Causeway Bay

Jenice and I stumbled into Causeway Bay’s Japanese food scene entirely by accident. We were looking for the Noon Day Gun, took a wrong turn down Matheson Street, and walked past six Japanese restaurants in a row — each one packed, each one with a queue, each one smelling extraordinary. We abandoned the gun, sat down at an izakaya counter, and spent the next two hours eating some of the best yakitori we have had outside of Tokyo. That is Causeway Bay in a nutshell: you come for one thing and discover something better.

This is Hong Kong Island’s shopping capital, where Times Square, SOGO, Hysan Place, and Fashion Walk create a density of retail that rivals any shopping district in Asia. But what makes Causeway Bay genuinely interesting beyond its malls is the food — particularly the Japanese restaurant scene that has grown from decades of Japanese business presence in the district. Mid-range visitors spend HKD 700-1,200 per day here, though Victoria Park (free), the HKD 3 tram, and Jardine’s Crescent street market keep budgets manageable.

Shopping — From Times Square to Lee Gardens

Times Square dominates the Causeway Bay skyline — a multi-storey mall with international brands on every floor, a sunken plaza that hosts free events, and escalators that carry you from street-level food courts to luxury fashion without ever stepping outside. SOGO department store across the road is the Japanese department store Hong Kong adopted decades ago, excellent for cosmetics, kitchenware, and that particular Japanese retail precision where every item is wrapped with origami-level care.

Hysan Place adds the contemporary layer — a curated selection of fashion, lifestyle, and design brands that feels less corporate than Times Square, with a good bookshop and a rooftop that sometimes hosts weekend markets. Fashion Walk along Kingston Street runs toward the mid-range, with Hong Kong streetwear labels and independent stores that are harder to find in the larger malls.

Lee Gardens Road, one block east, is where the money lives. The boutiques here — Hermès, Chanel, the full European luxury roster — cater to a clientele that considers Times Square entry-level. We window-shopped our way through in about fifteen minutes and emerged feeling underdressed. But the Japanese restaurants on the same street operate at every budget level, which is the real reason to walk this way.

Japanese Food — Hong Kong’s Best-Kept Secret

The streets around Matheson Street and the lanes south of Times Square hold what we consider one of Asia’s most underrated dining concentrations. Japanese restaurants here are not tourist approximations — they are operated by Japanese chefs for a clientele that includes a substantial Japanese resident population and Hong Kong locals who have spent enough time in Japan to know the difference.

We ate ramen at a tiny counter-only spot on Percival Street where the broth had been simmering for fourteen hours (HKD 88 for a bowl that would cost three times as much in a London ramen shop). We had sushi omakase at a restaurant on Lockhart Road where the chef sliced fish with a concentration that made conversation feel intrusive (HKD 380 for eight courses, worth every dollar). Jenice became obsessed with the Japanese bakeries here — specifically the melonpan at a shop near the corner of Yee Wo Street whose name is entirely in Japanese, and whose matcha croissants she still talks about months later.

For budget Japanese food, the izakayas along Matheson Street serve excellent small plates — grilled chicken skewers (HKD 15-25 each), edamame (HKD 30), and beer (HKD 35-50) — in an atmosphere that is genuinely Tokyo-esque.

The Noon Day Gun — Hong Kong’s Daily Ritual

The Noon Day Gun is one of Hong Kong’s most charmingly anachronistic traditions. A Hotchkiss three-pounder cannon has been fired at exactly noon every day since 1860 from a small garden near the Typhoon Shelter waterfront. The ceremony takes three minutes, is completely free, and draws a small crowd of tourists and office workers who pause their day for a tradition whose original purpose nobody can quite agree upon.

We timed our visit perfectly on our second trip and stood about five metres from the gun when it fired. The sound is genuinely startling — a proper cannon blast that echoes off the apartment towers behind and sends the waterfront pigeons into panicked flight. The artilleryman who fires it does so with a formality that suggests this is serious business, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Victoria Park — Where Hong Kong Breathes

Victoria Park occupies 19 hectares of the Causeway Bay waterfront and serves as Hong Kong’s largest urban park. On weekday mornings, groups practise tai chi on the eastern side in a scene that unfolds in slow motion while the city accelerates around them — old men moving through forms with a precision that took decades to develop, utterly untroubled by the tram noise or the construction cranes visible above the trees.

