Hong Kong is the best place in the World to splurge on dim sum, as the top prices that you are…read morepaying will usually reward you with unparalleled quality and sophistication that cannot be found outside of Asia (well, maybe except in Toronto or Vancouver.) Depending on what you order, be prepared to spend the equivalent of about USD30 or more per person. What sets Lei Garden apart from the rest of all the dim sum restaurants is not just the deliciousness of their food, but their refinedness and creativity. Shredded Yam Egg Rolls: That's exactly where their creativity and sophistication come in. The filling tasted like a puree of yam mixed with minced pork and was almost heavenly. These are hands down the best egg rolls that I've ever had! Honey BBQ Spare Ribs: This is one of their specialties and I highly recommend that you order this dish. The meat was so tender that they fell off the bones. The honey BBQ flavor was so delicious that I needed to borrow a phrase from KFC that "it's finger licking good!" (Yes, forget about the chopsticks and eat with your fingers!) Fried Chicken Wings: The skin was perfectly crispy and the inside was moist and juicy. This is another dish that requires you to eat with your fingers and lick them to completely enjoy the experience. Har Gow: Thin, translucent, and slightly chewy skins were graced with a shrimp filling that was bouncy in texture and rich in natural flavor. Bean Curb Rolls in Broth: The fish broth was richly flavored, and not only did it make the bean curb rolls more enjoyable, it was so tasty that we finished every drop of the broth, treating it just like a soup dish. Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf: Tasty and not overly oily (Yes!) fried rice was generously mixed with Chinese sausage, minced pork, salty egg yolk, among many other goodies. It was wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed to perfection that the aroma of lotus filled the air and stimulated the palate. This is another one of their specialties that I highly recommend. Siu Mai: They were tiny but were packed with a concentrated richness that was enhanced by the flavors of black mushrooms. Small, bite size, refined, and delicate - They were exactly what dim sum should be like! Beef Balls: Quality speaks here. There was not even a hint of soda powder or tenderizer. Again, the serving size was tiny but the flavor was supreme. And that perfectly matches the city where the value of food is generally not measured by its size, but by its quality.

Located at Time Square; Hong Kong's busy retail and foodie mecca, Lei Garden has been a offering…read moreCantonese Cuisine for over a decade. Food here can be described as traditional Cantonese with an added flare of updated interpretations, there are a few dishes the restaurant are famous for e.g. Crispy Skinned Chicken marinated in Supreme Soy Sauce, Seasonal Double Boiled Soup, Roast Pork Belly with Cracklings etc. On this latest occasion, I tried a few more common dishes, and what stands out the most are: Beef Brisket, Tendon & Potatoes in Curry Sauce, Braised Goose Web with Shiitake Mushrooms & Tofu Skin. Love the curry sauce as it goes perfectly with plain steamed rice, even the potatoes were done well in absorbing the curry. If you like Morning Glory, they do a very good job with the seasoning and I usually request the Chef to add extra Thai Chilli to kick it up a few notches! Service has always been attentive, but I also noticed the high turn over rate as the familiar faces from the last few years are not to be found, parking can be redeemed, just notify the server at end of your meal!

Believe the hype! Their food was yummy and customer service was superb!…read more Visited on a Friday morning (opening time) and we were greeted with welcome bows... The line wasn't too long... I'd say just a few people, no more than 15. But I did see that a few minutes after we were seated, more people showed up waiting in line. This restaurant had the most attentive staff I've ever been to. Not just for a dim sum restaurant, any restaurant, period! Not in an annoying (American way), but they're there to remove empty plates as soon as it's finished and there for your needs if you needed something. Now the food... They gave instructions on how not to burn yourself eating xlb.. because we've all been there... Too hangry and excited to eat it as soon as it arrives to your table. Xlb was very good! Actually, every dish we got were all very good! We'd definitely like to try the San Jose, CA location one since it's close to home... Just to compare if the taste will be consistent. :)

Had a good time even though we have to wait close to 100 minutes to get the table in Banquio,…read moreTaiwan. Restaurant was located in the basement of a large department store. So we could kill time in the store while waiting for our number to be called. Had plenty of dishes and 5 steam baskets of Xiao lung bao for six of us. Total cost usd $167.

