OUR STORY

HUNGRY? You’ve come to the right place. Let me do more than feed you. Let me nourish you.

I’ve put my heart and soul into this modest eatery. I want to express the values that are central to how I want to live and work now: simplicity, community, sustainability. It’s no longer enough for the food to be tasty, I want it to communicate my passion for more than flavour. It has to feed the spirit. 

Lucky Kwong is named after the baby son my wife Nell and I lost in 2012. This experience taught me the preciousness of every moment and made me vow to live a full, rich and meaningful life so that now, I feel genuinely Lucky once more.   

Today, I’m exploring  new ideas about food and its power to connect. I’m committed to  a global movement of more deliberate awareness of  what we eat and how it reaches our plate. To celebrating  and sharing the flavours and unique qualities of our native produce. To keeping things as local as possible.

It feels important to return to the humble authenticity of the food I grew up with, while  honouring the proudly diverse industrial history and strong bones of South Eveleigh, where the past and present co-exist so strikingly. 

Lucky Kwong is an expression of my heritage, my Australian-Cantonese identity and my conviction that working collaboratively is more rewarding  and productive than going solo.  

My food is my philosophy and, if you like, my manifesto about what I cherish: the dishes we prepare at Lucky Kwong are my way of sharing my social, cultural and environmental goals for harmony, engagement and participation. 

As always,  Lucky Kwong is an expression of my faith in the rewards of working with a close-knit team. Some have been with me since the early days of Billy Kwong, some are more recent members of my extended family. All of them have brought  their creativity to this project and  reflect my desire to make every single moment - and every single mouthful - count: in other words, to live more holistically. They are all part of the Lucky Kwong story.

Photography James Brickwood 

Pictured In Image:

Standing from left to right (back row): Tammy Kurtz, Paul Kurtz, Matt McKay, Josh Niland, Caroline Baum, Saskia Havekes, Lisa Havilah, Jon Owen, Sam Mostyn, Uncle Shane Phillips, Matt Mewburn.

Middle row: Julie Gibbs (seated), Tracey Deep (seated), Petrina Baker, Ronni Kahn, Gloria Gonzales, Subhana Barzaghi, Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo, Pauline Kwong, Nell, Kylie Kwong, Lille Madden, Vince Frost, Arielle Axle (standing), Jon Kingston, Jim Wilson, Barbara Moore, David King, Rob Caslick, Sam Payne, Alexie Glass-Kantor standing in front of Rob.

Front row (right to left): Raphaelle Wilson (seated), Kate Mills (seated), Barbara Flynn (seated).

Crouching: Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Jeanine Bribosia, Aunty Ali Golding, Clarence Slockee, Peter Kambos.