Terms of Culinary Endearment

After Qing Yong and XiuFeng “Cindy” Yang married, they bought a restaurant. The new couple settled in Olathe and named the restaurant “Bobo” which means “darling,” a term of endearment in Chinese. They wanted to endear themselves to customers’ hearts with wonderful dining and carryout. Despite confronting fierce competition, this young restaurant has achieved its goal and become dear to local patrons’ hearts.  

Fact Sheet:

• Name: BoBo Chinese Restaurant


• Location: 1471 E 151ST ST., OLATHE , KS 66062-2854


• Cuisine: American style Chinese cuisine


• Capacity: 40


• Offers: take-out


• Signature Dish: General Tso’s Chicken, Beef with Broccoli, Cashew Chicken


• Year of establishment: 2006


• Phone: 913-782-5099

House Specialties: General Tso’s Chicken, Beef with Broccoli, Cashew Chicken

The Scene

In many ways, BoBo Chinese Restaurant seems like a young sapling among mighty oaks. It is located in a big business area and right opposite to a big GPS company with about 2000 staff. There are many restaurants around to challenge BoBo Chinese Restaurant’s business. Remarkably, this young restaurant has stood its ground and grown its own deep roots in the area. “Each restaurant has its distinctive orientation and their customer base is different, thus even with surrounding restaurants the small take-out eatery BoBo could find its niche,” explains owner Cindy Yang.  

BoBo China Restaurant is about 1400 square feet in size. Like most Chinese take-out restaurants, the restaurant focuses less on its interior décor and more on the food. Despite its humble décor, the eatery can make you feel at home. The room is very well lit and has good air conditioning. Upon stepping into the restaurant, you will first notice several stylish paintings on the wall. Some green plants are placed in the corner to add vigor and life to the restaurant. All the tables and booths are free of debris and in good condition.

There are several factors to be taken into consideration when selecting a proper location. The surrounding environment, rent costs and local population composition are all key factors, either one can’t be overlooked. Having considered these elements and undertaken investigations, the owner’s family decided to settle down and open their own restaurant here.

The Food

The restaurant provides American-style Chinese cuisine. The menu is from many regions of China with an emphasis on Szechuan cuisine. The top dishes at BoBo Chinese Restaurant are General Tso’s Chicken, Beef with Broccoli, Cashew Chicken. BoBo Chinese Restaurant places a special emphasis on ensuring their meat is as healthy as possible. All the excess fat of the chicken and beef are trimmed off to ensure a healthy dining experience. But the restaurant’s food is not only known to be healthy, but tasty as well. The homemade sauce is the secret of these palatable entrees. A sauce, gravy, or simple glaze can make or break a good meal. There is nothing worse than a lumpy sauce that tastes too much like flour, smothering the intended taste! “Moderation is key!” explains owner Cindy Yang.  The sauce at BoBo is neither too heavy nor too thin. Instead, the prepared sauce envelopes the chicken chunk or sliced beef, making it taste juicy.

The owner also pays special attention to the presentation of dishes- even though they are served in packaged boxes. A harmonious presentation of dishes will nonetheless please the diners.  “My husband tries his best to make each dish perfect.” says Cindy Yang.

The health-conscious may be very specific about their orders, and so the chefs are prepared to cook tofu, vegetable-inspired dishes, or entrees with less oil to accommodate them. The owner is also prepared to have dishes steamed or boiled according to specific orders.

Ms. Yang boasts that part of the success of the restaurant can be contributed to their attention to details: “We only use the highest quality ingredients to make various Chinese delights.” She relates a story about a customer who wouldn’t order beef at their restaurant because in his experience, other Chinese restaurants served beef that was too tough to chew. But after Ms. Yang convinced him to try their beef, it became his favorite dish!

In Focus: Innovation

It is the food that has gotten the attention of the local population, for the Yang family has not advertised at all. “We rarely do advertisement or post menus, we firmly believe in the spreading word-of-mouth which speaks louder than the advertisement. But we pay extra attention to communicating with customers and get to know customers. It is a good bond to develop customer satisfaction and recognition.”

Ms. Yang believes that not resting on one’s laurels is a good way to progress in life. To put it simply, restaurants need to innovate in order to survive. BoBo Chinese Restaurant updates its sauces regularly in order to stay ahead of the game. The chefs learn from other establishments, acquire inspiration from cookbooks, and receive recommendations from the customers. The sauce is very customer-driven, ensuring that it is exactly to their liking.

Another innovative aspect is the launch of seasonal dishes. For example, the asparagus-style dishes are popular items, but only in spring. Thus, in other seasons the asparagus dishes are not available. These seasonal dishes can provide the customers with new and fresh choices no matter what time of year they may enter the restaurant.

The Owner

The family style restaurant is operated by a family, headed by Cindy Yang. She oversees the business while her niece helps her handle the orders and serve the customers. Cindy’s husband Qing Yong oversees the daily cooking, while Cindy and her niece take care of the dining sanitation and serving the customers. Running a restaurant is demanding and tiring, but with strong perseverance the family can get through all the hardships, survive and then thrive.

The family cleans the restaurant each morning and before the restaurant closed each night.   The couple will stay in the restaurant for nearly 12 hours every day, but Cindy sees it in another way: “every day we can see each other and work for the same goal, which is the happiest moment for me.”

The Yang family runs a tight ship and ensures the restaurant is safe and clean at all times. A quote from a mystery dining report gives a vivid explanation about the sanitation conditions: “The dining area was immaculate. The restrooms were tidy and [well] stocked with supplies.”

Though running a restaurant is a tough job, Cindy Yang is very lucky to gain timely help and support from her friends and relatives. “Whatever hardship we may encounter we will get through it with courage and confidence.” said Cindy.

Ms. Yang is realistic about her restaurant, and understands that her business is like many others. “I can’t say there is any difference compared to other similar establishments. I hope my restaurant can stand on top, providing customers with… timely service and quality food.”

So far, she and her family have succeeded in doing just that. Despite the competition, the restaurant has thrived. While surely her hardships have something to do with this success, she humbly believes fate might have something to do with it: “Luckily, we have many loyal customers to support us, thus the sales are guaranteed.”

When she has a spare moment between her duties to dream of what’s next, she thinks of expanding her restaurant: “I hope we can expand the restaurant to a bigger take-out eatery. I won’t transfer to open a dine-in restaurant. The take-out restaurant may be small and humble, but it has its unique characteristics: flexibility, comparatively low risks, low costs but with reasonable profits if it runs well. In the current economy slide, it’s much easier to keep a take-out eatery than dine-in ones.”