Heritage Tea House is my rainy day happy place. As a cozy, tucked away haven Heritage Tea House…read moreoffers an ambiance that calls for a large comfy chair and a good book you just can't put down - but instead you will find yourself seated at a wooden table gazing at Asian art surrounding you. There's something tranquil about this place as each table has its own tea kettle heater, the staff are always ready to take your order, and once the food comes out you will think you have found your way to heaven. I typically go for lunch and get the lunch set - a steal at HK$40 - including tea and dumplings with noodles. I often get the butterfly cookies (2 for HK$10) just to top off this delightful experience. Something about this magical place on a rainy day makes for the perfect relaxation during lunch to get me recharged to make it through the rest of the day. Come early or late though as there is limited seating to be had!

Located just steps away from the A2 entrance to the Yau Ma Tei MTR stop, Tung Tat Food Shop (通達食店)…read morehas been serving street side Hong Kong style food snacks for years. The daytime is usually filled with lines of folks looking to score any of their various street foods, which sometimes includes yours truly. Somehow the exterior has gotten worse over time. While it's as recognizable as any place, there were days where the restaurant looked much nicer. If one looks past beyond the lines, there is indoor seating available. It is every bit as tight as other HK eateries, with folks often sharing tables and not particularly a good fit for large groups. The place is clean and interestingly has a lot of portraits of pets. Most folks are gunning for their curry fishballs and cheung fun rice rolls, which can be directly accessed from their street side window. The fish balls have good texture and that spongy exterior is good with the pseudo spicy curry sauce. I love the rice rolls with a little peanut butter sauce and sesame, which is semi-addicting. There is also their siu mai, which seems on par with many of the food stalls, but is better with a bit of sweet soy and chili oil. Washing it all down with their cold and sweet soya milk (凍豆漿) is highly recommended. Since they're constantly crowded, the service works very quickly. I don't recall them accepting credit cards, but I have always paid in cash or with an octopus card. Compared to their Mong Kok location near the Flower Market, I would still choose this one in YMT.

TIP: MTR - Yau Ma Tei exit A2…read more I've only tried the curry fish balls and the siu mai. Both are good for a quick snack. Every time I walk by, I see people buying from the little take out window. They also have tables inside for normal dining. I've only gotten food to go. I enjoy the food here and I'd recommend giving it a try if you're in the area. SERVICE: At the take out window, you just tell them what you want and they prepare it in front of you and you just pay them right there. I usually pay in cash but I think they also take octopus card. I forgot to ask if they have English menus but at first glance, all visible signs are only in Chinese.

After the bowl of dan dan noodles, we headed straight for a fish soup noodles place called 魚鱻魚湯專門店…read morewe had seen while exploring what was offered in the area. This type of cuisine is my mom's territory. While I love the fish soup itself, my mom loves the stringy rice noodles. This place was packed with a constant stream of customers. You eat on these blue plastic stools and pay at the front cashier when you are done. One of the staff was so nice to carefully explain and simplify the menu and options down for us when she saw us struggling/taking a longer time to order than most others. My mom got a bowl of fish soup with rice noodles, 扎肉(Vietnamese sausage), and 魚鰾 (swim bladder). We also got a side of green steamed choi sum veggies. I haven't had fresh fish swim bladder like this in probably 10 years. We just don't eat this in Toronto anymore. It was sooo freshy, soft, tender, yet gooey at the same time. It was so good. The Vietnamese sausage was thicker and more fragrant than the ones I've had in Toronto. It was interesting but quite good. Appearance-wise, it looked very bland actually. The rice noodles were not to my liking at all since they were so hard in texture. The fish soup was amazing -- so flavourful and simple and clearly devoid of any MSG. A neighbouring diner was eating a bowl of fish noodles with the entire steamed fish in it! Tail, head, bones, and all. The rice noodles (or you could also choose rice) was served separately. It looked like such a wholesome and "ching" option. If we return again, I want to try the whole fish soup as well as their fried fish skin.

