About Kwoklyn

I literally grew up in the kitchens of Chinese takeaways and restaurants.  Unlike other children on my estate, my playground was the Kitchen Store Room and when closed, under the tables in my Dad’s Cantonese Restaurant.  I’m sure if you cut me in half it would say “10 minute” (in a broad Chinese accent), which is pretty much what we told every customer who asked how long their order would be. 

Grandad, like many Chinese back in the 1950’s opted to migrate to the U.K, the journey took a month by boat and on arrival he headed to the midlands where he finally settled in Leicester.  In 1962 Grandad opened Leicester’s first Chinese restaurant (aka a Chop Suey House). 

Chinese ingredients were very hard to come by so the menu mainly consisted of British dishes like steak and roast chicken with a few beansprouts or chop suey dishes thrown in. 

The restaurant was very popular and was even visited by The Beatles when they played in Leicester in 1964!

Dad managed the restaurant for the family until 1978 when he then opened his own restaurant “The Bamboo House”, which was Leicester’s very first Cantonese Restaurant. He sourced two amazing chefs from London and the business took off with a BOOM! 

The restaurant as you can imagine was hard work and took up most of my parent’s time so in 1983 they bought a restaurant on Fosse Road North in Leicester (which he named as The Panda) with living accommodation above, this then allowed them to spend more time with us, “The Wan Children”.