A success story made in Hong Kong: Cafe de Coral – fast food chain that’s been feeding the working class since 1969

The first Cafe de Coral was opened in Causeway Bay in 1969 by Victor Lo Tang-seong, who wanted to introduce burgers to the city. He developed the concept of selling Chinese fast food in a restaurant setting, and the rest is history

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Peter Lo (left), CEO of Café de Coral, and managing director Daren Lau. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 9:00pm, 2 Aug 2017Updated: 10:18am, 4 Aug 2017

Although Chinese fast food chain Cafe de Coral is a household name in Hong Kong, it’s one that is somewhat lost in translation. The English name is loosely derived from the sound of its Cantonese name, dai ga lok, which means “All Happy Together”. This expresses the mission of its founder, Victor Lo Tang-seong, to provide affordable meals to working-class wage earners.

Lo was already 54 years old when the entrepreneurial bug bit, and he teamed up with his nephew, Lo Kai-muk. Victor had previously served as an aircraft mechanic in the Sino-Japanese war, and worked for 17 years at his brother Lo Kwee-seong’s company, Vitasoy. Hong Kong household names, it seems, run in the family.

Also known as “Uncle Eight”, because he was the family’s eighth child, Victor died last year at the age of 101, after building one of the city’s largest casual dining empires, with the Cafe de Coral brand and 13 other food chains, including The Spaghetti House, Oliver’s Super Sandwiches and Shanghai Lao Lao.

After his first venture – a wig factory – failed, Victor opened the first Cafe de Coral on Sugar Street, Causeway Bay, in 1969. The small outlet was basically Hong Kong’s first burger joint. Victor had enjoyed eating burgers while doing military training in the United States. He sold them for 35 Hong Kong cents each when he introduced them to the city – six years before McDonald’s opened its first Hong Kong restaurant in 1975.

His first Cafe de Coral was to be short-lived; he was forced to move out when the landlord chose to demolish the building. In 1972, however, he found success with his next venture, when he opened a two-storey restaurant on Ferry Street, across the harbour in Jordan.