Christmas & New Year at Chop Chop

 

It’s been a busy month for us at both Chop Chop Haymarket & Leith, we really enjoyed the judges visit from the Tsingtao competition and are looking forward to attending the awards ceremony on October 28th - we will keep you posted.  Thank you to everyone who supported us by voting or attended the judges lunch!  As you can see in the picture, Chef Hou crafted two beautiful cranes from turnip to help impress the judges.

Christmas & New Year at Chop Chop

Please note the following dates that our restaurants will be open and closed during the Christmas and New Year holidays, as you will see, we have made sure that one or other Chop Chop is open throughout the holiday period!:

Chop Chop Leith:

OPEN: Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

CLOSED: Dec 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,31

Chop Chop Haymarket:

OPEN: Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

CLOSED: Dec 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Don’t forget Rewards Members get DOUBLE points in Leith until November 29th!

BOOK TODAY

Final Stats show “Good” or “Excellent” ratings across the board

Haymarket & Leith Open Sat/Sun Lunch  

From Saturday, 7th August, in line with the new Leith branch, Chop Chop in Morrison Street will be opening every Saturday from 12.00 to 2.00 p.m. and every Sunday from 12.30 to 2.30 p.m.for lunch.

Book lunch this weekend at Haymarket or Leith!

“Leith has left us breathless by its rocket-propelled start”

We’ve just completed our first full month at Chop Chop Leith and are left breathless by its rocket-propelled start. It’s a larger property, with more tables and longer opening hours, and we were expecting that it would eventually catch up with Chop Chop Haymarket.

But given that 80% of our members live closer to Morrison Street than to Leith, and that the new restaurant is still unable to charge for alcoholic drinks (licence due any day now!), we would happily have settled for the new restaurant initially being 50% as busy.

So imagine our delight when the figures showed the Leith turnover at just over 99% of Haymarket for July.

Many members have used their celebration vouchers to enjoy their first taste of “Chop Chop on the Shore” but the support of local Leithers, who are discovering Chop Chop for the first time, has been enormously encouraging. Some have returned several times already, always bringing new guests with them and we are attracting many new members who live very close to the restaurant.

Chop Chop Leith had 824 surveys completed by customers, giving us instant feedback. The small amount of constructive criticism, particularly in the first two or three weeks when the new team was finding its feet, was applied to improve our service. “Good” or “Excellent” ratings in the final statistics were as follows:-

Friendliness of staff 96%
Location 95%
Would recommend this restaurant 93%
Will be back 93%
Good value for money 91%
Good portion sizes 91%
General ambiance 91%

Our reputation continues to grow: we have been delighted to welcome to Leith a number of restaurant personalities recently. Some remain incognito, but the ones we know of have been our neighbour Tom Kitchin (twice), two of Martin Wishart’s chefs and, very recently, Head Chef Tong Chee Hwee of Hakkasan in London. Hakkasan is the only Michelin starred Chinese restaurant in the U.K. and not long ago was ranked 19th in Restaurant magazine’s well-known, annually published list of the top 50 restaurants in the world.

And what of Chop Chop, Haymarket? We have taken advantage of the greater capacity of two restaurants by making Chop Chop Haymarket a little more comfortable: we have removed some tables to make room for larger, padded chairs, so your next visitshould be more pleasant than ever!

Chop Chop Leith is now up and running!

Our doors opened on 14^th June and, helped by the glorious weather, have actually been full on ten of the twelve days that we’ve opened. We’ve received about 300 surveys back from our guests and, possibly fuelled by their no-corkage BYOB libations and slightly obliged by our £12 voucher bribe (although we ask them to remain impartial), we have registered 75 – 95% good or excellent ratings in all categories. Most guests have been very approving of our furniture and décor, our service and, obviously, our food. Room for improvement is mainly in the occasionally slower service – not surprising, really, when we are still getting used to serving four distinctly separate zones over a wide area with 70% of our staff being brand new. We’re absolutely delighted with the opening fortnight and look forward to pushing all our approval ratings up to 90%, which will come as our team settles in.

Sunday lunch saw the premiere of the Chop Chop Chinese barbecue. Although we have not yet advertised this feature, we had about thirty guests enjoying the skewers of lamb, chicken, beef, vegetables and toast with salad platters, all at our silly (low) introductory prices as we gauge what to offer and how much to charge. The surveys coming back were unanimously positive about this (first ever in Scotland?) culinary adventure. We will be holding these prices for another week or two. 

Chop Chop Haymarket continues to thrive – the opening of our second restaurant has had little impact on the mother restaurant although it’s probably a little easier to book than it was, which was one of our aims.

Book a table today!

Counting Down to Chop Chop Leith

Just a few days to go before the curtains draw back to reveal Chop Chop Leith, replete with its Chinese furniture. The journey of the furniture from China has been a saga: carefully filling a 40-foot container in Changchun at the beginning of April, hauled by road to Dalian, shipped around the belly of the “Big Chicken” (China – check out its shape on the map), stuck in Hong Kong for a week, unloading in Zeebrugge and finally arriving in Scotland after waiting another week for a feeder ship to Grangemouth.The voyage that normally takes 45 days ended up taking 60!

However, the furniture arrived at Grangemouth on Sunday and just as we thought we were home and dry, the UK agent informed us that Customs and Excise wanted to X-ray the container. Whether they thought we were hiding illegal immigrants under the tables or had stuffed the chair legs with heroin we do not know, but the issue was that it might delay delivery to Edinburgh by another two days. Moreover, we would have to pay for the X-rays. Fortunately, unable to contain their curiosity, Her Majesty’s inspectors X-rayed our container at the first opportunity and released it. We had to cough up £65 but defiantly insisted on having the pictures: at least we would have something to show for our money, even if it wasn’t worth looking at. 

Doors open for Chop Chop Leith in just 4 days! What do you have planned in June? 

• Our new private (up to 10) or open banqueting space (up to 20) could help to accommodate an upcoming special event 
• Are you taking in any events during The Leith Festival?  If so, why not book a meal for before or after
• Looking for a great way to celebrate Dad this Fathers’ Day? (June 20)  Our special offers include the opportunity to win a chance of free hospitality at The Open Championship on July 17th might be just the thing and we’re certain you will enjoy saving money on free corkage for unlimited BYOB

Book your table online today – Looking forward to welcoming you soon! 

Chinese BBQ coming to Leith

Chop Chop Leith is taking shape quickly now. The new walls are up, extending the kitchen and creating a small private dining room, another almost private dining room and an entrance lobby. It’s all looking great. The builders have been working through the weekend, which is appropriate as all building sites in Asia have seven day weeks. A slow boat from China is ploughing through the seven seas laden with our glass and chrome tables plus about 200 chairs – enough for the new restaurant and more comfortable seating for Chop Chop Haymarket.

Next on the list – shopping for our outdoor furniture. We will fit eight tables outside, enough to seat 24 al fresco diners. One of our Chinese chefs is very experienced in barbecue cooking. Not hamburgers and sausages, of course, but skewered lamb, chicken wings, corn on the cob and other delights, all sprinkled with Chinese spices. I believe our Sunday lunch Chinese barbecues (hopefully starting in July) will be a first for Edinburgh and will be very popular. 

Bookings for Chop Chop Leith opening June 14th, have been flooding in via our new online booking system, we thank everyone for their continued support. Don’t forget, we are offering FREE corkage on BYOB until the end of July and you can enter to win tickets to The Open in St. Andrews.  You may want to book early to avoid disappointment.

We are looking forward to seeing you there!