Online apps are one source of the boom in Chinese diners at seafood restaurant Dragøy in Tromsø, where operations manager Francisco Torres talks about some of the changes he has been implementing in recent years that have really appealed to the Asian clientele.
Interview with Francisco Torres
Dragøy Operations Manager"We put a huge emphasis on freshness."
Dragøy Operations Manager
‘We used to be much smaller and the products we sold were great but they weren’t as fresh – think things like gravlax,’ he says.
What Francisco did when he took over as manager was to focus a lot on freshness – expanding the counter and eating space and even harnessing unused tanks to keep lobster.
And as we know, freshness is a major draw for Chinese people when it comes to seafood. ‘We created this big aquarium for the restaurant and started serving king crab, snow crab, langoustines, lobster and even things like urchins,’ he explains. ‘This allowed us to get really creative in what we serve but also to put this huge emphasis on freshness.’
Francisco is not a Norway native – which you might have guessed from his name. He was in fact born in Alicante, Spain, but has spent the best part of his adult life traveling, including extensive periods in Asia.
This is partly where Francisco picked up some of traits he has brought to Dragøy, where as well as freshness, there is an emphasis on speed.
‘We have a small kitchen but we might easily feed 300 people a day – so we need to be quick. Our super fresh, beautiful king crab can be on the table in literally three minutes. The same for lobster: you choose it and it is on your table in minutes.’
This wasn’t a plan designed to attract Chinese or other Asian tourists to the restaurant, adds Francisco. Instead, his move towards the themes of freshness and speed coincided with the uptick in Asian tourists to the city, with many finding the restaurant through RedNote.
‘As soon as we started to see more Chinese customers, I tried to create my own account in the app,’ explains Francisco.
Without a Chinese phone number however, this wasn’t possible, but what he could do was actively like posts from others. And from this, he has gained an even deeper insight into what these diners come to Dragøy for. ‘It’s all about eating something fresh in the moment,’ he says. ‘It’s an experience.'