Hong Kong Chef in Bellaire.
Matt Levin
Lula De La Isla moved toward the counter to pick up her takeout order from Hong Kong Chef. She remembered going here for the first time in 1965. Now, on her final visit, she leaned toward the cashier: “Y’all going to be missed,” she told him.
The Cantonese restaurant that had been feeding customers in Bellaire for more than a half-century served its faithful patrons for the last time on Thursday. The restaurant and several other stores in the plaza will be taken over by another longstanding business in the area: The H-E-B next door.
You can read more about the massive new H-E-B and its impact on the neighborhood in Mike D. Smith's report on HoustonChronicle.com.
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On Thursday, Hong Kong Chef served faithful patrons for the final time.
There was no formal announcement of Hong Kong Chef closing. Instead, longtime Bellaire residents learned by word of mouth.
Vickie McTeague-Abbott, 46, learned from a message on Facebook. She arrived at a place where she had been eating since she was a toddler for one more order of egg foo yung. Terri Bamberger overheard another customer on Tuesday talking about the restaurant closing down, so she returned with her husband two days later to enjoy a last-chance meal.
Bamberger said the city has fancier Chinese options. But with affordable prices and harder-to-find Cantonese options like shrimp with lobster sauce, Hong Kong Chef was ideal for a relaxing meal. “This is more like comfort Chinese food,” she said.
The restaurant’s unique shape also added to its charm. De La Isla mused about how the restaurant barely changed over the decades. The kitchen was the first thing diners saw when they walked in. The heat from cooking could make the lobby feel as muggy as the outdoors. The dining room resided behind the kitchen, and clients needed to maneuver through a storage room to reach the bathroom.
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Loyal customers shared memories of the hospitable former owners, Mimi and Abe Sia, who turned over the restaurant to new management several years ago. They said goodbye to Lula Grang, the last holdover from the previous waitress, whose gruff demeanor became endearing to diners who grew up with her.
On Hong Kong Chef’s final night, Grang served as the institutional memory. Nobody had an exact date for when the restaurant opened, but she remembered being told 1954. After 17 years as patrons' favorite surly waitress, Grang said she planned to take a nice, long break. There were no plans to reopen the restaurant at a new location.
Kenneth Soledad said he ran into a half-dozen people in his Bellaire neighborhood lamenting the end of Hong Kong Chef. When he was growing up, the restaurant was a favorite spot for his family. At 8 p.m. Thursday, he arrived to make a final order.
Wonton soup. Egg rolls. Steamed fried rice. He couldn’t decide.
“I picked like six dishes,” Soledad said. “I kind of splurged today because it’s the last day. And I’m just going to miss it.”
Nostalgia! See the gallery for a look at departed Houston businesses that we miss.
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