Originally opening in 1895 in Guangzhou, Gigi Ng is the fourth-generation owner of Ser Wong Fun, Hong Kong’s second-oldest restaurant.
There is a fragrance inhabiting the air at Ser Wong Fun that penetrates your nose and awakens the senses, one so rich in herbal tones and a flowery accent that it cannot be manufactured, but matured over time.
Few restaurants in Hong Kong date back two centuries ago. Ser Wong Fun found its footing in 1895 in Guangdong, originally opened by current owner Gigi Ng’s great-grandparents. The southern Chinese restaurant is named 蛇王芬 (se4 wong4 fan1) in Chinese, translating to ‘The King of Snakes, Ng Gwai Fun.’
Snake soup is Ser Wong Fun’s speciality, a 2,000-year-old Chinese delicacy considered a high status dish due to its rich broth, expensive ingredients, and laborious preparation. The storied restaurant drew attention to the dish in Hong Kong in the mid-1900s, having survived decades of tumult and success.
In 1940, the second-generation of owners, Gigi’s grandfather brought the business to Hong Kong during the city’s Japanese military occupation. 49 years later, her father took over the business and relocated to their current location on Cochrane Street.
Now entering its fourth generation of owners, Gigi now runs Hong Kong’s second-oldest-surviving restaurants, following Tai Ping Koon’s opening in 1860. Yet, it was never her plan to run the snake-speciality restaurant.
“I never ever wanted to take over at the restaurant,” Gigi explained over a cup of freshly brewed tea and her lunch of roasted duck and rice. “I just wanted to be a happy girl.” Studying industrial engineering at the University of Toronto, Gigi’s career trajectory was a role at an engineering consulting firm in Canada. An MBA in Hong Kong followed, but she had no plans to join her family in the restaurant business.
“I am scared of snakes, my mother is very afraid, but my dad is not so,” she admits. As her father became sick and unable to station at the restaurant to manage daily operations, Gigi took over in 2000 to continue the slithery legacy. She knew how important Ser Wong Fun was to Hong Kong in its golden economic boom.
“From the 1970s onward and ‘80s for us, Hong Kong was becoming the place to do business. People and visitors wanted food and there weren’t many top restaurants catering to such taste.” The traditional Cantonese menu and their famed snake soup, promising boosts of energy, virility, and immunity, became prominent in the dining scene.
The menu at Ser Wong Fun has largely remained unchanged from its founding in the late 19th century. Their assorted snake banquet is the star of the show, joining together snake slices, abalone slices, chicken slices, shredded ginger, mushroom, agaric, and fish maw slices in a redolent, herbal, and full-bodied soup for the price of HKD140.
‘Fine courses’ on the menu reflect a mid-to-late 20th century catalogue of Chinese cooking. Fried duck liver and lean pork sausage, a Ser Wong Fun speciality, pan fried boneless duck in lemon sauce, baked squids with spiced salt, and conpoy with eggs all make up the lore of Hong Kong’s age-old restaurant scene.
Every neighbourhood in Hong Kong typically hosts at least one snake soup restaurant, making snake soup a popular dish to enjoy in Hong Kong. It is decidedly not a mainstream Cantonese food item, yet enjoys a small popularity for its nostalgic and medicinical factor.
“At Ser Wong Fun, we educate people on snake soup. People have the wrong idea that the soup can only be enjoyed during autumn and wintertime, because it gives your body energy and makes it hot. That is wrong.”
“Snakes act as a natural antioxidant, it provokes blood circulation, high in protein, and great for the ecosystem.” Compared to eating chicken, fish, or duck, Gigi claims snakes are a sustainable option for protein in your diet. “People in Guangzhou have eaten snake for hundreds of years, using their blood to imbue in food and wine and consume.”
To create the snake soup at Ser Wong Fun, the chefs use ten kinds of snake, sourced from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Asian markets. The snakes are gutted, meat stewed to a liquid form to boost the stock of mushroom, pork belly, and abalone, and skin sliced thin. The chewy texture of the boiled snake skin is what harnesses the protein and vitamin nutritional property, Gigi says.
Naturally, to attract a younger throng of diners Ser Wong Fun, a restaurant dressed in its traditional oaky 1980 interior complete with stained glass and original furniture, education is required to dispel misconceptions of eating snake.
The story of snake soup and Ser Wong Fun continues into the new generation with Gigi’s opening of Four Seasons Fun Fong (四季芬芳) in Sha Tin in March 2020 – such opportune timing for the business.
As generations of the Ng family have led Ser Wong Fun through two periods of civil unrest, two bouts of external colonisation, two World Wars, and two pandemics, it was COVID-19, Gigi explains, that has hurt the business the most.
Four Seasons Fun Fong acts as a second home for Ser Wong Fun in the residential-heavy Sha Tin, serving a new menu of Chinese soup noodles, dim sum, cold dishes, and lots of snake and traditional delicacies. Iced sweet and sour pork, the famous duck liver sausage, and a twist of Beijing duck feature on the menu. Snake puffs, salad, curry buns, jelly cakes show that the protein-rich animal is deserving of a modern diet. “It provides a more modern vibe than Ser Wong Fun,” Gigi says.
In November 2023, Gigi saw Ser Wong Fun reaching the mainstream yet again similar to its 1970s heyday. The restaurant partnered up with Pizza Hut in Hong Kong to launch a limited-edition snake pizza, completed with shredded snake meat and skin, mushrooms, and locally dried ham.
News of the pizza reached newspapers and TV channels in New Zealand, India, US, UK, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia. “Pizza Hut says it was their most successful collaboration ever, selling 30,000 snake pizzas.”
Now, Ser Wong Fun has reimagined itself as a modern icon after observing years of legacy as a historic restaurant. Art Basel held a social event at the restaurant for collectors and art exhibitors in 2024 numbering 450 people; more than 1,200 canapes of mini chicken and duck sausage rice dishes were served.
“We want to revolutionise the snake soup and Ser Wong Fun,” Gigi proclaims. “My great-grandfather and great-grandmother were Chinese doctors and would use Chinese ingredients to help remedy illness and rejuvenate their patients. Just like them, Ser Wong Fun is a place to rejuvenate yourself, to balance your body.”
Gigi and her husband are yet to have children, where an issue of who will take over as a fifth-generation owner once Gigi retires from the restaurant comes up in conversation. “Why would I have to stop my working life?” she states when asked about her future plans. “[Running Ser Wong Fun] is not all about money. This restaurant is so important for everyone.”
The future of Ser Wong Fun, she states, is ever-evolving: to continue to diversify the brand beyond its identity as a restaurant. She is seeking to produce a product line of historic products relating to the 129-year-old restaurant, gifts for tourists to purchase, tours of the restaurant, different food items, and a private kitchen extension to serve Ser Wong Fun at home.
“We place ourselves as a centuries-old restaurant with centuries-old expertise. We do not and cannot compete with everyday food in Hong Kong.” Arriving at their 130th birthday next year, Ser Wong Fun is predicted to thrive as a living chronicle of more than two-thirds of Hong Kong’s modern history.
Visit Ser Wong Fun today and explore what makes the legacy restaurant a hit with their authentic snake soup and Cantonese classics.
