Greenleaf Chinese restaurant opens in Holborn with potential London expansion

The 30-cover restaurant, located on Red Lion Street, measures roughly 900 sq.ft, offering mid-to-high-end Chinese cuisine. It is the first UK site for co-owners and Oxford graduates Jason Lan and George Wang.

“It is my first restaurant,” said Lan. “George has other restaurants in China. I graduated in engineering and Greenleaf was George’s idea, he dragged me along!

“It was a good idea. It's a very good business and that's why I work for it. We have really good chefs and a great location. Business has been really good for the first two weeks.”

The restaurant features a sharing set menu priced at £20 per person and a £30 single set menu. Dishes included salted fish egg fried rice, roasted duck rice, Szechuan spicy and sour rice noodle soup and special made spring rolls. The kitchen will be overseen by head chef Sie Hu.

Bespoke décor ​

The branding, interior design and project management of Greenleaf has been managed by creative agency 7Gods. The modern interior features bespoke, innovative décor, including grey ‘ghost’ chairs, marble tables, limestone floors and white wall glazing, while he walls along the entrance to the toilet are embedded with 16,000 pence coins.

Lan and Wang, and third co-owner Sabrina Zhao, hope to be able to expand the brand further throughout London, so long as the Holborn site is successful.

“It has only been two weeks so we haven’t made any formal decisions yet,” added Lan. “The idea is that after three months we will try to expand and open a second site. We want to establish ourselves as a mid-to-high-end Chinese restaurant. Our next restaurant will be somewhere in the West End I guess.”