Chef Chai Chaowasaree has sold Chai’s Waikiki Hawaiian Fusion restaurant and plans to close the location after service Saturday.

Chaowasaree has operated the Waikiki restaurant, previously known as Singha Thai Cuisine, for nearly three decades.

In addition to the Waikiki restaurant, Chaowasaree runs Chef Chai restaurant at the Pacifica Honolulu building at 1009 Kapiolani Blvd. and a catering business. He said he sold the Waikiki operation to carve out more time to spend with his mother, who recently moved to Hawaii.

“I’ve been working seven days, every night, for I don’t know how long,” he said. “It’s too much.”

The purchase offer for the Canterbury Place restaurant, at 1910 Ala Moana Blvd., “was a good offer,” one he couldn’t refuse, he said. He did not disclose the purchase price, but said the deal is done, and said under the new owners it will become a Korean-style yakiniku house called Gangnam Style B.B.Q. The name was registered with the state in May by Monalisa Lee of Mose Investment Inc., according to public records.

Lee operated Ono Korean B-B-Q for about 12 years, and some years later opened the adjacent Ono Sushi at 3221 Waialae Ave. in Kaimuki. She sold the spots a few years ago, said Kay Yoo, a real estate broker who represented both Lee and Chai in the sale.

The liquor license transfer has been processed, and Lee has hired as many as 18 employees. The plan is to open the 2,000-square-foot-plus restaurant in August, Yoo said. Gangnam Style B.B.Q. will operate from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., she added.

For Chaowasaree the timing of the offer was perfect. He brought his aging mother to Hawaii from Thailand two years ago, “and we just don’t have enough time together. I want to share every moment I can with her. She’s 84 and anything could happen.”

“I can open another restaurant anytime,” he said, but for now, “I want to take care of my mother.” He said he plans to travel with her.

The sale of a location that had been in business for 28 years was “bittersweet,” he said, “and we count our blessings that people loved us and supported us.”

His more than one dozen employees at the Waikiki restaurant will continue their employment with Chai at his Pacifica location and his catering operations. “None of them is going to lose their job,” he said.

According to Chaowasareee, Lee plans to install a new style of cooking tables that don’t require large, over-table exhaust fans.