The story of Snow Garden, legendary Hong Kong restaurant loved by the rich and famous
Frequented by people such as Run Run Shaw, Jet Li’s wife Nina Li Chi and Macau’s Stanley Ho, Snow Garden continues to delight Hongkongers
For 60 years, Hong Kong restaurant Snow Garden has been synonymous with the refined, understated elegance of Shanghai-Huaiyang cuisine.
Once a North Point institution, Snow Garden is now housed in the South Pacific Hotel in Wan Chai, continuing its legacy to preserve the taste of traditional Shanghainese cooking – enjoyed by tycoons and movie stars of yesteryear – that is slowly disappearing from the city.
“Yu Jiuxi, my great uncle by marriage, opened the first Snow Garden [in Jordan, Kowloon] back in 1966,” says Chiang Wai-yuen, the third-generation operator of the restaurant.
“He was a legendary Shanghainese chef who ran the kitchens of the Kiangsu Chekiang and Shanghai Residents Association in Hong Kong. That was the era of the great Shanghainese industrialists, so that level of clientele was a big deal.”
“My father and his partners opened the North Point Snow Garden, which became one of the most famous,” Chiang recalls. “Our current head chef in Wan Chai is actually my father’s disciple, making him a third-generation chef of the original line.”
