Hong Kong ‘tycoons’ canteen’, Chinese restaurant Fook Lam Moon, celebrates 70 years in business
- Catering company Fook Kee was started in 1948, and the first Fook Lam Moon restaurant opened in Wan Chai in 1972
- To celebrate, the restaurant’s two branches are serving classic dishes from throughout its history
Fook Lam Moon, the Hong Kong restaurant known as the tycoons’ canteen, this year marks the 70th anniversary of founder Chui Fook-chuen launching his catering service.
To mark the platinum anniversary, Fook Lam Moon’s Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui branches are serving some of the dishes that made it famous through the decades, such as grilled chicken liver and pork – the Chinese name of which translates as “chicken gold coin” – bird’s nest congee with partridge, braised bamboo pith and pigeon eggs in crab roe, and wonton skin with fresh crab meat in soup.
From now until March, customers can try these and other dishes, which are either not on the menu or are not widely known to the restaurants’ customers. Chui’s granddaughter Janet Chui Shuk-wah hopes these nostalgic dishes will entice diners to visit both branches, as some of them will only be served in Wan Chai and others only in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The challenge of Fook Lam Moon is to remind diners to come back. Its restaurants are known for their fine-dining Cantonese dishes, and for items so labour-intensive they aren’t normally found on Chinese restaurant menus, but Chui admits there is a lot of competition for diners’ appetites in Hong Kong these days.
“Everyone wants to go to the latest restaurant that has opened, and there are so many of them,” she says. “That’s why we have to remind people that we are still here, even though many of us know who we are and what to expect from our restaurant,” she says.