Last Updated on 25 August 2025 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! Healthy Asian-influenced chain Itsu recently launched a new loyalty scheme in the form the ability to collect an “Itsu Butterfly” with making a purchase. Today we’re investigating further with a review of the Itsu Butterfly loyalty scheme and asking our classic question – is it worth it?
Personally I really enjoy some Itsu – it tends to be one of my go to office lunch options when I’m after something fairly filling but feel I’m gone for at least to some degree a healthyish option!
What is the Itsu Butterfly Loyalty scheme?
The Itsu Butterfly loyalty scheme is a classic stamp collect basis loyalty scheme using the Itsu app.
When making a purchase at a till or one of the electronic kiosks, scan your loyalty barcode and you’ll automatically earn an Itsu butterfly when spending £5 on any item.
What can I get with the Itsu Butterfly Loyalty Scheme?
When you get 8 butterfly stamps, you’ll get a free Item from any of most of the Itsu menu except the sharing platters – this is pretty generous for some of the higher end items!
Free healthy snacks
Since then, Itsu has changed the scheme so that you now get something from the health(ier) treat range on your 3rd, 5th and 7th butterfly.
You can usually find the health(ier) snacks next to the till points in store – examples include pieces of dried fruit, seaweed or spiced nuts. These usually cost between £1-£2 so they’re a nice little extra bonus.
What health(ier) treats are available at Itsu?
Here’s a list of the items that you can choose from when redeeming your loyalty reward at Itsu:
- About half a mango (dried fruit pieces)
- Bean’ good
- Protein Plenty Tamari Almonds
- Well-being snacking seeds
- Sweet Chili Toast Cashews
- Sushi Style Nori Crunch
- Angelic Almonds
- Prawn Crackers
- Seaweed Thins
- Chocolate Edename
- Wasabi Pea Crunch
Specific Itsu Products discounts
You’ll also get the odd discount on specific items Itsu are looking to promote. These pop up occasionally rather than being regular items.
For instance at the moment I have a discount of £1 off any ricebox salad to use.
What is the best way to use Itsu Butterfly Loyalty?
If you’ve earned a reward, then going with a sushi box, a salad or a rice pot are the best option in terms of getting value. At the higher end these cost up to £10, with most in the £7-9 mark, clearly better value than a drink.
What is the earnings rate from Itsu Butterfly Loyalty?
Making some broad calculations, most main items from Itsu are in the £7 to £10 pound range – so let’s take the average of that as £8.50, which we need to buy seven times to complete our collection of butterflies – which is £59.50.
As per the above, most of the reward items from Itsu are between £7-9 to buy – so let’s say £8. If we divide the two you get a cashback rate of 13.4%, which is pretty fantastic by the range of restaurant loyalty schemes.
How do I use my Itsu Butterfly Loyalty Rewards?
When checking out at the till, you’ll see a button at the bottom of the screen marked “Scan Itsu Loyalty” – bringing this up will then let you check in with the QR code that appears on your phone.
If you have any rewards available, these will then appear on screen at the kiosk will ask if you’d like to apply them to your bill.
Itsu Double Butterflies Monday
Whilst it’s not written in to their terms so we can’t guarantee it, just about every Monday Itsu tends to have a notification that you earn double butterflies on a Monday.
Reader Tom wrote in the comments with how he uses this to absolutely maximise the value of the Itsu Butterfly scheme!
Additional Itsu Discounts
You can now also use the Itsu loyalty scheme to get further discounts if you’re a member of one of two groups.
Itsu Student 15% Discount
All students with a valid ac.uk e-mail account can now get 15% off every time at Itsu. Just click the profile button in the top right corner of the app, select “its’my details” and add your ac.uk e-mail address and verify for your discount.
NHS Worker 15% Discount
All NHS staff with a valid nhs.uk e-mail account can now get 15% off every time at Itsu. Just click the profile button in the top right corner of the app, select “its’my details” and add your nhs.uk e-mail address and verify for your discount.
How do I sign up to Itsu Butterfly Loyalty?
You can find details of how to download the app and sign up at the Itsu web page here.
If you enter code 46757 when signing up and you’ll get a free butterfly – as will we so thank you!
Overall Review of Itsu Butterfly Loyalty
Absolutely worth it, even if you only visit Itsu on a semi-regular basis.
The items you can cash in your reward for are relatively high value ones and fairly unrestricted in nature, which is quite rare for a loyalty scheme. At only 7 visits to earn a reward, Itsu Butterfly loyalty is also more generous than a lot of peers in how frequently you get rewards.
Finally, the app and loyalty scheme are easy to use and well designed visually – thought has clearly gone into it.
Advantages
- Clear and well-designed app
- Rapid rewards earned including on higher-value items
- Bonus healthy snacks a nice add on
- Student and NHS discount well worth it if eligible
Disadvantages
- Nothing significant to note.
Any questions?
If you have any questions or even just want to tell us your favourite dish at Itsu then just drop us a note in the comments below!
And if you like saving money when you’re eating out, why not have a look at our guides to some of the best loyalty schemes and apps in the UK?
And that’s it!
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The way to maximise this is as follows:
On Monday (when you get double butterflies): get two items worth about £5 each in two separate transactions, earning 4 butterflies.
When redeeming the free meal: use it to eat in with the most expensive meal option (Health and Happiness sushi tray) which is about £12. Then you avoid having to pay VAT on sushi when you eat in.
Theoretically you could spend £10 on Monday and £5 on three additional visits to earn 7 butterflies, getting about £15 back in value of rewards, per cycle. Cashback rate of 60%!
I absolutely love this Tom, thank you! Itsu have started running the double butterflies promotion regularly on a Monday since I wrote this, so I’ll add that into the article now.
I don’t like having to purchase something costing a Fiver to be able to redeem my free gift, I’d like to walk in grab my treat and go, haven’t redeemed anything yet, so let’s see what when I try.