Hong Kong - Good Eats / Best Dim Sum

[xcoldricex]

Alright - residents of HK and people that have spent time there.. what are the good places? I was tight on money while I was there (and having spent the 5 months prior to my stay in China, everything was expensive as fuck to me) so I didn't indulge in great food as much as I would have liked - mostly ate at 茶餐厅's (i think that's what they are called... or maybe my chinese has gone to shit).

Any good hidden joints? Best cheap eats? Best tea set? Best noodles? Best 叉烧肉/包? Any must eat dishes that someone may overlook? Best high-ish end? And most importantly who has the best dim sum? (my dim sum experiences in HK weren't very great unfortunately- I made it to some old place in central that was supposed to be famous but it turned out to be crappy, and some Jade Harbor something place on the TST promenade... never made it to Maxim's.. but i think its just hype?)

[marksandspencers]

There's dim sum all over TST, and for breakfast it's probably easiest to go for congee and yo ja gwei (don't know how to type cantonese, and that's the closest english i've got). Or go for ho fun or something. Oh and if you're ever in that Silvercord mall with the I.T sale shot and various other bits and bobs, go opposite to Ocean Terminal (the place with Marc Jacobs and the ferry) and look for the Italian restaurant which has an awesome view of Hong Kong Island. Also in Hung Hom (yes, I know it's a bit out of the way) there's an awesome buffet at the Harbour Plaza hotel, and opposite to it there's a Japanese place that serves rotobayaki and all sorts. Kobe beef there was pretty good.

What do you usually order when you go for dim sum?

I usually order

Lo Bat Gow (turnip paste)

Haa Cheung Fun (prawn chinese lasagne)

Fung Jao (chicken feet)

Haa Gao (prawn dumplings)

Siu Mai (pork dumplings

Gawn Chow Know Hau (beef noodle mixture, you'll probably know what I'm talking about (these approximations sound really silly))

Oh and I recently discovered this little app for smartphones and PDAs which will guide you round. Haven't tried it out yet.

Hope this all makes sense to you!

[xcoldricex]

thanks - looking for specifics though. i'm familiar with dim sum, just want to know where its actually very very tasty. the dim sum i had in guangzhou was better than the dim sum i had in hong kong 　(not to mention 50x cheaper).

oh by the way - there's some yahoo map of hong kong that's super useful... i don't remember the web address now - but its very detailed and you can find atms, post officies, individual buildings and see what kind of building it is (if its a commercial building, a restaurant, etc.)

[Swych]

海都海鮮酒家, Victoria City Seafood Restaurant in Sun Hung Kai Centre(http://www.shkp.com/en/scripts/property/property_mall_shk.php)

has the best dim sum i've ever had. but it might be slightly pricey and out of the way.

or Zen in Pacifice Place is fairly good too. These are sorta high end dim sum places.

In Causeway Bay, here's a sweet 茶餐厅 style Shang Hainese food place down Jardine Crescent (I think thats wut it's called). Its a long street with small noodle shops. The entrance to the street is facing the Sogo/ Mitsukoshi (with big tvs) crossing, next to Giordano. If you go there, ask for the sticky rice. Tsee Fan and Soy Milk. The scallion pancake is also amazing there. For cheap too. I tend to buy shit from there then go bum in the LAN cafes post clubbing. There are a bunch of good cheap joints down there.

Its strange cos HK's food is always ripped off some other Cuisine. All the cheap stuff tends to be either 茶餐厅 or Japanese inspired restaurants(and knowing ur familiarity with that, i dont think its a good idea to tell u ramen and curry stores in HK...) If you do want that sorta stuff, gimme a shout tho.

As for nicer restaurants, I think Harlan's in IFC serves up solid Continental cuisine (Italian/ French i dunno how to classify anymore dishes). They have a mean $180 burger, with truffle mayonnaise in it if that sorta thing tickles your fancy. $300 meal.

I insist to this day that Dan Ryan's Chicago Ribhouse does the best bbq rip i've had in my life (i'm here in the USA for college and am sitll looking for something of the same calibre). That too will set u back $200/ meal tho.

There's a dessert buffet in the Grand Hyatt hotel (Tiffan) that should be a meal in its own right (BIG selection) and that tends to go down well with the ladies.