The swimming pool complex (HKD 19 entry) is an absurdly affordable luxury on a hot afternoon. Tennis courts, jogging paths, and enough open lawn to remember that flat, green, open space exists somewhere in Hong Kong. During Chinese New Year, the park transforms into the Flower Market — tens of thousands of people browsing orchids, plum blossoms, and kumquat trees in what is one of Hong Kong’s most beautiful and chaotic annual traditions. We were there for the 2025 flower market and it was overwhelming in the best possible way.

Jardine’s Crescent — The Market the Malls Cannot Kill

Jardine’s Crescent is a narrow pedestrian lane running behind the tower blocks, and it is the antidote to everything the malls represent. Fresh produce, casual clothing, bags, phone accessories, and street snacks at prices that belong to a different era. We bought dragon beard candy for HKD 15, watched a woman make fresh tofu at a speed that suggested she had been doing it since before the malls existed, and ate curry fish balls (HKD 12) from a cart that has apparently occupied the same spot for thirty years.

This is not a tourist market — it is a neighbourhood market where local residents buy vegetables, where the stall owners know their regulars, and where the energy is entirely Cantonese. Jardine’s Crescent is less photogenic than the Ladies Market in Mong Kok but more authentic.

Happy Valley Races — Wednesday Night Magic

Happy Valley Racecourse sits in a natural bowl in the hills immediately behind Causeway Bay, surrounded on all sides by high-rise apartments whose residents look directly down onto the track. Wednesday evening race meets from September to June are one of Hong Kong’s great social occasions — the public stand is free, the betting windows accept minimum HKD 10 wagers, and the atmosphere of several thousand people watching thoroughbreds under floodlights while towers of apartments glitter overhead is utterly unique.

We went on a November Wednesday with no knowledge of horse racing and had one of the best evenings of our entire Hong Kong trip. Jenice placed HKD 10 bets on horses based entirely on their names, won HKD 140 on one race, and spent the winnings on beer and noodles at the track food stalls. The crowd is a mix of serious punters studying the form guide with religious intensity and casual visitors treating it as a social event. Both approaches work perfectly.

The walk from Causeway Bay MTR to the racecourse takes ten minutes along Morrison Hill Road. Trams also stop at the racecourse. Arrive by 7pm for the first race — the atmosphere builds through the evening and peaks around the sixth or seventh race.

Where to Stay

Causeway Bay has excellent mid-range and upscale hotels with outstanding MTR access. The area near Victoria Park is particularly convenient — quieter than the Nathan Road corridor in Kowloon, walkable to both Central (west) and North Point (east), and surrounded by restaurants at every price point. Hotels here start around HKD 800 per night for clean mid-range options and go up to HKD 3,000-plus for harbour-view rooms at the premium properties.

Dim Sum in Causeway Bay

While Causeway Bay is better known for Japanese food, the dim sum options are solid. Several traditional Cantonese teahouses operate in the streets behind SOGO, serving har gow (shrimp dumplings, HKD 38-48), siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings, HKD 32-42), and cheung fun (rice noodle rolls, HKD 28-38) with the kind of push-cart service that is increasingly rare in modern Hong Kong. Weekend dim sum here is a local family ritual — arrive before 10am or expect a thirty-minute wait.

Getting Around

Walk between Times Square, SOGO, Victoria Park, and Happy Valley — all within fifteen minutes on foot. The tram runs the full length of Hong Kong Island’s north shore for HKD 3, making Causeway Bay an easy base for exploring the entire north coast. MTR Causeway Bay is one stop east of Wan Chai and two stops from Central. For longer hops, the MTR is faster; for atmosphere and a front-row seat to Hong Kong street life, the upper deck of the tram is unbeatable.

Causeway Bay has been our most-visited neighbourhood across all our Hong Kong trips. We keep coming back for the Japanese food, for the racecourse on Wednesday evenings, for Victoria Park at dawn when the tai chi masters are out, and for that particular density of experience that only Hong Kong delivers — where you can eat world-class sushi, watch a cannon fire, browse a flower market, and bet on horses all within a single square kilometre.