Classic Hong Kong restaurants: Czarina, Sai Ying Pun
Czarina has been feeding staff and students of HKU and neighbouring schools since the mid-1960s
Czarina is a Russian restaurant, but like most Western restaurants that opened a few decades ago, it serves up a Hong Kong version of Russian cuisine.
Originally at 25 Bonham Road, Czarina opened in 1964 and was run by the father of Wong Chung-hap and Wong Chung-ho. The Wong brothers now run the restaurant, which was renamed Czarina 1964 when it recently reopened in Sai Ying Pun.
The menu has hardly changed since it opened . Known for borscht and beef goulash, Wong Jung-ho says the dishes keep people coming back. Being close to the University of Hong Kong and a number of renowned schools, many students and professors have passed through their doors, and the restaurant is affectionately known as "the University of Hong Kong canteen".
In 1980, the building the restaurant was in was slated for demolition and they were forced to move a few doors down to a smaller space on Bonham Road. "We owned the shop, and were offered a good price. My father says that it would have been hard to make that kind of money running a restaurant," says Wong Chung-hap.
Last year, the Bonham Street outlet shut, but the brothers had already decided to reopen a place nearby.