If you want good fresh seafood (for cheap), then you can make an adventure out to Sai Kung, on the water where there are streets of restaurants with freshcatch that you can pick for them to cook etc.

If you trully want someting special tho, head to Macau man. I'll give you enough good restaurants there for 3 days straight.

[xcoldricex]

thanks, this is great. yeah zen has branches in shanghai that i've been to - that people said was very comparable to HK's zen. i'll check these places out, sounds promising.

yeah man macau, i'm catching flight to bangkok from there, so maybe i can head up early just to eat. i just went to a'lorcha while i was there on a day trip.

[Landy]

there's cheap eats everywhere in HK. just walk around and look and see if they have magazine reviews or articles pasted up on the outside. then you know its good. i, myself, just love going to temple street for seafood. its pretty filthy but the food is pretty damn good.

speaking of macaun food, there's a pretty decent one in TST on one the streets that's near nathan road. its got a rooster in the front. i think its just called macaun restaurant. its cheap too.

i don't know about dim sum. my parents just take me to places and i don't even remember the names. i have been a few times to the maxim's near the city hall. i'd say its pretty good.

you really can't go wrong going to tsui wah. its one of the more famous cha chaan tengs that serve a variety of dishes. they have locations all around HK. a popular one is the 24 hour one that's right by lan kwai fung.

the guy can't be serious about dan ryan's being the best bbq... maybe in HK, but that's not saying much.

[Swych]

Landy- recommend a better rib than Dan Ryan's and i'll def be impressed. Maybe I have a low bar, i dunno but i could always use better.

Coldrice- u know a'lorcha lol. yeah its probalby my fave. Yo you mentioned 'high-ish' end. I heard a Robuchon restaurant opened up in HK. another of his l'Atelier ventures. If you're wiling to splurge i always recommend his food. always.

[Dezzydez]

Cold -

Travel HK twice a year, lived there for a while too and places open and close regularly. Nice Dim Sum I have had is Zen in Pacific Place (Admiralty) and a Chinese restaurant inside the Convention Centre (name escapes me now). Just come back from HK and this time had Dim Dum at local place "Treasure Lake", (at base of HK Escalator) off Queens Road Central. Local, very cheap.

Local diners are cheap and plentiful, had an amazing steak and straw mushroom ho fun dinner set in one such place at Tin Hau (HK) for HK$ 52.

Found 2 great local places in Causeway Bay - Go to Causeway Bay Plaza 1, on the 5/6 floor there is a great Korean, "Ah Rum..something" and also Causway Bay Plaza 2 for "Little Lamb" hotpot restaurant. Also at the back of Paterson St there is a Thai joint called Chilli & Spice doing HK'fied Thai food.. All very reasonably priced.

[Landy]

Landy- recommend a better rib than Dan Ryan's and i'll def be impressed. Maybe I have a low bar, i dunno but i could always use better.

Coldrice- u know a'lorcha lol. yeah its probalby my fave. Yo you mentioned 'high-ish' end. I heard a Robuchon restaurant opened up in HK. another of his l'Atelier ventures. If you're wiling to splurge i always recommend his food. always.

well there's tony roma's in HK and if you're a member of the american club, they often have good bbq. but who goes to HK to eat at an american chain restaurant anyways? i just thought it was funny that you said dan ryan's was the best bbq you ever had, even compared to america. i can name a ton of places in kansas city and texas that would make your ribs stick proper.

[flyraid]

sounds like fun!

[Swych]

rice, any food reviews?

[xcoldricex]

Victoria Harbor Seafood Restaurant in Wanchai

(Sun Hung Kai Centre - easily accesible from the Star Ferry port).

I went in the afternoon for some excellent dim sum.

make sure to try their XO Sauce Changfen (flat rice noodles cooked in XO sauce) - simple but very tasty (comes with dipping sauces)

extremely good xiao long bao (dumplings with soup and meat inside) - these were better xiaolongbao than i've had in shanghai - but its funny that the best i've had in shanghai is from a taiwanese restaurant [din tai feng in xintiandi] - go figure).

some of the tastiest cuipi ruo (crispy skin pork) i've had - i haven't been to yung kee's though (does it live up to the hype?)

mango pudding was good (but how can you really mess that up?)

i wasn't impressed with their spare ribs, they were very bland and bore no resemblance to spare ribs i've had before. i also took some bbq pork buns to go and some other pastry i forgot - because they were delayed for some reason or another - served as very good midnight snacks.

