Mouthing Off | How classic Hong Kong dim sum restaurant Metropol is an authentic snapshot of the city


Several friends and I attended yet another living memorial last week. Weโ€™ve been to quite a few of these farewells lately. This time, it was one last hurrah at the Metropol Restaurant in Hong Kongโ€™s Admiralty district.

Sorry if I make it sound sullen and morbid, but thatโ€™s how itโ€™s been for numerous hospitality establishments. Metropol is just one of the latest to announce their sorry fate. After 35 years, they will shuffle off their mortal coil in September to make way for an education facility.

Lately, weโ€™ve bid a fond adieu to many other food businesses. Some casualties came suddenly, like the King Parrot Group (King Ludwig Beerhall, Ocean Rock Seafood & Tapas), the Ocean Empire congee shops and the Taipan Bakery chain. Others like Meraki Hospitality (Uma Nota, Bedu) and even the delivery platform Deliveroo foretold their closing before turning belly up.

I wouldnโ€™t say Metropol was a regular haunt but it is the most classic of Cantonese restaurants in Admiralty. It offers quality dim sum and banqueting, in a modest yet comfortable setting, and is far more reasonably priced than the districtโ€™s posher outlets.

Customers eat lunch at Metropol on July 8, 2025. Photo: Jelly Tse
Customers eat lunch at Metropol on July 8, 2025. Photo: Jelly Tse

For weekend dim sum, we could rely on it for decent fare and a short wait since the venue is so massive โ€“ taking up the entire fourth floor of the United Centre.

Its other main attraction is that they still use trolleys to carry the bamboo baskets around, although that practice has been minimised by diners lining up at the central cooking stations and ordering directly from the aunties there.

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