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Hoy Yeung has been feeding multiple generations since the Chinese restaurant first opened at Blueberry Crossing at 240 S. White Horse Pike.
Bill Chiu, the owner of Hoy Yeung, said his father opened the store in 1978 when Chiu was 16 years old.
“I have at least three generations, now four because now a baby is born, coming up four generations of customers,” Chiu said.
When Hoy Yeung first opened, there was no competition.
“First 15 years, there was no competition. People used to call us. They wouldn’t call us Hoy Yeung. They used to say, ‘Let’s go to the Hoy!’” Chiu said.
His father, the backbone of Hoy Yeung for many years, had multiple restaurants open at a time, one in Hammonton, Philadelphia and New Brunswick.
“We sold the one there in New Brunswick and then we had the one in Philadelphia then we sold the one in Philadelphia. We had the one in Berlin then I gave the one in Berlin to my uncle and then I consolidated here,” Chiu said.
Chiu went to college to study art and then after school was finished, he came back to work at the restaurant.
He then met his wife Karen who currently works at the restaurant with Chiu.
“I’m going to go wherever she goes,” Chiu said when asked about the restaurant’s future plans.
Hoy Yeung offers traditional Cantonese Chinese food. They also sell sushi.
“We do sell a lot of this, baby greens with garlic and oil. Baby greens that’s very popular. And the other one we sell a lot is teriyaki, beef teriyaki sticks,” Chiu said.
For large parties, Hoy Yeung sells party trays of sushi and shrimp.
Chiu said his father chose Hammonton as a location to be closer to the beach.
“He wanted to come down and be near the beach, and on the map it looked like we’re right next to the beach, but when we came down here we were still—we’re not quite at the beach, but he made it work,” Chiu said.
One thing that makes Hoy Yeung stick out from other restaurants is that it’s still a mom-and-pop store where Chiu knows the customers by name.
“Every restaurant that does what we do assigns a number to the customer. We never did that. We always call our customers by name,” Chiu said.
Being a part of the community is important to Chiu.
“We’re part of the community. We’ve been here so long,” Chiu said. “We live in this town. My kids grew up in this town. When I go home at night, I’m still in this town.”
For more information about Hoy Yeung, call (609) 561-1440, visit their website hoyyeungrestaurant.com and follow them on Facebook.
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