Location: Hsinchu, Rokkaku Workshop Ramen & Daifuku Japanese Cuisine
Travel note summary: Saturday in Hsinchu meant two casual meals. At noon, I headed alone to the newly opened Rokkaku Workshop Ramen in the Qingda Night Market. The ramen here generally costs around $130–140, which I think is the main reason why, despite being in the night market area, there aren't many students among the customers. However, their cheapest option, the small Rokkaku Ramen, is only 70 NTD. Given my past experience with touch-screen ordering systems and my management background, I naturally observe the operational flow in restaurants. At noon, Rokkaku Workshop had five kitchen staff, four servers, one cashier, plus the owner himself. In the not-so-spacious space spanning two floors, the staffing and division of labor seemed quite adequate. But estimating their monthly operating costs might be staggering. In this area with likely high rent, if customer traffic and table turnover don't increase, running the place could be tough. But that's the owner's problem to solve—I'm just a customer. I tried their ramen, starting with the broth as usual. Compared to other ramen shops I've tried in Hsinchu, the …