01 May Dumplings, Discipline, and Dollars:

What This Taiwan Company Can Teach Us About Business

by Kalika Yap

I’m writing this from Taipei, Taiwan, where I’m visiting my daughter Malia who is studying Mandarin at the National Taiwan University. And I could not wait to write this newsletter.

We have just come from Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101, and ordered all our favorites. The House Special Spicy Shrimp & Pork Won Tons which are just otherworldly good. The Cold Cucumber dish is perfectly simple. The Pork Chop Fried Rice. And their Chocolate & Mochi Xiao Long Bao featuring decadent chocolate truffles, which I think about long after every visit.

But somewhere between the first Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork Dumplings) and the last bite of mochi, my mind went straight to business.

Because what I was watching in that kitchen, through the glass window where you can see the chefs work, floored me.

Every dumpling weighed exactly 21 grams. Every wrapper had exactly 18 folds. Steam rising in perfect intervals. Nothing left to chance. Nothing left to someone’s mood that day.

I thought: this is what excellence looks like.

And it started from a cooking oil shop.

The Numbers That Will Surprise You

According to Technomic’s 2024 data, each Din Tai Fung location in the US earns an average of $27.4 million per year. That is the same as four Chick-fil-A locations, or seven McDonald’s, from a single restaurant.

There are only 16 Din Tai Fung locations in the US. Together, they brought in $411.6 million in sales in 2024, a nearly 20% increase from the year before. The next highest-earning Asian restaurant chain in the US is Nobu, at $10.12 million per location. Din Tai Fung earns nearly three times that.

And it is still a family business. The grandsons of the founders, Aaron and Albert Yang, run North American operations today.

The Story Behind the Dumplings

In 1958, Yang Bing-yi and his wife Lai Penmei opened a small cooking oil retail business right here in Taipei.
By the early 1970s, the tinned cooking oil industry wiped them out. A family friend suggested they convert half the shop into a small restaurant. So they started selling xiao long bao, the soup dumplings rooted in Shanghai-style cuisine but rarely found in Taiwan at the time.

Business was slow at first. Yang kept going anyway.

By 1972, the restaurant had taken over the entire space. In 1993, The New York Times named Din Tai Fung one of the top ten restaurants in the world. Their Hong Kong location later earned a Michelin star. Today, there are more than 170 locations across 13 countries.

Yang Bing-yi lived to see all of it. He passed away in 2023 at the age of 96.

I find that story so moving. A man who fled his home country, who built a business from scratch with his wife, who nearly lost everything, and who refused to stop. That is the kind of entrepreneur I want to be. That is the kind of entrepreneur I know you want to be, too.

What This Has to Do With Your Business

Din Tai Fung’s success didn’t come from a big advertising budget or a lucky break. It came from something so much harder to copy: a commitment to doing one thing beautifully, over and over again, for decades.

Here is your step-by-step guide to applying their principles to your own work. I hope it helps.

Step 1: Pivot With Intention

When Yang Bing-yi’s cooking oil business collapsed, he didn’t give up. He pivoted. But he didn’t just try anything. He used the relationships he had spent years building with Shanghai restaurateurs in Taipei. He hired a skilled chef. He chose something specific, something he already had the foundation for.

The best pivot is rarely a leap into the unknown. It’s usually a step toward something you already know more about than you realize.

Your action: Write down the skills, relationships, and resources you already have that you aren’t fully using. Your next move is probably already inside what you know.

Step 2: Set Your Standard and Hold It

Every xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung must weigh exactly 21 grams and have exactly 18 folds. Not 17. Not 19. If a dumpling breaks during preparation, it never reaches the table. This is their standard, and it is non-negotiable.

I love this so much because it tells customers something before they even take a bite. It says: we care about every single detail. That is a feeling people will drive across town for. They will wait in line for it. They will come back for it.

Every business needs its version of the 18-fold rule. What is the one thing you will never, ever compromise on?

Your action: Define the one quality standard that is the foundation of your brand. Make it specific and measurable. Write it down and share it with your team.

Step 3: Let Your Product Do the Talking

Din Tai Fung grew its presence in the US almost entirely through word of mouth. No mass advertising. Their first Japanese location opened to three times projected revenue because customers simply could not stop telling other people.

I think about this a lot. We spend so much time on marketing, on content, on funnels. And all of it works so much better when the product underneath it is truly wonderful. When it is, your clients become your most enthusiastic promoters. That is the kind of growth that compounds.

Your action: Ask yourself honestly: is what you offer good enough that your clients would send a friend? If the answer is not a clear yes, that is your next priority.

Step 4: Charge What You’re Worth

The average check at Din Tai Fung is $45 per person. Individual dishes are mostly under $20. But people order multiple items, share, linger, and come back. And they almost always bring someone new.

Din Tai Fung is not the cheapest option in any city it operates in. It is consistently positioned as an experience worth paying for. That positioning is not accidental. It is a choice they make every single day.

Your action: Look at your pricing honestly. Are you charging what your work is actually worth? Premium pricing and premium delivery go hand in hand. You deserve both.

Step 5: Treat Your People Like the Product

Yang Ji-hua, the son who built Din Tai Fung into what it is today, has said that employee happiness shows up directly in the customer experience. Staff go through detailed training, not just in food preparation, but in how to greet guests, how to smile, and how to remember the preferences of regular customers.

Servers carry small notebooks. When a regular returns, the team already knows them. That kind of warmth is something you feel the moment you walk in, and it’s something you remember long after you leave.

That level of care does not happen by accident. It is built, one training session at a time.

Your action: Take a close look at how you welcome and support your team. Does your team know your standard? Do they feel seen and supported in upholding it? Your people are not just your biggest cost. They are your biggest opportunity.

A Little Note From Taipei

I am still sitting here thinking about those shrimp and pork wontons. And about Yang Bing-yi, who came to Taiwan with nothing and built something that his grandchildren now run across 13 countries.

What strikes me most about this story is that it was never supposed to be global. It was just supposed to feed his family. And because he cared so much about doing it right, the world came to him.

I believe that is possible for you, too. When you care deeply, when you hold your standard, when you treat every client like a regular at your best table, people feel it. And they come back. And they bring people.

Would you like some support building that kind of business?

I would love to sit with you in a discovery call and talk about where you are right now and where you want to go. It’s a warm conversation, no pressure, and I promise you’ll leave with at least one clear idea you can use that same week.

Book your complimentary discovery call here: calendly.com/Kalika