“You’ve got young families and pensioners, people driving BMWs and people who’ve come on the bus, all sitting at one table. It doesn’t have to be a special occasion: our prices are low enough that everybody can afford a starter, a main course and a drink. We want people to eat well and go home happy.”
Pak Wai Hung is outlining the egalitarian vision behind 288 Bar & Wok in Cheltenham, which he opened with his wife Jody in 2005. It’s a Chinese noodle bar on the high street with communal tables and laminated menus offering crab claws, honey-roast spare ribs plus vast bowls of their house noodles, filled with char sui, shrimp and chicken. Nothing on the menu costs more than £10 (unless you go large on the crispy aromatic duck).
Pak Wai’s parents arrived from Hong Kong in the 1960s and his father, and later his stepfather, set up a series of restaurants in the Midlands, as well as a market garden in the Vale of Evesham growing specialist Asian vegetables. He never thought his mum would allow him to become a restaurateur. “I followed the classic immigrant path: my parents wanted me to be a dentist, accountant, doctor or lawyer.”
He chose the latter and went into human rights law, practising in London for 10 years while Jody, who was born in Durham and grew up in the south-east, worked as a teacher. The idea of opening a restaurant didn’t occur to them until Pak Wai’s mother unexpectedly suggested it.
“She asked if I enjoyed being a lawyer and I really did – I thought I was doing quite worthy work,” he says. “Then she asked how much I was earning and it was a pittance, because it was all legal aid work. Jody as a teacher was earning more money than I was.”
“So it wasn’t a hard decision,” says Jody. “It took 10 minutes.”
Despite their lack of experience, the couple had clear ideas . “In London we’d been eating in Japanese and Chinese noodle halls and I thought, what happens in London will eventually spread to the provinces,” says Pak Wai. “So we’re going to have long tables and Cheltonians are going to sit at benches, sharing the space. We’ll have no tablecloths, no side plates, no waiters in little bow ties.”
Pak Wai chats to everyone who comes through the door, often at length, and delights in watching new customers become regulars. He nods at a young couple who’ve just sat down for lunch across from us. “When we first opened, Luke and Annabel were just courting,” he notes. “Now they’re married and are here with their second baby.”
If treating their customers as extended family is one reason for their success, keeping prices low is another. The weekday lunch deal they introduced a couple of years ago – a starter, a main and a soft drink for £10 – keeps the place bustling throughout the day.
“We’ve kept ingredient quality high since the start,” says Pak Wai, “and even though the costs have risen, I’d prefer our margins to be smaller so we sleep better at night.” “And make people happy,” adds Jody.
Pak Wai grins. “We’ll never be rich, but if people are happy, that’s our job done.”
barandwok.com
