A really big, city-sized, restaurant
The other day, I was at our geriatric hospital campus and when it was time for lunch we decided to go to a nearby restaurant, rather than eating the normally awesome food at the hospital. We ended up going to a restaurant called the Royal Dragon, which was located close by.
The Royal Dragon is not just any restaurant. It’s a big restaurant, a city-sized – restaurant. Ii’s so big that in 1992 it won the Guinness Book of Records Award for the largest restaurant in the world. While that might not be true anymore, it sure is big. Take a look at the statistics below:
Size of Restaurant (m2)
- Service area: 16,000
- Kitchen area: 740
- Office area: 3,720
- Parking area: 13,372
Utility used in service
- Plates: 24,500 pieces
- Dishes: 21,500 pieces
- Forks and Spoons: 17,282 pairs
Number of employees
- Servers: 541 persons
- Cooks: 322 persons
- Other : 337 persons
- Total: 1,000 persons
Other statistics
- Ability to serve customers per day: 10,000 persons
- Number of seats: 5,000
- Ability to produce items of food per hour: 3,000
This is one giant restaurant, as the statistics and pictures above show. Unlike regular restaurants, this one has several buildings and it’s own internal roadways. There are combinations of indoor and outdoor seating arrangements and apparently, at night, there is entertainment. The entertainment packages include flying waiters and servers on roller skates and skate boards. That all makes sense because it’s at night that the place is really busy. There were hardly any people there for lunch when we turned up. With a big crowd to serve, I could see how a server would need some sort of transportation to get to all of the tables reasonably quickly. Take a look at the very short video below to see the flying waiter.
And for a more in-depth, personal and definitely worth watching view, let Kenny the Plumber* show you around the place. (Good luck trying to understand what he’s talking about. He has a pretty thick Australian accent.)
The Royal Dragon is more like a small city than a big restaurant. With a variety of buildings, seating arrangements and venues, there is probably an urban planner on the staff to supervise the various building developments and transportation issues that need to be managed.
*For some reason, this YouTube video did not want to show up in the post, so just click the link to meet Kenny at the Royal Dragon in this YouTube link.
…just catching up…so how was the food?
The meal was excellent! However it was Chinese food, so while it was really good, it was food that you can find in most high quality Chinese restaurants anywhere. The same is not true for Thai food, which is not so great in many places outside of Thailand, like Toronto. But Chinese meals in Toronto are as good as the food served in the Royal Dragon.
Another food / restaurant venue that provides theatre to rival, or surpass, the food itself! It gives new meaning to “a village restaurant.”
Totally agree!!!
Skip, I have a small Thai-Indian fusion restaurant near my house in Mississauga called Mango Rain that has exceptional Thai food. The wife is Thai, her husband (the chef) is from India and the food is superb and decor close to the mark
Otherwise Thai restaurants in toronto are usually Chinese restaurants masquerading as Thai
Flying waiter was impressive!
Wish my son could do that each morning. Then he might get to work on time…..