Ellen Chew's Shan Shui restaurant to take off at Heathrow Airport
Launching on 25 January at Terminal 2, the Chinese restaurant is inspired by 1930s Shanghai and will serve traditional Shanghainese and Indonesian, Sichuan, and Malaysian dishes.
It will be open from breakfast through to dinner with morning options to include ‘East-meets-West’ breakfast items such as katsu sando sandwiches; beetroot and pine nut salad with yuzu dressing; and Shan Shui’s take on an English fry-up. At the front of the restaurant there will be a breakfast counter serving pastries and Allpress Coffee.
A menu of ‘10-minute meals’ designed for time-pressed travellers will include options such as two-day dry-aged Cantonese roast duck; and slow-cooked beef rendang with jasmine rice and Canton vegetable fried vermicelli. Small plates, meanwhile, will include calamari; and Sichuan cucumber salad while larger dishes such as Indonesian shrimp fried rice with chicken satay and XO sambal chilli; and Shanghainese spring onion noodles will feature.
There will also be a tight dim sum menu and a drinks offer of Asian teas and an old Shanghai-inspired 1930s cocktail list.
“Shan Shui is a very special and nostalgic concept for me, evoking memories of being in the kitchen with my mother, observing and learning traditional techniques as she toiled for endless hours to feed us,” says Chew.
“We believe our offering at Shan Shui will be the perfect new addition to the dining experience at Heathrow to complement the lively, dynamic floor of Terminal 2.”
The restaurant will take its design cues from traditional Shanghai tea houses with pink floral chinoiserie wallpapered walls lined with retro family photography, tongue and groove panelling, white marble topped tables and mismatched seating, and will overlook the runway.
Chew launched Shan Sui in Bicester Village back in 2018. At the start of last year, she also secured a site on Buckingham Palace Road near Victoria station to open what was at the time expected to be the second Shan Sui.
In the past year Chew has also launched Chinese-focused concept Mrs Chew’s Chinese Kitchen within Hammerson's Grand Central shopping centre in Birmingham and at Westfield London in Shepherd’s Bush; and has partnered with pâtissier Alix Andre to open Asian-influenced bakery Arôme at The Yards in London's Covent Garden.
She is founder of restaurant group Chew On This, which also operates Chinatown’s Malaysian-Singaporean restaurant Rasa Sayang; Lotus Leaf in Westfield Stratford and the at-home ready-to-roast duck brand For Duck’s Sake. The company is also a partners in Lobos Tapas in London Bridge and its newly-launched Italian restaurant and bar Negroni’s in Soho.
