Since 2021, we’ve seen the rise of several stylish hotspots, each with their own draw – from the smashable ‘Instagram pies’ of Upstairs at Anley Street to fromage platters at The Watchmaker, Awabi’s Szechuan small plates, the communal joy of a smoky cocktail spectacle at The Porter’s Store, and the impressive pull-apart slabs of fresh fish now on offer at Pêtchi.
So, who’s behind the culinary vibe shift? Look a little closer, and you’ll find the name ‘Yu’ linked to three venues in that list…
Originally from Jersey, architect Hayley Yu moved back to the island from Hong Kong, where she had been living with husband and business partner Josh, in 2019 after the protests began.
Not long after, the opportunity arose to go into business with her brother, Stephen, who himself had returned from travels across London, Amsterdam and Hong Kong, gathering experience in sales, branding and marketing from the likes of Spotify, HYPEBEAST, and a good few fashion weeks along the way.
Pictured: Stephen and Hayley Yu, siblings and owners of Awabi (James Jeune).
And so, from the ashes of what was the Diamond Chinese restaurant at Halkett Place, rose Awabi.
A translation of the Japanese word for what locals call ‘ormer’, the venue blends the atmosphere of Asia’s late-night drinking dens with a modern pan-Asian menu and a sprinkling of European wine bar chic. In a short time, it has become known as the place local chefs favour on their days off – and even snagged a spot in the prestigious Michelin Guide.
But Awabi’s story begins decades earlier, at one of Jersey’s best-loved takeaways, which also happens to be their father’s business, the Rice Bowl in St. Clement.
Stephen said they found spending time there “boring” as kids – little did they know the inspiration the restaurant, and their family’s heritage, would become.
Pictured: Awabi blends the atmosphere of Asia’s late-night drinking dens with a modern pan-Asian menu and a sprinkling of European wine bar chic.
“We’ve just always been obsessed with food, but that’s Chinese culture,” explained Stephen.
“When greeting someone in Hong Kong, the thing they’ll say to you basically translates to, ‘Have you eaten yet?'”
After spending time travelling, Hayley and Stephen found the food on offer locally “really boring”.
“It felt like there was something in Jersey that was missing,” Hayley explained. “I’d always wanted to do something with food because it’s just so ingrained in our personalities and how we grew up.”
They duo explained that they noticed a few “more interesting” food places “popping up” around the island, and “could see other people out there trying to make change in Jersey”.
“We realised we had to be the change we wanted in Jersey,” said Stephen.
Pictured: The siblings aimed to reclaim Asian food and offer a beginner’s guide to Asian flavours in a communal dining style.
The main inspiration was “about reclaiming Asian food”.
Evoking experiences of having Asian food at other local restaurants, he recalled: “I’d see a ramen on the menu and I’d have it and be like, ‘What the f*** is this?’
“People just call things whatever they want, and the chefs just do what they want! This is a dish that has so much heritage and culture and now you’ve just bastardised it! So that was another influence.”
“Accessibility” was also important – ensuring that people get to experience flavours and dishes they’d need to be a “serious foodie” to experience elsewhere.
“Our whole vision.. was it was supposed to be like a beginner’s guide to Asian food that you haven’t had before, and it was always designed around novelty.”
The “communal aspect” of the restaurant is particularly important to its owners.
“I know it sounds really weird and arrogant to say, but that communal style of eating is how we eat in the East,” he explained.
“We also wanted to introduce that a lot of the dishes require interactions. So rather than just using a knife and fork, you mix stuff in a bowl or you’ll put stuff in lettuce.”
“We stripped all the weird pronunciations that people feel scared of so that they can just eat it and enjoy it rather than having to know your sh*t about this technique or this ingredient,” he added.
“People come in and they try the sea bass with the eyes and the fish head and all that kind of thing! They might not enjoy the taste or whatever, but that’s just personal preference. But hopefully they enjoy the experience of eating communally and sharing this dish with friends, and that’s what’s important.”
Every single aspect of the experience – from the branding and decorations to the menu and music – has been curated by the pair, with each of them lending their expertise to different areas.
Hayley – who, as co-founder of Atelier Noad & Yu, is one of brains behind the design of Porter’s Store and The Watchmaker – was in charge of the space.
