Yao Asian Fusion Cuisine fills a void in Lenox, with an emphasis on freshness and quality | Business
Sushi chef John Jiang slices fish at Yao Asian Fusion Cuisine restaurant in Lenox. The restaurant opened this week on Franklin Street across from Haven.
LENOX — For many years, the multiblock downtown “restaurant row” has been vexed by one conspicuous void — Asian cuisine.
So it was no surprise that Monday’s opening of Yao Asian Fusion Cuisine at 9 Franklin St., offering lunch and dinner seven days a week, was a hit, with sushi and ramen among the main attractions. The location was the home of the Lenox Pizza House decades ago.
Xiaoxia “Wendy” Weng is co-owner of Yao, a new Asian fusion restaurant on Franklin Street in Lenox. She manages the front of house while her husband runs the kitchen and the sushi bar.
The family business is a dream come true for co-owners Xiaoxia Weng, 40, who goes by Wendy, and her chef-husband, Mengyao Chen, who was busy chopping fresh fish for the sushi bar shortly before lunchtime on Wednesday.
“To do any single thing, I have to use my heart, trying to do my best,” Wendy said when asked about her personal key to success.
Yao’s surprisingly lengthy menu of Japanese, Chinese and Thai dishes includes 258 choices — “something for everyone,” Wendy pointed out.
“When I came to Lenox for the first time a few years ago, I felt very comfortable,” said Wendy, who manages the front of house while her husband runs the kitchen and the sushi bar.
“My first feelings were it’s very good for us in our future life,” she said. “My husband loves creating food so much; he’s been doing it for 20 years, doing his best for the customers.”
Sushi chef John Jiang slices salmon at Yao Asian Fusion Cuisine in Lenox.
Food quality and service are paramount — fresh fish is delivered every morning from Japanese markets in Boston and New Jersey, and her husband often drives to the Boston fish markets before dawn. The restaurant is staffed by family members but there’s a job open for a part-time server.
Wendy’s recommendations include miso, duck or chicken ramen (Japanese noodle dishes), O-Toro (fatty tuna) and king salmon from the sushi bar, and yuzu miso black cod from the kitchen entrees.
The couple, who live in Pittsfield, worked at Enso Asian Bistro from 2015 to 2019 at the now-demolished Dakota restaurant site on South Street in Pittsfield, and previously at Hane Sushi in lower Manhattan for 10 years. They met while working together at a New Jersey restaurant and have been married for 17 years.
They located the long-vacant building opposite the Haven cafe and bakery with the help of sales agent Jamie Nugent of TKG Real Estate. Their company, Jcma LLC, purchased the property, formerly owned by former crypto exec Ryan Salame, for $600,000 last May, according to Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds records.
They won Select Board approval last May for an all-alcohol on-premises restaurant liquor license.
Yao Asian Fusion Cuisine on Franklin Street in Lenox is open seven days a week. “It’s our own restaurant business,” said co-owner “Wendy” Weng. “No holidays.”
Ever since, they and other family members have been busy prepping the space with new interior design and decorations for 60 eat-in diners. Yao also offers takeout as well as delivery through DoorDash; the restaurant covers the delivery fee for customers, Wendy said.
She or her husband plan to be on the premises for all 74 hours a week that it’s open. They have three children, 10, 15 and 16, attending Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown. Their youngest will start attending sixth grade at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School in September 2025.
The restaurant is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.on Friday and Saturday, and noon to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“It’s our own restaurant business,” Wendy pointed out. “No holidays.”
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