The Canteen Network Inside a Red‑Brick Campus: A Survey of PolyU’s Food & Beverage System

When Japanese‑born architect Minoru Takeyama designed PolyU’s Hung Hom campus, he tucked the ground floor away for vehicles and freight, then linked the teaching towers with a continuous podium. The result – a cluster of red‑brick blocks and platforms – is one of Kowloon’s most recognisable landmarks. That vertical logic of “cars below, people above” also shaped the campus’s eating spaces: instead of a single central dining hall, canteens are threaded through the ground floors, podium levels and lower‑ground mezzanines of over a dozen Core buildings, pressed cheek‑by‑jowl with lecture rooms, labs and the library. This article lays out that network – where to eat, what the outlets are called, who runs them, and how the halls fit into the picture.

# From technical institute to red‑brick campus: how the canteen network grew

PolyU traces its roots to 1965, when LegCo member Dr. Chung Sze‑yuen urged the government to establish a polytechnic in Hong Kong. A preparatory committee chaired by Dr. Tong Ping‑yuen (唐炳源) was formed in 1969. The government accepted the committee’s report and the Hong Kong Polytechnic Ordinance came into effect on 24 March 1972; the Polytechnic officially started operating on 1 August that year, inheriting the campus and staff of the former Hong Kong Technical College. Sir Murray MacLehose, the then Governor, served as its first honorary president.

What gave the Hung Hom campus its present footprint was a string of expansions in the mid‑1970s. The government approved the plan in November 1974; the first‑phase extension was topped out on 8 April 1976 and opened by Sir Murray MacLehose on 26 October 1976. The Polytechnic library was opened by Princess Alexandra in 1977. Those expansions created the pattern of separate Cores linked by podiums – and within those new buildings, at ground and podium levels, the canteen network grew piece by piece. The Polytechnic became a full university in 1994, taking the name The Hong Kong Polytechnic University – PolyU – that it carries today.

# One letter apart: the alphabetic naming system and what it means for canteens

To find a canteen on the PolyU campus you first have to decode how the buildings are named. Roughly 20 blocks are labelled with letters from A to Z (I, K and O are skipped because they can be mistaken for digits). A handful carry a formal Chinese name alongside the letter: Block M is the Li Ka Shing Tower, Block L is the Pak Kin‑shi Library (白建時圖書館), Block P is the Chan Lai‑ling Building, Block R is the Chan Po‑cho Building, Block S is the Communal Building (文康大樓), Block U is the Hui Shu‑yuen Building, Block V is the Jockey Club Innovation Tower, Block VA is the Sir Run Run Shaw Building, Block W is the Ho Tung Building (Industrial Centre), and Block Y is the Lee Shau Kee Building. Where no stand‑alone name exists, students often refer to a wing by combining two adjacent letters: the Stanley Ho Building, for example, is known as the HJ Wing – wedged between H and J.

This naming logic directly shapes how students talk about food. “Z Can” means the canteen in Block Z. “New Can” (新Can) is, strictly speaking, the student canteen on 3/F of the Communal Building (Block S), while “Old Can” (舊Can) is on the ground floor of the Sir Run Run Shaw Building (Block VA). Every canteen nickname points back to a specific letter of the alphabet – which is why PolyU’s food culture is built on remembering locations, not a communal dining hall.

# The official directory: a dozen outlets scattered across the main campus

According to the latest catering outlet directory^※ published by PolyU’s Campus Facilities and Sustainability Office (CFSO), the following outlets operate on the main campus and in the halls (grouped by type):

Canteens

• VA Staff Canteen – The Forest (G/F, Sir Run Run Shaw Building / Block VA)
• VA Student Canteen – The Forest (G/F, Block VA)
• Block Y Outlet – Grove & Tai Tai Foodtopia (Podium, Block Y)
• U Garden Student Canteen (Podium, CD/DE Wing)
• Communal Student Canteen (3/F, Communal Building)
• Z Canteen (2/F, Block Z)
• Hung Hom Hall Canteen – The Forest (1/F, Hung Hom Student Hall)

Cafés / kiosks

• Z Café – Halal by The Forest (2/F, Block Z; halal options)
• LibCafé (Podium, Pao Yue‑kong Library)
• H Café – American Diner (atrium podium, FGHJ Wing)
• Gourmet Shop (Podium, Sir Run Run Shaw Building / Block VA)
• VA Kiosk – Subway (Podium, Block VA)
• V Café – Chill Cup (Podium, Jockey Club Innovation Tower)
• X Café – Pacific Coffee (Block X)
• W Kiosk – PizzaExpress (Block W)
• Homantin Hall Canteen (G/F, Ho Man Tin Student Hall)
• Star Café – Pacific Coffee (4/F, Hung Hom Bay Campus)

Restaurants

• Theatre Lounge – Terrace in Seaside (G/F, Chung Sze Yuen Building)
• U Garden Staff Restaurant (Podium, DE Wing)
• Communal Staff Restaurant – Ju Yin House (4/F, Communal Building)
• Communal Student Restaurant – Ju Yin Court (4/F, Communal Building)
• Staff Club Restaurant – U. Green (5/F, Communal Building)

Vending machines About eight machines can be found in locations such as VA210, Core R and the GSH (Global Student Hub); one in the GSH is a Korean‑style Tao Bin coffee machine.

