RESTAURANTS
Find food, find food. "Find food" is the slang of "to work" in local Hong Kong language, implying that the major reason to work is to eat. Eating is their important culture, Hong Kongers work hard, and they are gurus for food. You can find cuisines from all around the world. Each year, the International Food Festival held in Hong Kong draws tens of thousands of visitors. Even though you are in Hong Kong for business, certainly you have time to taste some good food. Now, follow me to find food, I've picked the best 10 eateries for you -
10 best eateries :
- Spring Deer Restaurant
- Spring Deer has been in Hong Kong for over 30 years, the restaurant has a 70's look, but clean and comfortable. Several years ago it underwent a remodeling to achieve a modern look, however, the staff found the new look did not harmonize with the restaurant theme, so the owner remodelled it again to resume an old-style look. The waiters are all long-term employees, and are very enthuaistic in talking with you about the restaurant's history, and the owner's past business ventures.
- Location : 42 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
- Phone : (852)23664201, reservation is recommended.
- Cuisine : Beijing food.
- Specialty : Peking roast duck - Spring Deer has a fixed number of Peking roast ducks each day as marination takes hours. It only serves the entire duck so do not go there alone, allow 20-30mins cooking time,
- Chim Chai Kee Noodle Shop
- Around a decade ago Mark's Noodle Shop was the best, Chim Chai Kee opened branches nearby every Mark's Noodle Shop so as to accomodate noodle customers who did not like the long queues in Mark's. Although Mark's noodle was good and famous, it was expensive and small portion; While Chim Chai Kee emphasized on cleaniness eating environment, coupled with its fast improvement in noodle taste, and a reasonable price, customers gradually switchd to Chim Chai Kee. Nowadays, Chim Chai Kee has the best wonton noodle.
- Cuisine : Hong Kong style noodle
- Location :
- 98 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong. opening hrs : 9:00am - 10:00pm. Exit D2 of MTR Central Station, then walk southbound(uphill) along D'Aguillar Street, right on Wellington Street.
- 153 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong. opening hrs : 9:00am - 10:00pm. Exit D2 of MTR Central Station, then walk westbound along Queen's Road Central, the shop is on your right.
- Specialty : Wonton noodle.
- Around a decade ago Mark's Noodle Shop was the best, Chim Chai Kee opened branches nearby every Mark's Noodle Shop so as to accomodate noodle customers who did not like the long queues in Mark's. Although Mark's noodle was good and famous, it was expensive and small portion; While Chim Chai Kee emphasized on cleaniness eating environment, coupled with its fast improvement in noodle taste, and a reasonable price, customers gradually switchd to Chim Chai Kee. Nowadays, Chim Chai Kee has the best wonton noodle.
- Yung Kee Restaurant
- Yung Kee was founded in 1942 as a tiny stall selling roast goose, the restaurant went through wars and crises, the owner's belief has never been changed - his secret recipe of roast goose will become popular. He's correct, this gourmet roast goose soon became famous and attract a lot of tourists everyday. This award-winning restaurant is not particularly expensive, but many Hong Kong billionaires and celebrities come to dine here often. It is moderately decorated, not too fancy but practicle, there is an Indian security guard at the door, and will help to open restaurant door and car doors for you. To fully enjoy the roast goose, you should go there for dinner, after 5:30pm.
- Location : 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong. Exit D2 of MTR Central Station, then walk southbound(uphill) along D'Aguillar Street, right on Wellington Street.
- Phone : (852) 25221624, reservation is recommended for weekends and Chinese festivals.
- Business hrs : 11:00am - 11:30pm daily except the first 3 days of Lunar New Year. It serves dim sum as lunch and high tea until 5:30pm.
- Cuisine : Chinese food.
- Specialty : Roast goose. Upon request, the restaurant can pack the roast goose in a special way so that tourists can take it home by plane, so Yung Kee's roast goose is nicknamed "Flying Roast Goose". Other dishes that you should try : perserved eggs with pickled ginger, bbq suckling pig, shredded jelly-fish.
