Dampa Express, known as the original house of the best and yummy seafood bilaos continues to live up to its name as your go-to place for affordable, fast, and convenient seafood a la carte treats even during and despite the pandemic. They dared to go against the trend of posh high brow exclusivity. Their outlets are not fancy restaurants, making you feel welcome and comfortable but they’re air-conditioned. They also have enclosed videoke room for small family gatherings.

Fresh from the Shore to your Door

Customers do not have to spend too much money on live seafood, worry about picking the right shellfish or getting the weight of crabs and wait for a long time for your orders to be cooked. All you have to do is visit your preferred branch out of their 30 branches and order from their menu of family-sized seafood sets. You can also dial Dampa Express’ hotline or message them for home deliveries of you’re afraid to go out or worried of catching COVID-19 in wet markets for fresh seafood to cook at home.

Do note that Dampa Express meals are priced and prepared for families. They don’t have solo meals and they don’t compete with fast food outlets. If you’re curious what makes their cooking tick, no secret at all – They just cook seafood the dampa style and they don’t stock. What’s delivered today will be out by the end of the day. So everything is as fresh as you can get.

Giving back to the community – They source everything they use and serve from fellow Filipinos. For instance, all their itlognamaalat (salted duck’s egg) and bilao are from Pampanga. They are 100% Pimoy to give back to the community. They buy all of the vegetables from the bulant vegetable vendor peddling on the street. “He used to go about pushing a cart then when he started supplying all our branches, he’s able to buy a pedicab and now he’s driving a car!

Banking on Seafood being Pandemic- proof

Dampa Express have bilao sets (large women tray) at Php1100 more than a bargain for 3 to 4 people and you can upsize this to a killer bilao, their top of the line bestseller.

Quick story about Dampa Express’ specialty, alimangosabilao (crabs in large woven trays) – Discovered by accident.

“A lawyer friend ordered crabs and for lack of a better packaging for the crabs, we had it delivered in a large woven tray. He took a photo of the generous serving and posted it on social media.” The post generated a lot of likes and bombarded with inquiries so they started using that packaging to represent their brand. The rest is history; alimangosabilao gets from 50 to 100 orders on an ordinary day to 200-250 orders on special occasions ringing in a total of P300k at its peak!

Dampa Express Expansion

Having this business is not Simon Lim Jr. ‘s childhood dream. He also don’t cook and neither do eat crabs. “I only wanted one restaurant for my wife, but fate had a different plan for me”. When they opened one branch, unexpectedly people really welcomed the idea that soon, everyone wanted a branch near their place. The Dampa King nearly closed a deal with a Singapore- based restaurant operator before Covid-19 came.

Now, Simon Lim, Jr., and his best friend Ronald Lledan is going on 30 branches, of which 10 are provincial franchises and 10 are company-owned. To date, Dampa Express serves around 2,000 customers daily in all their branches combined. “From the fruit of our labors, we’re able to open a private resort in Pampanga, with a giant crab image as tribute to our success: katas ngalimango ( the fruit of selling crabs).

Holding the Title of Dampa King

This unprecedented success as an innovative swafood restaurant that pioneered “affordability, accessibility, and accelerated service” in the Philippines has earned Simon Lim, Jr., the title of DAMPA KING. They make the biggest order for crabs in this part of the world. At one time, their orders reached P10.5M worth of crabs! Boasting the biggest number of branches among any Philippine seafood restaurants, making it the biggest seafood chain in the Philippines. As a result, the seafood resto business is now a multi- million industry.

Seafood is Pandemic Proof

The Dampa King, Simon Lim, Jr. confessed that he thought he’d lose everything during pandemic, but to his surprise sales grew exponentially with greater demand for deliveries. “We’ve survived with group service, offering a lot of variations – we have shrimp in eight variations, and banking on seasonal demands. In January for instance, when people are dieting meat dishes are on a low, so our tuna sales go up!”

Dampa Express continues to operate on 300 employees who receive the minimum wage plus all the government- mandated benefits they deserve as food service workers. They offer more than the P160 per day and one free meal that other paluto ( cooked to order) outlets give. They held on to the motto that as long as there are orders and people want seafood, Dampa Express don’t stop.

*Dampa Express is now accepting franchise and partnership applications nationwide and for overseas as well.

Bestsellers of Dampa Express 👌🤤

Dampa Express Contact number and info

For the full menu, reservation, delivery and more info, call 0917 5311703 or +632 79441036.

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