Hong Kong Nightlife

Lan Kwai Fong, always shortened to LKF, is the city’s party centre: a short L-shaped lane and the top of D’Aguilar Street, 10 minutes uphill from Central MTR exit D2, with more than 100 bars, clubs and restaurants packed into a few blocks. The crowd is expats, office workers, tourists and young locals, and on Friday and Saturday nights the streets are so full that police set up crowd barriers. Bars at street level spill onto the pavement; the clubs are on upper floors of buildings such as California Tower, with door charges of roughly HK$200 to HK$400 on event nights, usually including a drink.

LKF is busiest from about 10pm to 3am and quiet before 8pm, when after-work happy hours fill the terraces. Many bars play mainstream house and hip hop; the area’s big clubs change name often, so check what is on before you go. Street parties take over at Halloween, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, when entry to the area can be controlled. Just above LKF, Wyndham Street is quieter and more expensive, with lounge bars and some of the best cocktail bars in Asia.

SoHo (“South of Hollywood Road”) is the grid of Elgin, Staunton, Shelley and Peel streets along the Central-Mid-Levels escalator. It is a dining district first, with bars that stay busy until 1am or 2am rather than 5am. Walk downhill to Sheung Wan and Po Hing Fong for smaller, quieter places, natural-wine bars and late cafes.

Hong Kong’s cocktail bars regularly rank on Asia’s 50 Best Bars, and most are within a 15-minute walk of each other in Central and Sheung Wan. Coa on Wyndham Street specialises in agave spirits; Bar Leone is a loud, friendly Roman-style bar with simple drinks done perfectly; The Old Man on Aberdeen Street is a tiny Hemingway-themed basement with lab-style cocktails; Quinary on Hollywood Road is known for molecular drinks; and Argo at the Four Seasons pairs drinks with sustainability themes. Expect HK$140 to HK$220 a drink plus service, and queues from 8pm at the walk-in-only bars: arrive at opening or after 11pm.

Speakeasies hide behind barber shops, fridge doors and unmarked stairwells, but most are signposted on maps; part of the fun is that the hidden door is easy to find once you are on the right street.

Wan Chai is the rowdier, cheaper, later alternative to LKF. The core is Lockhart Road and parallel Jaffe Road, between Fleming Road and Luard Road, about five minutes from Wan Chai MTR exit C. You will find British-style pubs, sports bars showing football and rugby, bars with live cover bands, a few clubs, and a cluster of hostess and “girlie” bars with touts in the doorways. Many places stay open until 5am or 6am on weekends, which makes Wan Chai where LKF’s crowd ends up.

Hong Kong Sevens weekend (usually late March or April, now held at the new stadium at Kai Tak) and big football matches fill every bar. Big concerts play at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom and at Kai Tak. Prices are a little lower than Central, with plenty of HK$40 to HK$60 happy-hour pints. The main thing to watch is the hostess bars, which are covered under safety below.

West of Sheung Wan, Sai Ying Pun has turned into a neighbourhood of wine bars, craft-beer bars and small restaurants along High Street, Second Street and Third Street, a short walk from Sai Ying Pun MTR. It is where many young residents drink when they want to avoid LKF. At the end of the Island Line, Kennedy Town has bars along the New Praya waterfront and Catchick Street that are best at sunset over the western harbour.

Across the harbour, Tsim Sha Tsui has three nightlife pockets. Knutsford Terrace, a pedestrian strip off Kimberley Road, is lined with terrace bars and restaurants with happy-hour deals; Ashley Road and Hart Avenue have pubs and karaoke; and the hotel bars along the waterfront do harbour views. TST is the best area for groups who want a relaxed drink and dinner rather than a club. Further north, Kowloon’s Mong Kok and Jordan have karaoke chains open until 6am, with rooms for HK$100 to HK$300 per person including drinks deals.

The skyline is the reason to pay rooftop prices. Book ahead for Friday and Saturday, wear smart-casual clothes (no shorts, flip-flops or sportswear for men), and go at dusk to see the city switch from day to night.

