Trying delicious food in Hong Kong was one of the things I was looking forward to the most! We found these places by recommendations on TripAdvisors, different travel blogs about Hong Kong and places we walked by near our hotel (we stayed at the Kowloon Shangri La). What surprised me most was how western a lot of the restaurants were in Hong Kong, particularly around our hotel in Kowloon. Where we stayed felt like the Darling Harbour of Hong Kong - international restaurants with relatively higher prices.
Torimen Yakitori Bar
This was an accidental find and a wonderful surprise. We found this place as it was next to another restaurant we wanted to try, but had to wait 45 minutes for a table. So we wandered next door to Torimen for cocktails while we waited and were pleasantly surprised. This is a Japanese bar style restaurant with communal tables. The cocktails here were the best I have ever had in my life! The bartender serving us made these cocktails in front of us and it was very entertaining watching how intricate his designs were. We later found out that he created the cocktail menu himself - very impressed! I ordered a rosemary passionfruit cocktail. It is presented to you with the rosemary in flames which provided the most amazing aroma. Matt ordered a Yakult drink - can you believe Yakult in a cocktail! And it was so delicious, I didn't think it would be. We came back here a different night for dinner (mainly to enjoy their cocktails again). They serve their food on skewers and it is designed for you to get a lot of dishes to share - as one dish usually had 2 skewers on them. We regrettably didn't try their noodle bowls, but saw another table order this which looked absolutely delicious. The food was a bit pricey for what was served, but I think that is because we basically ordered a whole bunch of skewers. I'd recommend to go for their noodle bowls plus a couple of skewer dishes to get your value for money.
Ho Lee Fook
Out of all of the restaurants we visited, this was my absolute favourite! If you could go to only one place for dinner - I would 100% recommend this. Ho Lee Fook is located in SoHo, which is such a great area in the Central of Hong Kong island. The choice of places to eat in SoHo are endless. Ho Lee Fook is a very funky Chinese restaurant that prizes itself of fusion Cantonese dishes. If you are from Melbourne, Australia, I am talking Chin Chin level...possibly better. The menu is designed in true Chinese style in the sense of ordering dishes to share, you wouldn't order a dish for yourself. I would recommend the sesame fresh salad, calamari and the DIY San Choy Bow. For 4 of us, we ordered about 6 dishes and we were full. We didn't have room for desert (shame on us)! The vibe in this place is bustling. It was very loud and everyone around us seem to be chatting excitedly - be weary if you don't prefer loud music (I loved it!). We arrived at our table at 9.30pm and left around 11pm. To our surprise, people were just sitting down to start their dinner at the time we left, which we found out was pretty common in Hong Kong for people to be out really late at night - "the city that never sleeps". The only downside of Ho Lee Fook is we had to wait for our table for nearly an hour and a half, so I would go with a plan of where to go whilst you wait (there are lots of restaurants and bars you could sneak in for a drink nearby). The quality of the food definitely made the long wait absolutely worth it. I'd go back here in a heartbeat!
London House - Gordon Ramsay
Well I didn't expect to visit a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Hong Kong! This restaurant was a short walk from our hotel, so it was an easy decision to dine here after a long day of travelling and site seeing. The décor was a modern yet vintage British vibe - very sophisticated. The menu serves classic British pub food and the options are in true Ramsay style: simple, which I loved. My favourite dish we ordered was without a doubt the Baked Camembert cheese with toasted dipping bread - soooo delicious. It was recommended by the waiter serving us as a popular dish and I can see why, I highly recommend this to you also. The price range for food was relatively on the expensive side, but you'd expect that with non-local food in Hong Kong. As the night went on, a live band started to play and added to the relaxing atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed eating here and I am still looking for utensils and a recipe to make Baked Camembert at home (to my soft-cheese-avoiding husband's dismay). I knew Hong Kong was a British colony, but I didn't expect seeing such a huge influence of their colonial era. This was rather comforting to me and this perhaps stems from growing up with hints of colonial living in Fiji which was also a British colony. London House just topped this off for me!
Mak's Noodles
Matt and I had heard of this humble eatery joint from one of my favourite travelling bloggers Jessica Stein AKA Tuula Vintage (visit her Hong Kong blog post here). This was on the list of places to try before we even arrived in Hong Kong. Mak's noodles is located not too far from the Temple Street Night Markets, so we naturally headed there after a day of market shopping. The place itself doesn't look like much when you arrive. It honestly could've been something straight out of Nadi town where only the locals go to eat! We went in and each of us ordered beef brisket noodle soup with a side of vegetables in oyster sauce to share. The food was so simple yet so delicious - all the flavour was in the broth. The beef was so tender it melted in your mouth. I'd definitely recommend the beef nodles and oyster sauce vegetables, I hear the plain noodles is also a popular dish. As we were eating, an English speaking tour group arrived to our surprise. We didn't realize it was famous enough to be part of a tour. The price of their dishes is very affordable, this was easily the cheapest meal we had in Hong Kong. If you are visiting the Ladies markets or the Temple Street Night Markets, don't leave the area without having a meal at Mak's!
These are the places that stood out to me the most during our time in Hong Kong. We always had a big breakfast in the hotel (I love a good hotel breakfast buffet!) everyday and we usually weren't hungry until early dinner time. A couple of nights we were so exhausted we only had enough energy to dine downstairs in the hotel. The Shangri La had a great Tapas bar that seemed to be always full whenever we went to eat there and the food was delicious.
Hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you ever get the chance to try these places out in Hong Kong.
Sincerely,
Tia
Torimen Yakitori Bar
This was an accidental find and a wonderful surprise. We found this place as it was next to another restaurant we wanted to try, but had to wait 45 minutes for a table. So we wandered next door to Torimen for cocktails while we waited and were pleasantly surprised. This is a Japanese bar style restaurant with communal tables. The cocktails here were the best I have ever had in my life! The bartender serving us made these cocktails in front of us and it was very entertaining watching how intricate his designs were. We later found out that he created the cocktail menu himself - very impressed! I ordered a rosemary passionfruit cocktail. It is presented to you with the rosemary in flames which provided the most amazing aroma. Matt ordered a Yakult drink - can you believe Yakult in a cocktail! And it was so delicious, I didn't think it would be. We came back here a different night for dinner (mainly to enjoy their cocktails again). They serve their food on skewers and it is designed for you to get a lot of dishes to share - as one dish usually had 2 skewers on them. We regrettably didn't try their noodle bowls, but saw another table order this which looked absolutely delicious. The food was a bit pricey for what was served, but I think that is because we basically ordered a whole bunch of skewers. I'd recommend to go for their noodle bowls plus a couple of skewer dishes to get your value for money.
Ho Lee Fook
Out of all of the restaurants we visited, this was my absolute favourite! If you could go to only one place for dinner - I would 100% recommend this. Ho Lee Fook is located in SoHo, which is such a great area in the Central of Hong Kong island. The choice of places to eat in SoHo are endless. Ho Lee Fook is a very funky Chinese restaurant that prizes itself of fusion Cantonese dishes. If you are from Melbourne, Australia, I am talking Chin Chin level...possibly better. The menu is designed in true Chinese style in the sense of ordering dishes to share, you wouldn't order a dish for yourself. I would recommend the sesame fresh salad, calamari and the DIY San Choy Bow. For 4 of us, we ordered about 6 dishes and we were full. We didn't have room for desert (shame on us)! The vibe in this place is bustling. It was very loud and everyone around us seem to be chatting excitedly - be weary if you don't prefer loud music (I loved it!). We arrived at our table at 9.30pm and left around 11pm. To our surprise, people were just sitting down to start their dinner at the time we left, which we found out was pretty common in Hong Kong for people to be out really late at night - "the city that never sleeps". The only downside of Ho Lee Fook is we had to wait for our table for nearly an hour and a half, so I would go with a plan of where to go whilst you wait (there are lots of restaurants and bars you could sneak in for a drink nearby). The quality of the food definitely made the long wait absolutely worth it. I'd go back here in a heartbeat!
London House - Gordon Ramsay
Well I didn't expect to visit a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Hong Kong! This restaurant was a short walk from our hotel, so it was an easy decision to dine here after a long day of travelling and site seeing. The décor was a modern yet vintage British vibe - very sophisticated. The menu serves classic British pub food and the options are in true Ramsay style: simple, which I loved. My favourite dish we ordered was without a doubt the Baked Camembert cheese with toasted dipping bread - soooo delicious. It was recommended by the waiter serving us as a popular dish and I can see why, I highly recommend this to you also. The price range for food was relatively on the expensive side, but you'd expect that with non-local food in Hong Kong. As the night went on, a live band started to play and added to the relaxing atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed eating here and I am still looking for utensils and a recipe to make Baked Camembert at home (to my soft-cheese-avoiding husband's dismay). I knew Hong Kong was a British colony, but I didn't expect seeing such a huge influence of their colonial era. This was rather comforting to me and this perhaps stems from growing up with hints of colonial living in Fiji which was also a British colony. London House just topped this off for me!
Mak's Noodles
Matt and I had heard of this humble eatery joint from one of my favourite travelling bloggers Jessica Stein AKA Tuula Vintage (visit her Hong Kong blog post here). This was on the list of places to try before we even arrived in Hong Kong. Mak's noodles is located not too far from the Temple Street Night Markets, so we naturally headed there after a day of market shopping. The place itself doesn't look like much when you arrive. It honestly could've been something straight out of Nadi town where only the locals go to eat! We went in and each of us ordered beef brisket noodle soup with a side of vegetables in oyster sauce to share. The food was so simple yet so delicious - all the flavour was in the broth. The beef was so tender it melted in your mouth. I'd definitely recommend the beef nodles and oyster sauce vegetables, I hear the plain noodles is also a popular dish. As we were eating, an English speaking tour group arrived to our surprise. We didn't realize it was famous enough to be part of a tour. The price of their dishes is very affordable, this was easily the cheapest meal we had in Hong Kong. If you are visiting the Ladies markets or the Temple Street Night Markets, don't leave the area without having a meal at Mak's!
These are the places that stood out to me the most during our time in Hong Kong. We always had a big breakfast in the hotel (I love a good hotel breakfast buffet!) everyday and we usually weren't hungry until early dinner time. A couple of nights we were so exhausted we only had enough energy to dine downstairs in the hotel. The Shangri La had a great Tapas bar that seemed to be always full whenever we went to eat there and the food was delicious.
Hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you ever get the chance to try these places out in Hong Kong.
Sincerely,
Tia