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‘This is my child’: Why Ko chose Ho Chi Minh for Capital Grille’s Asia debut

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‘This is my child’: Why Ko chose Ho Chi Minh for Capital Grille’s Asia debut

Guests at The Capital Grille in Ho Chi Minh City don’t walk in from the street; they take a private lift to the 50th floor of Bitexco Financial Tower, where the restaurant opened last month. Diners eat with the city laid out below them.

It is the first Capital Grille in Asia, an American fine-dining steakhouse owned by Darden Restaurants. It is also the first restaurant in Vietnam for Ko Hospitality Group, the Taipei family company that operates it under franchise.

Over close to two hours at a media roundtable, Stanley Ko, president of Ko Hospitality, laid out how a privately held, second-generation family business decides where to plant a US$100-a-head American brand, and why it is prepared to wait longer than most investors would for the answer.

Ko Hospitality was founded in Taipei in 1984 and now operates in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Mainland China. Its portfolio runs from Ruth’s Chris Steak House and The Capital Grille to Ramen Nagi and two chef-led restaurants with Michelin pedigree: Raw, with chef André Chiang, and Koichiro, with chef Oshino Koichiro. 

Both of its American steakhouse brands now sit inside Darden, which bought Ruth’s Chris in 2023. At the end of May, Darden reported 74 company-owned Capital Grille restaurants in the US and no franchised ones in Asia. Ho Chi Minh City is the first.

Brad Smith, president of Darden Franchising, said in the launch statement that Vietnam’s economic growth, changing fine-dining scene and business community made it the ideal market for the first location in the region.


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