Lockhart Road Market and Cooked Food Centre

it’s always enjoyable to visit the wet markets and food centres, see a bit more of local life and sometimes stop on the cooked food floor to get typhoon shelter style crab with the crispy garlic

I walk through this market every single day. Most times, it’s just to get from Lockhart to Hennessy Road without having to go around the whole block of buildings. And there’s air con, sure. Some others, I buy my veggies at the only vegetables stand there is. The first floor is just fresh food and a flower shop. There are: two meat stands, one for fish, one for frozen fish and one for fruit. That’s it. Most of the space is empty or just occupied by storage of staff peeling and cutting veggies for the cooked food center upstairs.
The variety is obviously not great, but what makes this market special is the fact that you can get to know the shop owners and even though they wouldn’t speak much English, they would select what’s fresher for you. It’s never too busy, and it feels familiar to me now. I’ve also found that it’s a little cheaper than other markets (especially the Wan Chai one).
Taking up the escalators to the second floor you’ll find shoe markers, stationary shops, tailors… and finally the cooked food center on the top floor. It’s a huge open space shared by around 10 small restaurants and you wouldn’t know which area belongs to whom. Just sit down somewhere and they’ll quickly come up to you and get your order — worry not, they pretty much all sell similar food and their prices are the same and, this is the thing, ridiculously cheap. On my first visit there, I was rather confused but I’ve been back a couple of times: it’s definitely good homemade Chinese food.
What’s more… as they close at 2am, it’s also a great place for a late bite if you are around Wan Chai.