Yau set to open new “fast casual Chinese restaurant” in Soho

Hong Kong-born restaurateur Alan Yau is set to open a new “fast casual Chinese restaurant” on a site in Soho which he has held the lease on for several years.

Yau took the site, on Ganton Street, when the area’s Kingly Court was being developed in 2004 and initially considered opening a steakhouse there. However, he has now decided to open the new concept – called Cha Cha Moon - which can be rolled out in a “return to the Wagamama market” (the restaurant in which Yau originally made his name in the UK) according to a spokesperson.

The price point will be slightly lower than at Yau’s Busaba Eathai which currently has sites in Soho, Bloomsbury and Marylebone.

Yau will open his second Cha Cha Moon in the newly developed Whiteley’s shopping centre in London’s Bayswater. Both are expected to open before the end of 2007.

A fourth Busaba will also open at Whiteley’s at the beginning of 2008 with others in central London locations expected later in the year, according to the spokesperson.

Before this, however, Yau will open Sakenohana Japanese restaurant on the old Shumi site in St James’ Street, Mayfair in mid-September.

Yau launched the first Wagamama in 1992 and sold it six years later when there were just two sites. There are now 51 UK sites as well as Wagamama’s in ten other countries.

The first Busaba restaurant opened in Wardour Street in 1999 with Michelinstarred Hakkasan in W1 following in 2000 and Yauatcha in Soho in 2004.