Chop Chop plans expansion across UK

An EDINBURGH restaurant which appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s F-Word is hoping to open branches around the UK after launching a crowdfunding appeal to finance its expansion.

Gordon Ramsay with Chop Chop founder Jian Wang. Picture: Contributed

Chop Chop Restaurants, which was voted Britain’s Favourite Chinese restaurant in both 2010 and 2012, has teamed up with crowdfunding platform Angels Den in order to raise capital for a national roll-out.

The eatery is offering customers the chance to either invest in the business or to donate £100 in return for meal vouchers in the new restaurants, and has already attracted backing from “angel” investors.

Bill Morrow, director of Angels Den, said: “We worked very closely with the team at Chop Chop in their quest to get the funding needed to become a national chain.

“With an anchor investor on board, they were able to offer their customers the choice of vouchers or shares in one pitch and gained a mix of funding from their own crowd and our experienced angel investors. It’s brilliant to see a Chinese restaurant leading the way on crowdfunding in Scotland and the UK.”

Chop Chop, which was set up with two outlets in the Scottish capital in 2006, closed its Leith branch last year as it prepared to expand with a focus on city centre locations.

Co-owner Roy King said several small chains of ethnic restaurants and noodle bars had taken off in Britain over the past five years, but he saw a gap in the market for “a recognisable chain of Chinese restaurants”.

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