HONG KONG, April 19 — The image of a police officer is spray-painted on a wall at Sohofama, a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong that sticks to its blue-collar roots with home-style dishes served on outdoor wooden tables and benches. The picture pays homage to both a founder’s father, a local officer, and the establishment’s location at PMQ, a 1950s “Police Married Quarters” that once housed hundreds of families and is now home to dozens of restaurants, studios and boutiques run by local artisans and designers, including Vivienne Tam.

A dessert of petits fours, served in a glass tower at Vasco, a fine dining restaurant in Hong Kong’s Soho district March 9, 2015. — Picture by Amanda Kho for The New York Times

The revitalised PMQ complex — two midrise buildings set around a large central courtyard — takes up a whole city block on the western edge of Soho, a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood where art galleries and French bistros are next to working-class shops and apartments. The postwar complex sat vacant for decades but reopened last April as a centre for art and culture after a renovation of HK$400 million (RM187 million). Its 100-plus units have been snapped up by tenants who have quickly made PMQ (pmq.org.hk) one of the most popular scenes in town.

The original structures, including their large balconies, were retained, said William To, the centre’s creative director.

“At that time, people had outdoor kitchens and communal areas where families ate together,” he said. “It was a close community.”

The new PMQ preserves that feeling of openness through the generous use of shared and alfresco spaces. The courtyard has been covered in a glass canopy so that it can be used for large-scale art installations, fairs, festivals and popular weekend food nights with plenty of beer and street snacks.

Since the heritage site’s reopening, these establishments — from cosy bakeries to high-end restaurants — have joined a buzzing dining scene in Hong Kong, a city with nearly 14,000 food outlets, 88 Michelin stars sparkling among 64 restaurants, high rents and some of the world’s pickiest eaters.

Thousands of golden cranes form the shape of a goat to celebrate the new year, in the atrium of the PMQ, in Hong Kong March 9, 2015. — Picture by Amanda Kho for The New York Times

Sohofama (sohofama.com) focuses on organic and — as far as is possible in this concrete jungle — local ingredients. While the restaurant makes a few forays into fusion cuisine — chorizo fried rice and black truffle “xiao long bao,” soup dumplings — it mostly serves simple, homey dishes. Lunch is about HK$114 a person; dinner is about HK$190. Most diners order small dishes to share: chilled cucumber slices, vegetable rice, fried fish with corn sauce, sweet and sour pork, scallion pancakes, buns stuffed with minced meat and a whole crab in a clay pot. At night, a mix of artsy residents and visitors sip cocktails infused with sour plums, orange peel and hibiscus flowers.

Hong Kong’s British colonial heritage permeates Aberdeen Street Social (aberdeenstreetsocial.hk), a two-story bar and restaurant that is one of several collaborations around town between Jason Atherton, a Michelin-starred British chef, and Jenn Wong, a Singaporean heiress and hotelier. Their cocktails include the most appalling British puns: Just Beet-Root to Me, Bitters & Twisted, Pretty Fly for a Mai Tai and Pot Pouring Ketel Black.

PMQ gets livelier later in the day, especially on the weekends. On a recent weekday afternoon Isono (isono.com.hk), a 4,000-square-foot tapas restaurant, was filled with creative types tapping away on laptops. From noon to midnight, customers snack on sharing platters of Ibérico ham, pheasant terrine, duck rillettes and, for visiting Americans, passable sliders. Serious epicures head upstairs to the adjoining fine dining restaurant, Vasco (vasco.com.hk). — The New York Times

The PMQ, built in the 1950s as quarters for married policemen but now home to dozens of restaurants, studios and boutiques, in Hong Kong March 9, 2015. —Picture by Amanda Kho for The New York Times