CFSO adds that the main campus has nineteen catering premises^※ offering roughly 2,900 seats, while the hall canteens contribute about 260 more. Put the two lists together and the shape of PolyU’s food map becomes clear: the dozen‑plus main‑campus outlets handle daytime meals during term, and the two hall canteens cover breakfast, dinner and late‑night snacks for residents.

The same CFSO page spells out booking rules, revealing that canteens and restaurants at PolyU are not just places to eat – they double as event venues. Bookings require at least one week’s notice and are allocated on a first‑come‑first‑served basis; cancellations must be made no later than three working days before the event. The Theatre Lounge – Terrace in Seaside operates a priority system: hirers of the theatre can reserve it up to three months ahead, while others can book only one month in advance. The venue charge (minimum two‑hour booking) is HK$65 per hour for theatre hirers and HK$125 per hour for others; all fees are non‑refundable. If a Typhoon Signal No. 8 or above is hoisted, reservations are cancelled, though theatre hirers may request an alternative slot within one week. These details show that the management of PolyU’s food venues balances day‑to‑day dining with a steady stream of event bookings – these are not merely “eating spaces.”

# From “Communal” to “Z Can”: what students actually call these canteens

The official directory uses formal names, but the shorthand used among students is both shorter and more revealing of a canteen’s place in campus life. According to the dining guide published by the PolyU student‑orientation resource SYA Project^※, the three “big canteens” are:

• Old Can – G/F of the Sir Run Run Shaw Building (Block VA), i.e. the VA Student/Staff Canteen;
• New Can – 3/F of the Communal Building, i.e. the Communal Student Canteen;
• Z Can – the Z Canteen on 2/F, Block Z;
• there is also U Garden – the canteen on the podium of D/E Wing.

The guide is refreshingly frank: 「主要提供快餐，價錢比出面平一截」 (“mainly fast food, prices a notch cheaper than outside”), but 「平時食晏（特別係新舊Can）總係排長龍，以平常心面對食物質素就可以」 (“at lunchtime, especially the new and old Cans, the queues are always long; as for the food, it’s best to keep your expectations modest”). This captures the most common PolyU student experience: cheap, filling, but you’ll queue, and opinions on the food vary.

One building deserves special mention: the Communal Building is the beating heart of PolyU’s food map. It houses the student canteen, the staff canteen, a staff club restaurant, and two establishments named after Ju Yin (如意) – Ju Yin House and Ju Yin Court. No other single building on campus packs in as many catering functions.

# Two hall canteens: Hung Hom and Ho Man Tin, two different rhythms

PolyU student accommodation is split between Hung Hom and Ho Man Tin. The two sites relate to the core campus in different ways, and that gives each hall canteen a different weight in residents’ daily lives.

Hung Hom Student Hall is closely connected to the main campus. Its hall canteen is nicknamed “The Forest”; the official directory lists opening hours of 08:00–21:00 (last order 20:30). For Hung Hom residents it is the go‑to spot for a break during a late‑night study session or a post‑activity gathering.

Ho Man Tin Student Hall is a little further from both the main campus and the MTR station. The halls are known by colour (Red Hall, Orange Hall, Blue Hall, etc.) and host two special programmes, CURI College and STARS College. The Ho Man Tin Hall Canteen, on the ground floor of the hall block, is the closest fallback for residents. Compared with the main‑campus outlets, its opening hours and menu rotations have a more direct and immediate impact on daily hall life.

Although both hall canteens carry the “The Forest” brand – the Hung Hom one is called Hung Hom Hall Canteen – The Forest – they are run independently, with menus and operating details tweaked for their location.

The canteens’ importance is set to grow as PolyU expands its hostel places. HK01 has reported^※ that PolyU plans to build four new hall blocks on a mid‑levels site on Tat Hong Road in Kowloon Tong, next to CityU’s student halls and behind Lung Cheung Road. The buildings, rising between 9 and 15 storeys, will provide about 1,680 bed places and are expected to be completed in 2028. The University hopes this will achieve “two years of residence in a four‑year degree” policy, meaning every undergraduate can live on campus for at least two years, and also hopes it will attract more outstanding non‑local students. The report did not say whether the new halls will include their own canteen; publicly available materials show only that the lower floors (G/4) are planned for pedestrian access, car parking and student leisure facilities, with a communal corridor and shared space on 5/F and accommodation on the upper floors. Whether catering will be part of the scheme remains to be confirmed. If the halls open on schedule in 2028, the PolyU hall‑canteen network may expand from two nodes to three – or more – and a fresh chapter will need to be written.

