Hakkasan Group to Open Yauatcha in Galleria

The Hakkasan Group has a world renowned reputation and has been expanding into the US since 2006 with restaurants in Miami, New York and Las Vegas. Next year, they will enter the Houston market by opening an additional Yauatcha location in the Galleria and also a second in Hawaii.

The Yauatcha chain of dim-sum tea houses, which provide a more casual and social experience than some of it's more flashy and cosmopolitan outposts, will arrive sometime in the latter part of 2016 as Simon Properties undertakes a massive redevelopment for part of the mall.  It is the perfect time to bring an international restaurant to town in a prime area of restaurant real estate.

"Hakkasan is the kind of operation where you dress up and splurge whereas at Yauatcha you can just pop in for a cup of tea and a pastry or a business meeting," said Nick McCabe, Hakkasan Group president. "There is huge potential because it's more scalable than Hakkasan. It's always been my favorite brand in the portfolio."

"It's a great way for us to take the brand into the U.S.," McCabe said. "We have to learn how the U.S. responds to the food offering and the experience. Once we perfect it, we can take it to the U.S. market. Yauatcha needs high volume to be profitable, which isn't the case with Hakkasan. So we wanted to maximize the footfall of the kind of customers we want, and we know they will be in those malls."

Stay tuned for more developments as they unfold.