- Yuk Yip dessert
- Yuk Yip is a street dining stall. Table and chairs are shared with its neighbouring noodle shop, very primitive, service is not great but fast.
- Location : outside of 2 Elgin Street, near Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong.
- Phone : (852)25443795
- Opening hours : Noon to late night.
- Specialty : bascially all desserts here worth trying - seasame soup, read bean soup, green bean soup, sticky rice balls (tong yuen), you can even mix any 2 of the desserts, the most popular one is read bean soup with seasame soup. price is low, every dessert is around HK$7.00.
- Felix
- Felix is a high-class, ultra-contemporary restaurant, with splendid view of the Victoria Harbour, besides dining, don't miss out the chance to visit the specially designed restrooms.
- Location : 28/F Peninsula Hotel, Kowloon.
- Phone : (852)23153188. Reservation is recommended, children under 12 are not allowed.
- Cuisine : Western.
- Opening hrs : dinner(6:00pm-10:30pm), snack(10:30pm-12:30am), drinks(6:00pm-1:30am).
- Dress code : casual smart. No flip-flops, sneakers; For men - full lenght pants and no sleeveless shirts.
- Specialty : steak.
- Luk Yu Tea House
- Luk Yu is famous for its Dim Sum, and is a popular place for local celebrities and business people. It is still decorated the same way as when it was opened in 1933, tables and chairs with marble inlay, wooden booths, spittoon, split-level, half-vase on the walls, and an Indian security guard to get the door for you.
- Location : 24–26 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong.
- Exit D1 of MTR Central station, walk south bould(turn right) along Pedder Street, right on Queen's Road Central, left at the first set of light on D'Aguilar Street, right on Stanley Street. Luk Yu is on your left.
- From the Central Star Ferry Pier, walk southwest bound along the raised walkway(over Man Yiu Street), go down to the MTR Central station, do NOT enter any gate, but get out of the station from exit D1, walk south bould(turn right) along Pedder Street, right on Queen's Road Central, left at the first set of light on D'Aguilar Street, right on Stanley Street. Luk Yu is on your left.
- Phone : (852)25235464
- Cuisine : Dim Sum, Cantonese dinner.
- Opening hrs : 7:00am-10:00pm daily, dim sum is served until 5:30pm
- Specialty : bbq pork bun, taro cake
- Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao
- Jade is a quick service restaurant that provides simple but good service. In busy hours, customers queue up outside the restaurant waiting their numbers to be called. Tables are small so do not order too many at a time, you can always order more later on, service is fast.
- Location : Shop 2018-2020, Level 2, IFC Mall 2, 8 Finance Street Central, Hong Kong.
- Phone : (852)22953811
- Cuisine : Northern Chinese food
- Specialty : xiao lung bao(meat dumpling), orthmantus dessert.
- Bo Innovation
- Bo Innovation is an very unique diner and serves non-traditional dim sum. The food has traditional dim sum as base, but uses more precious ingredients such as truffle and carviar, whereas the main ingredient in dim sum, such as prawns in prawn dumplings, remain unchanged. Presentation of food is good, the ultensils are nice looking, tables are new and pretty.
- Location : Shop 13, 2/F, J. Residence, 60 Johnston Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
- Phone : (852)28508371
- Opening hrs : lunch(12:00pm-3:00pm, Mon-Fri).
- Cuisine : Dim Sum, Cantonese food dinner
- Specialty : dim sum
- Lin Heung Tea House
- Lin Heung is an 80-year old tea house. With no glamerous decoration, no great service, not prestige location, Lin Heung is always packed with customers. In Lin Heung, you have to share a table with other customers that you don't know, no one arranges table for you, so you need to find vacant seats yourselves, or wait behind seated customers. For tea, you can choose to use tea pot to hold tea for your group, or individual covered tea cups which requires a little practice to pour tea to your own cups. Lin Heung has 2 stories, ground floor sells Chinese style cakes, whilst a stair case leads to second floor which is the restaurant/tea house. At the stairway, there is a 2 feet by 3 feet white board, you can find signatures of many celebrities including Anthony Bourdain.
