Cyber e-sports café SideQuest, Asian fusion restaurant OISOI and YiFang, the Taiwanese tea specialist, have opened at Elephant Park as Lendlease continues to establish the area as one of South London’s most exciting leisure, food and drink hubs. The three East Asian brands have taken an inter-connected unit facing onto New Kent Road, spanning over 6,000sq ft.
This will be the sixth UK site for SideQuest, formerly known as Wanyoo UK. The space seats up to 36 players at single computers, with a room available for private hire.
Meanwhile, OISOI is a restaurant serving authentic Asian cuisine with a modern twist, including signature dim sum and Szechuanese dishes. Elephant Park is the largest location to date for the brand.
And a kiosk from YiFang will specialise but will also serve the brand’s signature drink known as the ‘MudFlip’, a brown sugar milk tea that is flipped to create a lava lamp effect.
Guy Thomas, head of place assets at Lendlease, commented: “Consumers expect more from destinations post-pandemic and increasingly the right tenancy mix is one that blends traditional retail with one-off venues and experiences. The openings of SideQuest, OISOI, and YiFang build on the diverse retail, food and drink offering we’ve created at Elephant Park, bringing authentic East Asian flavour and a unique proposition of gaming, formal and casual dining under one roof. It’s something that really can’t be found anywhere else.”
Michael Mulholland, marketing manager at SideQuest, added: “Our new Elephant Park location is a big moment for the brand, as part of our expansion across the UK. We are so excited to introduce SideQuest’s unique experiential leisure offering to an engaged and diverse South London location like Elephant & Castle.”
Lendlease is delivering Elephant Park, a £2.5bn regeneration project in partnership with Southwark Council. Once complete, it will include over 3,000 homes, 50 new retail and leisure units and 50,000 square feet of workspaces, all centred around a new two-acre park. This leasing news follows the recent openings of Mexican-inspired restaurant Cheeky Chicos and Korean-Japanese eatery Kokoro on Ash Avenue and Livelyhood’s community pub, the Rosy Hue, at the development.
Nash Bond, CF Commercial, and Shelley Sandzer represent Lendlease.
