Who Owns Din Tai Fung?

Bing-Yi Yang and his wife Lai Pen-Mei founded Din Tai Fung in Taipei in 1958 as a retail shop selling cooking oil. When cooking oil retail declined, the couple converted the shop into a restaurant in 1972, serving steamed dumplings and noodles. The xiao long bao, soup dumplings folded precisely 18 times, became the signature product and a global reference for the dish.

The original Taipei location grew a devoted following, and the chain expanded through Asia in the 1980s and 1990s, entering Japan, China, and Southeast Asian markets. A Hong Kong location earned a Michelin star, cementing the brand's premium reputation.

Din Tai Fung entered North America in 2000 with a 19-table restaurant in Arcadia, California. Growth was intentionally slow for two decades while the family built a training system capable of reproducing dumpling consistency across kitchens.

The pace accelerated under the third-generation CEOs: the company opened its first East Coast restaurant, a 25,000-square-foot Manhattan flagship at 1633 Broadway, and added Disney Downtown Disney, Las Vegas, and Pacific Northwest locations. In 2026 alone it opened Irvine in March, Scottsdale in April, and Brea in August, bringing the North American count to 21 across California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, New York, and British Columbia. A Brooklyn restaurant is scheduled for spring or summer 2027, with Chandler and Topanga to follow.

US locations averaged $27.4 million in 2024 sales per Technomic, nearly triple the volume of high-end steakhouse Nobu and roughly double Mastro's, making Din Tai Fung the top-earning restaurant chain in America on a per-location basis.