Every day at 3am, when most of Hong Kong is asleep, Chui Kwok-hing, owner of Sun Hing Restaurant, on Smithfield road, Kennedy Town, is already working flat out – serving steamers of freshly prepared dim sum to a packed room of hungry diners.
The humble-looking, fluorescent-lit eatery has gained something of a legendary status in the city. It is very common to see a long queue already forming outside of its door at 2am. In fact, even in the wee hours – as night turns slowly to day – there’s a real buzz inside Sun Hing, in marked contrast with the otherwise quiet street.
“Although we open for business at 3am, people will come to our restaurant as early as 2.30am, Chui, 51, says. “So, it’s actually quite an intense and demanding job.”
These “early birds” include students from the nearby University of Hong Kong, taxi drivers who have just finished work after their night shifts and people who have been out all night, but have yet to go home.
Night and day
To make sure his eager customers can eat their fill as soon as they turn up, Chui has to start his day when many people have only just gone to bed. “I wake up at 1am every day, which is very tiring,” he says. “But I always force myself get up then because of the regular customers. I know they’ll always start gathering outside the restaurant soon after I arrive at work, waiting for our dim sum
Every morning – or night, depending on your perspective – he slowly gets out of bed, while the air around him seems to be standing still, to ensure he doesn’t wake up his wife. He quickly washes, then puts on his working clothes and wet boots before heading off to work.
“My colleagues will arrive at the restaurant at 2am, and I’m responsible for making sure everything in the kitchen is ready for them,” he says. “At around 5am, I’ll make some buns or dim sum to have a quick breakfast. We’ll spend about five to 10 minutes to eat and then go back to work immediately.”
Chui is always the first person to arrive at the restaurant, where he will first roll up the security gate and then switch on all the lights and appliances. Next, amid the murmurs from kitchen equipment, he prepares the essential ingredients ready for the rest of his dozen staff.
“My colleagues will arrive at the restaurant at 2am, and I’m responsible for making sure everything in the kitchen is ready for them,” he says. “At around 5am, I’ll make some buns or dim sum to have a quick breakfast. We’ll spend about five to 10 minutes to eat and then go back to work immediately.”
Chui will not take another break until 11am, when he will fill up on potted rice and some more dim sum before returning to his duties, which typically end at around 5pm, after the last customer has left and an hour of cleaning up is done.
Like father, like son
It’s a hard life, but one that he chose three decades ago, when the restaurant founded by his father, Chui Hoi, was in Kowloon. “In the beginning, I worked as my father’s apprentice in Lok Fu, learning how to assist him with smaller things and how to cook and slowly working my way up,” he says.“A few years later we moved to Sai Wan because the building we were in had to be demolished.”
So “Sun Hing”, which literally means “new and trendy” in Cantonese, moved to Western District on Hong Kong Island in the 1980s.The words “Food Specialist” were added to the restaurant’s Chinese name in the hope that they would increase its appeal to customers in its new home. But the move was not aimed at attracting the trendy set that is now often seen in Kennedy Town. In fact, the area was much quieter and the shops all catered to simple needs when the shop relocated here.
“When we first came to the area, we were located in Belcher's Street,” Chui says. “Our customers were mostly working class – people such as greengrocers, butchers and fishmongers. They often came here in need of some tea and food before they started their work.”
Although Chui is now in charge of the restaurant, his father is still very much involved with the operation. On the day of filming, the 84-year-old founder of the restaurant was seen walking from table to table to make sure all the customers had their teapots filled, occasionally chatting with those who seemed to be regulars.
“He still insists on working every day from 3am, which I find really impressive. My father loves to chat with customers and meet his friends every day. He usually works as the cashier, looks out for the employees and gets off work at around 11am – then comes back the next day.”
Growing with the city
The pictures posted on one of Sun Hing’s walls show the loyal clientele – which includes many local celebrities – the restaurant has garnered over the years. These diners have stuck by their favourite dim sum joint in good times and bad, enabling it to weather through the ups and downs of Hong Kong.
“Of course, we have had some low points in our finances, such as during the 2003 Sars [severe acute respiratory syndrome] outbreak and financial crises, when nobody wanted to go out or spend money,” he says.
Yet some loyalists continued to come to the restaurant during those unsettling times.“We made it through the hard times thanks to their support … and so we go on serving the community,” Chui says.
As urban gentrification has extended westwards from Central and Sheung Wan, Sun Hing has had to survive another threat – that of rising rents – by finding new, more affordable premises.Its current location, which the Chuis took over from another restaurant, forms the restaurant's third home in Western District.
However, the business has done more than simply survive. It has thrived and its name has become widely known for the old-style dim sum it serves, helped – at least in part – by rave online reviews and the opening of the nearby Kennedy Town MTR Station, which has brought a much larger passing trade.
“Our customers now include lots of tourists, such as mainland Chinese, Americans, Koreans and Japanese,” Chui says.“There are many new, fashionable dim sum restaurants in Sai Wan nowadays and, of course, customers will compare our food to theirs. But I am glad people say they find a sense of nostalgia when eating our traditional-style dim sum, and we always make sure we keep up the quality of our food.”
Many food bloggers single out the custard buns served at Sun Hing for special praise, because of their cottony yet firm skin and their hearty and smooth filling. Chui’s restaurant continues to serve a number of dishes that have grown increasingly hard to find across the city because they are deemed labour intensive, of low commercial value or regarded as unhealthy.
“People of my father’s generation associated dim sum with siu mai [dumplings] with pork liver or quail eggs, or glutinous rice buns – these were the must-haves at that time,” Chui says. But his father, he added, insisted on continuing to serve these traditional dishes when the restaurant opened in Sai Wan.“At that time, even I was doubtful if customers would really order them,” Chui says. “But they were unexpectedly popular, so we are still producing these nostalgic dim sum dishes.”
All the dim sum served at Sun Hing is made in-house and Chui prides himself on making no compromises over the ingredients, with everything freshly sourced each day. That insistence seems to have paid off.
However, despite the restaurant’s continuing success, there are concerns looming – in terms of succession. Chui has no children, and finding a protégé is not easy.
“Young people now are unwilling – and not as perseverant – about taking up this kind of job, which requires them to start work in the middle of the night,” Chui says. "All we can do is to try our best to continue in the industry and keep working.”
Yet if determination and good health are hereditary, then the loyal customers of Sun Hing should still be able to look forward to a few more decades of its tasty dim sum.
