Hong Kong nightlife destination with a village feel, Tai Kok Tsui is a down-home mix of old and new
- It’s a long time since Tai Kok Tsui in Kowloon was a village, but it retains a neighbourly feel, and its affordable rents have drawn bars, restaurants and clubs
- First developed by Eurasian businessman Sir Robert Hotung, it has been changed repeatedly by reclamation and redevelopment
It’s Saturday night in Tai Kok Tsui and the evening crowd is starting to build. In recent years, Pok Man Street has become a Hong Kong nightlife destination, with restaurants, craft beer tap rooms and wine bars opening, and they quickly fill up as the sun sets.
A few blocks away, at the base of a new high-rise on Li Tak Street, singers take the stage at the Lost Stars Livehouse, a surprisingly swanky cabaret that serves negronis and martinis to a largely young crowd of music-lovers.
Few of these businesses existed five years ago. Some were drawn by the new, upmarket housing estates that are reshaping this previously working-class neighbourhood; others noticed the large HSBC and Bank of China office towers next to Olympic MTR station and decided they could supply an ample crowd of customers. But most were on the lookout for that most elusive of Hong Kong neighbourhoods: a centrally located area with affordable rent.
That was the case for Darren Leung, owner of Once You Go Craft, a beer bar that opened in April 2019 on Pok Man Street. “I live in Tuen Mun [in the southwest New Territories] and there aren’t a lot of little businesses like this any more – it’s all big brands,” says Leung.
An airline pilot who runs the bar with the help of two players from the rugby team he coaches, Leung says rents in Tai Kok Tsui were much more reasonable. “Around here, it’s a good mix of old and new, and you get a lot of foot traffic.”