August 2, 2006
Yao Ming opens restaurant in Shanghai (or does he?)
Last week, the always entertaining People's Daily website ran a series of photographs under the headline "Yao Restaurant opens in Shanghai." The first Yao Restaurant opened in Houston, Texas, in 2005 -- Yao Ming's parents are part owners. The People's Daily headline surprised us. We hadn't heard anything about Yao opening up a place in Shanghai.
Perhaps that is because he isn't.
A Shanghai Daily story from June suggests what the People's Daily is calling the Yao Restaurant is really Yeeha, a big new place on Huashan Lu near Jing'an Temple that brashly advertises both "American Chinese Food" and "Texas BBQ." The story says the restaurant's owner is Yu Di, who is a major shareholder in the Houston restaurant. Yeeha will have a "similar menu" to the Yao Restaurant, but "the Yao family has no investment or involvement" in Yeeha. Yu said, however, that Yao "may attend" the grand opening, which would have been last week. We're not sure if that happened, but Yao is in the country. Regardless, the People's Daily photos of the restaurant show plenty of Yao memorabilia on display.
We're not exactly sure what the backstory is here. We found this short story from March that named Yao as the owner of the then-under-construction eatery and mentioned plans to open another one in Beijing. They wanted Yao restaurants to become the "ideal place for Chinese people to taste the Yao-style American Chinese food," because obviously Chinese people are just dying to to get their mouths on some American Chinese food.
In a February story, Yu made sure to refer to the Shanghai restaurant as a "cousin" of the one is Houston. The story added:
As Yu admitted, Yao's parents haven't made up their mind about investing in a restaurant back in their hometown. And if they don't participate, the restaurant wouldn't be able to boast the Yao name.
Hence, we end up with Yeeha. But, anyway, shouldn't it be "Yeehaw"?
We haven't yet been to Yeeha, although it is right down the road from Shanghaiist Headquarters -- the combination of American Chinese food and Texas BBQ didn't sound too appetizing. For what it's worth, one person who did try it out described it as "ridiculous." Have any readers checked it out? What did you think?
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I work in the building above the restaurant, which has had signs and flowers for Grand Opening two or three times already for the past month. I have seen employees stand outside the restaurant and I have seen them deliver vegetables first thing in the morning, but I have never actually seen anybody going into the restaurant, eating in the restaurant or coming out of it. The New Island cafe next to Yeeha, though, always seems to be very busy.
I can't believe that noone would want the crab puff and brisket combo platter, with a tall, cold Lone Star.
I am a Houston resident and long time bbq lover. I had a chance to go to the Yeeha restaurant the other night and had a great time. Accompanied by a few study abroad friends they wanted to feel a little bit of what Texas is like. We have eaten much western food while being abroad and can honostly say that the bbq at this restaurant was the highlight dish of the trip. Eventhough no bbq can compare to the styles given in Texas or the U.S. for that matter, this place has delicious slow cooked meat with some surprisingly fantastic sauce. As for their seat capacity, during our meal it was filled with both Chinese and Foreign consumers.After our dinner a man who honostly looked like he was imported from Texas itself sang authentic country music while I sipped on a bigger than Texas style Budweiser, which was considerably cheap at 20 kuai a pop. Service was fast sometimes too attentive, but even my French classmate had a good time which is a tough accomplishment if I have to say so:). It was however hard to get to the location and hard to see of the street.
DALLAS MAVERICKS ARE BETTER THAN HOUSTON ROCKETS