Jack Ng and his wife, Jin Ma
Ng and his wife, Jin Ma, created the NGMA Group brand, combining their surnames. Welcome Magazine

NGMA Group, a hospitality company with five restaurants across Washington state, generated roughly $15 million (£11.9 million) in annual revenue last year, up from $13 million (£10.3 million) reported in an earlier assessment. Its founder, Jack Ng, arrived in the United States from rural China at age 12 and didn't even know how to speak English.

The $13 million figure comes from a Puget Sound Business Journal report cited by the Whidbey News-Times, which also put NGMA Group's headcount at 180. Ng told Entrepreneur in January 2026 that revenue had since risen to approximately $15 million (£11.9 million), adding that the group had roughly tripled its takings in recent years. On peak days, the five locations serve up to 2,500 customers combined.

Ng, 48, opened his first restaurant, China City, in Oak Harbor, Washington, in March 1999 when he was 21. He raised roughly $60,000 (£47,000) by combining wages from commercial fishing trips in Alaska with money from his parents and four siblings, all of whom had been working in Chinese restaurants at the time.

'We all emptied our pockets and opened our first location,' Nation's Restaurant News quoted Ng.

Five Restaurants Under NGMA Group Banner

The portfolio spans three China City locations in Oak Harbor, Freeland, and Mill Creek, plus Fisherman Jack's, an Asian fusion seafood restaurant at the Port of Everett, and The Muse, a coffee shop that converts into a Prohibition-era whiskey bar after 4 p.m. The Muse opened in 2023 inside the Weyerhaeuser Building, a historic structure erected in 1923 for the timber company's Everett lumber mill. Its collection of rare spirits includes a bottle dating to 1916, Nation's Restaurant News reported.

Ng and his wife, Jin Ma, created the NGMA Group brand as the business expanded. The name draws from each of their surnames. The original China City occupied a site with limited parking and low footfall. When a second location opened in a waterfront tourist area, takings more than doubled.

Ng said the early years were hampered by his own inexperience with marketing and customer service. 'We just knew how to cook good food,' he said, per Entrepreneur.

He expanded to the mainland in 2014 with a Mill Creek location. When Fisherman Jack's launched, Ng was so short-staffed that he returned to the kitchen himself for two months straight, the Whidbey News-Times reported. Finding reliable staff has remained one of the group's persistent challenges, particularly on Whidbey Island.

Jack Ng's Journey From Guangdong to Alaska's Fishing Fleet

Ng grew up in China's Guangdong province in a village without running water or electricity. His parents, both chefs, secured working visas and relocated the family to Skagit County, about 90 minutes north of Seattle, with an aunt and uncle co-signing the move.

He dropped out of high school after struggling with the language and spent his teenage years working in restaurant kitchens. At 18, he signed on with a commercial fishing vessel in Alaska's Bering Sea, cycling through three-month stints at sea followed by three months on land. He eventually moved from deck work to the galley, feeding a crew of 120 on 12-hour rotations.

'It's pretty tough,' Ng told Entrepreneur. 'You don't get a day off, even when you're sick. And I got seasick every time the boat moved.'

With nowhere to spend wages at sea, Ng banked nearly all of his earnings. He has said he watched other crew members burn through their pay on shore and decided he would save for a way out.

NGMA Group has said it is planning between two and five further openings. Ng, who now lives in Freeland on Whidbey Island, keeps a second home in Guangdong and visits Michelin-starred restaurants there with his wife for inspiration. He described his approach in blunt terms. 'People always say, how do you do this?' he told the Whidbey News-Times. 'I just work hard.'

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