- Location : 160-164 Wellington Street, Hong Kong.
- Exit D1 of MTR Central station, walk south bould(turn right) along Pedder Street, right on Queen's Road Central, left at the first set of light on D'Aguilar Street, right on Wellington Street. Lin Heung is on your left.
- From the Central Star Ferry Pier, walk southwest bound along the raised walkway(over Man Yiu Street), go down to the MTR Central station, do NOT enter any gate, but get out of the station from exit D1, walk south bould(turn right) along Pedder Street, right on Queen's Road Central, left at the first set of light on D'Aguilar Street, right on Wellington Street. Lin Heung is on your left.
- Phone : (852)2544-2556
- Cuisine : Dim Sum, Cantonese dinner.
- Specialty : lotus seed paste bun, bbq pork bun, taro cake, big bun(chicken bun)
- Malaysian Chinese Restaurant - currry briquete, red bean ice
- Malaysian Chinese Restaurant is a half-decade-old restaurant that is famous for its curry dishes. It's decoration is of very tipical 60's-70's style, after several major renovation, it remains the same style.
- Location : G/F., 12 Jordan Road, Jordan, Kowloon.
- Phone : (852)23673552, (852)23665302.
- Cuisine : Hong Kong style Malaysian Chinese food.
- Specialty : currry briquete(beef stew) with rice, red bean ice dessert. Red bean ice dessert is a Hong Kong specialty, many tea restaurants sells this, but Ma Wah uses shave ice, with non-diluted evaporated milk, so it tastes much better.
Types of eateries
Besides restaurants, cafe, and fast food chain stores, Hong Kong has other types too -- Tea cafe(Cha Chaan Teng) - commonly found in busy areas of Hong Kong, fast service, standard food, and affordable price. They have a la carte menu, set menu and daily special, in busy hours, you had better order food from a set menu or daily special menu, otherwise the waiting time could be long. Food that tea cafes serve are non-fancy, non-complicated local Hong Kong household food. Usual breakfast is ham, egg, toast and macroni in soup. Usual beverage in a tea cafe is milk tea, coffee, yin-yeung(half milk tea, half coffee), and lemon water. Usual food for high tea is chicken wing, toast, French toast, sandwich, noodles. Your bill will be placed on your table before you are done with your food, to pay the bill, simple take the bill to the cashier, tipping is not required, cash only.
- Street food stall(Dai Pai Dong) - an open-air food stall, the main portion is sheltered, whilst the dining tables and chairs may or may not be sheltered. It demonstrates the unique dining culture and history in Hong Kong. The HK government is gradually getting rid of Dai Pai Dong, so no new Dai Pai Dong is allowed or licenced. Existing Dai Pai Dong licences are attached to owners only, and are not transferrable, so once the owner dies, there is 1 less Dai Pai Dong in Hong Kong. Tipping is not required, cash only.
- Tea house(Cha Lau) - Traditional Chinese style restaurants which serves dim sum in day time, and Cantonese food at evenings. They are usually big in area, but packed with tables and chairs. To dine in tea house or any Chinese style restaurant, in addition to the price of food that you order, you are required to pay the price for tea and sauce(several dollars per person, depending on rank of the tea house.), and 10% service charge, they are all shown on you bill.
- "Dim sum" is small dishes of delicatessan, similar to the Spanish tapas, common dim sums are prawn dumpling, bbq pork bun, rice roll, ribs in black bean sauce, and is to be served alongside with Chinese tea such as Po Lei, Sau Mei, Oolong.
