MìLà is a Chinese food company. Our teams work tirelessly to enhance delicious products that we all enjoy at home! While MìLà is a Chinese food brand, it’s really a celebration of the power of food to bring us together, share our stories, and discover new flavors and cultures.

History

You may remember us as Xiao Chi Jie, or XCJ. We opened in 2018 as Xiao Chi Jie, a restaurant in Bellevue, WA, where we shared the amazing ingredients, recipes, and flavors of our Chinese heritage. Since then, we’ve grown, and so has our passion for what we do.

In 2023, XCJ became MìLà. As we evolved, we wanted a new name that felt authentically Chinese but could keep growing with us. MìLà means honey (mi 蜜) and spice (la 辣) in Chinese. We’re the same small team, making the same insanely delicious products, just with a new look.

Our Mission

Our mission is to build something that feels authentically and uniquely true to our roots as a Chinese-American-founded brand. Something we can own, but that’s also meant to be shared. One of the things we love about Chinese food is that it’s traditionally served family-style—shared with everyone gathered at the table. MìLà is a Chinese food brand, but it’s really a celebration of the power of food to bring us together, share our stories, and discover new flavors and cultures.

Employee Culture & Core Values

At MìLà, our Core Values are the guiding principles of how we succeed together. What brought us here keeps us going - we are a finely tuned group of people that are given the freedom to bring their A-game to work every single day.

We have remained collaborative, transparent, and a little witty to keep it real! We hire top talent that achieves big audacious goals. When we are done, we celebrate and soak in all we accomplished together. Then we get up and do it all over again - because there is nothing like climbing a mountain with a team that holds these 7 Core Values close to their hearts:

Craft: We go about our work like craftspeople: we are rigorous and obsessive, and we go the extra mile. We put care into each detail to create quality products and services.

Truth Seeker: It’s about being right, not about having been right. We maximize the probability of finding the truth by asking questions and seeking more data if we’re unsure. We have strong opinions, loosely held: We are always open to new information.

Judgment: We make wise decisions despite ambiguity. We use data to inform our choices. We look beyond symptoms to identify underlying systemic issues. We spend money as if it was our own. We understand how reversibility affects decision-making: If a decision were not reversible, it needs to have higher confidence of success than if it were reversible.

Teamwork: We are like a professional sports team that seeks alignment and collaboration to achieve the best outcome. We are reliable. We spend time over communicating and providing context at the beginning of projects to ensure everyone understands the goal. We check in regularly to ensure progress.

Ownership: We are all CEOs. We find and address potential hazards before they turn into problems. We do and complete what we say we will do.

Innovation: We try new approaches, not just what has been proven before. We strive to improve things at each stage. We strive to problem solve from a clean perspective: with first principles thinking.

Get Sh*t Done: We are biased toward action. No job is too small.