Getting closer
https://mcdonalds.com.hk/en/latest-promotions/
https://www.afoodieworld.com/blog/2025/01/2...ish-rice-hk-fb/
Between 11:30AM and 2:30PM from Monday to Friday, when hungry office workers travel in packs on the streets scouring for a meal to re-energise, the busiest restaurants in Central are not McDonald’s, sen-ryo, Samsen, and TamJai, but the hole-in-the-wall takeaway spots selling the notorious two-dish rice.
Housed in a plastic takeaway box shell, loaded with MSG, fluffy white rice, and a choice of two (or three) meat or vegetable dishes, two-dish rice can be devoured for as little as HKD28 in the city.
By one estimation made by a fervent two-dish rice researcher on the Rice with 2 Sides Facebook group, boasting more than 168,000 followers, there are approximately 578 restaurants in Hong Kong serving the affordable meal.
Whilst not a new culinary trend (its roots took shape back in the 1950s), two-dish rice found immense popularity during the pandemic once restaurants were forced to shutter at night and owners’ livelihoods were hit, justifying more affordable dining options.
The dining phenomenon is seemingly one of the last remaining vestiges of the forgotten pandemic in today’s Hong Kong – and it is celebrated too. Just look at any lunchtime line at a two-dish rice shop on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, or New Territories.
The ballooning adoration of this salty and filling meal is indicative of greater trends occurring in the industry and throughout the Hong Kong economy as a whole: Hong Kongers have less money to spend than prior to the pandemic and are looking for quality and value when dining out.
To the question posed in the title, the answer is complicated. Affordable meals are a necessity for the city’s less well-off, a helping hand for accessing nutrition to ensure a healthy body. The cost of a two-dish rice meal ranges anywhere from under HKD30 to HKD60 at the highest. The food is cooked fresh, and many options are available for each and every taste.
This post has been edited by vhs: Jun 21 2025, 12:05 PM