OP go strong on presentation, atmosphere, sauces, propper desserts and soups, and throw in a few gimmicky things like a new flavor milkshake or a twist on something. Market the hell out of it all on Facebook, LINE and Instagram and others.
Drop dead waitresses helps to get a lot of the guys in.
And to repeat. Good music and atmosphere is lacking in this country I’d say.
Hotdogs will not work.
Hamburgers sure one more won’t break the market
Here’s what I think will help you succeed in a burger joint from the food aspect.
- Patties quality and has to taste good and have some variety like spicy pork or chicken doesn’t hurt. I hate the Japanese style burgers that are tiny and mixes onions and stuff into the burger. There’s already places like that so I’d avoid that. But that’s my personal taste.
- Have a salad bar type area for the burger where you can put whatever veggies you want. I think people like this, and it’s good because I like a lot of lettuce and jalapeños but not onions and tomatoes. Some people might hate lettuc or want light on the lettuce and heavy tomatoes. Gives people the option and it’s part of the experience.
- Good fries.
- Have some fountain drinks you normally don’t see in taiwan. Like AnW root beer. Mountain Dew. Dr Pepper or something. Good fountain drinks are important. Maybe even have frozen mugs for my root beer. That I would love.
Andrew will travel 2 hours on HSR from Taipei to Taizhong for that frozen root beer mug. You should consider it, OP.
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I’m serious though, has anyone ever been to a place with frozen mugs? It’s one of the best things to have in a hot summer with a nice burger or BBQ
Frozen mugs for beer, yes.
Frozen mugs for root beer served out of the alu can? No.
A proper root beer float? 
…also a no.
- Patties ain’t going to be the big differentiator, not in Taiwan. And Friday’s and these paces already do wonderful juicy patties
- Too many will pile on the stuff and blow your margins and make a huge mess
- Good fries is almost standard in Taiwan now. Not much room to differentiate but sauces sauces sauces !!!
4, yeah could be something to this. Bunch of American heritage pop culture drinks … Better would just be bunch of creative spins on existing drinks…umbrellas with customized printings, exotic fruit for decoration, customized shaped glasses
The patty is everythingggg! It is the heart and soul of the burger. You don’t have a good patty, you don’t have a good burger!
Agreed on good fries. Your burger is only as good as the fries you serve with it.
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I would strongly disagree with you, if you think Friday’s patties are good, I’m not sure if you had a good burger before. It’s God awful to me. Maybe because i lived in Texas for a long time and I have a different standard of burgers and BBQ.
I said this before in my earlier post, but I don’t think having a spicy pork and chicken is too much (they don’t have to be these but having more than one type of burger is not a bad idea) as they are cooked and made the same way, the problem is having items that are cooked and made differently that i’ve seen the problem with. I don’t think having more than 1 type of burger is too much. I worked with restaurants before and I can say 3 options is not too much if it’s basically made and cooked the same, one is too little.
Agree, patties is the most important part. You can have the best fries, best location, atmosphere, desserts and all the other things, but patties are the standout for me in taiwan.
He’s talking about the salad bar idea.
I didn’t say having a good patty is not important. It’s standard. It obviously must be good but it won’t be the deciding success factor for a burger store in Taiwan.
Ever been to one of these 24/7 packed burger joints with the haihao not bad chabuduo burgers?
It’s about making money in Taiwan, not being honest to the burger craft. But it definitely doesn’t hurt to up your game as Taiwan is changing quite rapidly in the food department and more and more consumers have discerning pallets these days
Oh I see, I read it wrong. Still would disagree. Veggies are not going to cost that much, and you can only pile on so much on a burger before it gets ridiculous and can’t even eat it.
Yes of course, but say if you get everything else right, fries, atmosphere, chilled root beer mugs and the latest Adidas NMD wearing college student serving customers, your selling point is still the burger, right? Well, at least I hope so.
Wouldn’t one opening up a burger restaurant want to have…a good burger? (home of the good burger, may I take your ordah?)
I’ve seen too many restaurants with food miles ahead of the competion go under. Tricky market Taiwan.
As far as burgers go, to my tastes there are now many places that do a burger I can happily wolf down.
I’d like to see more places with atmosphere, comfort, knock out desserts, salads, soups…and SERVICE!
Won’t hurt if some of these uber friendly locals we keep hearing about actually mingle with patrons and socialize a bit.
Indeed, I think of Taiwan’s food market as being part of an M shaped society, you have your cheap eats which includes McDonalds but all the local favorites in night markets and so on too. Then you have more expensively decorated restaurants with service and perhaps a theme. A fast food joint which is has better quality ingredients, and hence higher prices, but is essentially still a fast food joint. You risk ending up right smack in the middle of that M.
OP it’s an interesting discussion nonetheless on hotdogs and one that has been had many times before in Taiwan I’d imagine. The big question - why has no one really been able to crack the American hot dog cart and be consistently profitable. Perhaps I’m wrong and it has been done? If anyone has more experience on this I’d love to hear about it.
This thread is a bunch of mehhh. Burgers and hotdogs and pizza rehashed again. Anybody got some interesting food to talk about?!?
What did you expect from a thread titled “Hamburgers and Hotdogs in Taiwan”?
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Hehehe.
You got me there.
Still this whole thread could be paraphrased cave man style.
Me likey em juicy mammoth burger.
Me no likey, me likely grizzled anteater Jurassic style.
Mm, me no likey mammoth burger me likely drongosaur on stick.
Mmmm drongosaur on stick. Me no find.
Drongosaur on stick, worm sauce. MMMMM
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if you want your restaurant to be successful here you should tell everyone its “famous”. pay people to que outside. a big que means the food is good (even if it tastes the same as everywhere else) and also more importantly means that place is “famous”. and encourage people to instagram your food. if people see something instagrammed from your restaurant that means they will also want to take the same exact photo to show off they have been to the same famous place.
tips for free!
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A lot of truth to this unfortunately
But you can only wrap a pile of stinking turd so many ways before people catch on