I haven’t tried the Yannick cake but their signature dish is their roll cake; the reason it’s popular I believe is because it uses Hokkaido cheese.
A cake vending machine is still pretty odd though. Never seen or heard of anyone using it. Now, those NT100 mystery box vending machines on the other hand…
Back on topic, xiao long bao (shorongbo) is big in Japan these days too, and much more expensive than it is here. Food stalls at festivals there are selling one box (5-6 pieces) for 500 yen, which is about NT150. I didn’t bother trying Din Tai Fung there, I’m sure it’s double that. There are Taiwanese restaurants popping up there selling other bao/Shanghai food too. Food for thought.
Seems 10 Aussie locations, half are trading as fast food. I have been to Melbourne full service one a few times, always busy. I also went to KL (Malaysia) one , the business was OK but prices for Malaysia seems high (I thought price was higher than Taiwan) where food prices seem be cheap. I have never been to one in Japan (I prefer local food there), they seem be mostly in high end department store restaurant floors and higher priced. I have also been ones in China (not so busy) and Southern California (crazy busy with the OC/Costa Mesa California location having a two hour wait when I went there, I went elsewhere)
I got super excited when I first saw one of those $100 mystery box vending machines - mostly because I am, at times, a degenerate gambler, but I did think that they would do very well in London (assuming you could screw them in hard enough that they weren’t carried off).
Austin has had 2 “Cocos” for about 15 years. Of course ours have mapo tofu and zongzi, not just teas. Recently w got a guabao place and UT got a food trailer. I haven’t been cause I don’t crave the biendang. But it is catching on.
