The low down on Din Tai Fung. What you need to know about the dumpling chain everyone’s talking about!
Are these the best dumplings in the world?
From fan pages urging them to launch stores in cities across the world to plaudits from newspapers more familiar with fine dining, it seems that Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung has got peoples attention.
We sat down with Din Tai Fung Director Dendy Harjanto to find out why that may be, and what 2014 has in store for them:
QSR: How would you describe the brand?
Harjanto: Din Tai Fung stands for quality, control and precision, and we strive to create a consistently exciting dining experience time after time. We want our customers to be confident knowing that the meal they have at our original World Square restaurant will be consistent with the meal they have at our Westfield Sydney café court. This is the driver for us, it’s not always easy to maintain this level of quality and it’s what motivates us. We have such a loyal following, which we are very thankful for, and we attribute it to our level of commitment to maintaining our high standards. We pride ourselves on the meticulous attention to detail that is given to our dumpling offering, Xiao Long Bao, it’s our signature point of difference and it’s what we’re famous for around the world.
QSR: What are some of your goals for 2014?
Harjanto: 2014 is going to be a big year for Din Tai Fung, our biggest yet. We opened our fourth restaurant in North Sydney at Greenwood Plaza in early January, it’s really exciting for us and it’s our first restaurant outside of the CBD. It’s been received extremely well to date.
We have another two restaurant openings to follow, one at the new Central Park development and at Westfield Chatswood. These openings will bring our total number of restaurants in Sydney up to six in six years. In terms of further expansion, we’ll wait and see. Our priority right now is making sure we get our new restaurants right and operating well.
QSR: Tell us a bit about your operational excellence, and the precision that is involved in making the dumpling?
Harjanto: Customer experience and service is at the heart of everything we do at Din Tai Fung. We’re committed to excellence and quality and this means ensuring that all of our staff undergo rigorous training on all facets of the dining experience, with particular focus being paid to the dumpling making process.
Every dumpling pastry is delicately hand made to measure between precisely 4.8 and 5.2 grams at conception, with an exact 6cm diameter, before being stuffed to weigh between 20.8 and 21.2 grams. All this and the promise that the food can be made fresh in front of your eyes, steamed in exactly three minutes and on your table in seconds. Such scientific precision and quality control is what makes Din Tai Fung stand out from the rest.
QSR: The SMH recently gave you top billing for their story on "The Top 10 Dumpling houses"; how has reaction been since that story was published?
Harjanto: We were thrilled to be named Sydney’s number one for dumplings. It’s an absolute honour. It’s very rewarding for the team to see that their hard work is being recognised in such a way. Each of our dumpling masters work extremely hard day in and day out to create the dumplings at Din Tai Fung with our signature precision so we’re extremely proud.
Customers have been commenting on the story to our staff, they’ve been very supportive, it’s fantastic.
QSR: Can you give us a sense of the customer experience when they walk into one of your restaurants
Harjanto: The customer experience is paramount to us – we aim to ensure that from the moment our staff begin to interact with customers to the moment they say goodbye and customers leave our restaurants that the experience is consistently of a high standard.
At our World Square restaurant for example, we have wait staff positioned at the counter in front of the restaurant to greet and welcome customers. Depending on how full the restaurant is, guests may be given a menu and asked to fill in an ordering card that is then given to the kitchen when they are seated to reduce wait times. This increases efficiencies and ensures customers aren’t waiting unnecessarily. We have recently installed additional outdoor seating at World Square restaurant to reduce waiting times.
When guests are ready to be seated, the wait staff will take them through to their table. Once seated, bags are placed in bag holders that we provide – so that customers do not have to share their seat with their bags. A waiter will then present the menus and orders will be taken if the order cards haven’t been filled in yet.
Orders are entered into our computer ordering system; which goes straight to the kitchen. A copy of the order will also be placed at the table so dishes can be ticked off as they are served. Once guests have finished their meal, dessert is offered. If dessert is ordered, the table is set and the dishes are bought to the table.
When diners have finished their meals, the bill is presented and payment is taken care of by one of our service staff. When guests are departing the restaurant, staff members warmly say goodbye and that we hope to see them again soon.
Our waiters wear headsets to easily communicate with each other and ensure that all areas of the restaurant are being attended to and service standards are maintained during service.
QSR: Would you ever be looking to franchise?
Harjanto: The Din Tai Fung team is happy with the great network of people working in the team and there are no plans to bring in additional partners.
