Mr Ji expands to Camden

21-Apr-2022 - Last updated on 21-Apr-2022 at 15:44 GMT

Modern Asian restaurant Mr Ji is to launch a second iteration in London's Camden, which will see the concept shift further away from its original focus on Taiwanese chicken.

Founder Samuel Haim will open Mr Ji Camden on the Parkway site previously occupied by his fish and chip restaurant Hook in June, with TĀ TĀ Eatery’s Ana Gonçalves and Zijun Meng once again overseeing the food.

Mr Ji originally launched as a grab-and-go fried chicken concept on Old Compton Street in London’s Soho in late 2019, but subsequently relaunched as a full-service restaurant offering an expanded menu created by Gonçalves and Meng last year.

The menu at the Camden restaurant will feature some dishes from the Soho restaurant including the Sichuan burger with a double-fried chicken thigh served in a pineapple bun with Sichuan chilli and cucumber salad; the daikon cake of steamed daikon and shiitake mushrooms with garlic soy paste; and the prawn ‘in’ toast - a toasted brioche ‘box’ filled with prawn sauce and prawns.

There will also be a selection of larger sharing dishes, reflecting the more neighbourhood-style setting, such as a plate of Cantonese-style roast chicken with crunchy salad; and prawn fried rice.

Mr Ji Camden will also offer the Asian-inspired Sunday roast concept that was tested in the Soho restaurant last year, which featured roast duck with an umami dip; crispy roast pork belly with sweet mustard; Taiwanese sausage with garlic mayonnaise; and a crispy roast chicken.

While cocktails will continue to form a core part of the drinks offer, the Camden restaurant will also feature a more wine-led focus, with an emphasis on low intervention international wines.

Similarly to Soho, the Camden site will have a stripped back design with a raw architectural finish. A-nrd, the studio from Alessio Nardi who recently designed restaurants KOL, Darjeeling Express and Korean Dinner Party, has overseen the interiors that include concrete flooring, old stucco walls and raw surfaces with tile adhesive and paint patches.

Speaking to BigHospitality last year, Haim said expansion of the Mr Ji brand would hinge on the stability of the post-pandemic restaurant market.

“If we were to ever do more with the brand, we would need to have more of an idea of how stable the market is going to be in the long term,” he said.