to 40.

The famous OG fishbowl Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Pestalozzi said part of their success came from the fact they’ve never preached about being a health food store.

“I eat at a lot of healthy places and they are very niche. There is no appeal to the broader market. Where as Maccas appeals to a mass market.

“For us it was about inviting people in with an experience, where the food just also happened to be good for you.

“A lot of the time our salads are quicker to make than a burger. We are fast food. It’s had a bad reputation for so long, but fast food can still be good food. We are happy to change what fast food means.”

The salmon sashimi bowl. Photo: Jenifer Jagielski

As to their instant financial success, Pestalozzi said the founders don’t consider themselves to have made it.

“We still feel like we are starting out, which I think is a good way to be especially because the bigger you grow, the more responsibility you have,” he said.

“We haven’t taken a cent out of the business. We don’t pay ourselves that much money. Everything goes back into the business. I think that’s why there have been no weird fights about money between the three of us,” he said. “Of course, we’ve still had fun along the way. But we aren’t living the life of movie stars.”

“We love what we do, we stay extremely close to the product and we‘ve got an amazing team around us. We’ll go as far as they can take us.”