Owner Ashok Shrestha

Career : Nepalese. Left British Army in 1985 after serving in Hong Kong, Brunei, Fiji, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Spent 12 years in Hong Kong before moving to UK in 1998. Ashok's first buffet restaurant was opened in Folkstone in May 2001. It is a 100 seat restaurant that has been highly successful. The next site was in Margate, where a 300 seat restaurant was opened in December 2001. The third restaurant opened in Aldershot in October 2003 and has also been hugely successful. Tonbridge opened January 2005. The flagship restaurant of his So Asia franchise group will open its doors in Camberley in October 2006. This is the restaurant where all of the in-house training for franchisees now take place. Shortly after the opening of Camberley, the first Franchisees began trading in their own restaurant in Worthing. So Asia was developed by Ashok Shrestha based on his extensive experience as a restaurant owner. Although the basic concept is not unique it is differentiated by the offering of five different cuisines; Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Indian and Singaporean.