UAE portion sizes 'shocked' Mango Tree founder

 The portion sizes demanded in the UAE are larger than in Asia and the UK, according to Thai chef Pitaya Phanphensophon, CEO of COCA Holding International Co., whose restaurant empire started in Thailand and now spans across Asia, the UK as well as Dubai.

“We make the portions a bit bigger here compared to Thailand,” said Pitaya of the Mango Tree outlets in Dubai’s Mirdif City Centre and the Souk al Bahar. “I was shocked to see the portions here.”

Even in the Mango Tree restaurant in London “people tend to accept smaller portions,” said Pitaya.

Portion size is just one of the tweaks that Pitaya said he and his team make to dishes in outlets across the world to “localise” the menus, while ensuring as much consistency across the Mango Tree brand as possible.

Pitaya said that ensuring brand consistency is “always our main topic of discussion. We do realise that different parts of the world have different eating habits, we do realise that some ingredients in different parts of the world are different.”

Pitaya intends to expand the Mango Tree restaurant brand further into the GCC, with plans for a new outlet in Kuwait. This is in addition to the Mango Tree outlets in London, Tokyo, Kuching (Malaysia), Dubai and Macao, and the recently opened fine dining Thai restaurant Mango Tree Signature iin Bangkok. COCA Holding International Co. currently has six branches of the “COCA” restaurant in Thailand, 24 branches in Asia including a Tapas style Japanese restaurant called Bo Tan Tei, a modern Hong Kong noodle café called China White, Mango Tree Bistro at Central World Bangkok and Central Festival Pattaya Beach.