Shia Wong Hip Limited (Chinese: 蛇王協有限公司) is a restaurant specialising in snake dishes located on Apliu Street in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Founded in 1965 by Chau Xiang, the restaurant specialises in snake soup and serves Cantonese cuisine made from exotic animals such as wattle-necked softshell turtles, crocodiles, geckos, silkworms, and seahorses.
The Hong Kong government has recognised Chau Ka Ling as the only woman snake-catcher in the region, which earned her the name "Snake Queen".
[4] Owing to snake sales being very good, he started Shia Wong Hip at Nam Cheong Street in 1965.
[4] Chau's family had a challenging experience because Sham Shui Po station was not open yet and the restaurant did not have enough business.
[4][5] Previously a group of people owned shares in the restaurant, though eventually Chau became sole owner and he was then succeeded by his children.
[5] Chau Ka Ling was the only one to assist with running the restaurant until her father died in 1990 or 1991 of a heart attack when buying snakes in Guangzhou, after which her younger siblings started to take part in the business.
Upon the closure of the factory owing to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Chau left the electronics industry in 2000 and returned to work at Shia Wong Hip.
[20] According to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, in 2013 Shia Wong was one of only 18 stores in Hong Kong licensed to sell live snakes.
[11][26] Shia Wong Hip sources five kinds of snakes from China, Indonesia, and Malaysia two times a week to create its soup.
[28] Additional materials used to create the soup are slivers of lemon leaves, vinegar, black fungus, and mandarin orange peels.
[32] Shia Wong Hip uses the snake's internal organs to concoct an herbal treatment for skin issues.
[28] According to Rough Guides, "less adventurous" customers are able to select "delicious" sticky rice sprinkled with Chinese sausage to eat.
[9] In October 2017, the restaurant had fewer customers which Chau attributed to climate change causing Hong Kong to have a warm winter.
[29] When Hong Kong had cold weather on Christmas Eve in 2023, a line of over 30 people formed at the restaurant for snake soup.
[35] Taras Grescoe of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Shia Wong Hip "serves a deliciously spicy soup made from snakes displayed in cages piled to the ceilings, and shots of brandy".
[36] Christy Choi of South China Morning Post called Shia Wong Hip a "celebrated snake restaurant".
[37] Apple Daily's Lai Wing Sze said Shia Wong Hip is a "time-honored brand" and that its snake soup's "overall level is good".
[38] The magazine Weekend Weekly [zh] said the snake soup was "fresh, sweet, and delicious, had a slight aroma of medicinal herbs, and was the best way to warm up in winter".