How Din Tai Fung Covent Garden Added £33,500 in Monthly Revenue with sunday Ordering
At its Covent Garden location, Din Tai Fung had already built a loyal following before sunday. Across 30 days of data, guests using sunday Ordering spent 23.7% more per transaction than those using non-sunday payment channels, generating £33,500 in additional monthly revenue.
A world-class restaurant. A world-class opportunity.
Din Tai Fung’s Covent Garden outpost needs little introduction. One of the world’s most celebrated restaurant groups, known for its legendary xiaolongbao and precision hospitality, the Covent Garden location is one of London’s most visited dining destinations, regularly turning over £1 million or more in a single month.
With that kind of volume, even incremental improvements in how guests order and spend can have an outsized effect on the bottom line. The question was: could technology meaningfully lift revenue per cover without disrupting the meticulously choreographed service Din Tai Fung is known for?
With sunday Ordering, the answer was a clear yes.
What Is sunday Ordering?
sunday Ordering is designed specifically for full-service restaurants where the waiter relationship is central to the experience. It’s not about replacing service, it’s about removing the friction that stops guests from ordering more.
Here’s how it works at Din Tai Fung Covent Garden:
The waiter takes the initial order as usual, via the POS.
During the meal, the waiter introduces sunday or guests scan a QR code on the table at their own initiative.
Guests browse a curated menu of drinks, desserts and extra dishes directly from their phone, adding items when they’re ready without needing to flag down a server.
All orders fire directly to the POS and kitchen. Nothing changes behind the scenes.
The full bill, including the initial order and all sunday additions, is settled in one payment at the end via sunday.
The result is a frictionless reordering experience that fits seamlessly into the rhythm of the meal. Guests spend more because it’s easy. Staff get more time on the floor. And nothing about Din Tai Fung’s signature hospitality is compromised.
Guests who use sunday Ordering spend more, by a lot
The core question for any upsell technology is simple: does it actually work?
At Din Tai Fung Covent Garden, the data is unambiguous. Over the last 30 days:
Average basket with a sunday Order: £46.95
Average basket without sunday: £37.95
Uplift: +£9 per transaction, a 23.7% increase
When a guest picks up their phone mid-meal and adds a round of drinks, a dessert or a few extra dumplings, they’re spending almost a quarter more than they otherwise would. At Din Tai Fung’s volumes, that number compounds quickly.
A tangible impact on monthly revenue
The numbers speak for themselves. Over the last 30 days, 13.67% of all bills included a sunday Order, with those guests spending significantly more than comparable non-sunday transactions.
The incremental revenue generated by that higher spend was £33,487 in a single month, or roughly £400,000 annualised, from a product that sits quietly in the pocket of every guest at the table.
sunday Ordering accounted for a 3.24% increase in top-line revenue. For any restaurant operating at scale, that kind of consistent lift, month after month and with zero additional marketing spend, is the definition of compounding growth.
The ROI is clear
sunday Ordering generates meaningful incremental revenue, while the cost of that revenue remains minimal.
With 71.2% of guests choosing to pay via sunday, the platform is already deeply embedded in the day-to-day flow of service at Covent Garden. The total cost of sunday, including processing and SaaS, is a fraction of what it returns.
Set against £33,500 in additional revenue generated by sunday Ordering uplift alone, the return is striking: sunday pays for itself nearly 8 times over every month, based on the incremental revenue impact of sunday Ordering alone.
That’s before accounting for the operational efficiencies of 71.2% adoption, including fewer card machines, faster table turns and a smoother end-of-service experience.
The upside ahead
What makes the Din Tai Fung story particularly compelling is where it goes from here.
Today, sunday Orders appear on 13.67% of all bills. That means 86% of bills don’t yet include a sunday Order. Among the waiter team, adoption of sunday Ordering varies significantly. The highest-performing staff members are already driving reordering rates above 30%, demonstrating what’s possible at scale.
The opportunity is clear: as staff adoption increases and guests become more familiar with the experience, the revenue contribution of sunday Ordering will grow, without any change to the product, the pricing or the experience.
The takeaway
Din Tai Fung built its reputation on precision, in the kitchen, in the dining room and in every interaction with its guests. sunday Ordering fits that ethos exactly: a quiet, effortless improvement to the guest experience that happens to drive almost £400,000 in additional annual revenue.
Ready to see what sunday Ordering can do for your restaurant?
3min
