Andrew Wong’s Kym’s restaurant in London to close

Kym’s, Michelin-starred A. Wong’s sister restaurant, is to cease trading after just two years in business.

Billed as a “modern premium casual Chinese restaurant”, Kym’s opened its doors in 2018 in London’s Bloomberg Arcade.

At the city site, chef Andrew Wong’s second in the capital, served up Cantonese roast meats, giant-sized loaded rice crackers, zingy salads and Sichuan Sour cocktails.

Confirming the news on social media last week, the restaurant wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that we have decided not to reopen Kym’s. The decision comes after careful consultation with all partners and staff. We’re extremely proud of the Kym’s team and everything we’ve achieved since opening our doors in the City. It has been a fantastic journey and we’re grateful to Bloomberg for their support.”

Kym’s was the name of Wong’s parents’ restaurant – now called A. Wong – which opened in 1985. Wong and his wife Nathalie later reopened the site in its new guise in 2012.

Describing the food at Kym’s back in 2018, Wong said he wanted some of the flavours to be “instantly recognisable” and “even hark back to the nostalgia of the original Kym’s menus, with sweet & sour elements and more rice-based dishes”.

“Like so much of Chinese gastronomy, it’ll be deceptively simple food with a big emphasis on the ancient craft of Chinese ‘roasting’ meats – and that includes poaching,” he said at the time.

During its two-year tenure, Kym’s picked up rave reviews from the likes of Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard, who described the chicken as “powerful and ethereal”. db‘s Lucy Shaw praised the restaurant for its “authenticity”, “un-showy confidence” and “very reasonable” pricing, given the the location. 

The dim sum-focused A. Wong original in Victoria remains open.

Kym’s joins a growing list of big name restaurants that have closed their doors this year. These include The Greenhouse, Sardine, Indian Accent, Le Caprice, The Ledbury, Oklava Bakery and Wine, Texture and Siren. Others, including The Dairy and Darjeeling Express, have recently relocated to different sites.