Flavours of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a city made for people who love food. From steaming baskets of dim sum and sizzling hot pots to tiny bakeries, street food stalls and seafood restaurants overlooking the water, food is a huge part of everyday life in Hong Kong.

Some of the best meals aren’t necessarily found in fancy restaurants either. They can be tucked into a busy side street, served from a tiny shopfront or discovered simply because someone who lives there knows exactly where to take you.

For us, food became one of the highlights of our week in Hong Kong and, looking back, some of our strongest memories of the city are connected to something we ate.

Is Hong Kong Worth Visiting for the Food?

Absolutely. If food is an important part of the way you travel, Hong Kong is a destination where you could happily spend an entire holiday eating your way around the city.

There is an incredible variety to discover, from traditional Cantonese dishes and yum cha to street food, seafood, hot pot, bakeries and desserts. You can eat somewhere completely different every day, and some of the simplest meals can end up being the ones you remember most.

Hong Kong can be an expensive destination, but eating well doesn’t always mean spending a fortune. Some fantastic food can be found in small local restaurants, bakeries and street stalls, which is all part of the fun of exploring.

Our Hong Kong Food Experience

We were incredibly lucky during our week in Hong Kong because we stayed with our friends, who live there and knew exactly where to take us to eat. Instead of trying to work out the best places ourselves, we had our own local guides introducing us to favourite restaurants, neighbourhood spots and foods they thought we simply had to try.

And we certainly tried.

We spent hours grazing over hot pot, had some of the best yum cha we’ve ever eaten, tried street food and desserts, discovered traditional treats from local bakeries on Ma Wan and headed across to Cheung Chau, where enormous fish balls and a table full of recommended seafood dishes became part of the experience.

One of the most memorable meals of our stay wasn’t in a restaurant at all, but a beautiful homemade chicken curry laksa cooked by our friends’ neighbour.

Then there were the pan-fried dumplings from Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai Pan-fried Buns. We loved them enough to return three times during that first week, and they have since become a little tradition whenever we can work an overnight Hong Kong stopover into our travels.

By the end of the week, one thing was very clear to us: Hong Kong really is a food lover’s heaven. And when you combine all that incredible food with everything else there is to see and do, spending seven to ten days here suddenly doesn’t seem long at all.

Table of Contents

• Is Hong Kong Worth Visiting for the Food?
• Our Hong Kong Food Experience
• Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai Pan-fried Buns
• Yum Cha & Dim Sum
• Hong Kong Hot Pot
• Eating Our Way Around Cheung Chau
• Street Food, Bakeries & Sweet Treats
• Coffee by the Harbour
• Discover Hong Kong on a Food Tour
• A Few Tips for Eating in Hong Kong
• Final Thoughts

Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai Pan-fried Buns

Some food places are good enough that you remember them long after you’ve left. Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai Pan-fried Buns was one of those places for us.

Our friends took us there during our week in Hong Kong, and after that first visit there really wasn’t much discussion needed. We went back three times.

Their speciality is Shanghai-style pan-fried buns, cooked until the bottoms are golden and crispy while the dough stays soft and fluffy. Inside is a savoury filling surrounded by hot, flavourful broth, so there is definitely a technique to eating them without wearing half the soup.

In fact, there were instructions at the restaurant showing you how to tackle them. Bite a small hole in the bun first, carefully sip the hot broth, and then eat the rest. Do not just bite straight into one unless you fancy wearing your lunch.

The shop had also received Michelin recognition, but what mattered to us was simply how good those buns were.

Our Hong Kong Layover Tradition

That first week wasn’t the end of it.

When we got home, we decided we would simply learn how to make them ourselves. How hard could it be?

As it turns out, very hard. They were fiddly to make, we couldn’t master that incredible flavour and our attempt was definitely not going to rival the ones we’d eaten in Hong Kong.

So we came up with a much easier solution.