A quintessential HK spot. The egg noodles in the wonton noodle soup are perfectly cooked. There's a…read morebit of a springy snap when you bite into them. Must try! My son is allergic to eggs so he tried the brisket rice noodles - not bad, but go for the egg noodles if you can. We had a larger party (7) and they seated us separately initially, but worked to seat us together once other parties left. Nice touch!

Yet another wonton noodle shop on my wonton noodle tour while in Hong Kong! Mak Man Kee is one of…read moreseveral well known shops that serve what Hong Kongers love most, a fresh and hot bowl of shrimp wontons with springy noodles. The space is very small inside and they only take cash. I wouldn't recommend dining with more than 3 people because of the super tight space. Best to come solo or with just a friend. I found their shrimp wontons decently fresh but not extremely memorable. The noodles weren't as springy as I'd like. The soup did not have the depth I was looking for. While it was comforting and soul warming, this place is not in my top ranking for flavor not consistency. Service was quick and efficient. Just not a very memorable place and overhyped in my opinion.

This is a good place to go for authentic Cantonese food. I…read morelike to order the beef brisket with wonton noodles. The portions are decent and the beef is really te and juicy. I also like the barley water because it tastes fresh and there is real barley inside.

I stayed at the hotel by the mall. So I just had to crawl out of bed, take the elevator down, walk…read moreout of the lobby and Chee Kei would appear. If I didn't feel like going out after a long day of being touristy/family, I would visit here. I generally went for the beef brisket wonton noodle soup. The broth was a little heavy on the 5-spice and I would've been fine with a cleaner broth. However, the noodles, brisket, and wontons were on-point. The brisket was tender and flavorful, and the wontons were delicate and filled with shrimp. The noodles were toothsome and weren't too soft. The set meals are a pretty good value as you can choose from a variety of entrees (noodles, rice porridge, etc.), a side dish/dessert (like vegetables, fried wontons, dessert soup), and a drink (hot soy, hot teas, etc.). I didn't go for the fried wontons but the fried fish balls were quite good. They were very hot but soft with a slightly crispy exterior. There wasn't a fishy taste to it, so it seemed more fresh. The choy sum was okay, though the broth it sat in was a seafood-based broth which wasn't really my style. Service was decent though like most places in HK, you have to flag down someone and don't expect someone to come to you. This spot was good (and clean) enough for me to not have to visit my former wonton spot, Mak Man Kee. I mean, Chee Kei was good enough where I didn't feel compelled to endure a cramp place with small portions and poor service. I just don't have to deal with that anymore.

A very delicious traditional Hong Kong BBQ restaurant, my friends and I came down here during one…read moreof our adventures. Our server was a charismatic older gentleman who was able to give us recommendations. I felt like I was in those old-timey, classic-style Hong Kong diners. Thinking back to this restaurant is making me emotional for some reason. I have nostalgia for a place that I won't be able to go back to for a while. I always am a fiend for goose on rice because of how difficult it is to find outside of Hong Kong, especially in the U.S. I also ordered an almond drink because of my sweet tooth and need for warm beverages that are also hard to find outside of Hong Kong. Ask for an English menu if you can't read Chinese.

This is a wonton and brisket place that just opened early to serve the breakfast crowd with fairly…read morestandard HK style breakfast items. Nothing special, a little dingy and the breakfast food is alright. But they do open at 7am.

Chau Kee (周記) might have dim sum in its Chinese title, but it's really more of a Hong Kong style…read morecafe that also happens to serve some dim sum items. Their popularity was at an all-time high just before the pandemic and has remained one of Sai Wan's most frequent local eateries. To no one's surprise, the seating and layout are not group friendly and it can be very cramped. Sharing tables is a big possibility, and I'd come here with no more than 3-4 folks. Waiting is a common past time here, so try to aim for a pre-noon arrival. Their stuffed toasts are legendary and are indeed the real deal. The salted egg yolk toast is fun to eat and film, but the taro custard (香芋流沙西多士) is next level good. The lava that flows from within makes this the ultimate dessert item, and should be on everyone's table. Their XO stir fried radish cubes (XO醬炒蘿蔔糕), along with the XO fried rice rolls (XO醬炒腸粉) are two of my favorite items. The dim sum items are fairly standard (especially the shrimp dumplings), but the shrimp stuffed rice rolls are very good. The shrimp toast is not my usual kind of order, but this place definitely specializes in it. The service is warm and very quick with everything: taking orders, bringing food, and getting the check. Prices are not back breaking but it's a little more expensive than other comparable places. Cash is king.

