The family behind Bangor’s Garden Hotel has shared an emotional farewell as Andrew and Alice Lui retire after more than four decades of hospitality, charity fundraising and support for the local community.
The Lui family marked their final day at the High Street hotel on 1 October 2026, bringing to an end a chapter that their daughters say began in 1984.
In a heartfelt Facebook post titled “A Love Letter to GH”, the couple’s six daughters reflected on their parents’ legacy, growing up in the hotel and the generations of customers who became friends.
“The Garden Hotel has never been just a hotel or a restaurant,” they wrote. “It is a special place that holds our core memories as children, teenagers and adults – and now, the memories of our own children too.”
Andrew and Alice both emigrated from Hong Kong in the 1970s in search of a better life and met in Pwllheli. Andrew graduated from university with a degree in chemical engineering, while Alice attended cooking school in Hong Kong while pregnant with their third daughter, Debra.
Together, they transformed a run-down hotel at 1 High Street into a popular family business, creating a home for their six daughters and a welcoming place for customers from Bangor and beyond.
Their contribution extended far beyond the hotel and restaurant. Over the years, their Chinese New Year buffets raised thousands of pounds for charities, including Hope House, St David’s Hospice, Barnardo’s Cymru and St John Ambulance.
Through school visits and traditional lion dances, hundreds of local children also had the opportunity to learn about Chinese culture and traditions.
During the pandemic, while the restaurant was closed, the family cooked and donated more than 800 fresh meals to staff at Ysbyty Gwynedd.
That generosity was matched by decades of hard work behind the scenes. In their farewell, the sisters recalled their parents sometimes working up to 18 hours a day to build the business and provide a happy and stable life for their family.
Their childhood memories include playing hide-and-seek with friends, helping their father count and bag 2p coins for the bank, and chopping vegetables alongside their mother ahead of busy Friday nights serving more than 100 guests.
The Garden Hotel also gave all six sisters their first jobs. Weekends were spent pulling pints and washing hundreds of glasses and dishes by hand — with the family revealing that the hotel never had a dishwasher.
Over the years, the restaurant welcomed four generations of some families, becoming a familiar setting for birthdays, anniversaries, marriage proposals and Sunday dinners.
“Children who once came in with their parents later returned with their own children, and then their grandchildren,” the family wrote.
“To have been part of so many family traditions, birthdays, anniversaries, marriage proposals and regular Sunday dinners is something we will never forget.”
Hotel guests came from across the world, sharing their stories over fresh coffee and a full Welsh breakfast. Others returned year after year on business trips, becoming familiar faces the family were always delighted to welcome back.
“When you have looked after people for so many years, they stop feeling like customers… They become part of the story of the Garden Hotel.”
The farewell brought the family together again, with daughters Pamela and Monica travelling from Hong Kong and Uzbekistan to say goodbye to the place they had always called home.
The sisters paid tribute to Andrew and Alice for building far more than a successful hotel and restaurant. They had created a place filled with warmth, hospitality and memories, where strangers felt welcome and lasting friendships were formed.
They also thanked everyone who had eaten in the restaurant, stayed at the hotel, worked with them, supplied the business or supported the family over the years.
Through its charity events, cultural celebrations, support for NHS staff and the everyday welcome offered to customers, the Garden Hotel has earned a lasting place in Bangor’s community.
As Andrew and Alice begin their retirement, their family’s farewell captures what the hotel will always mean to them:
“The keys may be handed over and the building may belong to somebody else, but our memories can never be sold.”
“You were never just our business.
“You were our home.”
