From travellers flying in from China to families returning week after week, Yasmeen Yang has built more than a restaurant, she has built a community.
Dubai: Running a small noodle shop in one of the busiest tourist destinations in Dubai – Al Seef – has been an exercise in friendship for Chinese expat Yasmeen Yang.
The 41-year-old came to Dubai at the age of 18. Starting off in the hotel industry, to work on her English skills, Yasmeen worked in the luxury retail sector for a few years, before moving into entrepreneurship in 2015.
That’s when she met her future husband – Okan Denizdolduran – a Turkish entrepreneur.
“I had a shop where we sold dresses in the Chinese Pavilion at Global Village and he came with his uncle to run a Turkish baklava, coffee and ice cream kiosk, which was behind the pavilion, that’s how we met,” she said.
Today, the couple run several ventures together, including a Turkish coffee shop and dessert business.
Their noodle restaurant, however, came about almost by accident.
“Our main business was the Turkish coffee shop in Al Seef and a shop space opened up nearby. The management asked me if I wanted to take it … perhaps run a Chinese restaurant,” she said.
And even though Yasmeen had no experience running a restaurant before, she decided to give it a try.
“I honestly don’t have a restaurant background, but I do everything from my heart. Sometimes that’s better than having a background,” she said.
Bringing a taste of home to Dubai
After starting the restaurant, Yasmeen quickly realised that she needed to brush up on her culinary skills. A few months into opening shop, she travelled to China, to learn traditional recipes and offer an authentic taste to customers.
While her shop is called Hong Kong noodles, the cuisine is from the Xuzhou province, where Yasmeen grew up. The star of the menu is the Xuzhou Rice Noodles soup, but Yasmeen offers different options to cater to the tourists who come to Dubai from all parts of the world.
“I learnt the recipes myself and I taught my team. Our chef, who is originally from Nepal, is really talented and learnt very quickly,” she said.
But because she only wanted to keep items on the menu that she knew the authentic recipe for, the menu remains limited to a handful of items, like fried noodles and wontons along with the noodle soup.
“If I learn more in the future, maybe I’ll add more,” she said.
More than a bowl of noodles
But what sets the small noodle shop apart in Dubai’s competitive dining scene is not just the authenticity of Yasmeen’s hometown recipes, but the sense of community she has created around them.
After returning from China last summer, Yasmeen began sharing snippets of her daily life and the stories behind her food on social media, simply to spread positivity, she said.
The response though, has been unexpected and overwhelming. In just a few months, her account has built a loyal community of followers who now travel from across the UAE, and even from China, to visit her little restaurant in Al Seef.
One such customer, Tony Gu, spoke to Emirates 24|7 about his recent interaction with Yasmeen, where he messaged her before his flight from Hong Kong, telling her that he would be reaching Dubai the next day and would come to her restaurant.
“This is my second trip to Dubai,” he said.
“I first came in January and I liked Al Seef very much … it is similar to Xintiandi, a commercial district in Shanghai. This, to me, was like the Middle East’s Xintiandi,” he added.
While scrolling through social media before his next flight to Dubai in June, he came across one of Yasmeen’s videos – sharing stories from her little noodle shop at the restaurant. He dropped a message on the video, telling her he would be visiting the next day.
A memorable visitor
For Yasmeen, the short message on the video meant the world.
“I came to restaurant and I was so excited. I told all the staff, ‘My brother is coming today.’ And honestly, they were a little puzzled, because how much food can one customer eat,” she said, laughing.
“But for me it meant so much to see someone travelling all the way from China and telling me he wanted to eat at my restaurant,” she said.
A community that gives back
Since then, though, similar stories have become almost routine. One customer watched her videos while jogging in Mushrif Park before driving over with his two children. Later, he returned with his mother and extended family.
Another customer from China asked her to surprise a friend for his birthday, with Yasmeen going out of her way to not just offer a cake, but a compulsory bowl of noodle soup.
“You have to have noodles on your birthday,” she said.
“Long noodles represent a long life, good health and endless blessings,” she added.
With her videos being shared in China as well, she had another couple land in Dubai from Shanghai and head straight to her restaurant.
“It was close to 50°C outside, but they wanted to have Xuzhou rice noodles. Because, I guess, home isn’t always a place, sometimes it’s just a bowl of noodles,” she said.
Almost every day, beautiful stories unfold at this tiny noodle house that has been able to build a connection with people. Yasmeen remembered how another customer from China messaged her, asking if she wanted something from her hometown, as they stopped over in Dubai.
“Imagine that,” Yasmeen said, beaming.
“People I’ve met through a bowl of noodles offering to make space in their luggage for my little restaurant,” she said.
And for a small business owner, who relies on authentic ingredients, such offers can mean a lot.
“Every ingredient for my rice noodles come from my hometown in China. Some of them, especially our signature pickles, have a very short shelf life. They can’t be found anywhere in Dubai and I refuse to change the recipes. Because the shipping was getting delayed, I worried that I won’t have enough ingredients to keep serving the same authentic taste. And then, I received that message,” she said.
Passing it forward
The community connect, though, hasn’t just been a result of videos being uploaded. Over the months, Yasmeen and her husband have gone out of their way to support community members who may have been in difficult situations.
“When the Iran aggression happened, I wanted to show my support and spread a positive message. I decided to offer free noodles to the community. We even have special staff discounts for all the people working in Al Seef. Things like these … they don’t make you poor, they don’t make you rich, they just make you happy,” she said.
It is this honest connection that Yasmeen credits to the long-time repeat customers she has been able to build over time.
“In a world where everyone is busy, someone chose to spend their time, their fuel and their energy to visit us,” she said.
A city she now calls home
While Yasmeen had started the restaurant to serve flavours from home, she increasingly feels Dubai has become the place she identifies as her hometown.
“I’ve been driving in Dubai since 2006, even before navigation started. I can go anywhere without navigation. But when I go back to China now, I actually lose my way.”
Even though she laughs when she says this, there is truth behind the joke. Living here with her husband and eight-year-old daughter, who has taken to helping out at the restaurant during her summer break, and watching the small noodle shop welcome all types of customers – from home-sick visitors from China, curious UAE residents or families returning for another meal – Yasmeen is very much rooted in the community around her.
“This is my place now. I don’t see myself living anywhere else.”