In the early hours of every morning, Shirley Ma and her sisters start their day in the kitchen of Ma Hing Hong, a cha chaan teng located along Macao Peninsula’s Rua de Francisco Xavier Pereira. By 7 am, the café is ready to welcome its regulars, each one eager for their morning fix – be that scrambled egg sandwiches, French toast with peanut butter or perhaps a noodle soup. Milk tea is a popular accompaniment (cha chaan teng means ‘tea restaurant’ in Cantonese, after all), but many diners opt to mix their tea with coffee, the result of which is dubbed yuenyeung. It’s one of the cha chaan teng genre’s more idiosyncratic beverages.
Founded in 1926, Ma Hing Hong is possibly the oldest tea restaurant in Macao. In fact, this eatery pre-dates the cha chaan teng concept, which emerged in post-World War II Hong Kong. For as long as anyone can remember, however, Ma Hing Hong has embodied the spirit of what it means to be a cha chaan teng: affordable, efficient and eclectic, with a laid-back vibe that invites cheerful chit-chat between customers.
What is a cha chaan teng?
For the uninitiated, these humble eateries can inspire comparisons with the UK’s ‘greasy spoon’ cafés or American diners. Expect an unpretentious, often retro atmosphere, though not necessarily by design. Many cha chaan teng owners simply haven’t bothered to alter their eateries’ interiors (or menus) in decades – and therein lies a lot of their charm. They’re consistent, invoking a strong sense of nostalgia for simpler times.
Cha chaan tengs are most closely associated with Hong Kong. You can find so-called Hong Kong diners around the world, in cities with large southern Chinese diasporas. Their Macao counterparts may be less well known outside of the city, but cha chaan tengs are equally omnipresent in the smaller Special Administrative Region (SAR).
The fare served in these distinctive eateries reflects the East-meets-West fusion that characterises both Hong Kong and Macao’s multicultural histories. Take toasted white bread with butter, a staple you’re unlikely to find in any other type of restaurant in China. Or the aforementioned tea-and-coffee mixture – that’s something you certainly wouldn’t order in a European café.
Even standard tea served in tea restaurants is distinct; a far cry from the delicate oolong and jasmine infusions sipped in traditional mainland tea houses. Hong Kong-style milk tea – as it’s known – is a strong brew of black tea leaves, with evaporated or condensed milk stirred in for a creamy profile that can be quite sweet. Hong Kong’s government officially recognises this tea format as part of Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage, and it’s also become a firm favourite in Macao.
Another classic cha chaan teng offering is known as French toast, though you won’t find it in Paris. Picture a peanut butter sandwich dipped in egg, fried and then drizzled with condensed milk. Other staples include macaroni in broth with luncheon meat, pork chops over rice, and pineapple buns for something sweet. While cha chaan teng menus in the two SARs are similar, Macao’s tend to feature something extra: Portuguese-influenced and Macanese dishes. Think tinned sardines, Macao-style chicken pilau and minced pork with potatoes (a Macanese concoction called minchi). Make no mistake, comfort food reigns supreme.
Most cha chaan tengs offer set meals that come with a beverage. Take your pick of milk tea, yuenyeung, powdered coffee, malted milk, red bean ice or a fizzy drink with ice cream.
While tea restaurants started out as a budget-friendly option for blue collar workers on breaks from their factory jobs, they’ve since been embraced by all strata of society. The sheer number of these eateries scattered across Macao is testament to their popularity. Some seem almost like neighbourhood living rooms, packed with locals taking a moment to read the newspaper, have a cup of tea and wolf down an omelette before work – often sharing tables during busy periods.
Like Ma Hing Hong, Café Rosa is one of these vital neighbourhood venues. Located near the Guia Hill Pedestrian Tunnel on Macao Peninsula, this cha chaan teng is bright and bustling. Its colourful walls are complemented by lively conversations between people of all ages, exchanging their news and cracking jokes over breakfast. You can see the same rituals taking place in cha chaan tengs around the city every morning.
Ma Hing Hong: a family legacy
Ma Hing Hong, meanwhile, has seen multiple generations pack into its cream-coloured booths for breakfast and lunch over the decades. The café has been at its current location since 1987, when it shifted north from Largo do São Domingos, in the heart of Macao’s historic district. Shirley Ma’s grandfather, a native of Guangdong, founded the original eatery, and she says that some older customers still ask, “Is this the same Ma Hing Hong from Largo do São Domingos?”
