Thai food in the U.S. has long been dominated by mom-and-pop restaurants. But the Taiwanese restaurant group TTFB hopes to change that.
The group operates about 150 restaurants across nine brands in Asia. But TTFB Restaurant Group this week opened its first location in the U.S. in Los Angeles, with two more on deck, and a goal to spread nationally.
First up is the concept Very Thai, which opened March 12 in the Westfield Century City mall. The brand name is technically Very Thai by 瓦城 , or Wacheng, which translates in English to “Thai Town.” But Los Angeles already had a Thai Town, so that name would have been confusing, said Kate Hsu, project manager for TTFB and the daughter of the group’s founder and chair Charles Hsu.
The group also has a bar concept called Very Thai. So the concept in LA combines the menu from the flagship Wacheng/Thai Town with the bar focus of Very Thai.
“We really wanted to develop a new brand,” said Hsu. “It’s not a Wacheng, and it’s not a Very Thai like in Taiwan. It’s really something new that’s reimagined and redeveloped that we’re bringing here into the U.S. and to LA.”
The menu offers a modern take on traditional Thai cuisine, with salads, soups, curries, stir fries, seafood and, of course, pad Thai.
The menu at Very Thai is served family style, meant for sharing.| Photo courtesy of TTFB.
A signature is the Shrimp Mooncake, which has become somewhat of a cult favorite in Asia. It’s a round cake of chopped shrimp, wrapped in a house-made crepe skin and fried, and served with plum sauce.
It’s not actually a Thai dish, but something TTFB developed, and it was a hit, she noted.
“We’ve sold millions of them in Asia,” said Hsu.
On the bar side are classic cocktails with a Thai twist, like an Old Fashioned made with Thai bourbon; and a Mango Tango margarita infused with mango, turmeric and Szechuan peppercorns; or the Birdsong with mezcal, pineapple and kaffir lime.
Very Thai is about 5,000-square feet with 131 seats, and the average check is about $60 to $70 with drinks, said Hsu.
It’s a concept that works well in malls, and the group is eyeing other Southern California lifestyle centers, which tend to be open-air malls.
Very Thai opened in a Westfield mall on March 12. | Photo courtesy of TTFB.
Very Thai is just the first of the group’s brands to open in the U.S.
Coming later this spring are two more brands: Bo Bo, which specializes in pad Thai, and Shann Shann, which offers contemporary Taiwanese cuisine. The two restaurants will open side-by-side in the Silverlake neighborhood of LA, Hsu said.
Charles Hsu actually grew up in the Los Angeles area (Pasadena), but he moved to Taiwan to start the restaurant group, which is now a public company there.
TTFB has watched the success of chains like Din Tai Fung, the soup dumpling-focused casual-dining chain that was also born in Taiwan, landing in the U.S. in 2000. Family-owned, Din Tai Fung has been hugely successful in the U.S., generating an average unit volume over $27 million in 2024, one of the highest in the industry.
Similarly, Hsu said TTFB sees an opportunity to build a chain concept that takes Thai food and makes it “cool, friendly and elevated.”
Soup dumplings, or xiao long bao, were also a mom-and-pop-style dish in the U.S. before Din Tai Fung globalized it and “made it shine,” said Hsu.
TTFB hopes to do the same with its various brands, which offer flexibility of menus that can be combined in various ways. The pad Thai on Very Thai’s menu is borrowed from Bo Bo, for example.
“What makes us so successful in Asia is that we are really, really good at standardizing,” said Hsu. “It’s really difficult to standardize Asian cuisine because it’s such a complex cooking process, especially when you’re involving the wok and thousands of different spices. So that’s our strength.”
Thai food coming from a Taiwanese restaurant group could be confusing to some Americans. But Hsu said people will get it.
“The world is so globalized now and there are so many different types of cuisine popping up,” she said. “We really just want to be able to honor Thai cuisine while standing on the ground that we originated and are proud to be from Taiwan.”