Best places to eat in Hong Kong’s Kowloon City district – a Mecca for Thai and Chiu Chow food
- The next stop on our food tour of Hong Kong neighbourhoods takes us to Kowloon City, once home to the city’s international airport
- The district is now known for its abundance of Thai restaurants, but there still is a strong presence of Chiu Chow restaurants
For Chris Leung Sai-kwan, Kowloon City is the go-to place to satisfy his hunger pangs. Having grown up within walking distance of the neighbourhood, the 34-year-old knows many places to eat that are a stone’s throw from the site where Hong Kong’s old airport once stood.
He remembers talking on the phone with friends and having to constantly pause the conversation because of the noise caused by the planes coming in to land or taking off from Kai Tak airport.
Kowloon City was a bustling neighbourhood when Kai Tak was in operation between 1925 and 1998. Unlike most of Hong Kong, the neighbourhood didn’t boast towering apartment blocks, as a result of height restrictions imposed because of the airport.
But in the 20 years since Hong Kong moved its airport to Lantau Island, and restrictions were eased on property developments, the neighbourhood’s skyline has been transformed with new, taller buildings.
There are still streets, however, that have barely changed in that time, partly because the area is only accessible by bus or car, but that could change when the Kai Tak MTR station opens in the next few years.