Cheung Hing Kee has now become our Hong Kong layover tradition. If we can arrange our flights to give us an overnight stop in Hong Kong, we’ll head into the city, get our dumpling fix, spend the night and head back to the airport for our next flight.

It might sound like a lot of effort for a plate of pan-fried buns, but after our attempt at making them ourselves, taking the Hong Kong layover seems much easier.

Yum Cha & Dim Sum

You can hardly talk about eating in Hong Kong without talking about yum cha. Sitting around a table sharing baskets and plates of different dishes is as much about the experience as it is the food.

Our friends took us for yum cha during our stay, and it was some of the best we have ever had. Wellington’s Dragons Restaurant comes pretty close, but there was something about eating it in Hong Kong that took it to another level.

What Makes Yum Cha So Good?

The best part is being able to order a selection for the table and try a little bit of everything.

Depending on where you eat, you might find:

• Steamed dumplings filled with prawns, pork or vegetables
• Siu mai, usually filled with pork and prawns
• Char siu bao, soft steamed buns filled with barbecue pork
• Rice noodle rolls with different fillings and sauces
• Spring rolls and other fried dishes
• Small plates of meat, seafood and vegetables
• Sweet dishes to finish

What really stood out for us in Hong Kong was the freshness of the flavours. The herbs, seasonings and ingredients had that authentic flavour we associate with eating throughout Asia, where even dishes we already knew seemed to taste just that little bit different.

Good to know: Yum cha is best enjoyed with a group because you can order more dishes and share everything. Don’t be afraid to order something you don’t recognise either. Some of our best food experiences in Hong Kong came from simply trusting our friends and trying whatever arrived at the table.

Hong Kong Hot Pot

Hot pot was another Hong Kong food experience we were keen to try, and it turned out to be one of those meals where you really need to arrive hungry.

The restaurant our friends took us to was all-you-can-eat. We chose the meats we wanted, then had a huge selection of other ingredients to add to the bubbling broth at the table and cook ourselves.

The Hot Pot Experience

Part of the fun is that there is no need to rush. We spent a good few hours sitting around the table, cooking, eating and going back for more.

There was plenty to choose from, including:

• Thinly sliced meats that cooked in the broth within seconds
• Seafood and fish balls
• Fresh vegetables and mushrooms
• Noodles
• Tofu and other additions
• Sauces and condiments to create your own dipping sauce

As the meal went on, the broth became richer from everything that had been cooked in it, so the flavours kept changing too.

For us, hot pot was just as much a social experience as a meal. There was something really enjoyable about sitting around the bubbling pot together, trying different combinations and grazing for hours.

Good to know: If you haven’t tried hot pot before, don’t worry about knowing exactly what to do. We had our friends to guide us, but the fun is really in trying different things. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time and, most importantly, turn up hungry.

Eating Our Way Around Cheung Chau

Our day trip to Cheung Chau Island wasn’t only about exploring the island. Food very quickly became part of the adventure too.

Cheung Chau is particularly well known for its fish balls, and these weren’t the little fish balls we were expecting. They were around the size of a golf ball, served on skewers and had a soft, chewy texture.

Those Famous Fish Balls

We had to try them, of course, and they were absolutely delicious.

You’ll find fish balls being sold around the island with different sauces and seasonings, making them an easy snack to grab while you’re wandering the streets.

But we certainly didn’t stop there.

Seafood by the Water

Later we settled in at one of the seaside restaurants for a proper meal. Rather than trying to work out what to order ourselves, we took the easy option and listened to the people who knew better.

Between recommendations from our friends and the restaurant manager, we pretty much tried everything they suggested.

Plates began arriving at the table filled with different seafood dishes, and it became one of those long, relaxed meals where you keep trying just one more thing.

Sitting beside the water, eating fresh seafood and enjoying the slower pace of the island was a completely different experience from eating among the busy streets of Hong Kong.

