Jimmy Chung’ s founder has food plans for beach

The man behind Jimmy Chung’s is aiming to return to Aberdeen beach with million-pound plans for a food hall overlooking the sea.

Businessman Chung Wong is also in talks with leading city chippers to finally bring one to the seafront, on the building’s ground floor.

Under blueprints seen by The Press and Journal, the Esplanade venue would have a huge food court upstairs boasting seven “pods” serving different cuisine.

There would be space for 160 diners across the expanse.

And there would be a bar, filling another gap at Aberdeen beach for people who fancy watching the tide rolling in with a pint at their side.

It was a cloudy but mild spring morning when we met Chung at Aberdeen beach.

It was a drive he had avoided for years as he dealt with the “heartbreak” of his Jimmy Chung’s restaurant on the promenade burning down.

But now his latest venture is on the same spot.

The planned food hall, yet to be named and currently awaiting approval from the council, would be spread across the first floor of the replacement block built in the aftermath of the blaze.

Under the blueprints, rows of food pods would be formed around the perimeter with an extension created to fit them all in.

The new chip shop, meanwhile, would operate downstairs next to the Turkish Kitchen.

The father-of-two, an accountant by trade, moved from Hong Kong to Essex to study when he was 18 and ended up coming to Aberdeen 25 years ago to open a new office.

He had no intention of entering the hospitality industry, until he spotted a gap in the market.

“Jimmy Chung’s was not my idea, I had seen this model elsewhere on my travels,” Chung said.

“I tried to sell it to my catering clients, I was telling them this was the future but nobody was interested.”

With chef Ronny Yung’s help, the businessman opened the first Jimmy Chung’s on Great Western Road in Aberdeen.

Another followed on Union Street, and the beach venue was later added.

Branches soon sprouted up across Scotland, including popular venues in Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness. A Dublin branch was also opened.

Chung said: “I’m quite proud of the business, I always like it when my children’s friends come to the house and say they had their 10th birthday party at Jimmy Chung’s rather than McDonald’s!”

The bottomless buffet phenomenon eventually faded, the problem of food waste gradually eating at Chung’s conscience before Covid finally put paid to the chain.

The sheen wore off as Chung watched tonnes of food being shovelled into bin bags. “It was heartbreaking to see all this food being thrown away when there are people going hungry” he said.

“But there was nothing we could do, hygiene rules meant we couldn’t give it away.”

Then in the early hours of February 20 2014, disaster struck.

Chung was in Glasgow when he received a phone call at 5am. At the time, he told us he was “in a state of shock” upon hearing the dreadful news.

Dozens of firefighters were, at that moment, trying to douse flames shooting from the roof of the promenade site.

It was left a blackened ruin, and was demolished shortly afterwards.

Looking back, Chung said: “That really took it out of us. I stopped even driving past here for three years, it was so upsetting.

“It took me a while to regroup.”

He added: “We lay low for a few years, the fire was very upsetting.

“The whole site was rebuilt as five units, with the fifth one on the upper floor never being occupied.”

He said: “In Chinese, we have a saying: ‘Pick up where you fell down’.

“This is where we fell, so this is where we will start.

“I think the beach deserves more, it’s an asset for Aberdeen.”

As well as progressing talks with an awardwinning local chip shop, Chung has already lined up the Dundee-based Gidi Grill Caribbean food firm to take on one of the pods.

And SooShe, a Japanese diner in Aberdeen which became a casualty of the pandemic, would be resurrected to fill another space.

Meanwhile, Chung is inviting other local businesses to come forward – promising to consider all offerings as long as the quality is right.

NEW-LOOK EATERY: How the proposed beachfront food hall, serviced by a number of food ‘pods’, would look. Image by MAC Architects.

Firefighters at the Jimmy Chung’s restaurant blaze.