One of my favorite restaurants during my short visit to Singapore is the Taiwanese food chain, Din Tai Fong, which New York Times lists as one of the top ten restaurants in the world. And indeed! Din Tai Fong truly deserves that distinction. It service was simply impressive. Nothing in my limited experience comes second to that. Incidentally, Din Tai Fong is literally translated to “the topmost of the Mount Tai Peak”. Mount Tai or Tai Shan is Ancient China’s tallest mountain (nowadays is one of those peaks in the Himalayas in Tibet). The topmost of Mount Tai peak simply signifies the top of the world, the ultimate, the best of the best. And really, the name is no exaggeration for their food is great and their service is even better. What’s more is that their great service is not based on some complex system but rest on very simple concepts.
FOOD
Din Tai Fong is a mid – priced Chinese fast – casual type of restaurant that serves Dimsums and noodles and offers one or two rice variant in addition to that. It has around 20 items in it’s menu and of which the most popular is the xiaolongpao, or the mini – siopao but is actually more of a siomai like dimsum rather than a siopao. Xiaolongpao is actually a popular delicacy in Shanghai, where it is also originated. According to my sister, Hong Kong’s variant of the xiaolongpao tasted better than Din Tai Fong’s and Shanghai’s xiaolongpao is reputedly taste better than that of Hong Kong’s. In any case, according to wikipedia, Din Tai Fong is the best xiaolongpao you could get in this part of the world and it is without doubt correct. There is actually a “novel way” of eating Din Tai Fong’s xiaolongpao. You first pick up a xiaolongpao with your chopsticks and dip it in the vinegar soy sauce and then placed the xiaolongpao on your soupspoon. You then puncture a hole in the skin and sip the rather delicious soup contained inside the xiaolongpo. Afterwards, you eat the entire xiaolongpao. It is “novel” in the sense that the all the dimsums at Din Tai Fong and not only the xiaolongpao have soup inside it whereas the internationally popular Hong Kong dimsums are “dry”. In my opinion, it is actually this novel way of eating the dimsums that make the food at Din Tai Fong standout and delicious (I don’t know if the Shanghai version have soup in it and I’m regretting that I haven’t taste one during my last trip to Shanghai). The siomai at Din Tai Fong is also different. It is actually shaped like a lotus with the shrimp on top and like the xiaolongpao, contains soup inside. The noodle dishes taste good but nothing exceptional although the noodle strands taste “fine” and not “coarse” indicating that it is made from the finest quality material. The dimsums and noodles are best served hot and it is actually the case in Din Tai Fong (it was so hot that I actually “burned” my tongue). Average prices of any item in the menu is around S$7 – 8 (Php210 – Php240, pricey for a dimsum, which cost only Php50 – 70 in Ongpin) and a person on the average spends S$20 (Php600), which according to wikipedia is the average price of a mid – range food establishments in Singapore.
SERVICE
Better than their food, Din Tai Fong’s service is the stuff of every MBA’s case study of process efficiency and superior service (their service so impressed me that I actually can’t help but study it while I’m having my lunch there and I was able to finished it as soon as I finished my meal). To the untrained eye, there is nothing extraordinary about Din Tai Fong’s service. This is because most people view the end result and one has to have go beyond the surface and see the inner working of their system, the tight coordination between their processes, the clockwork precision of their performances just to fully understand and appreciate the “extraordinariness” of their service. Din Tai Fong is one of those “new” fast – casual type of a restaurant, fast food service married to casual dine – in experience. In fact, in my limited experience, Din Tai Fong is the “only” fast – casual restaurant I knew. Many tried to be one (fast – casual) but never comes close like that of Din Tai Fong. In a classic casual restaurant, a diner would usually start by queuing up for a table in the restaurant especially during peak hours. Once seated, a waiter would be at hand to take their orders. The diner would probably browsed through a “booklet” of a menu just to find what he/she wanted to eat. The waiter would sometime suggest some dishes for the diner to order. This order – taking process usually takes sometime and probably by the time the waiter is done taking orders from the diner, a good ten minutes would likely elapse. After taking in the orders, the waiter would hand over the orders to the kitchen and the cashier for billing. The order triggered the “production” process in the kitchen with the cook preparing the meal as ordered. The production process in a restaurant is actually made up of three steps. The first step is preparation, which is actually preparing the ingredients; marinade the meat, chopping up the meat and vegetables to their intended sizes, preparing the soup base and broth. The second step is actually the cooking itself. The third step is serving the cooked dish. In most cases, the preparation step of the production process is actually done way before the opening of the restaurant for business that day and what is left for production during the business hours are only the cooking and serving part. Once the dishes are served and sometime this alone takes time because