Good to know: Come to Cheung Chau with an appetite. Trying the local food is part of the experience, and we’d definitely leave room for both the fish balls and a seafood meal by the water.

Street Food, Bakeries & Sweet Treats

One of the things we loved about eating in Hong Kong was that not every food experience needed to be a planned meal. Sometimes it was simply something we spotted while walking around, a local bakery our friends recommended or a sweet treat that looked too good to walk past.

We tried all sorts during our week, from street food and desserts to traditional treats from the small local bakeries on Ma Wan Island, where we were staying.

The bakeries were particularly interesting because we could wander in and choose things we might never have thought to order from a restaurant. Some we recognised, others we had absolutely no idea what they were, which was half the fun.

And then there was durian.

You certainly don’t have to look very hard to find it in Hong Kong. We saw durian desserts and treats in plenty of places, although we noticed it was considerably more expensive than what we’d found while travelling in Malaysia.

Good to know: This is where having someone local with you can be brilliant. If you don’t know what something is, ask. Hong Kong is a great place to be a little adventurous with food, and you don’t always need to know exactly what you’re ordering before giving it a try.

Coffee by the Harbour

Among all the eating, it was also nice to occasionally slow things down with a good coffee.

We found some lovely little cafés around Kowloon district, where we could grab a coffee, sit for a while and simply enjoy the surroundings. With ferries and boats moving across the water and that unmistakable Hong Kong skyline in the background, even stopping for coffee could become part of the sightseeing.

It was a nice change of pace from the markets, busy streets and full days of exploring, and sometimes exactly what we needed before heading off again.

Tohu Tip: If you spot a café with a harbour view and you’ve got nowhere you need to be, stop. Some of the nicest travel moments are the ones you didn’t plan.

Discover Hong Kong on a Food Tour

Even though we were lucky enough to have friends showing us some of their favourite places to eat, we also joined a walking and food tour through Kowloon.

This gave us a different experience again. Along with tasting local foods, we learnt more about the neighbourhoods we were walking through, the markets we visited and some of the stories behind what we were eating.

More Than Just the Food

What we enjoyed most was that the tour combined food with exploring Kowloon. Between stops we were walking through busy streets and markets, seeing everyday life and learning more about the area from our guide.

Along the way we were able to:

• Try a variety of local foods
• Visit small local eateries
• Explore markets and neighbourhoods
• Learn more about the dishes we were trying
• Discover more about Kowloon as we walked

Tohu Tip: A food tour can be a great way to explore a neighbourhood rather than simply moving from one restaurant to another. Go hungry because there can be a surprising amount of food along the way.

A Few Tips for Eating in Hong Kong

With so much food to choose from, it can be tempting to plan every meal before you arrive. We found some of our best experiences came from mixing places we knew we wanted to try with whatever we discovered along the way.

• Be adventurous: Try something even if you’re not completely sure what it is.
• Share dishes: It means you can taste far more without filling up too quickly.
• Look beyond the fancy restaurants: Small local eateries, bakeries and street stalls can be just as memorable.
• Leave room for snacks: There always seems to be something else worth trying.
• Ask for recommendations: Locals know their food, so if someone suggests a dish, give it a go.
• Don’t rush: Experiences like yum cha and hot pot are meant to be enjoyed, not squeezed into a busy sightseeing schedule.

Final Thoughts

Hong Kong was already a destination we loved exploring, but the food became one of the things we remembered most about our time there.

We were incredibly lucky to have friends who knew where to take us, but Hong Kong also makes it very easy to discover great food for yourself. From yum cha and hot pot to seafood on Cheung Chau, local bakeries, street food and those unforgettable pan-fried buns, there always seemed to be something else to try.

For us, that is a huge part of what makes Hong Kong worth spending more than a couple of days in. Give yourself time to explore, eat, wander and then eat some more.

And if Hong Kong happens to work as an overnight stop on your next journey, well, we can think of at least one very good reason to leave the airport. 😂

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