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The final days of the Metropol, once Hong Kong’s busiest dim sum hall

The 1,200-seat restaurant was the epitome of Hong Kong’s boom years of the 1980s and 90s. Last month it closed

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Dim sum cart auntie Wong Yiu-fong has worked at the restaurant for more than two decades. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Gavin Yeung
On a recent September lunchtime visit, the Metropol Restaurant was heaving with hordes of hungry office workers, jostling for space among newspaper-toting elderly diners. It seemed as if every high-rise inhabitant in Admiralty had descended upon the 35-year-old restaurant to say farewell, with September 27 marking its last day of business, after serving dim sum to untold millions over the decades.
The Metropol’s closure leaves a gaping hole; it was one of only a handful of restaurants still keeping the tradition of dim sum carts alive, manned by a crew of “aunties” in starched mandarin tops and aprons, many of whom had worked at the restaurant for decades. Making the rounds of the expansive main floor were carts piled high with teetering stacks of steaming bamboo baskets and servers shouting out the names of the freshly made fare.
Server Wong Heung prepares a dim sum cart. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Server Wong Heung prepares a dim sum cart. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

In private, they lamented that theirs is a dying profession, with today’s youth shunning the social aspect of the job and the long hours spent on their feet.

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The sheer scale of the 1,200-capacity restaurant is also a relic of Hong Kong’s boom years of the 1980s and 90s, when cognac-soaked wedding banquets and business functions were still held predominantly in large restaurants rather than hotels, and Shenzhen, which today poses a serious threat to Hong Kong’s food and drink industry, was still a backwater.

Chan Cheuk-yiu (centre) has worked at the Metropol for 34 years. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Chan Cheuk-yiu (centre) has worked at the Metropol for 34 years. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

“I’ve worked here in the Metropol for 34 years now. It’s really hard for me to say goodbye to this place,” says dim sum cook Chan Cheuk-yiu, his voice cracking with emotion. It’s a common refrain among the staff and regulars, many of whom have long-standing bonds and refer to each other as “sister” and “brother”.

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In the days before the restaurant closed its doors for good, photographer Jocelyn Tam set out to capture the last rites of an institution that had woven itself into the city’s fabric, one that will survive in the memories of those who worked and dined here for a good while yet.

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