Licensed restaurants in Hong Kong

Home › Business registers › Licensed restaurants

Licensed restaurants in Hong Kong

Is that restaurant licensed? The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department publishes its list of restaurant licences every day. This page has all 17,267 on it — 12,612 general, 4,650 light refreshment and 5 marine restaurants: search by shop sign, address or licence number, or browse by district.

Lists: Light refreshment 4,650 · Marine 5 · Outside seating 499 · Karaoke 115 · ISO 22000 27 · Raw meat 292 · Raw oysters 1,051 · Sashimi 2,166 · Sushi 1,653

What a restaurant licence means

According to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, a restaurant licence must be obtained for a food business which involves the sale of meals or unbottled non-alcoholic drinks other than Chinese herb tea, for consumption on the premises (a factory canteen or a licensed hawker’s business is not a restaurant). A general restaurant licence permits the licensee to use any kind of cooking methods to prepare and sell food for consumption on the premises. A light refreshment restaurant licence allows the licensee to prepare food by simple cooking methods like boiling, stewing, steaming, braising and simple frying (excluding deep frying and stir frying), which shall not generate large amount of greasy fumes. A restaurant on board a vessel needs a marine restaurant licence. FEHD gives Chinese restaurants, steakhouses and hot-pot restaurants as examples of general restaurants, and congee shops, noodle shops and coffee shops as examples of light refreshment restaurants.

To sell liquor, a licence is required from the Liquor Licensing Board: see licensed liquor premises.

How to check a restaurant

1. Search FEHD’s list of licensed food premises by shop sign or address, and compare the licence number and address.
2. FEHD advises that when ordering food delivery, Poon Choi, sashimi or sushi through the internet, by phone or from pamphlets, customers should make sure the food is prepared by licensed food premises, and can check on its list whether the supplier holds a food business licence.

FEHD updates its list daily and this site copies it weekly, so FEHD’s list is the authority. The licence types are explained in FEHD’s Guide on Types of Licences Required and on its list of licensed restaurants.

What is on the list

Licensed restaurants by district

An entry belongs to the district its address is in: the point FEHD’s geotagged copy of the list gives for it (matched by licence number), inside the Home Affairs Department’s district boundary; an entry without a usable point is placed by the district FEHD’s list gives (it splits Yau Tsim Mong into Yau Tsim and Mong Kok, one district here), and failing that from its address. Each district page lists every entry there, 250 to a page.

What FEHD’s information codes mean

FEHD’s list marks a licence’s special endorsements with an information code. In FEHD’s words, with how many licences on the list carry each:

• #A Licensed restaurant with outside seating accommodation
  499 licences on the list (3%)
• #B Licensed restaurant issued with karaoke establishment permit
  93 licences on the list (1%)
• #C Licensed restaurant issued with karaoke establishment exemption order
  26 licences on the list (0%)
• #D Licensed food premises that are recognized by FEHD for the revised inspection regime after fully implemented the food safety system under ISO 22000 and obtained the ISO 22000 Certification
  27 licences on the list (0%)
• #E Licensed restaurant approved to sell meat to be eaten in raw state for consumption on the premises
  292 licences on the list (2%)
• #F Licensed restaurant approved to sell oyster to be eaten in raw state for consumption on the premises
  1,051 licences on the list (6%)
• #G Licensed restaurant approved to sell sashimi for consumption on the premises
  2,166 licences on the list (13%)
• #H Licensed restaurant approved to sell sushi for consumption on the premises
  1,653 licences on the list (10%)

FEHD says a karaoke establishment permit (#B) is valid only so long as the restaurant licence remains valid, and that a bona fide restaurant providing karaoke within the limits FEHD sets may apply for exemption from the Karaoke Establishments Ordinance (Cap. 573) (#C).

💡 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Hong Kong business registers · FEHD’s list of licensed food premises