In the corner of his family’s city’s Toronto restaurant, Zeenat Liu’s young son eats a plate of chilli chicken because customers gather around the floor table and around the server.
His son to spend summer in Juh Tung is a “full cycle” for Liu, whose memories of their childhood are filled with the smell of cooking of her parents at that place and the smell of her parents’ cooking.
She also recalls the 15-hours days of her parents as she proudly served the customers who stood out of the door, describing as their “Canadian dreams” after moving from India to Toronto in the early 1980s.
Liu said, “My father worked seven days a week. He only went back to work during the Christmas day, only for the morning, and then he went back to work by himself to prepare for the next day.”
John Tung quickly became a place where his community members could enjoy traditional Chinese cooking with Indian tastes, he said.
Liu and her sister Joana decided to inherit the restaurant six months ago, not only because their parents could retire, but they would not face the fall of US President Donald Trump’s tariff, increasing cost of running a small business and changes in public food habits. All those factors have made it difficult to maintain their Canadian dreams since decades.
Amidst economic uncertainty, owners of a second-generation immigrant business like Liu say how they can take their parents’ legacy, struggling with it-and what it can spend them.
Liu said, “We did not want them to retire to know what he made and ended his hard work in this way.”
“This is really difficult. The fare has increased, inventory has increased, grocery accessories have increased and you can only increase your menu so much that your customers without getting stickers shock.”
Alan Liu, who has no connection with Zeenat Liu, is the owner of Salad King, a Thai restaurant with two places in the city of Toronto. His family moved from Hong Kong to Canada in search of a new opportunity in 1990, and his parents soon took ownership of the restaurant before passing it in 2010.
Due to the impact of the tariff, Liu said that in the last few months the cost of their food has been much faster than “we have seen.” He predicted that their cost for chicken would increase by 50 percent by the end of summer.
He said, “Looking at the business of the second generation, you have to go, ‘okay, so this is what we are doing well. This is what we like to do and we have been doing it for 35 years. But the market is changing,” he said.
“Is this a temporary change? Is it a long -term change? And how are we going beyond that?”
He is proud of keeping the restaurant cheap for families and students, but in addition to tariff effects, people’s food habits have changed since the Kovid -19 epidemic. More people are working from home and they are usually eating less and reducing their expenses, they said.
In two decades, his parents drove the salad king, he said that he never experienced this level of economic uncertainty. He said that he faced recession and even a partial building collapsed, he said, but there is nothing like that.
The whole thing is feeling her “Panch drunk”, Liu said.
“This means that you have been punched several times in the head that you don’t feel anything now. You are basically forever and forever in the mode.”
Family -run restaurants are not just feeling a pinch of the current economic environment.
Maria Kronak, who inherited Kingston of Boutique from her mother, said that one of his suppliers had raised their prices due to tariffs and hopes that others will be seen doing so in future.
“I think our consumers are on their border what they want to pay,” Kronak said, speaking from the storeroom behind the fancy. He also said that some clothing lines have told him that he does not have a production plan for the next spring as he cannot tolerate it.
Kronak’s mother moved from Sweden to Canada in the early 1970s and opened the store. After his mother became ill, Kronak took over, and now her own daughters have joined.
Continuing a family business – and passing it – this means going through all kinds of ups and downs, Chronak said. But whatever makes it worth it, he said, it is hard work and his family has loved it.
Kronak said, “I am proud of what my mother started and what I could make on my own, even without her.” “It’s not about money. It is about the creation of this community of people.”
Back to Juh Tung, Zeenat Liu cache the customers and wrapped the takeout order, while her sister Joana fired a pan in the kitchen and made plates of noodles.
Liu said, “I think my parents always told me – and this is very true about immigrant culture – you put your head down and you work,” Liu said.
Two months ago, the restaurant was on the verge of closure. They took to social media for “One Last Push”, and had more dinners since John Tung, which she hopes she would run.
Zeenat said that John Tung is not just a restaurant – it is a symbol of the communities found in his parents and the community found in Canada.
“To take to the heritage was really likely to do everything with us taking restaurants,” she said.
John Tung has been the eighth member of his family, Liu said, who grew up with four brothers and sisters.
“My hope when I bring my father back, when my mother comes back to meal as guests, they will really be able to sit and feel everything that they put in this restaurant and get it back.”
This report of Canadian Press was first published on July 4, 2025.
Riana Lim, Canadian Press
