1 Amy Poon Brings Modern Chinese Taste and Family Heritage to Poon’s

Modern Chinese Taste and Family Heritage, For years, Amy Poon wasn’t sure she wanted to take over the family business. Although his father, Bill Poon, is a respected Chinese-British chef and runs a successful group of restaurants in London and Geneva, Poon did not initially follow suit. After years of pursuing other avenues, he opened his first restaurant, Poon’s at Somerset House, in November 2025.

“I’m a very low-tech person,” Poon tells the Observer. “My whole career was accidental and random. And I’m not sure I would have been able to do it any other way.”

Poon grew up in London, witnessing his parents’ success as chefs and restaurateurs. Bill and his wife, Cecilia, moved to the UK from Hong Kong in the late 1960s, and eventually opened a group of restaurants that completely changed the London dining scene. The first Poon was released in 1973. In 1980, Bill became the first Chinese chef to receive a Michelin star.

“Food is ingrained in our family,” recalls Amy Poon. “When we were growing up, our Sunday work wasn’t going to the museum or the swimming pool. We were going to eat, we would drive out into the country to try a new restaurant.”

Although Poon learned a lot from his parents, he did not immediately want to follow in their footsteps. Instead, Poon studied Japanese at Oxford and eventually moved to Tokyo to work in PR and advertising. Over the years, he has lived between Japan, Australia and Singapore, never fully settling into one job. In 2007, following a divorce, Poon returned to London from Sydney, a year after his parents retired from the restaurant business and closed the last remaining Poon.

“The timeline is a little blurry,” he notes. “At the peak, there were 7 restaurants. My parents retired, but they kept their cured meat business. When I came back to England, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, and I revisited the idea of ​​maybe bottling and selling their sauces, but the timing wasn’t right.

Instead, Poon remarried and returned to Singapore, where he took a job as a luxury recruiter. Not long after, one of his friends sat him down to talk. “He said, ‘What on Earth are you walking around like this?'” Poon recalls. “Listen, the only time you are happy is when you are eating, thinking about food, talking about cooking, it is in your blood.

Poon was so struck by his friend’s faith in him that he quit his job. “I sat down and wrote a plan for the remake of Poon’s and how I would bring it back and what it would look like,” he said. “I didn’t really know it at the time. I met everyone from private funders to big money to private business and everything in between, and at first, I was so excited that someone would want to see me. I quickly realized that I was talking about a fun restaurant, as opposed to something fancy. So the first part of the money I got was from friends and family, and that’s how it started.”

In 2018, Poon launched his first pop-up in Clerkenwell. He followed it up with a year-long residency at Carousel called Wontoneria, and in 2022, launched the Poon line of sauces, now widely available in the UK Poon’s at Somerset House, near Covent Garden, Poon’s original location. It reflects both his family history and his tastes, especially with the convivial vibe and decor, which includes many of Poon’s books.

“This is where you come if you don’t have a good Chinese friend to cook for you,” he explained. “I don’t think the way Chinese food is cooked at home is widely understood or appreciated. This should be like walking into my house. So, all the books, because I love books. In most Chinese restaurants, there’s an expectation that they have to be themed in some way, that there’s going to be a dragon somewhere.”

He adds, “If only I could feed everyone in my house, I would.”

Because the kitchen at Poon’s in Somerset House is small, the menu is somewhat constrained. Poon specializes in a variety of recipes, as well as what he himself might want to eat. When he started preparing food for the restaurant, he thought about how he would order the dishes.

“When you order food at a Chinese restaurant, you want a range of recipes, a range of proteins, different taste profiles, a little bit of everything,” he said. “Because in Chinese cooking, it’s all about balance. So when I put together a menu, that’s what I focus on.”

A few dishes refer to authentic Poon restaurants. The signature clay pot rice, filled with the family’s air-dried meat, is almost identical to the original. Roast duck salad at Covent Garden is from Bill’s version from the ’70s. “It was a big part of my childhood,” Poon said. “He used the roast duck that was left in the restaurant because we do roast meat, but we don’t do roast meat here, but it’s close.”

Other dishes are refined versions of Poon’s favorite Chinese home cooking. Grilled fish, usually seabass, is what he calls a “household classic.” “Most families will have their own version of that,” he explains. “I’m very keen to show that it’s not restaurant food. It’s more home cooking. So if you’re expecting spring rolls or sour pork or lemon chicken or cashew chicken, you’re going to be disappointed.”

A standout menu item is Poon’s take on prawn toast, a very popular dish in British Chinese restaurants. Hers is cheekily called “The Hill Amy Didn’t Die On” and includes a gem recipe suggested by her father.

“I don’t really like prawn toast,” he says. “Prawn toast is everywhere, and it’s been stolen by every gastropub between here and Scotland. I really didn’t want to do that. My mother said, ‘You know dear, there are things that will pay the rent. If people really want it, why not allow it, even if it doesn’t really make sense?’”

Poon floated several iterations of his father, including a version of rösti made with potatoes. He remembered an old recipe that used lardo instead of bread. The process is very involved, but it results in an undeniably delicious dish. “It’s hard work and there are a lot of steps,” said Poon. But I thought, ‘If I’m going to do it, I might as well do the best version I can.’ So, I didn’t die on the hill because I didn’t cover it completely.”

However, he says, there’s a fine line between setting up diners and making sure the menu reflects what they might want or expect.

“If people don’t know about something, then they don’t know they want it,” he said. “I hate to use the word education, because it makes me sound preachy and I don’t want to preach, but I think there’s probably some education to be done with the dishes and ingredients. But we’ve found that people are incredibly receptive to our stories and discover new things.”

One thing the menu lacks is a large selection of desserts. Instead, it has only two options: lychee sorbet and a dish titled “Three Bites of Helen Goh.” The latter refers to Poon’s friend, chef Helen Goh. Three bites include a piece of seasonal fruit, something chocolate and a type of biscuit. “We use Western techniques and Western desserts, with an Asian twist or a sense,” notes Poon.

Poon’s at Somerset House has attracted both new diners and those who have visited Poon’s parent restaurants for years.

“The idea of ​​a legacy is really difficult, and sometimes it feels overwhelming,” Poon said. “There has never been a Poon restaurant that has been open for so long. And yet we have had such a warm welcome from people who have shared so many memories and stories. At that time, there were few restaurants, and my parents were there a lot. Today, there are many chain restaurants, so people probably feel that they have missed that personal touch.”

The restaurant has been so popular that people are already asking Poon when he might open his next place. For now, he’s focused on making Poon’s at Somerset House even better, as well as expanding Poon’s offerings online, which include his parents’ air-dried meats and super-sweet chili oil. He has plans to launch a Chinese knife and hopes to expand their homeware range. “There are many ways I can help people bring Chinese food to their homes,” he said. “I want to create a platform to celebrate good Chinese things, because I think ‘Made in China’ still gets a bad response.”

Poon may have taken an unlikely route to get to where he is now, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Like his career, he’s glad Poon’s at Somerset House is finding its own way—even if it takes a few years.

Modern Chinese Taste and Family Heritage

He says: “I don’t want to be a fad or an instant classic. “I’d like to be able to put our heads down and focus on our food and get on with it, being fashionable is not important to what we’re trying to do. If you don’t have that nice Chinese friend to cook for you, we’re here.”