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25+ restaurants: Sammy's Kitchen

Restaurant's legacy burns as bright as its neon cow, writes Doug Meigs

Sammy Yip mans the booth.

The neon cow sign at Sammy's Kitchen was an advert for Angus beef. Now, it's a controversial landmark. When founder Sammy Yip installed his neon cow in 1979, he said locals hadn't heard of the breed of cattle, and Westerners were a rarity in the mostly Chinese neighbourhood of Sai Ying Pun. Yip boasts that his restaurant was the first Western-style restaurant in Western district.

Although officially retired, the 83-year-old still monitors food preparation. During the lunchtime rush, he manages bookkeeping at a booth overlooking the crowded tables.

Customers enjoy a mix of fancy foreign dishes and local canteen-style fare. Some chow down on Hong Kong-style fried noodles; others carve into Angus sirloin steaks topped with foie gras.

Dim lighting and chequered tablecloths lend an old-fashioned ambience. The back room opens for candlelit dinners.

Yip has operated Sammy's Kitchen since 1969. The restaurant was originally on Centre Street. He moved to the current location in 1979.

Yip is thin, with wispy, combed hair and thick eyebrows. He began working in Hong Kong restaurants by chance, after fleeing Huizhou as a teenager in the wake of the second world war.

At the age of 15, while working at a hotel in Repulse Bay, he developed "Sammy's special sauce", a tangy gravy made with port, Cointreau, tomatoes, onions, herbs and spices.

"When we first opened, the restaurant seemed very expensive, with escargot, steak and avocado cocktail," says Iry Yip, Sammy Yip's daughter and head of catering services. She and her two brothers all work for their father. Yet today, the dinner prices seem economical.

Historically, the surrounding neighbourhood was part of the traditional Chinese quarter of the British colony. Even today, the concentration of dried seafood shops and joss paper vendors are testament to Sai Ying Pun's traditions.

The restaurant once regularly catered for colonial government functions. Even the last governor of colonial Hong Kong, Chris Patten, supposedly visited the restaurant and, Sammy Yip claims, praised his neon cow.

As gentrification steadily creeps across Western district, Sammy's Kitchen remains a classic blend of Westernised cuisine with local flavour.

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Sammy's Kitchen, 204-206 Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun, tel: 2548 8400. Open: 10am-11.30pm