Spaghetti House — from 26 stores to 4 as HK outgrew mid-market Italian

Spaghetti House, the Hong Kong Italian-themed restaurant chain founded in 1979, has declined from a peak of 26 stores to just 4 remaining locations by mid-2026. The chain lost 3 stores in the first half of 2026 alone — Wanchai closed in February 2025, Mongkok's Yee On Centre branch closed around May–June 2026, and the Taikoo Shing store, which had been open nearly 40 years, closed on 5 August 2026 when its lease expired.

The brand was founded in 1979 by an Australian and a British entrepreneur on Matheson Street in Causeway Bay, at a time when Italian food in Hong Kong was still a novelty for most diners. It grew into one of the territory's most recognisable mid-market casual dining chains, expanding across Hong Kong and into mainland China. Cafe de Coral Group, Hong Kong's largest restaurant chain operator, acquired Spaghetti House in August 1991 and ran it as a wholly owned subsidiary.

At its peak, Spaghetti House operated 26 locations in Hong Kong plus outlets in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. By 2015, Cafe de Coral's annual report disclosed that 450 staff reductions — half of them from Spaghetti House — were linked to the closure of mainland China stores. The brand also attempted Southeast Asian expansion via franchising, opening two outlets in Indonesia, but its Hong Kong footprint continued shrinking through the 2010s and 2020s. By February 2026, only 5 stores remained. Three more closed in the following six months.

The closures reflect broader structural pressures on mid-market Western restaurant chains in Hong Kong: rising rents, changing consumer preferences toward newer concepts and faster-casual formats, and a post-pandemic dining market that has not fully recovered. Spaghetti House's owner Cafe de Coral has the resources and scale to keep the brand alive, but has chosen to let it dwindle rather than invest in turning it around — a portfolio decision as much as a story of a brand that lost its relevance.