Tim Ho Wan Brand Guidelines: A 2009 Mong Kok Dim Sum Shop Now in the Jollibee Group

A small shop in Mong Kok.

Tim Ho Wan is a Hong Kong dim sum chain whose Chinese name, 添好運, means “to add good luck,” English Wikipedia says. It was founded in March 2009 by the chef Mak Kwai-pui and Leung Fai-keung, and its first restaurant was a shop of about twenty seats in Mong Kok, Kowloon. Mak had cooked at Lung King Heen, a Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong, before opening his own place, and Inside Retail Asia also gives 2009 as the founding year; the Australian magazine Gourmet Traveller called him an alumnus of its kitchens in an interview published on 29 January 2015.

In that interview Mak said his first intention had been to share quality traditional dim sum with his community at an affordable price. He described neighbourhood eateries in the district where he grew up turning to Korean barbecue, Thai chicken rice and Turkish skewers, with fewer and fewer authentic Hong Kong flavours, “which made me want to do something about it.” He also told the magazine that the first international journalists to visit the Hong Kong shop were Australian.

Recognition came quickly. The original Mong Kok branch appeared in the 2010 edition of the Michelin Guide with a star, Gourmet Traveller reported, and English Wikipedia says the star came within a year of opening. The original shop moved to Olympian City in 2013, according to English Wikipedia, which lists further Hong Kong branches in districts including Central, North Point, Taikoo Shing, Sha Tin, Sham Shui Po and West Kowloon Station.

Buns, rice rolls and a franchise model.

The menu centres on Cantonese dim sum. When Jollibee Foods Corporation announced in November 2024 that it would take full ownership of the chain, it named the dishes it treats as the brand’s signatures: barbecue pork buns, steamed rice rolls filled with barbecue pork, pan-fried turnip cake and steamed egg cake, GMA News reported on 5 November 2024. Inside Retail Asia gave the same list the following day. The group also described a newer “global flagship” format that adds Hong Kong roast meats and wok dishes to the dim sum.

Growth came largely through franchising. English Wikipedia says the Tim Ho Wan Group, owned in equal halves by the two founders, kept direct control of the Hong Kong branches and earned fees by licensing the brand abroad. Head chefs at franchised branches, it says, had to be experienced dim sum chefs and complete a four-week training course in Hong Kong.

The first branch outside Hong Kong opened in 2013 at Plaza Singapura in Singapore, English Wikipedia says, followed by restaurants in markets including Japan, mainland China, South Korea, the Philippines and the United States. By January 2015, Gourmet Traveller reported, the brand had three outlets in Hong Kong and branches in Singapore, Hanoi, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, and a restaurant in Chatswood, Sydney, was opening that month as the first Tim Ho Wan outside Asia. The magazine said Sydney’s city centre, Burwood and Melbourne’s Chinatown were next in line.

English Wikipedia adds that the franchise rights in the United States and Japan were held by the Japanese restaurant group WDI, which ran branches in Tokyo, New York, Irvine, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Katy, Texas.

Dumpling kitchens and dim-sum baskets.

Asian restaurant chains tend to present themselves through what happens in the kitchen. Din Tai Fung’s own history page opens with the xiaolongbao and its count of 18 folds, and the Taipei Times traced that formula to the founder’s son working alongside the shop’s first dim sum chefs.

Names and shop fronts carry a lot of the identity. Tim Ho Wan’s Chinese name means “to add good luck,” English Wikipedia says, and Din Tai Fung’s joins the names of a former employer and an oil supplier, according to the company and the Taipei Times. Long-kept signs, such as the brushed board that Din Tai Fung says still hangs at its first restaurant on Xinyi Road, link a chain of many branches back to one room.

Dish naming is usually plain and descriptive: barbecue pork buns, steamed rice rolls, pan-fried turnip cake, soup dumplings. Groups can list signature dishes by name when they announce deals, as Jollibee Foods Corporation did for Tim Ho Wan in November 2024, GMA News reported. Guidebook recognition travels with a name too: Tim Ho Wan’s first shop in Mong Kok appeared with a star in the 2010 Michelin Guide, Gourmet Traveller reported in 2015, and that star still features in how the chain is introduced in press coverage.

The corporate side is published too. Company pages set out founders and founding years, parent groups describe their portfolios in stock exchange disclosures, and franchise partners appear in trade press when rights change hands. This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — who founded it, who owns it and how it grew — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From two founders to the Jollibee Group.

Ownership moved to the Philippines in stages. English Wikipedia says Jollibee Group acquired the Asia-Pacific master franchise rights in 2018. By January 2024 Jollibee Worldwide, a subsidiary of Jollibee Foods Corporation, held a 92% participating interest in Titan Dining LP, the fund behind Tim Ho Wan Holdings, the owner and operator of the chain, GMA News reported. On 5 November 2024 the company disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange an agreement to buy the remaining interest, which would make Tim Ho Wan the flagship brand of its Chinese cuisine segment. The chain then had 80 stores in 11 countries, according to the same report and to Inside Retail Asia, which said the next day that Jollibee had fully acquired the business. The same GMA News report noted that the group had also secured majority stakes in South Korea’s Compose Coffee and Taiwan’s Milksha, two other Asian chains.

By August 2026 Jollibee Group was calling Tim Ho Wan a wholly owned brand. On 21 August 2026 Marketing-Interactive reported a realignment with WDI: Tim Ho Wan would buy WDI’s 30% stake in the North America master-franchise joint venture, and WDI would buy Tim Ho Wan’s 30% stake in the Japan joint venture that holds unit franchise rights there, with Tim Ho Wan staying on as franchisor. The deal was agreed in August 2026, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approval; not completed at the time of writing. The magazine said WDI ran four Tim Ho Wan restaurants in Japan, three in Tokyo and one in Osaka, and that the North America business had five US stores, after the opening in Irvine of the brand’s first company-run US site.

For a design guide, Tim Ho Wan shows how a small neighbourhood shop, a short list of named dishes and a franchise rulebook can travel through a parent group’s portfolio. Compare Jollibee, the parent group’s namesake chain, and Din Tai Fung, the Taipei dumpling chain. For this guide we use a jade green, a roast-pork red and a wok black on bun white with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Tim Ho Wan’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.