How the iconic Cantonese Luk Yu Tea House stands the test of time

Hong Kong has fickle tastes, notoriously high rents and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it food scene. That’s what makes the enduring appeal of Luk Yu Tea House – a stalwart of the city’s central business district that recently celebrated its 90th anniversary – so exceptional. This three-storey Cantonese restaurant on Stanley Street serves steamy parcels of dim sum in the mornings and sizzling stir-fries after the sun sets. So what’s the secret behind its longevity?

“Times change and sometimes we are forced to change with them,” says Luk Yu Tea House’s manager, Mr Ng, who, in keeping with a fairly common aversion to publicity among those who work in Hong Kong’s older restaurants and cafés, only tells Monocle his family name. “But we try our best to keep everything the same. And we always use the best ingredients.” Another improbable demonstration of the tea house’s commitment to consistency is the fact that the same head chef has presided over its kitchen for more than 50 years.

The restaurant’s extensive menu continues to swear by traditional dishes, such as pig-lung and almond soup (better than it sounds), prawn toast and crispy sticky rice. This adherence to heritage also extends to the decor, which is a combination of Chinese shan shui (landscape) paintings and calligraphy with heavy, seemingly bombproof teak furniture that has survived since colonial times. It’s this permanence and Luk Yu’s popularity across generations that has helped it to buck the trends.