# Why students often describe PolyU’s canteens as “fragmented”

Compare CUHK’s college‑canteen system or HKU’s hall‑based dining culture, and you notice that PolyU students rarely use a single name to mean “our canteen.” Design students are more familiar with V Café around the Innovation Tower; engineering students may grab lunch at the outlet closest to their lab; residents’ mental map is anchored by the Hung Hom or Ho Man Tin Hall Canteen; non‑local and exchange students weigh on‑campus choices against the restaurants around Hung Hom Station, Whampoa and Tsim Sha Tsui East.

This fragmentation flows directly from the campus itself. The red‑brick campus is intensely vertical, with teaching blocks and podiums intersecting at different levels. Students pick a canteen based on their timetable, lab locations, the library, their hall and their MTR route, rather than forming a shared story around a symbolic “big canteen.” Understand that, and you understand why canteen debates at PolyU nearly always take the form of spot‑by‑spot appraisals (“this kiosk is great, that Can is awful”) rather than a university‑wide, one‑canteen narrative.

# PolyU’s “tallest building” is part of the food map, too

New students often ask about the relationship between two landmarks: the Communal Building and the Li Ka Shing Tower. According to published information from the Li Ka Shing Foundation^※, the Foundation donated HK$100 million to PolyU in 2001, the largest single personal donation the University had received. The Council decided to name the tallest new building on campus – then just completed – the Li Ka Shing Tower. The Tower itself is not a catering hub, but its basement and podium connect to the Sir Run Run Shaw Building (Block VA) precinct, which is home to Old Can. A new student walking from the Li Ka Shing Tower to Old Can covers, roughly, the most central stretch of PolyU’s food map.

# Sustainable dining: fewer straws, less food waste – canteens as part of environmental governance

There is a green thread running through PolyU’s catering system. The campus sustainability newsletter GreenNet records that PolyU has promoted plastic‑reduction campaigns such as “No Straw Friday,” under which participating outlets provide straws only on request on designated days. Engineering research materials show that the University has piloted food‑waste collection systems with in‑built dehydration at on‑campus catering facilities, to cut the cost and volume of waste treatment. Measures like these are not directly about food safety, but they show that canteens are woven into campus environmental governance and are not left entirely to commercial operators once outsourced.

# Simple arithmetic: seats versus campus population

PolyU has long had one of the largest student populations among UGC‑funded institutions. Public figures show that in September 2013 it had 32,229 registered students and more than 3,600 staff. Lay those numbers alongside the roughly 2,900 seats on the main campus and about 260 in the hall canteens, and it is no mystery why “long queues” is virtually every PolyU student’s shared memory. Even assuming staggered meal times, the ratio of seats to headcount is daunting. This also explains why the catering network has to be spread out rather than concentrated: rather than packing limited seats into one or two mega‑canteens and creating even longer lines, the load is split among nineteen outlets plus the hall canteens, diffusing queue pressure across buildings and time slots.

The same arithmetic explains why the most frequent complaints – waiting, fighting for seats, not a single place free at peak lunchtime – are to a large extent a problem of scale, not a sign that a particular canteen provides poor service. A university with the largest student body in Hong Kong, lacking the built‑in decanting effect of a collegiate system (like CUHK) or a hall‑based culture (like HKU), must rely on raw numbers of outlets to handle the human tide.

# An urban‑campus food map: no shopping‑mall hinterland, so the campus must grow its own canteens

PolyU sits in Hung Hom and is hardly short of outside food: Hung Hom Station, Whampoa and Tsim Sha Tsui East are all within walking or short‑ride distance. But that is precisely what makes the on‑campus network essential. At a compact, vertical city‑centre campus where timetables are tightly packed, a half‑hour or one‑hour break often isn’t long enough to leave and get back. The nineteen outlets plus the two hall canteens essentially turn “you can eat without leaving campus” into a piece of essential infrastructure, not a nice‑to‑have bonus.

Look at neighbouring institutions and the contrast becomes sharper. CUHK relies on its decentralised colleges, each with its own canteen, giving rise to labels like “Chung Chi canteen” and “New Asia canteen” that carry college identity. CityU is linked to Festival Walk, a large shopping mall, so students can simply dip into the mall’s food scene to fill the gaps. PolyU has neither of those structural advantages: no collegiate system to give its canteens an automatic sense of belonging, and no mega‑mall directly stitched into the main campus. The food map has therefore had to grow organically into a distributed network straddling teaching blocks, podiums, the library and the halls – using sheer breadth and dispersion to compensate for two in‑built handicaps: the absence of a natural central dining hall and the absence of a mall hinterland.

# In summary: a network, not a dining hall

Pull the strands together and PolyU’s “canteen” turns out to be a distributed service network: over a dozen main‑campus outlets woven through teaching blocks, podiums and the library; two independently run hall canteens at the Hung Hom and Ho Man Tin residences; plus vending machines and cafés dotted around the site. The upside of this network is that risk is dispersed – when one outlet closes for renovation or has an off day, students can decamp to another block or the hall canteen. The downside is a governance puzzle: student feedback and complaints are naturally fragmented and rarely coalesce into a concentrated pressure on any single operator. That, of course, is the subject of the next article – “Contractor rotation and price‑hike disputes.”