The rise and fall and rise again of Honbo, a beloved homegrown burger brand founded by doctor-turned-burger enthusiast Michael Chan, charts the trend of how Hong Kong diners are eating their burgers and, chiefly, how restaurants are finding a business formula that works for them.
Honbo launched in Wan Chai in 2017 with an all-American, no-frills, chic burger vission. Their patties were sourced from the meat heartlands of America, Wisconsin, and their ingredients plucked from local farms. It is equally very Hong Kong – Honbo is the English transliteration for burger in Cantonese.
Honbo’s rise came with the opening nine years ago when the burger space was dominated by international names and few local varieties; their fall came when their original Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin, The Mills, and BaseHall locations shuttered; and a second and stronger rise came with the resumption of Wan Chai operations and a new Central store come 2025 as Hong Kong regained its international footing.
“We just wanted to make a really good burger for Hong Kong as a homegrown brand,” Michael says of the brand’s beginnings. “Wan Chai is where our core customer base is from. Here is where we started to build our reputation, our food project. Everything that Honbo stands for started from here.”
Honbo’s closure of five locations since 2022 mirrored experiences felt throughout the city during the economically turbulent early 2020s: a near blackout of inbound tourism, pandemic shutdowns, shrinking wages, and an eventual explosion of outbound tourism – 49.9 million visitors in 2025 – that shocked the system. Burgers aren’t recession proof, but Hong Kong diners still remained hungry for the product.
Burger consumption and restaurant operations in 2026, similar to running a dim sum restaurant, cocktail bar, and fine-dining establishment, is less about expanding rapidly and massively diversifying menu offerings. The basics, as Michael knows, works.
In February 2025, Honbo arrived in Central with its first permanent store following a pop-up at BaseHall in 2020. “With our new store, we can hold a candle against [our Central competitors’] burgers. I believe we have a lot of people in Central who enjoy our product, and that’s why I think it is tremendous to come to Central.”
Their Wan Chai homecoming in late 2025 showed that what has worked before in Hong Kong can work now: simple burgers set at affordable prices with appropriate brand storytelling, sans a raise in rent that led Michael to close his first Wan Chai location in 2023.
Honbo sells 10 types of burgers on their menu but only in slight variations with the same two proteins and two styles: crispy beef, thick beef, grilled chicken, and fried chicken. The fluff has been removed to accommodate for what Hong Kongers are comfortable with.
In line with competitor Five Guys, which operates a location five minutes from Honbo’s Star Street store, the brand launched their first lunch deal, a HKD98 deal featuring a choice of burger, tater tots, and a soft drink.
“People want to try my food, but the economic situation is [still tight]. I want to lower my prices so that it benefits everybody.”
With business stable, Michael hints at a special programme in the works to bring new menu items and collaboration products to the two stores this year. “We need to adapt to the times as well and bring in more seasonal products that are interesting and a bit gimmicky to be [continually] attractive.”
With beef prices higher than usual, Michael “wants to explore more fun options for smash burgers with other proteins. We have been doing smash burgers since 2017, and we do a pretty good job at it.”
“No one wants just a beef burger with cheese or eggs or bacon – that’s boring!”
With their origins located equidistant from Honbo and Five Guys, N+ Burger is another homegrown burger brand that bills itself as Hong Kong’s first to source their burgers from their own pastures located in Australia.
Their first location came to Wan Chai in January 2023. In three years, they have grown to seven locations across Kennedy Town, Happy Valley, Kowloon City, Kwun Tong, Wan Chai, Wong Chuk Hang, and most recently Science Park.
“Our farm-to-burger model is rare in Hong Kong,” says Margott Leung, marketing executive at N+ Burger, “we are not just another [burger] restaurant in Hong Kong, we are the producer of burgers.”
From Wan Chai to sprouting across the city in a feverish manner, the burger brand has won over diners bringing burgers back to their foundational roots – literally.
Their buns come from Bakehouse and vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce, onion, and pickles are sourced locally from farms in Hong Kong and Guangdong. Their menu features nine burgers – three Angus beef, three Wagyu beef, two chicken, and one vegetarian burger – fitting every diet.
“We try not to make things so complex so we can control everything more easily. At N+ Burger, we are trying to provide a premium fast casual dining experience in Hong Kong with burgers at a higher standard and quality than before.”
“Hong Kongers who have big expectations on flavours and the quality of meat will like us.”
Keeping things simple on the menu, the production line, the sleek restaurant environment, and ordering system, Margott notes “N+ Burger has grown in Hong Kong’s fast casual dining space because customers trust our product.” Like Honbo, trust is essential to retaining customers through dips and resurgences.
With Hong Kong’s trust in their products, N+ Burger is planning to open three more locations this year to reach 10 in Hong Kong. “But we are not settled on being just a local brand.” International expansion is the goal.
“We have to be ambitious to make our brand work. Hopefully, in the coming years, we can open our very first overseas store [elsewhere] in Asia.”