of the availability of the waiters, who might be busy attending the customers. In any case, the meal is usually immediately commenced once the dishes are served to the diner. After the meal, the diner would usually ask for the bill from the waiter (others might wanted to relax a little before billing out). The billing process is actually done immediately after the order was turned over to the cashier and handing the bill to the customer is actually a fairly easy task, which requires little time and effort. However, because of the nature of the food service business, most patrons tend to come in roughly at the same time of the day (lunches and dinners) and generally leave at the same moment. This causes a rapid inflation of volume for billing request resulting into a huge queue (although there is no physical line involved). Compounding this is the “temporary” shortage of manpower as the waiter has to take orders, serve the food, and generally entertain the request of the customers like refilling their drinks among others. This causes unnecessary delays and so it is not surprising to see diners getting exasperated over their “long delay” for their bill and their subsequent departure. It is also not an exaggeration that at times, for the wait to take longer than their actual meal. At any rate, after receiving the bills, the customer would then review the bill and then pays it via credit card or cash. Sometimes, the waiter would wait for the payment but it is not uncommon to actually “wait” for a waiter to pick up the payment for the payment processing, which again is a relatively simple task but actually take sometime (as in a good 5 – 10 minutes). Sometimes the wait could be so exasperating that it is even advisable to pay the EXACT amount in cash and no longer wait for the receipt. As can be seen, in a classic casual restaurant, the processes are highly sequential in nature and are also highly dependent on the previous process and given the general inefficiency in the processes to cope with the sheer volume of transactions, a lot of the time of both the customers and the establishment are wasted in idle waits. The sequential nature of the processes cannot actually be avoided in a casual dining business especially the par between the order taking and production process simply because of the sheer volume of offerings. It is common for casual restaurants to offer some 50 more or less dishes in their menu. And since not all of the offerings have high turnovers (frequently ordered), one cannot simply “stock” them beforehand i.e., one cannot simply cook the dishes without a definite order. And this is the fundamental constraint of a classic casual dine – in restaurant. A fast food on the other hand doesn’t have the constraint of a casual restaurant. The production process is largely independent from the order taking process. And this is only made possible because of the limited menu that a fast food offers, which is it’s hallmark. With a limited menu, customers’ choices are limited to only a few select dishes being offered usually numbering around 10. This greatly increases the turnover of each (frequency of order) as against if there are more dishes to choose from. With no worry about the “saleability” of each dishes (since the chances of the dishes being purchased increases with the “limitation”, assuming of course, the dishes offered are palatable in the first place), the kitchen can produce “at will” even without an order. This enables the kitchen to adopt mass production techniques and assembly line set – up, which not only speed up the production process but also greatly reduce cost. Furthermore, they produce each dish by batch, i.e., making a certain quantity per production cycle and monitored visually it’s purchase or depletion until it reaches a reorder point (the critical quantity whence the kitchen started producing another batch). It is this system of batch production and visual monitoring of reorder point that regulates the production process in tune with the ordering process in a fast food restaurant. Another obvious advantage of a streamlined menu is the simplification of the inventory that a restaurant kept. Just imagine the stocks of raw foods in the fridge of a casual dine – in restaurant offering 50 dishes! With the production process largely independent from the ordering process and working parallel with the latter and not in sequence to it, the queuing time is largely in the ordering process. It is here where the long lines can be seen, i.e., the long lines at the counter. It is also at the counter where the “delivery” is made, i.e., where the food is served and as well as the billing process is done. Aside from the multiple tasks being done at the counter that results in the long queue, another significant factor influencing the queuing time is basically due to the delays on the ordering itself. Sometimes, some customers can’t still make up their mind on what to order even after the long queue. Though the service at fast food establishments is efficient and fast, the dining experience is totally different from that of a casual dine – in restaurants. Diners actually received more services than that in a fast food joint but are not necessarily better served than in the latter, i.e., one cannot simply ask for the waiter to refill their drinks and in countries outside the Philippines, the diner is also the one to discard the leftovers of their meal. Furthermore, the atmosphere in a fast food is decidedly “dynamic” while that of the casual dine – in, subdued and relaxed. It is in this observation that fast – casual restaurants came into existence and Din Tai Fong exemplifies such. At Din Tai Fong, the first step, the ordering process starts the moment one lines up for a seat. One has to register first to the hostess for a seat and is given a queue number and an order form with a pen. While waiting to be seated, which is usually about 10 minutes more or less, one looks up at the menu board (which list the dishes being offered complete with their respective pictures and prices) and proceeds to list down their order. The self – ordering tack is actually a neat trick because it distracts the would – be diners from the boringness of wait as well as reducing the time wasted on order taking (that is when one compare it to the classical order taking model of a casual dine – in restaurant). In fact in most cases, by the time people finished choosing what they wanted to eat, their turn just came up. As one is ushered in to their seat, the floor supervisor (who happens to be a lady) would then take the order and punch in the order into the computer, sending the orders to the kitchen and the servers as well as printing out the billing. She then puts the bill of the order on the diner’s table faced down. At first, I was actually flabbergasted by what she (the supervisor) did (sending the bill to you before they even serve the food). I haven’t eaten yet and she already sent me the bill?! “How could they do that?” was all I could think then but then again, I realized that I actually paid first my orders before eating my food in a fast food restaurant and what’s the big fuss then? (It is only then that I got motivated into “studying” their model) Anyway, after sending out the orders, we waited out like a few minutes before the waiter started serving our orders, fulfilling it by piecemeal. They were able to do that because their operations are basically similar to that of a fast food. Din Tai Fong’s menu offerings are largely made up of dimsums, noodles, and two(?) rice topping variants for a total of 15 – 20 offerings. And like the fast food joints, Din Tai Fong’s limited choice of offerings plus the fact that dimsums can “easily” be stocked for “latter” consumption allows it to have a virtually “independent” kitchen operations running in parallel to the other processes. And this is the “fast” part of the fast – casual restaurant model (actually half of it). The casual aspects of the fast – casual restaurant on the other hand relates to the actual dining experience once the food is served. This not only refers to the atmosphere and environment where one is taking their meal but also the prompt services that one receives while enjoying their meals. Unlike in most casual restaurants wherein the overworked waiters “tried” to avoid customers and generally ignore their requests, the waiters at Din Tai Fong are more cheerful and are generally attentive, which is something rarely seen but appreciated. After finishing the meal, we relaxed for awhile before deciding to leave. I literally picked up the bill and walked up to the counter and pay the bill. It is only then that I realized the importance of serving the bill beforehand immediately after the relaying of our orders. It reduces waiting time for the bill. Aside from that, instead for the diner to wait for the waiter to get the bill, serves it, receives the payment for it and then transmit it to the cashier for processing and returning the processed payment to the diner and all the while hogging the dinner table, the very act of picking up the bill and walking to the counters immediately frees the table for the next diner. Simple, practical but effective. All in all, if one takes the entire system at Din tai Fong into consideration, one could see their deliberate effort in reducing waste, that is the waste of time without reducing the patron’s dinning time and therefore compromise the quality of their dinning experience. Amazing feat. Because of the reduced wastage of time in taking orders, cooking, serving, and billing, the turnover of customers is fast leading to a high volume of transactions. This is evidenced by the fact that it took them 10 minutes more or less to seat 20 tables (which I’m included). Again, an amazing feat. The streamlined system furthermore reduces manpower requirement and as well as reduces stress on the waiters. It reduces manpower requirement because Din Tai Fong doesn’t need the service of order taking waiters, which not only have no impact on the value but also waste time and money (which the customer isn’t willing to pay for). The system reduces stress on the waiters because two non – value added tasks are removed from them, namely, order taking and bill serving. This therefore frees them to fully focus on serving the diners’ needs and giving them “extra” attention. It is no wonder then that the waiters at Din Tai Fong are generally cheerful. After seeing this, I wonder if the entire system was a product some deliberate planning. But whether or not such system is a product some ingenious deliberate planning or some intuitive evolution, one thing is for certain, that the entire system is simplistic, practical, and highly effective. One just wish that such (the service at Din Tai Fong) were more common and widespread and not only confined to just one store (or chains of them) and certainly not relegating merely to a case study of a food tripping MBA. No wonder, Din Tai Fong is the world’s top ten restaurant! It service speaks for itself.
