The Slow Death of the Hong Kong Dim Sum Restaurant
Yep, they're all going to Shenzhen. Numberwang 3
(Cover Photo: Yat Tung Heen, Alice Truong/Bloomberg)
Shortly after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hongkongers returned to dine at their favourite restaurants, but soon they had an epiphany that they could easily cross the border to Shenzhen and environs and get a good meal for a fraction of the price charged in Hong Kong. And so news stories kept popping up, "Restaurant X to close after N years in business." It was looking bleak for Hong Kong's restaurant industry.
Well, it's been over 3½ years since Hong Kong reopened its borders, and the government has pleaded with restaurant owners to be more creative in its offerings; how is the restaurant industry doing now? Still not great.
• Accounting for inflation, restaurant receipt volumes fell 0.4% y-o-y
www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/...
Restaurant receipts should be rising every year; but then the 2019 protests and the pandemic happened, and since then, monthly receipts have been flat. What's worse, taking inflation into account, restaurant volumes have been steadily decreasing since 2023.
Restaurant volumes for the last 12 months to June 2026 are about 3% lower than they were in 2023.
The fun part is breaking down the receipts by restaurant type. Comparing the receipts for the 2nd quarter of 2026 with the the 2nd quarter of 2025, we have
Chinese restaurants: HK$9.485 billion ↑1.47%
Non-Chinese restaurants: HK$8.871 billion ↑1.56%
Fast-food restaurants: HK$6.366 billion ↓1.55%
Bars: HK$318 million ↓3.93%
Miscellaneous eateries*: HK$2.156 billion ↓2.66%
All restaurants: HK$27.196 billion ↑0.37%
• Other eating places with seats, which can't be classified as any of the other types above
• Takeaway shops and meal outlets without seats
• Event catering and other food service activities
• Coffee shops
• Herbal tea shops
• Beverage-serving places not elsewhere classified
Given that inflation is currently at 2.0%, not a single category could keep pace.
Going further back in time, it's apparent how the 2019 protests and the pandemic affected the restaurant industry.
Receipts from non-Chinese restaurants, fast-food restaurants, and miscellaneous eateries (which do include the now-popular n-dish rice takeout places) have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Hong Kong's demographic shift in the last six years mostly justifies the decline of revenues from bars, from the HK$1.767 billion earned in 2018, to just HK$1.2 billion for the 12 months to June 2026.
But the real shocker is the decrease in revenues from Chinese restaurants. For the 12 months to June 2026, receipts were HK$38.7 billion, a 26% decrease from 2018 (HK$52.142 billion). One can imagine how much of that lost revenue has been spent in Shenzhen instead.
One last graph to present: instead of using monthly receipts by restaurant type, let's break it down by market share (i.e. revenues by restaurant type as a proportion of all restaurant receipts):
In 2011, Chinese restaurants made up 49.0% of all restaurant receipts; for the 6 months of 2026 that percentage is down to 34.5%. During that same period, receipts from non-Chinese restaurants shot up from 27.1% to 34.2% and have nearly caught up to Chinese restaurants. Fast-food market share is also going up only because Chinese restaurant receipts have plunged.
Will non-Chinese restaurants’ market share ever surpass that of Chinese restaurants on an annual basis? We might have an answer in about 2 to 3 years.
But for now, let's answer the question hinted in this article's title: is Hong Kong really facing a slow death of dim sum restaurant? The data certainly supports that argument: a LegCo research paper found the number of Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong fell from 1,790 in 2018 to 1,500 last year, a decrease of 16%. Large Chinese banquet halls which serve dim sum and are traditionally popular with the middle class during weekends and holidays will likely continue to struggle as they are too expensive compared to Shenzhen to compete on value. One example: Lei Garden 利苑酒家 at Mong Kok, a former 2-Michelin Star restaurant, which abruptly closed this April after 46 years. This hurt, as it was the restaurant of choice for my extended family during our weekend lunch gatherings before my grandmother passed.
Younger diners are preferring smaller venues, and Cantonese restaurants north of the border are cheaper, more spacious, and perceived to have better service.
Perhaps the dim sum market in Hong Kong will gradually polarise into two segments: high-end, Michelin-recommended restaurants, many located in luxury hotels, which will continue to attract well-to-do clientele; and smaller neighbourhood dim sum restaurants, such as Sun Hing in Kennedy Town and the Tim Ho Wan and One Dim Sum chains, which are known for their limited menus and quick turnover.
Or we could end up with more restaurants like Lin Heung Lau teahouse.