• Ozone: The Ritz-Carlton’s bar on level 118 of the International Commerce Centre in West Kowloon, one of the highest bars in the world. Cocktails HK$180 to HK$300; above Kowloon MTR and Airport Express station.
• Aqua: On the 29th and 30th floors of One Peking Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, facing the Island head on. The best place for the 8pm light show with a drink.
• Eyebar: On the 30th floor of iSquare on Nathan Road, cheaper than Aqua with a similar view.
• Felix: The Philippe Starck-designed bar on the 28th floor of the Peninsula Hotel, famous for its bathroom windows.
• Sugar: The rooftop of the EAST hotel at Tai Koo, for an eastern harbour view away from the tourist crowds.

Many hotel bars run happy hours from 5pm to 8pm and charge a minimum spend or cover after 9pm when a DJ or band plays.

Happy Wednesday at the Happy Valley Racecourse is the city’s best-value night out. From September to mid-July, the Hong Kong Jockey Club runs evening meetings on most Wednesdays, with the first race around 6:45pm to 7:15pm and the last after 10:30pm. Entry to the public enclosure is HK$10 (tap your Octopus at the turnstile), a minimum bet is HK$10, and the Beer Garden beside the track has DJs, food stalls and a crowd of expats and locals standing at the rail under the floodlights. Take the tram to Happy Valley or walk 15 minutes from Causeway Bay MTR.

Temple Street Night Market in Jordan runs from late afternoon to around midnight, with fortune tellers, Cantonese opera singers and open-air seafood and clay-pot rice stalls (a full meal from HK$100 to HK$200). See our Hong Kong shopping guide for what the stalls sell.

A Symphony of Lights plays at 8pm every night for about 10 minutes, with lasers and lights on the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon synchronised to music. The best spot is the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront by the Avenue of Stars, where the soundtrack plays through speakers; it is cancelled when a typhoon or rainstorm warning is up. An evening Star Ferry ride (HK$5 to HK$6.50) from Central to the Tsim Sha Tsui pier is the cheapest harbour cruise there is.

Most bars and restaurants add a 10 percent service charge; you do not need to tip on top, though rounding up for good service is appreciated. Happy hours are taken seriously: two-for-one deals or discounted pints from about 4pm to 9pm are standard across LKF, Wan Chai and Knutsford Terrace. Dress codes are relaxed in pubs and on the street, smart-casual in rooftops, hotel bars and clubs, where bouncers turn away men in shorts, vests and sandals. Bring a passport or photo ID: the legal age to buy alcohol is 18 and clubs check.

The MTR stops around midnight to 1am, with the exact last train posted at each station, and restarts at about 6am. After that you have four options:

• Night buses: Routes with an N prefix run all night, about every 15 to 30 minutes, including cross-harbour routes and the N11 and N21 airport buses. Pay with Octopus.
• Red minibuses: The 16-seat red-roofed minibuses run through the night between Mong Kok, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and the New Territories. They take cash (some take Octopus), fares are posted on a card in the windscreen, and you call out your stop to the driver.
• Taxis: Red urban taxis start at HK$29 for the first 2 km. Crossing the harbour adds the tunnel toll and its return, so expect HK$100 to HK$180 from LKF to Tsim Sha Tsui. Queues at LKF and Wan Chai ranks build after 2am; the HKTaxi app summons licensed cabs.
• Walk: LKF to Wan Chai is 20 to 25 minutes along Queen’s Road or through Admiralty; Sheung Wan, SoHo and LKF are all within 10 minutes of each other.

See our getting around Hong Kong guide for fares and routes.

Hong Kong is very safe at night, and the main risks are the ones you take yourself. Pickpocketing in the LKF crowds happens, so keep your phone in a front pocket. Spiked drinks are rare but not unknown; do not leave drinks unattended.

The Wan Chai hostess bars, with doormen calling people in, are the city’s best-known overcharging trap: a “drink for the lady” at several hundred dollars, a cover charge you were not told about, or a bill that runs into thousands. Check the price list before ordering, pay as you go, and leave if anyone refuses to show prices. Report any dispute to the police on 999.