P.S. If you can’t understand my techno – babbling, I suggest you eat at Din Tai Fong in Singapore or in Taiwan to better appreciate. “ )
FOOD
Din Tai Fong is a mid – priced Chinese fast – casual type of restaurant that serves Dimsums and noodles and offers one or two rice variant in addition to that. It has around 20 items in it’s menu and of which the most popular is the xiaolongpao, or the mini – siopao but is actually more of a siomai like dimsum rather than a siopao. Xiaolongpao is actually a popular delicacy in Shanghai, where it is also originated. According to my sister, Hong Kong’s variant of the xiaolongpao tasted better than Din Tai Fong’s and Shanghai’s xiaolongpao is reputedly taste better than that of Hong Kong’s. In any case, according to wikipedia, Din Tai Fong is the best xiaolongpao you could get in this part of the world and it is without doubt correct. There is actually a “novel way” of eating Din Tai Fong’s xiaolongpao. You first pick up a xiaolongpao with your chopsticks and dip it in the vinegar soy sauce and then placed the xiaolongpao on your soupspoon. You then puncture a hole in the skin and sip the rather delicious soup contained inside the xiaolongpo. Afterwards, you eat the entire xiaolongpao. It is “novel” in the sense that the all the dimsums at Din Tai Fong and not only the xiaolongpao have soup inside it whereas the internationally popular Hong Kong dimsums are “dry”. In my opinion, it is actually this novel way of eating the dimsums that make the food at Din Tai Fong standout and delicious (I don’t know if the Shanghai version have soup in it and I’m regretting that I haven’t taste one during my last trip to Shanghai). The siomai at Din Tai Fong is also different. It is actually shaped like a lotus with the shrimp on top and like the xiaolongpao, contains soup inside. The noodle dishes taste good but nothing exceptional although the noodle strands taste “fine” and not “coarse” indicating that it is made from the finest quality material. The dimsums and noodles are best served hot and it is actually the case in Din Tai Fong (it was so hot that I actually “burned” my tongue). Average prices of any item in the menu is around S$7 – 8 (Php210 – Php240, pricey for a dimsum, which cost only Php50 – 70 in Ongpin) and a person on the average spends S$20 (Php600), which according to wikipedia is the average price of a mid – range food establishments in Singapore.
SERVICE
Better than their food, Din Tai Fong’s service is the stuff of every MBA’s case study of process efficiency and superior service (their service so impressed me that I actually can’t help but study it while I’m having my lunch there and I was able to finished it as soon as I finished my meal). To the untrained eye, there is nothing extraordinary about Din Tai Fong’s service. This is because most people view the end result and one has to have go beyond the surface and see the inner working of their system, the tight coordination between their processes, the clockwork precision of their performances just to fully understand and appreciate the “extraordinariness” of their service. Din Tai Fong is one of those “new” fast – casual type of a restaurant, fast food service married to casual dine – in experience. In fact, in my limited experience, Din Tai Fong is the “only” fast – casual restaurant I knew. Many tried to be one (fast – casual) but never comes close like that of Din Tai Fong. In a classic casual restaurant, a diner would usually start by queuing up for a table in the restaurant especially during peak hours. Once seated, a waiter would be at hand to take their orders. The diner would probably browsed through a “booklet” of a menu just to find what he/she wanted to eat. The waiter would sometime suggest some dishes for the diner to order. This order – taking process usually takes sometime and probably by the time the waiter is done taking orders from the diner, a good ten minutes would likely elapse. After taking in the orders, the waiter would hand over the orders to the kitchen and the cashier for billing. The order triggered the “production” process in the kitchen with the cook preparing the meal as ordered. The production process in a restaurant is actually made up of three steps. The first step is preparation, which is actually preparing the ingredients; marinade the meat, chopping up the meat and vegetables to their intended sizes, preparing the soup base and broth. The second step is actually the cooking itself. The third step is serving the cooked dish. In most cases, the preparation step of the production process is actually done way before the opening of the restaurant for business that day and what is left for production during the business hours are only the cooking and serving part. Once the dishes are served and sometime this alone takes time because of the availability of the waiters, who might be busy attending the customers. In any case, the meal is usually immediately commenced once the dishes are served to the diner. After the meal, the diner would usually ask for the bill from the waiter (others might wanted to relax a little before billing out). The billing process is actually done immediately after the order was turned over to the cashier and handing the bill to the customer is actually a fairly easy task, which requires little time and effort. However, because of the