This updated study for Access Asia reveals the recovery of the restaurant sector in Hong Kong as the recession eases after the last two years. The fast food chains remain strong in Hong Kong with local operators such as Café de Coral and Fairwood in pitch battles for consumer spending.
Fast food and organised catering is nothing new to Hong Kong. In fact the notion of organised take-away food targeted at workers on their lunch hours is over a century old. Since the 1960s thousands of independent vendors had supplied Hong Kong’s workforce with food throughout the day. With the then-colony’s notoriously fast pace of life, speed and convenience has traditionally been part of the consumer catering industry. The fast-food industry emerged in its recognisable form in the late 1960s with the formation of the Café de Coral chain offering low priced hot Chinese food. The strategy was simple, organise the vendor system and move it indoors to well lit comfortable Cafeteria type establishments with improved hygiene and standard pricing. The Café de Coral chain was also the first to offer both traditional Cantonese fare and western-inspired dishes such as chicken wings, ribs and Ovaltine drinks that had long been popular in the Colony with its British influence. With the upturn in the economy in 1999 and 2000, the restaurant trade has gained some momentum, helped by a growth in visitor arrivals in 2000. Hong Kong remains one of the most densely packed countries in terms of restaurants with approximately one restaurant for every 700 citizens.