Restaurants Still Drawing Queues Through the Closure Wave: What Are Their Social Accounts Getting Right?

According to a round-up by Sing Tao Headline, at least 28 Cantonese restaurants closed in the first eight months of 2026. Over the same period, a reporter queued for about an hour to buy a new cake from a bakery in Tai Kok Tsui, and a long-standing shop in Sham Shui Po was reported to be drawing long queues despite the downturn, with one commenter online saying it was still packed after 6pm. If you run a restaurant or are planning to open one, what restaurant Instagram habits can you borrow from the shops people still flock to?

Closure news comes almost every month. By HK01's own count, more than 60 shops closed in the first half of the year. An earlier round-up by the same outlet called restaurants the hardest-hit sector, and its list included Lei Garden’s Mong Kok branch, open for 46 years, and 燒賣皇后, a restaurant open for 38 years. Sing Tao Headline also noted that Spaghetti House has gone from 26 branches at its peak to just 4 today.

We looked at four eateries the media have covered, to see what they did in store and on social media. None of the reports credits the queues to the shop’s social accounts. What follows is what the reports describe, and what we took from them that you can borrow.

Opening a restaurant in 2026: plenty of closures, but total receipts broadly flat

For all the closure news, the overall numbers aren’t as bad as you might think. Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department in August put total restaurant receipts for the second quarter of 2026 at about HK$27.2 billion, up 0.4% year on year. For the first half of the year, receipts rose 0.8% in value and fell 0.1% once price changes are taken out. The government described business as broadly stable.

Different kinds of eateries are heading in different directions. In the same quarter, receipts at Chinese restaurants rose 1.5% in value, while receipts at fast food shops fell 1.5% and at bars fell 3.8%.

Over a longer stretch, the pressure is clearer. HK01, citing Legislative Council data, reported that the number of Cantonese restaurants fell from 1,790 to 1,500 over eight years, and that restaurant receipts in the first quarter of 2026 were still 7.2% lower than in the same quarter of 2018.

Still, closures don’t necessarily mean the industry is shrinking. 麥萃才, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Business, told Sing Tao Headline that the total number of restaurants in Hong Kong hasn’t fallen noticeably. He sees this round of closures as more of a shake-out and a shift in business models, with small eateries and tea drink shops filling the gaps. Some shops leave, and others take their place. For you, that means the closure wave hasn’t left you with fewer rivals, and customers won’t walk into your shop just because the one next door has closed. The reports on the four shops below record what each of them did.

Four shops people still flock to: what the reports say

Oi Man Sang, Sham Shui Po: a 70-year-old shop opens a dessert spin-off

According to a Sing Tao Headline report, Oi Man Sang (愛文生), a long-standing name in Sham Shui Po, still draws crowds queuing for a table despite the downturn, and one commenter online said it was still packed after 6pm. The shop was founded in 1956 by 陳愛, who named it after herself and her two sons. In its early days, it was where dock workers and fishermen stopped for a rest. The report says there are fewer than 20 licensed dai pai dongs (open-air food stalls) in Hong Kong, and this is one of them.

The signature dishes in the report are all specific: stir-fries full of wok hei, black pepper beef cubes with potatoes, sizzling black pepper salted pork knuckle, and clams fried with black beans and chillies. As it marks its 70th anniversary, the shop announced on social media that it was launching a dessert brand, OI SWEET BY OI MAN SANG, with a new shop on Lai Chi Kok Road. The dessert brand also runs its own separate Instagram account.

A limited-run lava cake at a long-standing Tai Kok Tsui bakery

At a bakery on Anchor Street in Tai Kok Tsui that has been running for more than 30 years, second-generation owner Mr Ng launched a giant lava-filled old-style sponge cake, in two flavours, 72% dark chocolate and black sesame, at HK$60–70 each. According to Sing Tao Headline, each batch has only 10 cakes, coming out of the oven roughly every two hours at no fixed time, and there is only one batch of black sesame a day. The reporter arrived at 1:30pm, was third in the queue, and waited about an hour to get a black sesame cake.

Mr Ng explained that he created the cake because business was bad, and since its launch, daily takings have gone up by more than HK$2,000. He denies using scarcity marketing, saying the limited numbers come down to a shortage of staff and equipment, and he is now hiring bakers. The report notes that the cake has gone viral on social media over the past two months, and tourists make special trips to buy it. Reactions online are divided, though. Some admire the old shop for adapting, while others say they have failed to get one several times, or that it didn’t taste as good as they expected. The report doesn’t say whether the shop runs its own social accounts.

A three-sentence Threads post from the owner of 新堡餐廳 in Wan Chai

新堡餐廳, a restaurant in Wan Chai, has been open for more than 40 years. Its owner, Selina, posted just three sentences on Threads. She opened with the restaurant’s address, 113 Hennessy Road, then invited people to come and eat. Commenters described the attached photo as unedited, with no food in it. According to a Sing Tao Headline report, the post went viral and drew more than 7,000 likes.

The details in the report are all down to earth: takeaway lunch sets from HK$56, including soup and a drink, with no extra charge for cold drinks. Diners even described its baked pork chop rice as one of the best on Hong Kong Island. According to a later Sing Tao Headline report, the post brought in plenty of new and returning customers, but some diners complained about being rushed to pay the bill after less than twenty minutes, and the restaurant later apologised.