nature of the food service business, most patrons tend to come in roughly at the same time of the day (lunches and dinners) and generally leave at the same moment. This causes a rapid inflation of volume for billing request resulting into a huge queue (although there is no physical line involved). Compounding this is the “temporary” shortage of manpower as the waiter has to take orders, serve the food, and generally entertain the request of the customers like refilling their drinks among others. This causes unnecessary delays and so it is not surprising to see diners getting exasperated over their “long delay” for their bill and their subsequent departure. It is also not an exaggeration that at times, for the wait to take longer than their actual meal. At any rate, after receiving the bills, the customer would then review the bill and then pays it via credit card or cash. Sometimes, the waiter would wait for the payment but it is not uncommon to actually “wait” for a waiter to pick up the payment for the payment processing, which again is a relatively simple task but actually take sometime (as in a good 5 – 10 minutes). Sometimes the wait could be so exasperating that it is even advisable to pay the EXACT amount in cash and no longer wait for the receipt. As can be seen, in a classic casual restaurant, the processes are highly sequential in nature and are also highly dependent on the previous process and given the general inefficiency in the processes to cope with the sheer volume of transactions, a lot of the time of both the customers and the establishment are wasted in idle waits. The sequential nature of the processes cannot actually be avoided in a casual dining business especially the par between the order taking and production process simply because of the sheer volume of offerings. It is common for casual restaurants to offer some 50 more or less dishes in their menu. And since not all of the offerings have high turnovers (frequently ordered), one cannot simply “stock” them beforehand i.e., one cannot simply cook the dishes without a definite order. And this is the fundamental constraint of a classic casual dine – in restaurant. A fast food on the other hand doesn’t have the constraint of a casual restaurant. The production process is largely independent from the order taking process. And this is only made possible because of the limited menu that a fast food offers, which is it’s hallmark. With a limited menu, customers’ choices are limited to only a few select dishes being offered usually numbering around 10. This greatly increases the turnover of each (frequency of order) as against if there are more dishes to choose from. With no worry about the “saleability” of each dishes (since the chances of the dishes being purchased increases with the “limitation”, assuming of course, the dishes offered are palatable in the first place), the kitchen can produce “at will” even without an order. This enables the kitchen to adopt mass production techniques and assembly line set – up, which not only speed up the production process but also greatly reduce cost. Furthermore, they produce each dish by batch, i.e., making a certain quantity per production cycle and monitored visually it’s purchase or depletion until it reaches a reorder point (the critical quantity whence the kitchen started producing another batch). It is this system of batch production and visual monitoring of reorder point that regulates the production process in tune with the ordering process in a fast food restaurant. Another obvious advantage of a streamlined menu is the simplification of the inventory that a restaurant kept. Just imagine the stocks of raw foods in the fridge of a casual dine – in restaurant offering 50 dishes! With the production process largely independent from the ordering process and working parallel with the latter and not in sequence to it, the queuing time is largely in the ordering process. It is here where the long lines can be seen, i.e., the long lines at the counter. It is also at the counter where the “delivery” is made, i.e., where the food is served and as well as the billing process is done. Aside from the multiple tasks being done at the counter that results in the long queue, another significant factor influencing the queuing time is basically due to the delays on the ordering itself. Sometimes, some customers can’t still make up their mind on what to order even after the long queue. Though the service at fast food establishments is efficient and fast, the dining experience is totally different from that of a casual dine – in restaurants. Diners actually received more services than that in a fast food joint but are not necessarily better served than in the latter, i.e., one cannot simply ask for the waiter to refill their drinks and in countries outside the Philippines, the diner is also the one to discard the leftovers of their meal. Furthermore, the atmosphere in a fast food is decidedly “dynamic” while that of the casual dine – in, subdued and relaxed. It is in this observation that fast – casual restaurants came into existence and Din Tai Fong exemplifies such. At Din Tai Fong, the first step, the ordering process starts the moment one lines up for a seat. One has to register first to the hostess for a seat and is given a queue number and an order form with a pen. While waiting to