Hong Kong restaurant dinning guides
Perhaps the number one highlight of Hong Kong is the cuisine. Not only is it a showcase of traditional and modern Cantonese cuisine, the various regional cuisines from around China, such as Chiuchow and Sichuan are all well represented. There are also excellent Asian and Western restaurants as well.
Residents tend to eat out a lot more than in other countries. Perhaps because of this eating out can be fairly cheap, as long as you stick to local restaurants, and avoid the often overpriced western counterparts.
Whilst dining out it is easy to find places offering mains for well under $80 ($US10) offering both local and international food. Fastfood chains such as McDonald's and Cafe de Coral offer meals in the vicinity of $20. Mid-range restaurants generally charge in excess of $100 for mains, whilst at the top end the city's best restaurants (such as Felix or Aqua) can easily see you leave with a bill in excess of $1200 (including starters, mains, desserts and drinks).
Tipping
When tipping, tourists can make fools of themselves. Tipping is not a local tradition, except among some green expats who find it difficult to shake off their North American habits. If you do tip, you should know that the money is very unlikely to reach the hands of the person who gave you such good service. In cheaper restaurants, you should certainly take all your change, not to do so may be seen as patronising. In more upmarket places a ten percent service charge will have already been included in your bill, so many local people will accept that as the tip. Should you wish to tip, it is acceptable to leave a few coins.
Above all, Hong Kong is known for its dim sum, delicately prepared morsels of Cantonese cuisine served from a never ending procession of carts and eaten with tea. Dim sum is usually eaten for breakfast or lunch and is often the focus of family get-togethers on Sundays. An excellent place to go for dim sum is City Hall in Central - just be sure to ask for the dim sum restaurant. If you go to some restaurants in the more local areas (such as Kennedy Town) ask if they have an English menu. In such restaurants customers are often required to write their requirements on a tick-box sheet and hand them to the waiter.
Besides dim sum, Hong Kong is also known for its roasted meats, especially roast goose though duck and pork are also readily available. Roast meat is typically served with rice or noodles. Congee is also widespread in Hong Kong and is best eaten at the smaller eateries, though many of them have only Chinese menus. Nevertheless, that shouldn't put you off and nobody can claim to have experienced the cullinary culture of Hong Kong without having a taste of its congee.
Hong Kong also has some pretty good snacks, the most famous among ethnic Chinese tourists being a sweet pastry known as Sweetheart Cakes (lo po peng) and the most famous shop selling this is Hang Heung, located at Yuen Long in the New Territories, though there are branches located throughout all of Hong Kong.
For those who wish to eat Hong Kong's famous seafood, there are different locations in Hong Kong's coastal areas where freshly caught seafood is cooked and served. Places like Sai Kung, Po Doi O, Lei Yu Mun, Lau Fau Shan are good places to find restaurants specialized in seafood. These restaurants have different tanks to keep the seafood alive and will present live seafood specimens to their patrons for them to choose before cooking. Raw fish, known as yee sang (??) in Hong Kong, is a relatively popular dish and is prepared differently from Japanese sashimi.
Many exotic delicacies like abalone, conch and bamboo clam can be found for sale in many seafood restaurants. The price of seafood increases where the species is a rarity. Some of the fish and seafood for sale maybe endangered by overfishing, so the WWF urges consumers to be aware of buying endangered species. Try to avoid buying juvenile fish that have not had a chance to breed. A vigorous campaign has been fought in Hong Kong to stop people buying shark fin.
For those who want to have other, less endangered, exotic food, snake meat is a popular delicacy in Hong Kong. The winter months are the season for eating snakes and can be bought from a number of restaurants that specialise in this surprisingly tasty meat.
As with Chinese cuisine elsewhere, food in Hong Kong is generally eaten with chopsticks. The usual etiquette when using chopsticks apply, such as not sticking your chopsticks vertically into a bowl of rice. Dishes in smaller eateries might not come with a serving spoon though they would usually provide one if you request.
Where to eat
A uniquely Hong Kong-style eatery starting to make waves elsewhere in Asia is the cha chaan teng, literally "tea cafe", but offering fusion fast food that happily mixes Western and Eastern fare: innovations include noodles with Spam, stir-fried spaghetti and baked rice with cheese. Usually a wide selection of drinks is also available, almost always including the popular tea-and-coffee mix yuenyeung , and perhaps more oddities (to the Western palate) like boiled Coke with ginger or iced coffee with lemon. Orders are usually recorded on a chit at your table and you pay at the cashier as you leave.
Hong Kong also has a staggering range of international restaurants serving cuisines from all over the world. These can often be found in, though not restricted to, entertainment districts such as Lan Kwai Fong, Soho or Knutsford Terrace. Of these Soho is probably the best for eating as
Lan Kwai Fong is primarily concerned with bars and clubs and on Friday and Saturday nights especially can become crowded with revellers. Top chefs are often invited or try to make their way to work in Hong Kong.
- Cooked food centres (Dai Pai Dong) provide economic solutions to diners, and they are popular with local citizens. There are many cooked food centres in various districts. The cooked food centre in Sha Kok Estate, Sha Tin is easily accessible by MTR. It is adjacent to Sha Tin Wai Railway Station. It is highly recommended to tourists, as this is where you will find true Hong Kong cuisine and experience a local's way of life.
- Barbecue (BBQ) is a popular local pastime. Many areas feature free public barbecue pits where everybody roasts their own food, usually with barbeque forks. It's not just sausages and burgers - the locals enjoy trying a variety of food at BBQ, such as fish, beef meatballs, pork meatballs, chicken wings, and so on. A good spot is the southern part of HK Island. Every beach is equipped with many free BBQ spots. Just stop by a store, buy meat, drinks and BBQ equipment. The best spots are Shek’O (under the trees at the left hand side of the beach) and Big Wave Bay.
- Wet markets are still prevalent. Freshness is a key ingredient to all Chinese food, so frozen meat and vegetables are frowned upon, and most markets display freshly butchered beef and pork (with entrails), live fish in markets, and more exotic shellfish, frogs, turtles and snails. Maids who cook for their employers usually go to the market everyday to buy fresh ingredients, just like the restaurants.
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