It's a bit of a funny place to be on a bright, sunny Thursday morning, sat in a Chinese restaurant in Swansea surrounded by panda toys and lucky cats while sat in a deep booth usually reserved for evening dining while drinking jasmine tea from a cup that is magically never empty. But, at Gigi Gao's Favourite Authentic Chinese at the Maritime Quarter it's entirely part of the experience to be immersed in all these things and then some as the self-confessed MO of the restaurateur is to give her customers as authentic an experience as possible, both in terms of the food and the cultural references, artwork, decor and more.
Last week, the venue was given a vivid, glowing, striking review by The Observer's Jay Rayner, where he said he entered a "candy-coloured, garlanded, ribboned, sequined and tasselled world" of as he describes it "all round bloody good things". So accurate was Jay's description of Gigi's that I was given exactly what I expected when I walked through the door, from the pandas and cushions to the traditional Chinese wall paintings of the Monkey King and good luck knots and pretty tablecloths covered by protective plastic.
But I wasn't there to sate a curiosity over how good Jay Rayner's descriptive writing is, or even there to eat any of the 'fabulous' creations. I was there to meet the women herself, Gigi, who is quite fabulously dressed from head to toe in dark blue sequins, putting my Thursday daps and dress to shame, quite frankly.
Read more: How a music PR went from promoting gigs to making sell-out ramen as Matsudai opens its first venue
Hailing from the Shanxi Province in northern China, Gigi came to Swansea in 2014 to study international, commercial and maritime law. She'd qualified as a lawyer at home in China back in 1998 and was a partner in a law firm there, but due to a shortage of lawyer experts in the field of international commerce, she upped sticks to study in Swansea.
In the following five years she discovered a passion for the restaurant business, bringing authentic Chinese cooking to the city, underwent a life-saving operation and, like the rest of the hospitality industry, traversed the Covid - sometimes in a panda outfit while doing takeaway deliveries. Now the 51-year-old, along with the help of Steve Homer, a freelance business consultant, is navigating the post-Rayner rush for bookings. Wednesdays are the new Saturdays, they say, in terms of busy-ness since they appeared in the Sunday national - the pages on which Gigi's feature appear already proudly framed awaiting a space on the hyperactively decorated walls.
Rewinding back, Gigi tells me about when she had the first inkling demand for real Chinese food was a thing. "The Chinese community, we were always talking about 'oh what's the food like?' We'd have to cook it ourselves every day, if we went out it wasn't the [Chinese] food we liked," she said. "One day I went to the LC2 gym, it was an Easter Monday and a guy came up to me and said 'are you from China?' I didn't really want to talk, but he said he'd just come back from China and said it was really nice.
"I said...'okay..' And when I came out of the gym he was waiting for me and wanted to ask me one question. He said: 'The food I had in China was really fantastic, unbelievable, but the Chinese food we have here is completely different. Why?' I said it was perhaps that's what they think people want, for Chinese food to match your tastes. But he said 'no, we want real Chinese food.' This planted a seed in my mind. Then we became boyfriend and girlfriend and I said one day I'll make you real Chinese food," she laughed.
Gigi graduated from Swansea University in the September of 2014 and it was then a friend asked her for help to find someone to take over his restaurant, The Favourite Cafe, on Brynmor Road. It was there Gigi started her journey to where she is now. She saw the place, which she called The Favourite Chinese instead, did traditional food and she asked if she could take over.
"I didn't realise how hard it would be," she confessed. "I fired the chef within the first week and then I did all the cooking myself. I was in the kitchen for seven months, the first three months I didn't sit down, I was in there from five or six am to late. Cleaning, cooking, tidying up to everything. I'd cook everything from scratch, dumplings, meat pancakes. It was really, really hard."
But the small venue, with just 32 covers, became popular, so much so she'd manage around 110 people per night. And after finding a chef to manage the kitchen, she really found her niche - being front of house, something she still loves now. Not only does seeing her customers enjoy the food and surroundings keep her doing what she's doing, Gigi loves making the experience memorable by keeping Chinese culture front and centre. From singing Chinese happy birthday, giving traditional presents to the birthday guest - a special card and bookmark, if you're wondering, and talking with customers about Chinese culture, giving the customers the full Gigi's restaurant experience gives the actual Gigi a real buzz.