be seated, which is usually about 10 minutes more or less, one looks up at the menu board (which list the dishes being offered complete with their respective pictures and prices) and proceeds to list down their order. The self – ordering tack is actually a neat trick because it distracts the would – be diners from the boringness of wait as well as reducing the time wasted on order taking (that is when one compare it to the classical order taking model of a casual dine – in restaurant). In fact in most cases, by the time people finished choosing what they wanted to eat, their turn just came up. As one is ushered in to their seat, the floor supervisor (who happens to be a lady) would then take the order and punch in the order into the computer, sending the orders to the kitchen and the servers as well as printing out the billing. She then puts the bill of the order on the diner’s table faced down. At first, I was actually flabbergasted by what she (the supervisor) did (sending the bill to you before they even serve the food). I haven’t eaten yet and she already sent me the bill?! “How could they do that?” was all I could think then but then again, I realized that I actually paid first my orders before eating my food in a fast food restaurant and what’s the big fuss then? (It is only then that I got motivated into “studying” their model) Anyway, after sending out the orders, we waited out like a few minutes before the waiter started serving our orders, fulfilling it by piecemeal. They were able to do that because their operations are basically similar to that of a fast food. Din Tai Fong’s menu offerings are largely made up of dimsums, noodles, and two(?) rice topping variants for a total of 15 – 20 offerings. And like the fast food joints, Din Tai Fong’s limited choice of offerings plus the fact that dimsums can “easily” be stocked for “latter” consumption allows it to have a virtually “independent” kitchen operations running in parallel to the other processes. And this is the “fast” part of the fast – casual restaurant model (actually half of it). The casual aspects of the fast – casual restaurant on the other hand relates to the actual dining experience once the food is served. This not only refers to the atmosphere and environment where one is taking their meal but also the prompt services that one receives while enjoying their meals. Unlike in most casual restaurants wherein the overworked waiters “tried” to avoid customers and generally ignore their requests, the waiters at Din Tai Fong are more cheerful and are generally attentive, which is something rarely seen but appreciated. After finishing the meal, we relaxed for awhile before deciding to leave. I literally picked up the bill and walked up to the counter and pay the bill. It is only then that I realized the importance of serving the bill beforehand immediately after the relaying of our orders. It reduces waiting time for the bill. Aside from that, instead for the diner to wait for the waiter to get the bill, serves it, receives the payment for it and then transmit it to the cashier for processing and returning the processed payment to the diner and all the while hogging the dinner table, the very act of picking up the bill and walking to the counters immediately frees the table for the next diner. Simple, practical but effective. All in all, if one takes the entire system at Din tai Fong into consideration, one could see their deliberate effort in reducing waste, that is the waste of time without reducing the patron’s dinning time and therefore compromise the quality of their dinning experience. Amazing feat. Because of the reduced wastage of time in taking orders, cooking, serving, and billing, the turnover of customers is fast leading to a high volume of transactions. This is evidenced by the fact that it took them 10 minutes more or less to seat 20 tables (which I’m included). Again, an amazing feat. The streamlined system furthermore reduces manpower requirement and as well as reduces stress on the waiters. It reduces manpower requirement because Din Tai Fong doesn’t need the service of order taking waiters, which not only have no impact on the value but also waste time and money (which the customer isn’t willing to pay for). The system reduces stress on the waiters because two non – value added tasks are removed from them, namely, order taking and bill serving. This therefore frees them to fully focus on serving the diners’ needs and giving them “extra” attention. It is no wonder then that the waiters at Din Tai Fong are generally cheerful. After seeing this, I wonder if the entire system was a product some deliberate planning. But whether or not such system is a product some ingenious deliberate planning or some intuitive evolution, one thing is for certain, that the entire system is simplistic, practical, and highly effective. One just wish that such (the service at Din Tai Fong) were more common and widespread and not only confined to just one store (or chains of them) and certainly not relegating merely to a case study of a food tripping MBA. No wonder, Din Tai Fong is the world’s top ten restaurant! It service speaks for itself.
P.S. If you can’t understand my techno – babbling, I suggest you eat at Din Tai Fong in Singapore or in Taiwan to better appreciate. “ )
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