TikTok celebrity and TV chef, Jimmy Lee, is expanding his Cantonese street food business to Shawlands, one of Scotland’s coolest neighbourhoods. The new Salt & Chilli opened its doors on November 18, welcoming guests to indulge in enticing food on Kilmarnock Road.
After starting his career working in his dad’s takeaway at the age of 16, Chef Jimmy Lee has built his business from the ground up. On top of the successful Salt & Chilli restaurants, Chef Lee also owns and is the head chef of the leading Cantonese Glasgow restaurant Lychee Oriental. The award-winning Chef has also seen and exciting media career, appearing on the BBC’s Great British Menu, Channel 4’s My Kitchen Rules and presenting cookery segments on popular ITV programmes.
The Chef’s grab-and-go venture offers a taste of Hong Kong’s frills-free street food, mashing up both Eastern and Western cultures. Following on from the success of the original site in Glasgow’s West End, Salt & Chilli Oriental Edinburgh at St James Quarter and a pop-up venture in Glasgow Hamilton, Salt & Chilli Oriental Southside is the third permanent Scottish outlet for the award-winning brand.
Not only a successful restauranteur, Glasgow-based Jimmy Lee has also become a TikTok sensation in the past three months, amassing over ten million views and half a million likes as he teaches us how to serve up Cantonese favourites in 60-second viral videos. I mean, he takes diluting juice breaks and calls water council juice, sounds like a well-deserved instant viral hit to us!
Salt & Chilli Oriental Southside is serving Cantonese street food reimagined with a playful twist, as well as comforting Chinese classics and fusion concoctions that combine traditional Hong Kong street food with a dose of modern Scottish vibes.
The menu features some new inventions, as well as some Salt & Chilli classics: from Tangy Peking Ribs and Chicken Satay with Spicy Dip to Bao filled Katsu Chicken or Pulled Aromatic Duck, as well as Chicken, King Prawn, Crab, Calamari or Tofu Salt & Chilli Box all served with Yutaka Slaw. The Salt & Chilli Oriental menu is homely and wholesome Cantonese with a number of options of small bites and big bites, including Katsu Chicken Curry and Macau Beef Curry.