Customers couldn’t get enough of it as Liverpool saw the introduction of its first vegan Chinese chippy, Woo Tan Scran, at the weekend.
The plant-based chip shop is based on Lark Lane, next door to Keith’s Wine Bar. They had a successful opening over the weekend with a small menu for people to get a taste of what is to come.
Conrad Sharp, one of the owners of Woo Tan Scran, told JMU Journalism: “It’s been amazing, everyone has loved it.
“We had a soft launch weekend with no actual menu, just writing on the wall. We had no sign and just winged it a little bit. I didn’t even know how to wrap chips three days ago.”
Woo Tan Scran is the brainchild of Jay Baker, Tim Leah, Conrad Sharp and Alex Woo, the people behind Down the Hatch, which is a vegetarian junk-food restaurant based in Liverpool’s city centre.
They will be offering people food such as dumplings, spring rolls and ‘sausage’ dinner.
Twitter: Scarlett O’Toole
I’ve just been to meet the guys behind Woo Tan Scran, Liverpool’s first plant-based Chinese chippy @JMUJournalism pic.twitter.com/QldTBlNUky
— Scarlett O’Toole (@OTooleScarlett) October 20, 2019
Mr Woo told JMU Journalism: “With Bundobust and Mowgli, places are doing brilliant Indian vegan food, but no one was doing Chinese so we knew there was a gap in the market for it.”
He added: “It literally came from an idea and a pint. Three weeks later we viewed the property, bid on it and two and a half months later, here we are. It’s mad.”
The vegan business sold out of food within four hours on Sunday, forcing them to close earlier than they had planned. The owners are yet to set official opening and closing hours and hope to have them decided by the end of the week.
Despite Woo Tan Scran only opening over the weekend, the team is already thinking of expanding its business.
Mr Woo told JMU Journalism: “As soon as we get this up and running, we want to hopefully do one in every city because the market is there for it.”