ABOVE: Customers lined up across the full length of the strip mall waiting to get a Bingz’s Crispy Burger!
Bingz burgers are so delicious you won’t believe your taste buds. It’s no wonder. A little known culinary fact in the West is that the Chinese burger has a history of more than 2,000 years, originating in the ancient Qin Dynasty. Is it the history or the unique taste that creating such a stir among foodies? And what is the difference between Bingz and a regular burger? BlogTo, well known for its coverage of the Toronto food scene, describes the Chinese burger as crispy with a unique texture and spice palate.
Bingz Crispy Burger officially launched in Markham at the end of May. The company was founded in 2014 in Beijing, China, by two Tencent programmers (world-class gaming developer), and soon became one of the most iconic food chains in the country. Currently, it has over 70 outlets in Beijing and branches in several other cities, with sales of 60 million Chinese burgers in the past seven years. The menu offers a variety of flavours. Customers can choose from slightly spicy all-natural pork to tender beef with black pepper, all served between crispy buns. The all-natural meats are mixed and stewed with combinations of 32 spices, and the crispy pastry crust is baked on site in Bingz's store.
According to a report by American market research agency NPD, the number of food outlets in Canada declined by 5,000 in 2020 from 66,000 in 2016. Fast-food sandwich chains were the hardest hit, with restaurants closing left and right. However, there was one big notable exception in Toronto. The unknown Bingz Crispy Burger made a bold foray into the GTA food fray. Word got out and customers were lining up beyond the perimeter of the Markham plaza it calls home within the first month. This unusual situation caught the attention of police, who know their fast food and quickly lined up too.
According to reports, while customers were unfamiliar with the new brand or the idea of a Chinese burger, many assumed it was just another Chinese food chain in their neighbourhood and gave it a try. Word-of-mouth spread and customers began sharing online promotions on social media with friends. Nobody wanted to miss the Bingz Crispy Burger craze and line-ups were disappointed to find a sell-out situation. But they kept returning to the outlet that was prepping for the mass appetite. As the restaurant is limited to 400 guests a day, the line up never ended. Markham had discovered Bingz!
It's fair to estimate that the outlet's monthly turnover could reach as high as $350,000 to $400,000, a number at the top end of the food retail scale in Toronto and Canada generally.
When speaking of similar fast food brands, people naturally think of other well-known American brands like Shake Shack. From its most recent financial report, the average weekly sales at Shake Shack in the first quarter of 2021 were $68,000, with Q2 numbers as high as $72,000 per week, indicating that Bingz is poised to exceed Shack Shack‘s turnover.
Bingz Crispy Burger now tops the Yelp chart. More importantly, now that Toronto has just resumed in-house dining, it's totally reasonable to expect sales numbers to grow. Bingz is on course to surpass well-known competitors in August.
Recently Jollibee, a multinational Filipino fast-food chain, set up shop in Canada. Similarly, other Chinese enterprises are also looking overseas for new foodie markets in the West, following the arrival of more and more Asian immigrants.
Bingz Crispy Burger is riding high on the wave in Canada, a country famous for its incredibly diverse food offerings.
