Jacquie Chan chows down on restaurant refocus

A decade in Perth’s restaurant business has taught Jacquie Chan a thing or two about timing.

So, it’s understandable that, given her commitment to growing the Miss Chow’s empire, Ms Chan has recently adopted a new strategy and direction.

While an expanding business and opening of new locations is generally seen as a positive for any brand, Ms Chan acknowledges the growth has become too much after a busy couple of years.

Under Miss Chow’s signage, Ms Chan opened a restaurant at a Margaret River vineyard in late 2024 and a CBD eatery in early 2025.

Her team also transformed the old Fremantle police lock-up to open Moon & Mary, an Asian fusion restaurant, in September 2024.

Moon & Mary was Ms Chan’s biggest undertaking, a multi-venue space with the three offerings of a dining room, a beer garden and a distillery.

Ms Chan told Business News she had now embarked on a broader strategy to consolidate the Miss Chow’s group, which includes focusing on premium dining venues and continuing to divest ventures that don’t fit with the brand.

That includes Moon & Mary, with Ms Chan putting the business on the market after nearly 18 months of operation.

“We’ve realised it really didn’t fit in with our current portfolio,” she said.

“And to be really honest, I don’t understand Fremantle as well as some other groups, so we’ve decided to move on.

“Sometimes you [have to] pick your battles. Freo is something that we will probably let go, sadly. I love the building; there is so much history in the building itself.

“There was a great deal of effort that went into designing and putting that whole story together, but it’s okay if it doesn’t fit in our portfolio.”

Ms Chan said she had no regrets.

“I’d happily let someone else have a go and we will move on,” she said.

“Eventually, after we sell Moon & Mary, we’ll be in a sweet spot that there will be less stress within the management team, and we’ll be happy to just grow the Miss Chow’s brand, maintain and probably up our game a little bit and bring in a lot more creativity into the Asian fusion space.

“We’ve been quite focused on functions and events, and we’re getting pretty good at that.”

The shift to hosting functions and events has been noticeable, particularly after the Miss Chow’s team secured singer-songwriter Christine Anu to headline a Chinese New Year event at the Margaret River restaurant in mid-February.

Ms Chan also recently divested KiRi Japanese restaurant in Shenton Park and the Miss Chow’s pantry takeaway joints in Bicton and City Beach, as part of her strategy to consolidate the group.

Within a decade, she opened and closed Miss Chow’s restaurant in Westfield Whitfords City, Rice Baby in Subiaco, and OMG Oriental Market and Grocer with the adjoining Small Talk Bar on Stirling Street, Perth.

Ms Chan opened Lucy Luu in Mount Hawthorn in 2022, which is still operating.

At one point, she and her team juggled about half a dozen venues across Perth.

But Ms Chan has leaned more towards using the Miss Chow’s name in the past couple of years.

Her previous Thai-inspired eatery in the CBD, Lena’s Bar, was rebranded to Miss Chow’s on the Terrace in early 2025.

Lygon Lane on Bay View Terrace in Claremont was also rebranded, to Miss Chow’s Petit, when the original restaurant closed for renovation.

Miss Chow’s Petit closed in mid-2025.

There are currently three restaurants under the Miss Chow’s name: in South Perth, on St Georges Terrace, and in Margaret River.

All of Ms Chan’s hospitality ventures stemmed from the very first Miss Chow’s restaurant, which pays homage to Moon Chow, the first Chinese immigrant to arrive in Western Australia, in 1829. 

That first Miss Chow’s opened in Claremont Quarter in 2015. 

“A year after that, I had opened another restaurant, and then it kept happening,” Ms Chan said. 

“But I realised last year that it wasn’t such a good idea after all, because times were very different. 

“When I had gone into my leases for Fremantle and Margaret River, that was during the pandemic, [but] things have changed.

“The market sentiments have changed. Everyone’s lifestyle is different. We’ve really now looked at the group and realised we will probably be selling what doesn’t fit within our portfolio.”

On top of the ongoing market challenges and cost-of-living pressures, Ms Chan said staffing was also difficult in an environment of high resources sector wages.

“We could not compete with them,” she said.

“That’s what we really suffered through last year.

“Staffing is quite a challenge in WA and … it’s not just isolated to the hospitality industry.

“Without staff we haven’t got a business, so it’s quite important we’ve got our staffing sorted before we can open our doors.”

