Thursday, September 18, 2008

Crystal Jade Culinary Concept Holdings

Crystal Jade Culinary Concept Holdings is a restaurant-chain serving Chinese cuisine based in Singapore. The group has restaurants in Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea. The group has restaurants and in the city, Singapore Changi Airport and the suburbs, including Jurong, , Toa Payoh, , and Tampines.

The company was founded in 1992 at the now defunct Cairnhill Hotel by Alfred Leung, who has since left to open Imperial Treasure. It opened its flaship restaurant known as Crystal Jade Palace at Ngee Ann City a year later, serving exquisite Cantonese cuisine. That same year, it opened Crystal Jade Kitchen at serving affordable Cantonese cuisine, such as noodles, jook, cze char and roasted meat. It opened its first overseas outlet in Indonesia. The group expanded its group of restaurants during the late 1990s opening more outlets across the island.

The group expanded into the suburbs and opened restaurants at Causeway Point and Holland Village in 1999, with the latter being known as "Seafood Kitchen". It was then when dim sum was brought into their "Kitchen" brand restaurants. Long queues started to form at the restaurants during that period of time, and waits can be as long as an hour during peak periods. It opened the Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao outlet serving Lanzhou style la mian, jiaozi, xiao long bao and northern style Chinese cuisine. Bakeries were also opened, usually inside a Crystal Jade restaurant, selling Hong Kong-style bread.

Crystal Jade opened a and Cantonese restaurant at in the early 2000s, and a high end Shanghainese cuisine at Ngee Ann City, which now serves food from the Jiangnan region as well. During the 2000s, the chain expanded in Indonesia and throughout Asia. The chain also opened a restaurant at Ngee Ann City and The Centrepoint.

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