She tells me she's always making lists of products or trinkets or the latest new trending thing in China to bring over and the day I visit the bar is strewn with little Chinese zodiac figures she gifts to people who book a birthday party. Her generous spirit - illustrated by the bag full of Chinese cans of pops, chopsticks, Monkey trinket and lucky knots I walked away with - is what keeps people coming back. She has her regulars, but, after winning the Golden Chopsticks Award back in 2018 (and again in 2021) she gets visitors from across the UK, and around the globe. The year before winning the Golden Chopsticks first Gigi relocated to the premises down in the marina, which you can't miss thanks to its colourful tables and chairs outside and busily decorated windows, where the panda peer through.
Steve and Gigi tell me they had to do a lot of work on the building, which has three floors instead of a space for 32 covers, and Steve, who runs Gigi's sister cafe in Killay, too, added: "She sent me over to look at this building and I went back and I said to her, 'it's too big and it's too costly, don't do it.' And then she rang me and said, 'I've done it.' I said, 'well, now that you've done it, what I can tell you is that if anybody can make it work, you can make it work. And I will support you 100%.'"
The pair, who admit they bicker like brother and sister about the business, met after Steve featured her in local magazine Taste of Swansea. Gigi asked the consultant to help her find a new premises and they went from there. The new place was still busy as customers followed Gigi and her restaurant but she and Steve worked hard to get the premises up to scratch. And in 2018, when things seemed to be sorted with the venue and they could focus on the restaurant, Steve had a heart attack.
"I was feeling really guilty, if anything happened to him I'd have to stop doing the business," Gigi said. "He worked so hard for me. Then that year we also won the Golden Chopsticks - that was a big step forward. But I thought, okay, 2019, that's when we can focus on things. Then in 2019, June, I nearly died. In one month I had three operations."
Gigi had appendicitis and then a subsequent infection and doctors prepared her for the worst. She was in the hospital for a month and then recovery at home for a further three months. In 2020 when Gigi finally thought the team could concentrate on the business full pelt, Covid hit. They adapted by doing something Gigi wouldn't do before, deliveries, with the owner herself getting out on the roads of Swansea to make drop-offs of favourite dishes like their lazy king prawns, catfish soups and barrel beef.
She said: "Delivering was the last thing I wanted to do with my life, but after a while I started to enjoy it. I would give the customer not only food, but I'd give them a Chinese knot, they are just like a blessing. I feel happy they did too, just a little gift. During lockdown when everyone was at home a bit scared or panicking, I made them a little more relaxed and happy. Speaking from my heart, the most important thing is I feel can give something to them, it's part of my service."
Even the gorgeous traditional Chinese dresses, which the staff also get to wear and choose their own before a shift, are part of Gigi's level of service dedicated to a complete Chinese experience. If her staff feel good, too, she added, then they will give a better level of service.
With hundreds of dresses, decorations, good luck gifts and birthday trinkets already in place as a part of the Gigi experience, it makes you think there's nothing to add to make it more authentically Chinese, or any higher praise than a Jay Rayner review. But no, for Gigi - who seems to work at a rate as if she has more hours in a day than anyone else - she's always thinking what's next.
"I really appreciate all that's happened so far, but there's a still a long way to go and lots to be done," said the restaurant owner who one day hopes to return to practising law. "I keep saying 'I'm lucky' so far, but Steve tells me 'it's not luck it's your work."
To get more stories like this straight to your inbox, subscribe to our What's On newsletter here.
READ NEXT:
- Welsh farm brings back outdoor dining experience among the wildflowers for summer 2022
- Japanese restaurant opening second branch in Mumbles to keep up with huge demand
- Free dough balls handed out to encourage people to squeeze
- First review of Fowl and Fury's Cardiff restaurant: 'I could just about handle the mildest chicken, but I'll definitely be back'
- All-day clubhouse with restaurant and bar to open on one of Cardiff's busiest streets
