Classic Hong Kong restaurants: Star Café, Tsim Sha Tsui

Lam Wai-kin's father used to be a cobbler next door to the Star Cafe, and they bought the business in 1999. "It was opened in 1966 by a group of Cantonese movie stars," Lam says. "Bing sutts used to be high-end places to go. The cafe has changed hands a few times since then, and we took over when the previous owner was getting too old.

"The most classic items on the menu are red bean ice, ham and cheese sandwiches and noodles in soup. I added noodles in tomato soup, and cheese noodles, and they've become the new classics.

"That came about because some customers saw that we had cheese in sandwiches, and wanted to add it to their noodles. Then others started to ask for it, too," says Lam.

Lam thinks that nostalgia is one of the things that keeps people coming back to the cafe, a windowless, basement eatery in a run-down shopping mall.

"We've put in some newer furniture, added an air con and patched things up here and there, but the layout of the cafe has not changed.

"We haven't been able to change it, actually. We're only allowed to stay because this was approved way back then by the government. These days, you'd never be able to open a new restaurant in a basement like this with no natural ventilation."