[xcoldricex]

for seafood i headed out to Sai Kung (edge of Kowloon - more towards New Territories - you have to take a bus from one of the MTR stops)

Cheun Kee Seafood Restaurant - the first of a string of seafood restaurants along the shore of the town. decide to eat here because they had a board with famous celebrities who have eaten there - including jackie chan himself. if its good enough for jackie, must be good enough for me

pick your seafood from tanks out front , they throw it in a bag and they'll ask you how to cook it later (giving you recommendations along the way).

steamed oysters with glass noodles and garlic - should've ordered more oysters.

cheese lobster - i had no idea what to expect with this one, but it came highly recommended. they cook the lobster in some sort of cheese sauce (reminiscent of an italian pasta sauce) and it is served over a bed of fettucine.

i have no idea what these things are, but they sure tasted good.

cajun-style fried ???

it's on the expensive side though - the meal totaled about US$100?

[xcoldricex]

i also went to the modern china restaurant at times square (offer cuisine from various provinces in china）- went here because we were trying to go to southern beauty in causeway bay, but they were closed do to repairs - grr.

wasn't happy with the meal - maybe we just ordered the wrong things as we were in a rush and didn't put much thought into it and i was worried about missing the plane to bangkok from macau later in the afternoon (which we did not thankfully, but we were pushing it...). so i wasn't really thinking about the meal - but then again a good meal would've made me happier. sorry about the crappy pictures, but they were taken under those circumstances and low, low lighting (hence the flash).

ordered the sichuan dish 水煮鳗鱼片 (water boiled slices of eel - but its boiled in "water" that has 324092 chili's in it) hardly any 花椒 (sichuan pepper) was in it - which is the point of the dish. i was pissed off because i miss sichuan food and wanted something 'xian'.

some 红烧 (red sauce cooked) meatball dish that was on the recommended menu. not very tasty either.

some spicy chicken cold dish - this was decent.

and a sharkfin vegetable dish that was the only good dish but for some reason have no picture of.

[xcoldricex]

swych, good call on the victoria harbour seafood restaurant

i didn't get to eat that much more- my girlfriend has been in beijing for the past few months so she had a craving for italian food all the time - so i ended up at places like spaghetti house and fat angelo's. i would've liked to try the higher end restaurants like Isola but didn't have the time/energy.

[fade to black2]

for seafood I go to Tung Kee in Sai Kung...it's the best i've ever had there and i guess it's a plus i'm tight with the owner.

also i think tsui wah is garbage...overpriced 'tea restaurant' (say it in chinese it'll make more sense)...if you're in that area in central might as well go across the street to Yung kee and get some roast goose rice.

[xcoldricex]

i think tsui wah is a good experience to be had - not for the great food but just because its part of hong kong life - it's like having to have the daipaidong experience. i like chacanting's a lot - you can get almost anything you'd want and i love me some yuan yang (half coffee half tea).

[kauflust]

extremely good xiao long bao (dumplings with soup and meat inside) - these were better xiaolongbao than i've had in shanghai - but its funny that the best i've had in shanghai is from a taiwanese restaurant [din tai feng in xintiandi] - go figure).

I miss those things. It's impossible to get good Chinese food in Madison. Fuck.

[Swych]

Hey i'm glad it worked out for you man.

you can't go to Tsui Wah anytime earlier than 2am. its just not a done thing.

[ayn]

if u'r still there or in hk next time u have to go to Mak-Un Kee for the best wonton mein in the fucking world, it's close to the midlevel escalator... 77 Wellington Rd, Central 2854-3810

Lo Fu Kee just down the street is pretty fucking good too...

they have a Mak-Un Kee in Richmond Canada, it's almost as good, but the original shop at Wellington is def the shit...

[masuerte]

Awesome thread! AAAAAAWESOME!

Should I start a new thread if I want to know info about Dim Sum (quick places) in American cities like NYC, San Fran and L.A.?

[fade to black2]

IMO best place for dim sum in north america: Toronto (Richmond Hill to be specific)

[ayn]

best dim sum in the SF bay area is Koi Palace in Daly City.

[xcoldricex]

start a new thread motherfuckaaaz