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Food and Drinks
Lifestyle100 Top Tables

Sai Kung: a launch pad for some of Hong Kong’s biggest F&B names

A number of family restaurants took off in this seaside neighbourhood before becoming household names with venues across the city

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Little Cove is one of many restaurants with roots in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Photo: Facebook
Faye Bradley
Little Cove, Honeymoon Dessert, Paisano’s and Jaspas may sound like a roll call of some of Hong Kong’s most recognisable F&B names – brands now scattered across Central, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui – but what if we told you that they all started in Sai Kung, the “sleepy” seaside village better known for seafood feasts, boat parties and Sunday hikes than restaurant empires?

For more than three decades, this coastal enclave has quietly functioned as one of Hong Kong’s most reliable culinary launch pads – a place where small, often family-run businesses test their footing before expanding citywide.

Cuít was founded by sisters Tiffany and Stephanie Tse. Photo: Handout
Cuít was founded by sisters Tiffany and Stephanie Tse. Photo: Handout
Cuít is one of the latest examples. Before the sourdough bakery opened Cuít Épicerie in Central, sisters Tiffany and Stephanie Tse chose to begin in Sai Kung. The decision was personal. “It wasn’t only about the food,” Stephanie says, describing the dining table she grew up around in the neighbourhood. “It was the daily ritual it created – a space to gather, to talk, to slow down.”
Cuít, a sourdough bread specialist, started in Sai Kung. Photo: Handout
Cuít, a sourdough bread specialist, started in Sai Kung. Photo: Handout

Opening in Sai Kung allowed them to grow deliberately. “Everything about Cuít makes sense here – the slower rhythm, the produce-led way we cook, the feeling of the room, even the kinds of regulars who come back,” Tiffany adds. In a district where word of mouth travels fast and regulars return every weekend, that trust becomes the foundation for expansion.

The pattern stretches back decades. Local Sai Kung company Castelo Concepts, founded by the late Wayne Parfitt in 1992, began with Pepperoni’s in Sai Kung and went on to open Jaspas – also in Sai Kung – St Barts and over 90 more venues across Hong Kong and Vietnam. Parfitt, according to his obituary, “would have a go at anything” – from launching Jaspas Beach Club and a fleet of Jaspas Junks to buying a cattle farm in Australia to supply his kitchens.

Paisano’s also had its roots in Sai Kung. Photo: Paisano’s Sai Kung/Facebook
Paisano’s also had its roots in Sai Kung. Photo: Paisano’s Sai Kung/Facebook

Following that model, Honeymoon Dessert opened here in 1995, long before its mango pomelo sago became a citywide staple. Paisano’s came next, in 2009, when Al Morales launched his New York-style pizzeria known for its gigantic 24-inch slices.

Little Cove – a popular Australian-inspired brunch spot – launched in Sai Kung’s Old Town in 2015, and moved to its now-iconic larger waterfront space in 2018, later expanding into Pacific Place and Kennedy Town.

In 2017, then-21-year-old Sai Kung native Nikolai Smirnoff opened Momentai, later rebranding it as Big Pink Burgers in a new location sandwiched between seafood restaurants. “I felt like I knew Sai Kung intimately, having gone to school, gotten my first job and opened a restaurant for someone in the span of one kilometre; it just made sense to me,” he says. He took his Americana-inspired concept, Graceland, to Mong Kok, bringing his Southern fare beyond the village.

Live Zero, Hong Kong’s first zero-waste store, was founded by Tamsin Thornburrow, who also grew up in Sai Kung. Though it began in Sai Ying Pun, she later opened a (now closed) branch in Sai Kung. “Sai Kung’s strong community spirit and connection to nature made it a natural starting point,” she says. “It gave us an authentic, supportive foundation and allowed us to grow organically before expanding.”

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