- To go "Yum Cha" is to go to tea house and eat dim sum. Yum Cha hours are anytime between early morning (some older style tea house opens at 5:00am) and mid afternoon, lunch time is full of commuters.
- Food complex - one of the ways to get rid of Dai Pai Dong is to move them to food complexess in government-built civic centers or municipal services buildings. So these food complex are composed of several small individual food stores, prices are usually affordable except the one in Happy Valley, where the whole complex sells not-that-great seafood.
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10 best Hong Kong local food
Due to its geographic location, and wide exposure to different parts of the world, Hong Kong developed some uniqe food that is an assimilation of various food culture. The below food items (marked with **) are my top favourite 10 Hong Kong food, I strongly recommend you to try them all.- bakery - the most famous bakery includes egg tart**, pineapple bun**, cocktail bun, and paper cup cake**. Most bakery shops make good bakery, but don't pick the bakery shop which sells pasteries that are too yellowish - too much colouring. The last Governer of Hong Kong, Christopher Patten, likes the egg tarts from Tai Cheong Bakery, so all of a sudden the shop became famous, with multiple branches and expensive. However, I found its bakery has too much artificial colouring and pricy, taste good though. Here are some good choices for Hong Kong style bakery -
- Happy Bun Bakery, Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Exit C1 of MTR Admiralty station, walk east bound along Queensway, which continues to Queen's Road East, Happy Bun bakery will be on your left. Ask if they have freshly baked pineapple buns, you just want to eat it when it is still burning hot!
- New Blue Pool, Caine Road, Mid Levels, Hong Kong. Exit D1/D2 from MTR Central station, walk southwest bound, turn right on Queen's Road Central, you will find a mid-level esculator in front of 100 Queen's Road Central, take the esculator up, exit at Caine Road, walk west bound along Caine Road, New Blue Pool Bakery will be on your right.
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Tai Cheong Bakery, 32 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong. Exit D1/D2 from MTR Central station, walk southwest bound, turn right on Queen's Road Central, you will find a mid-level esculator in front of 100 Queen's Road Central, take the esculator up, exit at Lyndhurst Terrace, walk west bound along Lyndhurst Terrace, Tai Cheung Bakery will be on your right. - beverage - milk tea(**), red bean ice. They are served at every tea cafe. Milk tea has a well-known nickname, stocking milk tea, as tea cafes use a stocking-like bag to filter out tea leaves. Milk tea and red bean ice might be available in other types of eateries but cannot compete with those served at tea cafes.
- snack - egg roll**(plain, or with shredded meat and/or seasame inside), almond cookie**(plain or chunky style), chicken pie, curry puff, small egg puff**(492 King's Road, North Point, Hong Kong).
- breakfast - rice roll wrap donut**. Many Chinese-style breakfast stores sell this item, but the best ones are those with smooth warm rice roll and crispy donut, served with soya sauce, you have to eat it fast so the donut does not get soggy. Ocean Empire maintains this quality quite well, just ask for exchange if you are not satisfied with the quality, this dish at Ocean Empire is called 'Twisted Doughnut Ricesheet Roll'.
Another common breakfast item is turnip cake, the most famous turnip cake shop is Wai Kee Congee Shop (82 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong. Exit D2 of MTR Central Station, then walk westbound along Queen's Road Central, right on Cochrane Street, right on Stanley Street, the shop is on your left), it is recommended by many local food critics. Also try rice roll and minced beef congee.
- lunch, dinner -
- fried noodle**(crispy style) - served at tea house at dinner time.
- lobster in cheese sauce** - Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant makes extraordinarily tasty cheese sauce. Prince Edward Road West (near South Wall Road), Kowloon City, Kowloon. Cash only. To get there is a bit tricky as MTR does not have access to it.
- Take bus route 101 or 111 ( from Hong Kong Island) outside Vicwood Plaza, 199 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, (from Kowloon) at Tsim Sha Tsui East / Hung Hom Station, get off at the station of Argyle Street Playground, Ma Tau Chung Road.
