Din Tai Fung Restaurant Franchise Requirements

Posted by Kris | Friday, May 06, 2011 | , | 4 comments »

I went to Taiwan's most famous dim sum restaurant where it was so famous that I had to wait like 1.5 HOURs in the HOT scorching afternoon sun just to get a seat. There were a lot of foreign tourists among its customers. From my googling, I got to know that Din Tai Fung have branches in Malaysia,Japan, Beijing, Korea and recently Australia. My friend told me that the franchise fee alone is about USD300K (without factoring the costs to train employees, chef, restaurant renovations,etc) to bring it into the Singaporean market.


IMHO, I think the food itself is quite okey (I am not a picky eater, so opinions might differ), similar to what you can find in high class dim sum restaurant in Malaysia or Singapore. 


What impressed me alot is that the restaurant is very efficient in terms of serving the customers and also the cleanliness of the toilet. There was a DEDICATED cleaning lady that always mops the floor each time a customers exit the loo!! (You will not see any step stains) Wow..talking about dedicating a resource just to ensure that the toilet is always sparkling clean. I never heard of anything like this before in my life even in the 5-Star hotels.


Like any franchise business, the franchisee must follow strict operating procedures (SOP) in their management of the brand as stated by the franchiser. I think anyone trying to pick this business up will face a very hard time because of the this single requirement (which also made this restaurant chain very famous in Taiwan). There are 3 restaurant branches in Taiwan alone and all of them, according to my friend adhere to this golden rule.


The requirement is....drum roll..please...


You need to hire very pretty waitress and waiters to work in your future restaurant for this franchise. Here is the proof. I am very curious about their wages since in Asia, it is not common for waiter/waitress to depend on tips as their main source of income. (I assume that they were highly paid) Btw, the service was exceptionally polite & good, an typical epitome for the Taiwanese people. My every cent dining there were really worth it although the meal there was not very cheap, comparatively there of course.


The attending waitress

The Cashiers: Paying up premium prices for a dim sum meal

I thought he was a air steward or a model at one time..too bad girls, this pic's angle is not very good.
Not to be left out... Some eye candy for female readers :P

Pretty ladies that make waiting under the sun a tolerable predicament


P.S I did not take all the photos of the employees, (quite a number of them) as I am felt very "paiseh" considering that they were very busy serving the customers but glad that they still willing to give a beautiful refreshing smile to their customers. (especially after i waited like eternity just to finish the meal in 20mins, okey i was hungry because of all the waiting :P)


Just click on the pics to get a higher resolution!!


4 comments

  1. ChampDog // 10:45 PM  

    Wah, they allow you to take their photos. So lucky you're! :)

  2. Kris // 11:16 PM  

    If you ask politely, I am sure that they are more willing to do so :P

    These pics is one of the highlights of my trip to Taiwan :P

  3. ChampDog // 12:07 AM  

    Cool, Taiwan is still one of my to go list. :D

  4. Unknown // 7:12 AM  

    Hey, do you have any source for the franchise cost of $300k USD cost for a Din Tai Fung location? I was curious about how much it would cost to open a location in San Francisco, say, in the Chinatown area?