Flat Iron Steak’s Causeway Bay pop-up, with the founder telling the story himself

The Flat Iron Steak pop-up at Lee Garden Three closed on 14 March 2026. Founder Johnny Glover shared the behind-the-scenes story of the pop-up on Facebook. According to Sing Tao Headline, he said the shop was full on most days, and on offer days its tables turned over as many as 3 times.

Three restaurant Instagram habits to borrow

These are the common threads we saw across these reports. None of the three needs extra budget, and your account can start on them tomorrow. Whether they will bring queues, the reports don’t say.

1. Make what you sell easy to say in one line

Of the four shops, three had specific dishes named in their reports: Oi Man Sang’s stir-fries, 新堡餐廳’s baked pork chop rice and the Tai Kok Tsui lava cake. The last two reports also gave the price of the set or the cake. When customers tell a friend about it, one line is enough.

On your account, you can save your three pinned posts for three signature dishes, each one naming the dish, the price and the district. For example, open with “Yuen Long | Hand-pounded beef ball ho fun HK$48 | Served all day”, and customers know what you sell and where before they even look at the photo. A new customer who opens your page can tell within seconds whether you’re worth a special trip. If your pinned post is just a photo of a dish, customers who want the price and address have to look them up separately, and anyone who was thinking of coming has one more reason to give up.

2. Let people hear who is talking

Selina’s three-sentence post said she runs a Western-style restaurant at 113 Hennessy Road, and invited everyone to come. Johnny Glover wrote about the story behind his pop-up, and Mr Ng explained to a reporter why the cakes are limited. All three spoke as themselves.

If your account has only ever posted dish photos and offers, try adding one short post a week written by the owner or head chef. It could be about why you switched to a different rice today, which dish has a new recipe, or which regular has been coming for twenty years. A short post could read: “From today, our char siu uses pork collar, for a more even mix of fat and lean. If you’d like to try it, come before 12 noon.”

When customers have questions, you can answer them in the same voice. If you also sell limited items, put the rough baking times and the number per batch on your account, so customers know what to expect before they leave home, and fewer of them end up making a wasted trip. When 新堡餐廳 received a complaint from a diner, the owner was quick to respond and apologise, which is the same approach.

3. Turn your shop’s history into content

Oi Man Sang’s story comes with real details: in 1956, 陳愛 opened the shop under a name made from her own name and her two sons’, and its early customers were dock workers and fishermen. Details like these cost nothing to produce, and other shops can’t easily copy them.

When it launched its dessert brand for its 70th anniversary, it opened a separate Instagram account. The report doesn’t say what goes on each one, but the idea is worth borrowing. If you launch a spin-off, your original account can carry on with your signature dishes and everyday life in the shop, while the spin-off’s new items and opening hours go on a separate account. That way, followers on each side won’t see posts that have nothing to do with them.

Even if your shop has only been open for three years, you have stories to tell: why you chose this district, who your first regular was, how many attempts it took to settle on your signature dish. Turn them into a series, one post a month. For example, at the end of each month, pair an old photo with a short piece about something that happened when you first opened. After a year, you’ll have twelve posts no other shop can copy.

What a social account can’t do

A social account can’t solve every problem. Hong Kong Economic Journal’s round-up of second-quarter restaurant closures lists 23 entries. By our count, the reason mentioned most often is a lease coming to an end. Others include a tough market, redevelopment moving residents out, falling foot traffic, and owners’ age and health. We also wrote earlier about two all-you-can-eat restaurants that promoted themselves with comedy short videos. The videos brought business back up for a while, but both restaurants still closed.

What an account can do is let people who want to come know what you sell, where you are and why you’re worth a special trip, and then help those who’ve been remember you. Rent and costs still have to be dealt with in the business itself. Every brand is facing them.

Want a team to run your account with you?

None of these three things is hard. The hard part is keeping them going, week after week. Good brands, worth sharing. From brand positioning, voice and visuals to monthly content and results, Try.Eat! Social plans and runs the whole social strategy for F&B, lifestyle and beauty brands. You approve every post first. To start, take a look at the brands we’ve worked with.

If you’d rather invite influencers to try your food in person and share it, take a look at Try.Eat!’s tasting promotion plans for restaurants.

FAQ

With so many closures, is now still a good time to open a restaurant?

It depends on your location, your costs and your signature dish. Official figures show restaurant receipts were broadly flat in the first half of 2026, and one academic says the total number of restaurants hasn’t fallen noticeably. Before you open, work out which dish customers will make a special trip for.

Can a restaurant’s social media account make customers queue?

Not on its own. None of the reports above says the shop’s account made customers queue. The closest is 新堡餐廳: Sing Tao Headline later reported that the owner’s post brought in plenty of new and returning customers. An account can help people who want to come get to know you faster, but the food, the price and the location matter just as much.

Should the owner write the restaurant’s Instagram posts themselves?

Not necessarily. A member of staff or a partner can shape the words, as long as the content comes from the owner’s own thinking and readers can hear who is talking. The three-sentence post from the owner of 新堡餐廳 is a simple example.

Want your account to tell your shop’s story? Talk to us.

Cover photo: Michael Lee / Unsplash