“From its clean lines down to its small palette of materials, each element aims to embody the qualities of Japanese design: craft, precision and simplicity.”
Stephen admitted that his contribution to the interior was minimal – “I just added some stuff to the mood board!” – but the vision for the space was clear for him too.
He explained: “For me, my food heroes and the stuff we like is the street markets in Hong Kong, or the pojangmacha [food tents] in Korea, where the real working-class people eat.
“In Hong Kong, all the chefs there are basically just people who used to be bouncers or taxi drivers or something, and they decided they want to earn more money. They’re not professional chefs, they’ve just changed careers out of necessity, but they’re still making f*cking amazing food.”
Stephen added: “It all kind of all links back into the whole ethos of it, which is all about families. It’s about our grandma working till she was like 70 out of necessity to feed her children rather than celebrating chefs and technique.”
Hayley explained that service style was also important for creating the desired laid-back atmosphere.
Pictured: Awabi serves modern pan-Asian food and a variety of cocktails within the context of a European wine bar.
The menu itself is “simplified so you’re not overloaded with information”.
“It makes it less overwhelming if you’re already going to be eating something that you might not know anything about. You also have someone there to hold your hand, tell you what’s safe for your palette.
“…We’re pushing people out of their comfort zone, but want to do it in the most comfortable way possible.”
Those who have visited Awabi might be familiar with being pushed out of their comfort zone with the help of the restaurant’s iconic Szechuanese chicken wings.
“That whole sensation can be really confusing to people who haven’t had it before,” laughed Stephen. “Sometimes, I’ve had a table who are like, ‘These are disgusting!” and the other half of the same batch goes to another table, and they love it!
“It’s such a good talking point and it also captures exactly what we want in making food accessible because actually that dish is really pretty much all bones and all chilies in China.”
As if tingling mouths and numb tongues aren’t enough, the duo admit they want to go further with their food.
Takeaways have also been “looked at seriously”, though the siblings are concerned about “compromising the dining experience”.
Pictured: The duo encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to take risks and curate their unique path in the culinary world.
They’ve also explored set lunches, but “haven’t quite got to it yet”.
“I think this is a common business problem, but you end up firefighting and it kind of drains you of the energy to do anything new,” Stephen explained.
Hayley and Stephen also wanted to change their menu more often, but found that “Jersey people don’t really like change”.
“As soon as we get rid of stuff, people complain!” said Hayley.
Stephen noted, however: “I don’t necessarily think that that it stops them from coming back. It’s more like: ‘I just wanted to tell you that I loved this dish!'”
“We were doing specials but now we’re kind of just changing one or two dishes,” explained Hayley. “We have special menus for Chinese New Year – our big one – and we try to do Christmas, and little bits from each season.”
She continued: “What we’ve realised is that the process of changing one dish is actually super complicated.
“You think it’s just a recipe, but actually it’s recipe testing, pricing, allergens, how does it translate to service? How does it work visually?
“Making it once for yourself is fine, but then making it multiple times a night means you have to consider how it works with ordering and fridge space.”
The everchanging cocktail menu attracts fewer complaints – and is another key element of the ‘Awabi experience’.
Its current offerings include – spot the puns – the Purple Mezcal and the Sz-chichest Daiquiri – “It wouldn’t have worked if we were just taking traditional cocktails and marrying them with our food,” explained Hayley.
“It’s attention to detail,” said Stephen. “It’s the music, it’s the service, it’s the food, it’s the playlist – and then to not have the drinks up to the same level would just be so disappointing for us.”
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The former Spotify staffer speaks passionately about the restaurant’s iconic playlist, but he isn’t precious about its content.
“Every member of staff who’s come through, I’ve asked them to put tracks on – just like a little bit of their soul.”
“When we first opened, we wanted it to be really jarring intense music with spicy in-your-face food and an amazing atmosphere – it still is, but I think we’ve matured a bit now,” he said.
Hayley added: “It’s more about everyone now. Back then, we were just aiming for our target audience of younger people, but I feel like Jersey is hard like that because you can’t really have a target audience. There’s never enough of just one demographic, so you get a bit of everything.
“We had to change our environment a little bit. We didn’t really think about kids, and we get them quite a lot. And actually, it’s amazing because it means that people are happy bringing their children here and getting them to try new food.”
She continued: “Someone once said to me: ‘You never get the business you want, you get the business you get.’
