First Chinese gastropub tipped to start new trend

 
OBE Restaurateur Alan Yau, photographed in SaKe No Hana, 23 St. James' Street, Wednesday, 16 January 2007
Rebecca Reid
Maxine Frith22 August 2013

The multi-millionaire founder of the Wagamama chain and the Michelin-starred Hakkasan restaurant is to open London’s first Chinese gastropub in Soho.

Alan Yau has bought The Endurance pub in Berwick Street and is planning a huge redevelopment of the site to turn it into a venue offering Asian-themed cocktails and street-style Chinese dishes.

Food experts in the capital say the high-profile launch, set for early next year, will spark a new trend in fusion gastropubs, replacing the traditional upmarket sausage and mash dishes that started in the Nineties.

The Endurance was among the first gastropubs in the UK.

Stefan Chomka, deputy editor of Restaurant magazine, said: “It is really interesting. If it was anyone else but Alan Yau suggesting it, this would be considered something of a frivolity, but Alan has such expertise in finding niches and building brands that people really think this could work.

“Ethnic food has changed in recent years. Previously we had three tiers — the high-end restaurants like Hakkasan, the buried speciality places in Chinatown and then touristy places that might not be particularly good, but I think a gastropub serving good, street-style food, could really work and create a real buzz.”

Mr Yau founded Wagamama in 1992 and sold it in 1997, having been credited with revolutionising Asian food trends in the UK. He then established Hakkasan.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in