Batgung

If you’re planning to visit Hong Kong, you’ll no doubt run into someone who’s lived here, or you’ll read a guidebook or website, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: you’re going to love all that great Chinese food in HK! It’s the world’s best!!

And that’s likely true. There may be other cities that feature more authentic and consistently delicious versions of their local food, but in Hong Kong you’ll find many excellent restaurants representing all the major Chinese cuisines, and some you likely haven’t even heard of.

And yet – if you return to your guidebooks and websites for actual Hong Kong restaurant recommendations, you’ll see the same few restaurants named again and again. Some of these places deserve their plaudits; many don’t.

Since you’re a smart traveler, you know this. So when you arrive in Hong Kong, you decide you’ll just hit the streets and you’ll be bound to find great places at any point because, hey, just look around! There are restaurants everywhere! And again, yes, there are. But when you start trying to pick one, it can get pretty confusing, and for some of us, maybe a bit intimidating. Will the place on the corner have an English menu? It’s already 7:00 pm, and it’s only half full – does that mean it’s a lousy place? And so on.

So the Batgung are here to help you again, with some recommendations for finding good Chinese food in Hong Kong. We’ll give you some general tips, and then a few specific restaurant recommendations. We’ll be adding to the latter list as time goes by, and hope you will, too.

Finding a decent Chinese restaurant: general tips

Look up! If you restrict your search for restaurants in Hong Kong to street level, you will certainly find things to eat, but you will suffer significant culinary deprivation. That’s because many – maybe most – of Hong Kong’s good Chinese restaurants are not at street level. They’re on higher floors in commercial buildings and shopping malls. And, speaking of malls . . .

Mall food is good food If you’re an American like me, you may blanch instinctively if someone recommends you try a restaurant in a shopping mall. You expect over-decorated ‘atmosphere’ with lowest-common-denominator food. But this rule of thumb has no relevance in Hong Kong. Yes, there are mediocre restaurants in shopping malls here, but there are also lots of good ones.

Hotel food is not cheap food The big-name hotels in Hong Kong all have Chinese restaurants on-site. Most serve high-quality food, but they are expensive.

Show up early – or later As MrB has noted, you can show up anytime from early in the day to lunchtime at Chinese restaurants that serve dimsum. These restaurants typically close in the mid-afternoon, and don’t reopen for dinner till around 6:30 pm. Many – even the good ones – will remain quite empty until 7:00 or 7:30, when the dinner crowd really starts coming in. If you come across a Chinese restaurant here that’s already busy before 7:00 pm, it’s a pretty sure bet.

Don’t worry too much about finding English menus Nearly all Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong’s tourist areas have English menus. What they usually don’t provide in English, however, is a list of their current specials. This is a shame, since that list is often so lengthy and varied it comprises a small menu in itself, and usually features seasonal foods at their peak. You can of course order a perfectly satisfactory meal off the regular menu, but you might want to have a look around you, and see if you can identify any dishes that look particularly yummy that don’t seem to be available on the regular menu. A simple point-and-nod will then be enough to convince your waiter you’d like to try that, too!

Some specific recommendations

Here are some Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong’s tourist areas that we Batgung particularly like, with the region or type of Chinese cuisine they specialize in noted. We'll start with broad introductions to the restaurants, but if you're already too hungry to wait you can skip ahead to the list of addresses.

• Maxim Group’s ‘XXXX Garden’ restaurants
  Maxim’s group offers very good restaurants covering a whole range of Chinese regional cuisines. They are not especially cheap, but given their generally authentic, high-quality food, you may find it worth spending a bit more for one or two really good Chinese meals.
  
  
• Lei Garden group Cantonese
  Some of the same strengths – very good, reliable food – and weaknesses – quite spendy – as the Maxim’s group. Lei Gardens are often very busy, so booking is recommended.
  
  
• Kung Tak Lam Shanghainese vegetarian
  Kung Tak Lam is a very moderately-priced and pleasant chain with a couple of convenient locations. I like the Peking Road one better, as it's got an excellent view and is generally more roomy and relaxed.
  
  
• The Peking Restaurant Beijing/northern
  This long-standing temple to the glories of northern Chinese food features the requisite cranky waiters in white shirts and black ties. Pretty good food, and loads of old-fashioned atmosphere.

  The Peking Restaurant is on Nathan Road, near the Jordan MTR station. It’s a bit hard to find. Walk along Nathan Road on the west side of the street, between Austin Road and Jordan Road, look for the sign, then it’s up a red-carpeted stairway.

• The Spring Deer Beijing/northern
  What I said about the Peking Restaurant, but with more tourists.
  
  
• Crystal Jade Shanghainese
  This chain of not-quite-fast-food-but-not-really-full-scale-traditional restaurants has been a huge, and much-deserved, hit in Hong Kong. Excellent food at reasonable prices. The only drawback is the long lines that are almost ubiquitous outside these places!
  
  
• Hak-ka Hut Hakka (a Chinese ethnic subgroup)
  Hak-ka Hut combines an interesting and lesser-known Chinese cuisine at quite low prices, and again this chain has been a massive hit.
  

Here are the above restaurants' branches that are easiest to get to. You can click on a column heading (eg 'Type') to sort the list. Also a couple of abbreviations: 'TST'=Tsim Sha Tsui, and 'CWB'=Causeway Bay.