The new, broader group strategy also includes a continued focus on Miss Chow’s line of prepared meals, which started as a lifeline for the business during the pandemic.

Miss Chow’s restaurant in South Perth opened in 2019.

Products under the Miss Chow’s at Home line include frozen dumplings, ready-to-eat sauces and chilled meals, which are stocked at major supermarkets in Australia.

“[During the pandemic] we didn’t have many choices,” Ms Chan told Business News.

“But what I really wanted was to be able to look after my staff, because 50 per cent of my workforce were not eligible for JobKeeper.

“I then created work for them to come back and pack the dumplings, make meals for the supermarket, so that I could still pay them and they could still live.

“However, one thing led to another, and before we knew it we were supplying the dumpling and the meals to a lot of the supermarkets in WA, and we went national about three years ago.”

Miss Chow’s has since become the biggest chilled meals producer in WA, according to Ms Chan.

“From that we grew out of our little central kitchen in Osborne Park, and now co-own and have a joint venture with Milne Agrigroup, and we own a food processing factory in Forrestdale called Daily Chef,” she said.

“Our partnership is pretty much the best marriage that we could probably find in WA; having my partners being into pig and chicken farming … and me being in the restaurant space and coming up with the sauces and the taste profiles for our products.”

The beginning

By day, Ms Chan is a pearl and diamond dealer; a profession she has undertaken for the past 26 years.

Her foray into the restaurant business started when a client of her jewellery business was approached to take a tenancy in Claremont Quarter.

Instead, the client put forward Ms Chan’s name, knowing she was considering opening a dumpling restaurant.

Cocktails, champagne and wine meets Asian fusion in prime locations.

The motivation to open a nut-and-preservative-free Asian fusion restaurant was personal for Ms Chan, who has several food allergies.

“I put a business case together, and because I didn’t have any experience in [food and beverage], I had to convince them why I thought it was a good idea,” Ms Chan said.

“I enjoy my drinks, so having nice cocktails or a glass of champagne with my dumplings would go down very well with me and my friends.”

There was a gap in the market for an elevated dining experience offering Asian fusion cuisine in Perth 10 years ago, she said.

“When we started back in the day, we turned the Asian fusion food ‘sexy’ … we had long queues at the door for a long time,” Ms Chan said.

“I suppose the trend caught up in Perth with Asian fusion, but I would say the food scene in Perth has really improved.”

She said the competition from similar restaurants that had opened during the past decade was welcome.

“I think the more the merrier,” Ms Chan said.

“It gives people the opportunity to lift their game as well and it challenges chefs to be more creative.”

Future

While frequently referred to as the ‘Dumpling Queen’, Ms Chan said the real legacy she wanted to leave was opening Perth up to a different way of dining.

“Because we had stuck to our guns with our food principles, it was extremely expensive and difficult to run an operation with Chinese cooks,” she said.

“We decided that we will educate the Chinese cooks to not use MSG in simple, basic things like fried rice, for example.

“We succeeded in that, and I’m extremely proud of my team, that they’ve grown to learn how to sell and prepare and create good, clean food without using any nasties.

“We’ve made a slight impact, I think, in the food scene, where we can actually run a Chinese restaurant without nuts.

“There are so many families who are able to dine with us safely, and they tell us and they thank us for being that safe restaurant … because there’s not many restaurants that are nut free.

“It is quite risky on my part, but we have completely trained the kitchen.

“Our staff are not even meant to bring food into the restaurant, into the venue [their home cooked food] because we don’t know what’s in it.”

Miss Chow’s in Claremont was one of the first places to offer Asian fusion premium dining in Perth.

The persistence in keeping a safe, allergy-free space across her venues all these years has been appreciated by the regular diners.

“Moving forward, we will continue with that even though it’s an expensive exercise for us,” Ms Chan said.

“But we do want to continue serving good, clean food, using local produce, supporting other WA producers.”

Ten years in the business and a new strategic direction have only increased Ms Chan’s enthusiasm for the challenge.

In fact, she looks forward to another decade at least with Miss Chow’s, supported by her daughters who are also involved in the business.

“I’m quite stubborn and I love my food and drinks,” Ms Chan said.

“I’m always challenging my chefs, whether we could go that one notch higher, a little bit at a time.

“The brand has evolved, our food has evolved and I’m really proud of my team that they are able to deliver, whether it’s 20 people or 120 people.

“My girls and the team [have] very much bought into it, and they agree. That is what we’re known for, and we will continue.”