- An easier way is to take a taxi from MTR Mong Kok station.
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Food/snack for souveniour
There are some snacks that you can bring back home, here is some suggestions - egg roll, almond cookie, honey glazed lemon, and Chinese old-style bakery. They are light, small size and packed properly, perfect for taking them to go.go to top
Exotic foods
For those of you who are in search for exotic foods, you have to extend your trip to the Mainland China. Hong Kong has very limited exotic foods.- Question : I saw a table with a 1-foot wide hole in the center, could that be...? Where do they keep the monkeys? --> Answer : The table is for steam pot (Chinese style hot pot). A gas stove is placed in the hole so as to heat up a big pot of water. Eating or killing a monkey for food is illegal in Hong Kong.
- Question : My first trip 20 years ago to Hong Kong I saw many stray dogs, this time there are much less. Where have they gone? Which restaurant sells....?.
- Question : Is that a circus? I saw snakes and toads in cages, getting ready for a show?.
--> Answer : Amid the nusiance and danger of stray cats and dogs caused, the HK Government established a team of experts and volunteers who moved stray cats and dogs to the City Pound for people to adopt. If you see stray cats and dogs in Hong Kong you can contact the 24-hr emergency hotline of the Hong Kong Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at (852)27111000. Eating or killing cats or dogs for food is illegal in Hong Kong. There are some people still doing it illegally in the very rural areas, this website does not encourage nor recommend.
--> Answer : They are food.
Snake bile is said to be able to heal chronic respiratory discomforts. To cure a long lasting cough, mix a snake gall bladder with wine, drink it quick as it is very bitter, then your cough will get better.
The most famous snake restaurant is the Ser Wong Fun Restaurant, G/F 30 Cochrane Street, Central, Hong Kong. You can get there by exit D1/D2 of the MTR Central station, walk southbound onto Queen's Road Central, then west bound along Queen's Road Central and left on Cochrane Street, the restaurant is on your left. Ser Wong Fun Restaurant does not make tourism any easy, it does not have English store name, no English menu, waiters do not even have a mechanical smile and speak only a little English. Don't let these things frustrate you, you are there just for the snakes.go to top
Restaurant rows
Hong Kong has big population, and they are always busy, so eating out is very common. As demand is high, restaurants are everywhere, and there are plenty of locations where restaurants are packed together. These became handy for tourists as they can walk along the entire area and pick a restaurant that looks good for them.- Soho - Staunton Street, Elgin Street and Shelly Street, Central, Hong Kong - MTR - Exit D1 of MTR Central station, walk east bound on Pedder Street, right on Queen's Road Central, you will find an esculator in front of 100 Queen's Road Central, that is one of the entrances for the mid-level esculator, follow the esculator to go uphill, after passing Hollywood Road, SoHo starts.
- Food Forum - Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong - Exit A of MTR Causeway Bay station takes you to Times Square, then take a scenic lift to the 10th-12th/F.
- Soho East - Tai Hong Street, Lei King Wan, Hong Kong - Exit A at MTR Sai Wan Ho station, walk northeast bound along Tai On Street, turn left at Lei King Road, turn right on Tai Hong Street , Soho east starts.
- Knutsford Terrace, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon - Exit B1 of MTR Tsim Sha Tsui station, walk north bound along Nathan Road, right at Kimberley Road, left on Observatory Road, left on Knutsford Terrace.
- Whampoa Gourmet Place - Formerly Choi Lan food court, property is owned by the Hutchison Corporation. Choi Lan is a famous Hong Kong food critic, eateries in the Choi Lan food court are all Choi Lan's choices, so they are all good, or at least, Choi Lan's favourites. Several years ago, the co-operation between Choi Lan and Hutchison discontinued, now that Hutchinson runs the food court alone and renamed it as Whampoa Gourmet Place, most of the eateries continue operating in that place, so food quality is still very good.
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