Yung Kee - History

History

In 1938, Kam Shui-fai (甘穗煇) began selling siu mei at a dai pai dong on Kwong Yuen West Street, near the old Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier. After some success, he converted it into a restaurant in 1942, leasing the premises at 32 Wing Lok Street in Sheung Wan for HK$4,000. During the Second World War, the building was destroyed in a Japanese air raid. In 1944, the restaurant was moved to 32 Pottinger Street. It moved into its current premises on Wellington Street in 1964, and after four more adjacent buildings were acquired, the lot was rebuilt in 1978 to become today's Yung Kee Building.

The sixth floor of the restaurant building is occupied by the Kee Club, named after Yung Kee and described by founder Maria Rhomberg as "a place for people tired of discos but still too young for formal restaurants and stuffy establishment clubs"; she met Kam in Shanghai to present the concept to him, and opened the club in 2001. During the SARS outbreak that year and again during the avian flu scare, Yung Kee was forced to temporarily stop serving roast goose and other poultry.