Our story begins in 1997, when Jian Wang arrived in Edinburgh from Changchun in North-Eastern China, a region famous for its delicious jiao zi (dumplings).
Jian was an expert chef and dumpling maker, having worked in the family food business for many years.
Jian’s new factory in Edinburgh started to produce north eastern style Chinese dumplings for 50 Chinese supermarkets throughout the U.K. and in 2004 won a contract to supply P & O cruise ships. As these luxury liners sailed far and wide, Jian could claim that her dumplings were eaten all over the world!
Jian continues to supply P & O.
The first Chop Chop opened its doors in January 2006 and was an instant success, attracting universal acclaim from the local and national press. By 2008, it had been voted Best Chinese Restaurant in Scotland.
The dumplings also achieved further recognition, being the first ethnic food to win a coveted Scottish Excellence Award in 2008 as the Best Retail Meat Product
Chop Chop launched its unique Rewards membership to show appreciation to its regular customers, who promptly returned the compliment by voting Chop Chop onto Gordon Ramsay's F-Word T.V. show.
The success of the Haymarket restaurant prompted the opening of Chop Chop Leith in June 2010, and a new factory. Both restaurants had a very busy year. In an online poll, Chop Chop was voted Britain's most popular Chinese restaurant as the number of Rewards members passed the 5,000 mark.
Jian travels to China every year in a quest to find new dishes to satisfy her criteria for the Chop Chop menu: authentic, simple, healthy and above all irresistible!
If you've been before, you'll know exactly what we mean. If you haven't, get down to one of our restaurants chop chop! We hope to see you soon.
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