‘SER Chief’ Richard Yap is undeniably one of the biggest stars of ABS-CBN. He joined showbiz late, starting out as a commercial model for a popular Chinese fast-food chain, then graduating to primetime TV as Kim Chu’s ‘Papa Chen,’ he became a certified star in the long-running daytime soap, Be Careful with My Heart, where his cute team-up with Jodi Sta. Maria caught everyone’s attention and made the audience swoon over him.
Upon his rise to fame, Richard added another side to his persona—that of a restaurateur—when he partnered up with friends to open Wang Fu Restaurant, which specializes in Chinese cuisine. Just recently, right before Chinese New Year, Richard opened another branch at the U.P. Town Center in Quezon City. It’s called Wang Fu Chinese Bistro, and it serves noodles, dimsum and cold cuts, roasts, soups, vegetables and tofu dishes, prawns and seafood, beef, pork, chicken, fried rice variants and set meals. Every Chinese dish that diners will look for in a Chinese restaurant is accounted for in the menu, including Oyster Omelette, Hakaw (shrimp dumplings), Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hot Prawn Salad, Beef with Broccoli in Oyster Sauce, Hot and Sour Soup, Lechon Macau, Pork Asado and Soy Chicken.
Wang Fu is actually a business partnership which Richard has with martial acts movie directors Lester Pimentel Ong and Ace Wang. Lester is, like Richard, a Filipino-Chinese, and Ace is a Singaporean Chinese. Lester and Ace are both action film directors, who met through common friends many years ago because of film projects of Star Cinema in the Philippines. Lester first got into the food business 15 years ago via RBX (Rice in a Box), and Ace owns and runs a Chinese restaurant called Le Le Pot and a Filipino restaurant called Bonifacio in Singapore. When the two of them decided to join forces to open a Chinese restaurant in Il Terrazzo along Tomas Morato, Quezon City, they called it Wang Fu—Wang after the surname of Ace, and Fu meaning ‘house.’ Together, Wang Fu refers to the ‘house or place of the Prince in the Palace.’ Richard joined them to open a bigger branch in a more strategic location along Tomas Morato.
Just recently, the three of them opened a new branch at U.P. Town Center, and the auspicious opening rites had ABS-CBN’s Malou Santos, award-winning director Olivia Lamasan, and young stars Julia Montes and Gerald Anderson as special guests. They joined Richard in cutting, no, not the usual ribbon prepared for ribbon-cutting ceremonies but the ribbons of floral balls hanging from above the restaurant entrance.
The opening night festivities included an auspicious Lion Dance, followed by wushu routine exhibitions, and cocktails, before the guests were led inside the restaurant to enjoy a sumptuous Chinese feast prepared by the chefs of Wang Fu.
While Wang Fu Chinese Café is more about day-to day dining and features mostly comfort foods, Wang Fu Chinese Bistro at U.P Town Center serves a wide range of Chinese and Singaporean dishes, including celebration dishes like Birthday Noodles, Cereal Prawns, Laksa Seafood Noodles, Salted Egg Fried Chicken, Black Pepper T-bone Beef, and Sweet & Sour Lapu-Lapu. The kitchen is headed by a chef from Singapore, and soon the restaurant will also offer live seafood, such as crabs, lapu-lapu and shellfish. Also in the offing is another restaurant concept, which promises to provide food lovers in the Philippines another gastronomic treat.
