A long post about the wonderful foods we ate in Hong Kong

I really enjoyed some of the food I ate in Hong Kong. Everything is so tasty, the portions are just right, and some of the dishes just tasted better in general. Here’s what I ate, broken out by meal type.

Breakfast

Kam Wah Cafe was our very first meal in Hong Kong! This was literally two blocks from where we stayed so after our long flight we met up with our sister and grabbed food here. Kam Wah Cafe is known for its pineapple butter buns and chicken wings. We tried both out, as well as some Hong Kong styled milk tea (so good) and beef fried noodles. The pineapple butter buns and Hong Kong styled milk tea were well worth the type. We actually went back another day for breakfast and got the breakfast specials, which were huge and really satisfying.

Capital Cafe is Hong Kong styled cafe with set meals – we ate here for lunch after we got back from China. There are multiple locations but we went to the one near our hotel in Mongkok. We ordered sets that came with soup noodle dishes and ham and egg platters. The drinks were extra but worth it. My mom ordered the pork chop noodle soup. This meal was alright – we didn’t order anything special but this remains a popular place to visit for tourists (it showed up on a ton of recommendation / itineraries for HK).

Tim Ho Wan is the least expensive Michelin Star restaurant (its website says “The World’s Most Inexpensive Awarded Dim Sum Restaurant”). There are franchises all over the world (including New York) but we decided that when in Hong Kong, one must eat at Tim Ho Wan. Tim Ho Wan is known for its roast pork buns and they did not disappoint at all – it was a perfect combination of salty from the roast pork and sweet from the soft, slightly crispy topping. Tim Ho Wan had a huge selection of dimsum and the best part? No wait! We went to the Sham Shui Po location which is the original Tim Ho Wan. The Sham Shui Po neighborhood in Hong Kong is full of locals, but the Tim Ho Wan had a ton of foreigners. We were glad we stopped by for dimsum.

 

Australian Dairy Company is known for its fresh milk and quick, quick service. It also usually has a line going out the door – but the line moved quickly for us. Located in Jordan, we took the train several stops to come to this location, then waited for about 10-20 minutes to get seated. Once we got seated our waiter serviced us, took our orders, and got our food to us right away. The waiters were really efficient and had no time for tourists taking pictures.

They’re known for their milk and their scrambled eggs. We got some breakfast sets with the usual ham macaroni soup, toast, and HK milk tea. We also tried some milk – which came semi warm and tasted like unsweetened condensed milk – and scrambled egg toast, which didn’t taste like anything too special. The ham macaroni soup tasted different from the other places we ate at though (it tasted like there was more than just MSG in there, like they actually used meat to make the broth) and that was my favorite part of the meal. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes as well so I can’t say it was my most favorite meal in Hong Kong.

Lunch

Note: For the most part we did not have lunch – we usually ate such a huge breakfast that we were full during lunchtime until around mid-afternoon.

We did go out of our way on our last day to have both breakfast (at our favorite place Kam Wah for our last HK milk tea and pineapple buns for a while) and lunch at Kau Kee Beef Brisket. Like all the other popular restaurants we found online, this place had a line. Located in Central, we walked about 15 minutes to find this restaurant and waited about 20 to 30 minutes in line outdoors before getting seated. We ordered a curry beef brisket noodle soup dish and a regular beef brisket noodle soup and it was really tasty. The beef brisket was tender in both noodle dishes and the curry soup had a bunch of flavor (and wasn’t too spicy!). The portions were smaller than I expected but still filled me up. There were larger noodle dishes but those cost much more.

Dinner

On our first day with our mom in Hong Kong we went to Yat Lok Roast Goose restaurant in Central. When we arrived in Central at night we found it popping – it was kind of like Times Square at night, except with higher end luxury brands and narrower streets. Central is also where Lan Kwai Fong (the bar/party area) is so it wasn’t surprising that it was popping at night. We walked about 10 minutes to find the restaurant in a smaller street. Hong Kong is supposed to have some of the best roast goose, and Yat Lok apparently is known for its roast goose. When we went we got seated quickly and ordered quickly. We ordered a different Chinese BBQ dishes over noodles and rice. The roast goose didn’t taste too special but it was a good meal after a long day (we had gone hiking up Lion Rock that day so we were super tired and hungry).

Oi Man Sang (愛文生) is a Dai Pai Dong located in Sham Shui Po. Dai Pai Dong refers to an open-air food stand where you eat outside (or you eat inside but there really aren’t any doors so you’re still technically outside). The picture below is not the best picture of food but it shows a little of the background of where we were sitting at the Dai Pai Dong.

The one thing our dad told us about going to Hong Kong is that we had to eat outside at a Dai Pai Dong. It is a quintessential Hong Kong thing to do! And so on our last night in Hong Kong, as our last dinner in Hong Kong (for the trip) – we decided to head to this famous Dai Pai Dong located a few train stops away. Boy did it not disappoint. It was one of our favorite meals of the trip. We ordered beef stirfry with potatoes and peppers, spicy stirfry clams, and fried morning glory. All the dishes were so flavorful that we ended up finishing all three dishes. Although we were eating outside in the heat and sitting at tables with plastic table covers on janky stoops, we didn’t really care because the food was worth it! Would definitely go back and try more Dai Pai Dongs.

Tsui Hang Village is a nicer restaurant located in Tsim Sha Tsui in the Miramar Shopping Center. We went there to grab dinner with a relative and had some really nice dishes there – including mango prawns, winter melon soup, and Peking duck. We didn’t take any pictures as we were with relatives but it’s definitely a place I would go back to if I had to take my family to a nice place.

Dessert/Snacks

Hui Lau Shan is a dessert chain focused primarily on mango desserts! On our first day we got some desserts from the store in Mongkok and it definitely made my night a bit sweeter (ha, get it??). I would go back for this after a meal or as an afternoon snack.

Cong Sau Star Dessert is a delicious Chinese dessert place with various sweet soups, tong yuan dishes, and fruit dishes. It is located in Wan Chai and we came here in the middle of the day to kill time before dinner with our relative in Central.

We ordered some sweet tong yuan soup, sweet tofu soup with mango, tong yuan with peanuts and brown sugar sauce, and durian pancake. It was all so good! There are Chinese dessert places in NYC but some of these things are not on those menus so I’m glad to have had the opportunity to try them out here. In the middle of the day, they also have a % off discount. The store was not too crowded either (we’ve heard that there are long lines after dinner). Would definitely come back.

Taicheong Egg Tarts was so worth the hype for me. We found a location in Central / Soho after lunch at Kau Kee and decided to stop by for an after-lunch dessert! The egg tarts they gave us were still warm – the custard was soft and not too sweet while the tart part was flaky and buttery but still maintained its shape. If I could’ve brought some back to NYC I would’ve.

All in all we had a great food experience in Hong Kong – we had high expectations and it did not disappoint! Although there were some things that we found to be “just ok” there are a ton of places worth coming back to.