Doughnuts and Hong Kong: an on-again, off-again love affair that’s gone into overdrive amid the coronavirus pandemic

For a place with so many cafes and dessert shops, Hong Kong was a doughnut desert. Krispy Kreme opened in the mid-noughties, but too soon was gone again

Deliverance for doughnut lovers began five years ago, since when there’s been an explosion in cloud kitchens and Instagram bakers. We give you our top picks

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Condensed milk and chocolate cream doughnuts from Hole Foods, one of a number of online bakeries in Hong Kong that have helped end a doughnut drought in the city. Photo: Hole Foods

Published: 7:15am, 1 Sep 2022

Despite Hong Kong being a city filled with restaurants, cafes and dessert shops, it was hard to find a good doughnut in the city a few years ago. Today there are more places than ever to get your doughnut fix – but the road to this point was long and fraught with business failures.

A landmark moment for the sweet, fried treat came in September 2006 with the arrival of US doughnut shop Krispy Kreme thanks to Wayne and Brian Parfitt, the founders of restaurant chain Castelo Concepts.

For many doughnut lovers in Hong Kong, this was a dream come true. Seven Krispy Kreme stores opened in Hong Kong, in Causeway Bay, Central, Mong Kok, Kwun Tong, and Hong Kong International Airport.

However, two years later the chain pulled out of the city, citing high rental costs. It would be almost a decade before top-notch doughnuts became readily available in Hong Kong again.

American doughnut chain Krispy Kreme first opened in Hong Kong in 2006, but only lasted a couple of years in the city. Photo: SCMP

In June 2015, an independent doughnut shop decided to test the waters. Munchies opened on Shin Hing Street in Central, near Hong Kong’s Soho neighbourhood, and specialised in organic, Canadian-style doughnuts. The shop was opened by Michelle Wong, a Hong Kong-born, Vancouver-raised entrepreneur.

“I moved back to Hong Kong and spoke to others who [had] also lived abroad,” says Wong. “We all agreed that we miss just the ease and culture of doughnuts. In a city that has every kind of food you would want, there wasn’t anyone who was doing doughnuts, or doing doughnuts well.”