Now in her early fifties, Ma fondly recalls the cafe’s first iteration, having helped out there as a teenager alongside her five siblings. “I remember rushing between the café and my school in Ilha Verde during lunch hours,” she tells Macao magazine. At some point before Ma Hing Hong moved to Rua de Francisco Xavier Pereira, her father, Ma Chong Wan, took over. When the workload became too much for him, in 2006, Ma and three of her sisters became the third generation to run the place. But their dad is still involved in the eatery that his dad founded: even now, in his seventies, the senior Ma enjoys manning the till.
As is typical for a cha chaan teng, Ma Hing Hong’s unassuming exterior belies the warmth inside. White-tiled walls (easy to clean) are adorned with photos of menu items, while kitschy figurines stand proudly on a shelf behind the counter. Traditional Chinese art and calligraphy, the latter dating back to Ma’s grandfather’s time, are positioned above the cosy booths. You’ll often find a queue outside Ma Hing Hong at lunch time, when char siu pork over rice with a runny egg is in hot demand. Each of Macao’s cha chaan tengs has something it does just a little better than the rest and at Ma Hing Hong, Ma believes it’s their homemade char siu sauce. She says it’s “very different from what you find anywhere else.”
The new wave of cha chaan tengs
In recent years, contemporary iterations of cha chaan tengs have sprung up across Macao, injecting new energy into this beloved tradition. One standout is Macau Chadong, which now has three branches across the city – two in Taipa, one on the Macao Peninsula near Lou Lim Ioc Garden.
Unlike Ma Hing Hong and Café Rosa, Macau Chadong’s decor has been curated to evoke nostalgia. Retro lamps, old-school games and replicas of vintage shop fronts transport diners back to the streets of 1980s Ilha Verde, the childhood neighbourhood of the eatery’s founder Capton Lam, who designed the cha chaan tengs’ interiors as an ode to the era he grew up in.
The concept is proving to be very popular, especially among younger patrons, Lam says. The policeman-turned-restaurateur opened the first Macau Chadong in Old Taipa Village in late 2019, following the success of a takeaway version. The flagship café’s centrepiece is an old-fashioned soda cart, reminiscent of those from where Lam bought fizzy drinks as a child. A corner of the eatery mimics the barber shop where his father once worked, complete with an old standing hair dryer and vintage hair curlers.
Macau Chadong’s playfulness extends to its menu. Lam has created his own version of the classic ice cream soda, which is typically either Coca-Cola with a dollop of chocolate ice cream (dubbed the ‘black bull’) or Sprite with vanilla ice cream (a ‘white bull’). Lam’s invention combines iced milk tea with milk-tea-flavoured sorbet, a concoction he’s christened the ‘Macao bull’.
He also likes to pay homage to local culture through the names he gives dishes. Two meaty options go by Tai Sei Hei and Tai Sam Yuen, which refer to high-scoring hands in mah-jong (heralding the food’s excellence, Lam explains). Then there’s the Sorrowful Rice, Lam’s version of char sui pork on white rice with a gooey egg. Sorrowful Rice is a dish in the 1996 Hong Kong film The God of Cookery, directed by Stephen Chow and Lee Lik-chi.
Macau Chadong’s balance of nostalgia and modernity is clearly striking a chord with diners. “When customers chat with us and tell us what they love about the place, it’s incredibly rewarding,” Lam says. He adds that his customers enjoy photographing themselves with props like the hair curlers, then posting the results to social media.
Preserving the past, embracing the future
Over their seven-plus decades of history, the tea restaurant has become one of Macao’s most enduring culinary institutions. While long-established spots like Ma Hing Hong and Café Rosa continue to honour the classic recipes and atmosphere that have made them iconic, entrepreneurs like Lam are infusing their traditions with fresh ideas.
Whether you visit an old-school cha chaan teng or one of the contemporary Macau Chadongs, you’re in for a transportive experience. For locals, these eateries offer a sense of continuity and community, shared over comfort food. For visitors, tea restaurants provide an authentic taste of Macao’s foodie culture – rooted in history yet always evolving.
