Lian Yuan

Lien yuen is a chinese restaurant that was first established in happy valley 35 years ago. It has a reputation for its good local food. But amongst other good attributes, it is gained another reputation for its owner whom everyone called “Mother Boss”.

Mother Boss has a great heart and she is passionate and confident about her food, she would not let any, slightest, negativity to be made on her food and services from her customers. What if customers stepped over the red tapes? They would be showered by volleys of sardonic rebukes such as when customers usher for faster service they’ll receive a stinging remark of “if you in such hurry, you know where the door is” and “if you can find any better steam roll in happy valley, I would close my restaurant today”.

Nonetheless, Mother Boss’ idiosyncrasies only gained her fame. Customer embraced her “attitude” as part of the dining experience.

Mother Boss’ confidence is well buttressed upon years of continuing success by serving great local Cantonese food consistently.

Designing for such maverick is no easy task for us. We have lined the ceiling with large wooden “chopsticks” which allowed light to pass through the gaps between the wooden strips and thus allow the space to be rendeerd by an interplay of lights and shadows. Local Chinese dining experience would tend to place less emphasis on ornamentals so that flavour of the food would be fleshed out and this formed the core of our  branding strategy to Lien Yuen: to subdue the ornaments whilst allowing the food to take the center stage.