District	Type	Restaurant	Address	Phone
Admiralty	Beijing	Peking Garden	Pacific Place shopping mall
Admiralty	Shanghai	Shanghai Garden	Hutchison House
Admiralty	Sichuan	Sichuan Garden	Pacific Place shopping mall
Central	Cantonese	Lei Garden	Shop No. 3007-3011, 3/F., International Finance Centre
Central	Cantonese	Tai Woo	92 & 100 Caine Road, Central
Central	Chiu Chow Garden	Chiu Chow Garden	Jardine House
Central	Hunan	Hunan Garden	The Forum tower, Exchange Square
CWB	Beijing	Peking Garden	Lee Theatre Plaza
CWB	Cantonese	Jade Garden	1 Hysan Avenue
CWB	Hakka	Hakka Hut	21/F Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival St
CWB	Shanghai	Crystal Jade	Shop B224 (basement), Times Square	2506-0080
CWB	Shanghai vegetarian	Kung Tak Lam	31 Yee Wo Street
Mongkok	Cantonese	Lei Garden	121 Sai Yee Street	2392-5184
TST	Cantonese	Jade Garden	Star House
TST	Beijing	Peking Garden	Star House
TST	Beijing	The Spring Deer	36-44 Mody Road, 1st Floor	2723-3673
TST	Hakka	Hak-ka Hut	6/F, Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road
TST	Northern / Hot-pot	Tai Fung Lau	1/F Windsor Mansion, 29 Chatham Road South	2366-2494
TST	Shanghai	Crystal Jade	3328 Harbour City, Canton Road	2622-2699
TST	Shanghai vegetarian	Kung Tak Lam	7th floor, 1 Peking Road
TST East	Cantonese	Lei Garden	B-2, Houston Centre	2722-1636
Wanchai	Cantonese	Lei Garden	1/F., CNT Tower, 338 Hennessy Road	2892-0333
Wanchai	Cantonese	Tack Hsin	84-86 Morrison Hill Road, Tsung Tsin Mansion
Yau Ma Tei	Beijing	The Peking Restaurant	1/F, 227, Nathan Road

We’ll be adding more to this list, and as always, readers, we welcome your recommendations!

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Here’s a set of recommendations from Spike over at Hongkietown.

I'd add:

Tai Woo, East Ocean. Tack Hsin and Hoi Tin -- four chains all over HK, very competent and reasonably priced Cantonese seafood palaces and decent dim sum.

Little Sheep -- China-based chain famous for northern style hotpot.

Under Bridge Spicy Crab -- as the name says.

Xiao Nan Guo -- Shanghai-based chain

and reading the Cha Xio Bao blog for lots of great, off-the-beaten path tips.

Mr Tall adds:

I’ve done a bit of googling about for some specifics. I certainly haven’t tried all of these places, and if you know of one that’s moved/closed/terrible, please let us know.

• You can find Tai Woo restaurant branches as follows:

  Causeway Bay Branch:
  27 Percival Street.
  Tel: 2893 0822; 2893 9882

  Shau Kei Wan Branch:
  192 - 198, Shau Kei Wan Road, Sai Wan Ho

  Central Branch:
  92 & 100 Caine Road, Central

  Tsim Sha Tsui Branch:
  14 – 16 Hillwood Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

• There are East Ocean branches as follows:

  5/FL., Miramar Shopping Ctr.,
  132 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.
  Phone: 2317 8889

  Level 3-302, New World Centre,
  Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.
  Phone: 2367 1133

  Shop 3202, Harbour City,
  Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, H.K.
  Phone: 2956 2882

  B1 East Ocean Ctr., 98 Granville Road,
  Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon.
  Phone: 2723 8128

  2/FL., Sun Hung Kai Centre,
  30 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong.
  Phone: 2827 9938

  3/FL., Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road,
  Wanchai, Hong Kong.
  Phone: 2827 8887

  5/FL., CITIC Tower, 1 Tim Mei Avenue,
  Central, Hong Kong.
  Phone: 2877 2211

  Shop G201 The Repulse Bay,
  109 Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong.
  Phone: 2803 1882

• Now how about some Tack Hsin outlets:

  1-13 Sugar Street
  Causeway Bay HK
  2894 8899

  84-86 Morrison Hill Road, Tsung Tsin Mansion
  Wanchai, HK
  2572 0898

  Shop 5, G/F, Pearl Court
  2-12 Holland Street, HK
  2872 6168

  2/F Peninsula Centre, 67 Mody Road
  TST East, Kowloon,HK
  2721 8102

  4/F Chong Hing Square
  601 Nathan Road, Kowloon, HK
  2780 0182

  3 Tak Hing Street
  Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, HK
  2723 2646

• There’s a Hoi Tin restaurant on:

  Elizabeth Bld, Causeway Bay
  Tel: 2891 3886.

• There are Little Sheep hotpot restaurants as follows:

  Wanchai Hot Pot
  Causeway Bay Plaza, Wan Chai
  Tel: 2893 8318

  Mongkok Hot Pot
  16 Kar Lo street, ground floor/1st floor
  Tel: 2396 8816

  Tsim Sha Tsui Hot Pot
  26 Kimberley Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
  Tel: 2722 7633

  Tsuen Wan Hot Pot
  City Landmark, Tsuen Wan
  Tel: 2940 7678

• Now, for the marvelously-named ’Bridge under spicy crab’ restaurant:

  Shop C, G/F., Wah Fat Mansion, 405-419 Lockhart Road,
  Wan Chai, Hong Kong

  and/or

  Shop 6-9, G/F., 429 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
  Tel: 2893 1289 or 2573 7698

• And finally, a Xiao Nan Guo outlet:

  12th floor, Shell Tower, Causeway Bay (i.e. near Times Square)
  Tel: 2894 8899

  I think there may be one in Man Yee building in Central as well, but would appreciate confirmation!