If you like fish cake, this is the place to be. It is one of their signature dishes. They make…read morethe fish cake fresh and the skin is pan fried to perfection, it is really crispy and flavorful. They are also well known for their fish with noodle soup. We ordered the whole fish and it tasted tender and juicy. They started to run out of fish after we ordered, so get their early if you can to get what you want. Also had the fried fish skin, tasted awesome too. None of the fish items were fishy. This is authentic food and you will not find many tourists here. We didn't have to wait long at all to get seated, we got there around 8:30 on a weekday. Don't bring your date here, the decor can use some work, and the kitchen is visible by others depend where you sit, and you can see them cleaning fish guts out. Prices are very reasonable and affordable.

Known for fun gor (粉粿) and steamed chicken feet & pork ribs with rice (鳳爪排骨飯), they make dozens and…read moredozens per hour. Plus dim sum and other steamed rice varieties. It's so full!! But people eat fast and leave fast, so you never have to wait too long to sit. However you can order to-go because the rice and dim sum dishes come in small size. Take to the nearby park and eat under the sun. I'm not a big fan of fun gor dumplings, to me they taste like water and are super bland. But I love them here!!! And they're huge! Packed full of meat and so flavourful. They also drizzle them with spicy soy sauce but the fun gor taste super good with/without any sauce.

This place has been here for many years and i love the steamed rice with pork spare ribs and black…read morebeans accompanied by there famous steamed pork dumpling, or simply "FUN GOR" in Cantonese. I seldomly dine in and most of the times i will grab it togo and this price is very reasonable. As i had time to kill and was near by, so decided to to dine in. Taste is good as usual but cant say the iced lemon tea was good. I asked for a iced lemon tea and asked them to make it less sweet. After it arrived and I tasted it, it was really sweet. So i asked the staff that took my order to double check if this was the less sweet and she replied yet. Instead of sending it back and face a possibility of them adding a "secret ingredient" into my drink i consumed less then a 1/4 of it and left it. Would recommend this place as they somehow have mastered the nice texture of the steamed rice to my liking every time. How can you complain of marinated pork that has been placed atop of the rice and steamed together. As it is being steamed, the juices from the marinated penetrates the rice making every bit so delicious. Will definitely be back again, but no so sure if i want to dine in again as personal space can be very tight.

Our friend used to come here all the time so when I asked for his favorite hot pot joint in TST, he…read moreimmediately brought us to Hot Pot House. The atmosphere is definitely old school with tons of pictures of celebrities up on the walls coming up the stairs to the restaurant. Get there before the dinner rush or you will be waiting a while to get a table! There are English menus if you ask your server. Their broth is really good - I'm told it's boiled up to about 5hrs every day! The service is okay. They get really busy so you might have to track them down to get served. Their signature dishes are: - diced beef - osmanthus mussels (soooo good!) - goose sausage (but we didn't try this) Every table I saw had chicken testicles, so we went along and ordered a plate. It was different; chewy. I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'll order it again. There are two or three private rooms located toward the back of the restaurant. There is a 10% service charge, so no need to tip!

A hole in a wall type Shanghai restaurant with delicious authentic food. You must order the…read moreShanghai fried noodles and fried dumplings! They are to die for!! We had the Xiao Long Bao 小籠包 as well, they were okay. The juicy meat was there but the skin was a bit thick, not practically good for the HK standard. Nevertheless, eveything else was delicious. If you go during lunch, they have lunch sets that include a dish, vege rice or white rice and a soup for less than $50 HK. One down side for westerners is that everything is in Chinese and I'm not sure if they have an Eng or a picture menu. If you don't read Chinese and are alone, you can look for the dishes you want in traditional Chinese and bring the list there. It's worth it for an authentic experience!!

