Hong Kong Insider's Guide: Favorite Local Spots by World Cup Tasters Champion Lok Chan from Craft Coffee Roaster ðŸ‡ðŸ‡°
In this city guide to Hong Kong, 2017 World Cup Tasters champ Lok Chan shares his favorite places to eat, beaches to lounge at, and neighborhoods to explore. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lok knows the area and shares his insider knowledge of Hong Kong's diverse culinary scene, hidden gems, and thriving coffee culture.
Craft Coffee Roaster runs 2 locations in Hong Kong. Photos courtesy of Craft Coffee Roaster
Filter: What do you like to do for fun around Hong Kong?
Hong Kong is really packed and such a small city, but you can find a lot of different other countries’ authentic cuisine right here. So every day beside work we love to exploring different cafes, bakery, and restaurant. Here’re the bakery and local restaurants I would recommend.
And I also love to bring my camera out to walk around the city to taking pictures, you could find a lot of interesting but quite different building, scenes, and vibes in different places in Hong Kong—like the most busiest place, Central & Soho; the old district in Sham Shui Po; or fishing village in Tai O.
Filter: If a good friend came to visit, where would you be sure to take them?
Sai Kung, a seaside town where I used to live. It’s famous for live seafood, the floating seafood market, boat ride, and [you can] visit one of the most beautiful beaches (Trio Beach) in Hong Kong. The town itself is full of lovely restaurants, and specialty coffee shops are thriving—you can find awesome coffee there like Hush Hush Coffee. You could also grab a bottle of craft beer in Bottle Shop then sit and chilling near the pier area.
If you are into seafood, you can buy the seafood from the floating market, then bring it to the nearby restaurant and they can help you to cook it the way you want.
Filter: What do you like to do to escape the city?
We have lots of beaches around Hong Kong, most of them are easy to access, and I really enjoy having a good time with my family chilling on the beach or just the walk along the seaside. The Trio Beach in Sai Kung is the one I would highly recommended.
Filter: What touristy things around Hong Kong are worth the hype?
The night view of the Victoria Harbour still impresses me every time we are visiting the side of the harbour—take a ferry or see it from the The Peak. Still one of the best night views [I’ve seen] even after I traveled to lots of different countries.
And of course the dim sum and Canton barbecue which are recommended by every guide book—definitely worth a try.
Filter: Where are your favorite hidden gems there?
One of my favourite places is the aquarium street and flower market in Mong Kok area. So basically they are the markets that sell aquarium and flowers, but I do enjoy window shopping in there looking at those beautiful aquarium tanka, fishes, reptiles from all around the world, or some exotic flowers or planting.
Filter: What's another coffee shop around there that you really admire, and what about them stands out to you?
Accro Coffee in Yuen Long, the home of World Siphonist Champion and also winner of a few national coffee championships. Highly recommended if you want to try those competition coffee brewed by the award-winning barista.
Also the Number 9 Coffee that I visit quite often for the excellent selection from top producers, like chatting with the head barista and also the shop owner Zero, and having his award-winning Aeropress coffee.
Filter: How did you end up in the Hong Kong coffee scene?
Hong Kong is where I was born and grew up. As a Hongkongese, I guess I was bounded with the mixed East and West culture of this place. The city is very energetic, and peoples are open minded to try new things which I think is the reason [for] making the specialty coffee industry thriving.
Filter: Can you share about your role starting Craft Coffee Roaster?
Craft Coffee Roaster was started in 2013, after I quit my previous job as a print consultant. After a year of practice roasting in my studio, me and my ex-business partner decided to start a cafe to showcase my roast to people. We choose a less busy and competitive place call Tai Kok Tsui in Kowloon area that we [could] grow steady and at the same time [could] gradually improve our quality. And luckily, with a few years of hard work, and experience of participating in the Cup Taster Championship for a few years, we won the the competition in Budapest in 2017. One of the prizes is an origin trip to Brazil and that started our journey of coffee sourcing directly from different excellent producers.
Filter: If you could move to any place in the world just for the coffee scene, where would you move?
Probably Ecuador for being a coffee producer? Participating in the coffee farming and harvesting would be one of my dreams…the people, foods, and beautiful nature stunned me when I visited Finca Soledad and Hacienda La Papaya in 2023.
Filter: Anything you’d like to add?
Checking out the Sheun Wan and Sai Yang Pun area if you are want a coffee day-tour, there are lots of great cafes there which serve excellent pastry and coffee.
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Craft Coffee Roaster operates 2 cafes in Hong Kong.
Food & Beverage
Neighborhoods
Markets
Outdoors