“We did all this research on our target audience and stuff like that, but it all goes out the window. Jersey is just a really unique place – you end up getting all walks of life coming through the restaurant.
“I think that’s something I never really predicted.”
Although Awabi isn’t immune to the staffing issues across the hospitality industry, it’s not something Hayley and Stephen appear too concerned with.
The pair have developed a method of standardising processes to ensure that it is easy for new staff coming in to know exactly what they have to do.
“It’s all about the process… although that’s not giving our staff enough credit. They are amazing,” Stephen said.
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“We’ve got one or two leaving to go to university soon and I am worried but I’m also confident that we can get new people to their level because of the processes we have in place.”
The rising costs of produce is, perhaps, a more pressing issue.
“There was a point last year where all of the suppliers were sending an email every week saying that prices were going up,” explained Stephen.
“It wasn’t until a few months down the line that we thought, ‘We’re not doing very well.’ And then realised, ‘Oh sh*t, we need to increase our prices a lot’.”
“If you don’t look at your prices, it will just creep up on you,” Hayley continued. “We’ve got lots of Asian speciality ingredients we have to source that aren’t available in Jersey so we have to pay GST on them coming in as well.”
She added that it is difficult to benchmark Awabi’s prices against other restaurants, due to the unique nature of the dining experience but explained: “If you dine in the communal experience, then really, the price per head should be quite reasonable.
“I know some people think that cocktails can be quite pricey, but… there is quite a lot of labour involved in the drink side, and and in the kitchen, of course.”
“Like just to make one wonton, you literally have to hand-make each one,” interjected Stephen.
The care that is visible in Awabi’s food and drink is also evident in the restaurant’s branding – and validated by the fact that people can be spotted around town sporting branded t-shirts.
Although the logo was streetwear-inspired from his time working in fashion, Stephen said branching into merch “wasn’t planned, people just wanted to buy the uniform.”
Some people even have tattoos, he revealed – “Actually, If you get it tattooed, you get free chicken wings for life!”
It’s the brand aspect the siblings are most keen to develop.
“That is what interests me more – creating products like jarred sauces, packaging our wing spices, getting that into local stores,” said Stephen.
“And I’d like to do more of the the merchandise side, like t-shirts and caps.”
Awabi’s brand also exists in its distinctive, irreverent and often meme-laden voice on social media.
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It was this social media savvy that saw an appeal to help find decking worth £2,000 stolen from the Rice Bowl, which Stephen and Hayley are currently helping their dad to renovate, shared hundreds of times and eventually saw the materials’ safe return.
So successful was the appeal that some islanders joked that it was a publicity campaign to grow the Rice Bowl a new following (following the saga, it has gained nearly 1,000 Instagram followers on its new page, despite not having posted).
Beyond sprucing up their dad’s place, the pair have other enthusiastic opinions on how to modernise the local food scene.
According to Stephen: “Jersey needs more food trucks, and the physical space for small businesses and independent people to show everyone what they can do.
“We’ve definitely got a place for a food market to happen in Jersey, there’s so many spaces and it’s probably more important here because rent is so expensive.
“I’d love to see a good independently owned pub that’s got loads of craft beers and really good gastro food and an amazing Sunday roast.
“We need more cuisines. We don’t want competition, but like a ramen bar, like a proper Vietnamese spot, would be banging… Korean spots, Lebanese, Turkish, an actually good Mexican place.
“What I would love is somewhere to get really good late-night food, where you can go after you’ve just got p*ssed.”
Hayley and Stephen admitted that although they “felt a change happening” in Jersey after the pandemic, it seems the cost-of-living crisis and staffing issues have slowed it – for now, at least.
But for anyone who is thinking of disrupting the dining scene in the island, the pair offered some words of advice.
“For me, it was either like make it a success or embarrass myself, lose money and leave the island.
“That would be my number one tip: if you have something you want to do, just quit your job and force yourself to do it. Then you have to, that’s the only way.”
Hayley, meanwhile, asked herself: “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You’ve just got to think about it in small chunks to help you reach the bigger picture.”
Stephen added: “I would say we are curators, rather than innovators.
“You can take inspiration, and copy and paste stuff, and make it your own.”
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This article first appeared in the September edition of Connect Magazine – read it in full below…