Yauatcha Soho closes for a Wong Kar Wai refurbishment

Yauatcha Soho closes this week for a refurbishment that puts its food, interiors and service under the creative direction of filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, with reopening set for late 2027.

The dim sum restaurant, part of Hakkasan Group, has traded on Broadwick Street since 2004 and won a Michelin star within its first year. Parent company Mohari Hospitality is funding the work, though neither side has put a figure on the budget.

Wong Kar Wai, the Hong Kong director behind In the Mood for Love and 2046, takes the title of creative consultant. His brief covers the dining room built around the late Christian Liaigre's original design, as well as the menu and guest experience. "A great film starts with a great story, and so does a great restaurant," he said in the announcement.

A director's name on the door, not a designer's — Yauatcha bets on Wong Kar Wai.

Chef Fai Choi leads the kitchen through the change. He joined Hakkasan Group as UK research and development chef in August, arriving from Michelin-starred kitchens in London and Hong Kong. His brief points toward seasonal, ingredient-led contemporary Cantonese cooking, a step beyond the set dim sum repertoire that built Yauatcha's name.

Group bets on scale over speed

Hakkasan Group chief executive Yavuz Pehlivanlar called Yauatcha Soho "a cornerstone of our group for over two decades" in the announcement. He took the top job in October 2025, arriving from a hospitality-investment background at Mohari rather than from a kitchen.

The closure leaves the rest of the group's London rooms open. Yauatcha City in Broadgate and Hakkasan Mayfair continue trading through the refurbishment, so the brand keeps a presence in the capital while Soho goes dark.

A closure running past a year is long by industry standards for a single-site refit, and it puts Yauatcha alongside other legacy London dining rooms opting for a full reset rather than a cosmetic refresh to stay current against newer Cantonese and dim sum openings across the city, including this month's House of Gods in Canary Wharf.

A director's name, not a designer's

Hiring a filmmaker rather than a restaurant-design specialist as creative lead marks a departure for a group that has typically worked with interior architects on its openings. Whether Wong Kar Wai's involvement runs beyond concept and styling into day-to-day decisions once the doors reopen is not clear from the announcement.

What is clear is the scale of the bet: London's four-rosette dining rooms, honoured this year alongside Ikoyi in the AA's 2026 awards, built their reputations on consistency over years rather than a single relaunch. Yauatcha now has until late 2027 to prove a director's eye can do the same for a twenty-year-old dining room.