[HK] Another dim sum thread

[chloehk]

Let's take Man Wah, Lung King Heen, Golden Leaf, etc. out of the equation...

What are your top 3 *cheap-or-mid-priced* dim sum spots in Hong Kong?

Meaning <approx 150 HKD/person and you can get a reservation the week before (or wait in line). Your lazy person's everyday dim sum spots that are reliably awesome.

Also, what are the killer dishes to order?

[PhilD]

A couple more for Chloe's mid range dim sum thread. We had a very good lunch at Zen in Pacific Place last Sunday. It is a good menu with some interesting choices and is an ideal spot to rest from all that window shopping we spent $328 (for two) and probably had one dish too many.

On Saturday a less good experience with lunch at "Dim Sum" in Happy Valley, pretty ordinary dishes, not that expensive but on par with other mid priced places, so many better options. Its is a nice old room with wooden booths and it seems popular with the HV expat crowd. Not really recommended unless you are passing and starving.

[PhilD]

OK this may not qualify as strictly HK but as many HK residents and visitors head across the border to Shenzhen it is worth mentioning. The Shangri-La Hotel has a restaurant called Shang Palace that serves a ALC or an all you can eat RMB98 a head option i.e. if you order more than RMB98 a head from the ALC it is capped at the set price.

The overall quality is pretty good, easily as good as many HK mid tier places, and there are some quite interesting and novel dishes. We really enjoyed the meal, good food, well priced and wonderful service. A great respite from the shopping "bargains" whilst the optician made up my bargain prescription glasses in two hours flat.

[PhilD]

Chloe - we went to Heichinrou for a second visit for Friday lunch we over ordered by about a dish, our bill was $380 for two so comes in close to your target price. I really liked the flavours and I thought the quality of each dish was very good. A place with some interesting selections - we loved the "Termite Fungus Steamed Dumplings".

[klyeoh]

What's termite fungus? Is it similar to the spongey bamboo fungus which HKers call "choke sung"?

http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_abo...

[PhilD]

Good question - it could have been a dodgy translation.

[Charles Yu]

Tim Ho Wan for their B-B-Q pork buns - a must!! Cheapest and best tasting Michelin star dish on earth! $HK14 for 3 buns! Oozing weith yummy fillings!

I would pay a bit more and have a meal at Yan Toh Heen!! Great food and great view. Pay extra for some 'great' tea! One of my best dim sum experience!

[NilesCable]

The B-B-Q pork buns at Tim Ho Wan really were absolutely fantastic. Just to think that I will have to wait one year now to taste them again makes me want to cry!

Thank you again Charles for this experience!

[Charles Yu]

You are most welcome my friend! Actually, our dim sum horizontal tasting at only US$10 per person was quite fun! BTW, did you manage to get to the Mak An Kee noodle place?!
Are you on facebook? I've posted tons of food related photos there!

[NilesCable]

Yes, I got to visit Mak An Kee and I ordered their Superior (?) Wonton Noodle Soup, it was quite good.

And I am not on facebook, it is the internets devil to me. ;)

[harryrodgers]

I had the pleasure of trying those at Tim Ho Wan a few months ago. Thumbs up for the "bo lo bao" style crust (similar to Fu Sing in that regard). Going to try the sham shui po branch sometime soon to see if the dim sum is of the same quality.

For a different, less sweet, version of barbeque pork buns, you might try those at Prince Restaurant (One Peking) although the same recommendation cannot be made for their other dim sum. However, they do an excellent "Zhongshan" pigeon - almost as good as the pigeon I sampled in Zhongshan recently.

[chloehk]

This could easily become a best-cha-siu-bao thread!

We recently had dim sum at Ming Garden in Wan Chai and thought their cha siu bao was lovely -- big fluffy buns and especially tangy sauce.

Also, their sweet buns (custard filling) were really good.

I quite like Ming Garden. Nice people there too...

[Charles Yu]

Well! I can start!
Here are photos of some of Hong Kong's best 'B-B-Q pork buns' varietals:
Fu Sing's 'best bun under the sky' - pineapple char-siu-bao
Yan Toh Heen's traditional CSB
One Dim Sum's char-siu-'buns'
Tim Ho Wan's - crumble crust char-siu-buns.

[chloehk]

Yum -- those baked buns from One Dim Sum look great!

I'll add two more:

-- Baked cha siu bao from Golden Leaf (breaking my own rule)
-- Crispy-topped pork buns from Che's Cantonese

[Charles Yu]

One Dim Sum is way over-rated!! Most products very mediocre! Definitely does not deserve Michelin star status!! Michelin inspectors wrong again!!

[TomEatsHK]

Harry - I've heard from quite a few people that the SSP branch is much worse in quality.

I have to admit I've given up queuing for THW and now just go to LKH / Fu Sing (Causeway Bay) for my BBQ pork buns. No queues and not that much more expensive!

[harryrodgers]

Thanks Tom for the info re: SSP Tim Ho Wan.

per Charles Yu & various other CH'ers recommendation for Yan Toh Heen, I went there for dim sum yesterday and was impressed. There were some interesting (read: different) combinations of ingredients in the dumplings which worked...for the most part. Don't go expecting a traditional yum cha though. That said, the more conventional har gow and the sharks' fin dumpling w/ hokkaido crab were excellent, and that's coming from someone who rarely orders sharks fin. Thanks for the recs.

[TomEatsHK]

That is one to add to the list. Interestingly the next place I am looking forward to going to is Hoi King Keen in the other Intercontinental for their dim sum ish dish of pan-fried Chiu Chow dumplings.

The other dishes I am interesting in (beggar's chicken, smoked scallops) are not really in the dim sum category though and I suspect the overall price will be well over 150hkd!

[Foodnut8]

Hoi King Keen beggar's chicken video I took last summer. Excellent dish..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75TqzN...

[harryrodgers]

Tom,

Just got back from dinner at Hoi King Heen and imho the smoked scallops aren't worth ordering.The smoke totally overpowers the scallops and the rose petals are just sugary eye candy.

Shortribs with papaya was excellent and the crystal/glass prawns were generous. The winter melon balls stuffed with salt-preserved vegetable were a very nice touch. The chiu chow dumplings are technically on the lunch/dimsum menu but after a long wait we did manage to get some for dinner - great combination of textures and flavours. Amazingly I managed to find room for a water chestnut / osmanthus ?egg-drop? soup for dessert - it was a little too sweet but nontheless excellent. The florals really came through.

Due to last minute reservations, we didn't get to sample the beggar's chicken but that's high on my list of dishes to try in the near future. FWIW the dish requires a 2 day advance notice.

[TomEatsHK]

You might have been there the same time as us? A group of us went their on Sunday for dinner.

I would say the only outstanding dish for me was the shortribs/ papaya with the others being better than many comparable restaurants. I'll hopefully grab the pics off the camera sometimes soon and put them up on Flickr!

We didn't order the beggar's chicken either (despite putting together a menu well in advance) given that it is so pharcically expensive. It seemed like a way to max out the cost of the meal and for only one dish.

One thing which we did take advantage of was that HSBC cards are 20% though!

Tom