Amazing, they call it the best closest thing to Taiwanese food here in HK! it's a bit hard to find…read morethis place as it's in a ware house but take the first elevator up (you might find it a bit sketchy) and then take a right and then go down the hallway to find the entrance to the place. Get some of the beef with rice and some dong gua cha! You have to go up and order, but once you place your order the food comes out pretty fast! I'm just drooling thinking about this place. Tip: It's a short walk from the MTR.

I have been traveling back and forth Taiwan so frequently that I almost see myself as half a…read moreTaiwanese; one of the things that they pride themselves in has to be the food. Indeed, why would they not? Whether it is the street food found in street markets or proper meals such as beef noodles or taiwanese bento, Taiwan has it all. Having said that I have a secret rule of thumb when it comes to food, that is, I will never eat Taiwanese food in Hong Kong and the same applies to the Hong Kong food in Taiwan. It might be a preconception on mine that the authenticity would very much be lost when the cuisine is introduced to a foreign piece of land; adding to that would be the fact that I have been let down for too many times and have gradually lose faith in it. It wasn't until I have come to this shop coincidentally that I gradually restore hope in Taiwanese cuisines in Hong Kong. I think the best way to tell whether a restaurant is good or not is to try out the basics; beef noodle soup is a staple of Taiwan and it would very well be a good indicator in how well a restaurant prepare their foods. The broth is quintessential in a bowl of noodles and 程班長 does it like no others. Traditional taiwanese beef noodle broth is rich and seasoned with soy sauce, behind the mellow fullness a punch of heat will catch you by surprise, and this is exactly how the broth is like in 程班長; going against the slightly broad and substantial noddles, the two matches perfectly. Whereas for the priced jewel, the meats, which could either be brisket, tendon or tripe or all 3 of them, are all very well braised and are melt in your mouth tender. Last but not least, the pickles that add to the noodle soup play an important role in spicing up the flavors as well as freshen up the mouthful. Thank to this restaurant, may be it is not a bad idea to give a little try on taiwanese restaurants in Hong Kong; a leap of faith is indeed called for nonetheless.

Chan Hon Kee came up on my IG feed as a local HKer posted a pic of the boh jai fan. It looked so…read moredamn good that I asked a good friend if we could eat there during my short stay in September. Little did I know how destructive and disruptive Mangkhut would end up being so I had to postpone the visit. Little did I know that Chan Hon Kee was literally down the street from where my friend lives. Only issue was that it takes around 45 mins to get from the island out to Tai Po. We arrived shortly before 1830 to find a hella busy restaurant with a fairly long line. Luckily, the line moved quickly and we jumped the line as we had 5 in our party. As typical with most old school HK restaurants, the workers here don't have patience with patrons that are indecisive so don't take it personally when they give you attitude. Be sure you know what you want to order before they seat you and all will be good. We started off with two bowls of 皮蛋瘦肉粥 and damn was it tasty. The 粥 had the perfect consistency which I only remember my grandmas making. I have yet to find a place in LA or SF that is as good. Only other place similar that I can think of was at a place my Uncle took me to in 光州. Next came out was the 炸兩 and the 牛肉腸粉. Both were super tasty but the 炸兩 took home the gold medal. The last two dishes that came out were the 煲仔飯. Was a bit too eager to dig into them as the rice was still a bit on the wet side but damn were they still good! Was stuffed or else I would've scraped the sides to eat all of the crispy rice. This place was worth the long trek out to Tai Po and am looking forward to going back next year. Do save room for the 煲仔飯 as they were delicious.i

Booked marked this place after my first taste of the congee. I have a game at the near by sports…read morecenter and came up to Tai Po early to eat before the game. Found this congee place on Open Rice. Did the Congee / Cheung fun 艇仔粥/蝦米腸粉 set for HK$50. A little pricy for way out here. I pay $47 on HK Island for the same set. But it is very high quality with tasty ingredients. Good 腸粉 is hard to make and they do a crazy good job. No drink as part of the set so I ponyed up $17 for the milk tea. $67 for a very tasty but not large lunch. Can't beat it.