Yang Hero expands reach; opens new branch in I.T. Park
Yang Hero is known for its delicious Chinese cuisine. After the success of its first restaurant in Talisay City, its owners expanded to a second, bigger branch in IT Park on April 28, 2023. This bigger branch continues to offer customers a variety of hearty appetizers, soups, rice dishes and desserts, but Yang Hero is best known for its authentic malatang soup, which means “spicy numbing hot soup.”
Infused with unique characteristic flavors of China, the restaurant ensures that each malatang soup bowl is different, since the soup is specially tailored to everyone. Customers get to customize their own malatang soup with the freshest ingredients presented in the restaurant’s open refrigeration system and paired with a soup base of their choosing.
Evanmarie Mendoza, social media specialist at Yang Hero, said: “The Chinese barbecue is also a must-try for foodies as it differs from the regular ones that we typically have here in the Philippines. Marinated with a special sauce, this dish is cooked in a special way where the flavors are truly unique. But that’s not all, our head chef from Sichuan is also exploring adding more menu items to
showcase more of the authentic Sichuan cuisine that is worth trying out soon.”
She also explained the meaning behind the restaurant’s name, “Yang Hero,” and expounded on the brand’s journey: “The word ‘Yang’ is the last name of one of the business owners. They started the business in the hopes of bringing Sichuan cuisine and culture to the Filipinos, especially with the help of Mr. Yang’s friends who are from Sichuan.”
According to Mendoza, the language barrier was one of the biggest challenges the owners of Yang Hero had to face: “They were quite worried at first about how the Cebuano market would perceive this new concept. Despite that it was a bold move to position themselves beside established restaurants, the owners were still hopeful with the high volume of traffic that IT Park offers.”
But the owners would eventually cross this language and culture barrier by asking their Filipino friends to help tailor the dish to better suit the Filipino taste buds: “There were times when they would let their Filipino friends sample the dishes to make sure they would suit the Filipino taste because they really are passionate about sharing their culture and cuisine with the Filipinos in a way that doesn’t come off as something intimidating.”
With the successful turnout of the second branch, the restaurant owners have hinted at another expansion in the hopes of introducing Malatang and Sichuan cuisine to more Filipinos.
Yang Hero Cebu IT Park is located at 11 Garden Row, Ayala Malls Central Bloc, Cebu City. It is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.