Today we’d like to introduce you to Shin Ran Hsu.
Hi Shin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started the business back in 2019 when I decided to move to Dallas from New York City. One of my long-time good friends owns two restaurant specialized in Guizhou Huaxi beef rice noodles, and I helped him to grow his business, and run some marketing campaign back in 2017. He trusted me because my personal experience with Ramen shop when I attended college in Tokyo. I wanted to help him because I also really loved their beef rice noodles. So, when I decided to move to Dallas, he asked me if I’m interested in open my own restaurant. I immediately said “YES” without thinking twice.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
They wanted to start from Houston because the Chinese community are much bigger there. It was huge success back in 2019, and we were sure our Dallas location in Plano will be successful too. However, a road was tough on me. We closed a deal around end of 2019 and was working on lease, application to the city, and so on. When we were almost done with the restaurant remodeling the pandemic outbreak. I still remember on March 15, 2020; the government announced the shutdown. We had to stop, and waited for 2 months, nothing changed. We couldn’t wait anymore, because we have rent to pay, bills to pay, and no one will help you. The pandemic has greatly impacted the business and we haven’t even started yet. So, on June 29th, we decided to open the door. We always accepting dine-in customers from day, but there is no one came. In order to survive, I tried to increase online orders, selling semi-finished products, improving production processes, and making the supply chain more efficient to reduce stocking costs. Broth, meat, and noodles are packaged separately, making it easy for customers to heat up a bowl of Guizhou Huaxi beef rice noodles in two minutes at home.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My friend and I are obsessed with the classic and authentic gourmet food of our home country. We both love mifen (rice noodle in Chinese) We wanted to introduce the cuisine and culture to the people in the US. In the beginning, most of our customers couldn’t even distinguish rice noodles from wheat noodles at first, so we kept explaining until they did. The mifen is plain white rice noodles, and taste soft but chewy and smooth. They are made 100% from rice, so it’s gluten-free. In order to replicate the flavor from Guizhou, China. Most of our ingredients such as mifen, peppercorn, and spices are flown in from Guizhou, China. Guizhou beef rice noodles have become recognized by local friend in the east coast. We want more local friend in Texas to be able to enjoy the food as well. It’s such a unique flavor or cuisine in the area.
How do you define success?
For us, we think Pho and Ramen are success. We hope one-day Mifen can be also recognized and loved by local friends just like Pho or Ramen. We hope to open more location in the next few years to introduce the cuisine and culture.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mifenprince-plano.square.site/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mifenprinceplano/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU0yPLs-cVQ
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mifen-prince-plano-plano