Chau Kee sits on a side street from Des Voeux Road and has all the indications of being a veritable…read moreHong Kong institution. The owners aren't outright friendly, but are certainly warmer than your average cha chaan teng waiter in Hong Kong. The sesame shrimp toast is more delicious than it has any right to be - crisp exterior studded with toasted white sesame, these triangles give way to plump shrimp meat in the middle, and a cute little dish of Kewpie mayonnaise on the side. The signature egg yolk is fun to cut into - giving you some real insta-worthy yolk porn, but is definitely heavy, so consider sharing. But for me, what won my heart was a delicious take on a childhood favorite - radish cakes: Chau Kee's versions are cut up and fried, so that the crisp fry-exterior gives way to a tacky and soft interior. Flavors of shrimp and seafood are present from the XO sauce. The menu is in both Chinese and English and full of pictures, so it's also gweilo-friendly!

The old and traditional Hongkong style congee restaurant in central area. They opens at 9am, very…read moresmall space with couple tables. The century egg and meat Congee is the best, very comforting for breakfast. They don't have all the things in the menu so make sure you come prepared.

One of the best tasting congee/jook I have tasted…read more The jook was very creamy and the beef I had was great. I added a duck egg the second visit on the trip for an extra $15 HKD and I wasn't disappointed :) The fried curry balls were decent. An order comes with 3 balllls. There is a single occupancy bathroom in the back and bonus point- there is a giant roll of TP by the table in the back if you need it. I think it's for napkin use though, not sure lol. I didn't need to use it but I can say something is better than nothing even if it's.. a standard HK bathroom if you know what I mean. Cash only and it's meant to be fast more so during rush peak hours. Do bring your own napkins and note it's not too spacious for any luggage/big bags to be rolled around inside.

One of the better dim sum places around!…read more Arrived right around 2pm on a Sunday right before last call. Place was definitely crowded and can see it filling up during peak hours. Plan accordingly. The food was Delicious. Must haves: the steamed Charsui baos and the Shrimp topped Shumai. Would order 10x of those if i had the stomach. Other hits were the Lo Mai Gai, Spare Ribs, Vegetable dumplings. Overall, some of the best Dim Sum food around that comes at a steeper price. No push carts so everything is made to order and comes out super hot. Push carts are always a nice experience but you never know how long food has been on those carts.

Wow, I was super psyched to eat at The Square for dinner after reading the reviews about them on…read moreYelp and Google, but after my dining experience this evening, I am most definitely not going back. It's no wonder they lost their Michelin star. There are WAY BETTER places for authentic Cantonese cuisine, for a more reasonable price, and that won't "sell out". We made a reservation at 7pm but was running late. At 7:05, we get a call from the front desk asking where we are because if we don't show up, they are going to release our table for other waiting parties. I tell them 5 minutes, and I show up in 5 minutes. No problem. First impression, this restaurant is LOUD. It's crowded, it's LOUD. Chairs and tables are right next to each other, it's hard to get between tables. You would expect that at a formerly Michelin restaurant called "The Square" at Exchange Square in Central, would be relaxing and nice, and somewhat quiet. It was quite the opposite. While the seats were a little more upscale and comfortable, the atmosphere felt like a zoo. The tea menu was confusing - there was a standard tea/water charge of HK$18 per person. But if you ordered a "premium" pot of tea, the pp tea charge would be scrapped and you'd just pay for each tea pot. Not sure if they were going to charge you that fixed amount every time you refilled with hot water... But we didn't bother as we didn't want to drink tea at night. The edamame and mixed nuts snack that they provide on the table at the start of the meal is NOT complimentary. It's not free and they charge you for it. HK$28 per bowl. How sneaky. We only found at at the end when paying the bill. There were two bowls of it on our table, so we were charged HK$56. It's not a large sum of money, but to misguided your customers like that? Not cool. Strike one. By the time we were ordering our food, at least half of our desired selection was already SOLD OUT. I say this is poor ingredient planning on the food manager. If you are expecting some dishes to be ordered more than other, be sure to have more stock of those. It's that simple right?! The roast goose was sold out, char siu (barbecue pork) was sold out, the classic Cantonese dish of minced pork meat pie, also sold out. At this point, I wanted to just walk out of the restaurant. Why stay if they can't offer the best food? We asked if the set menu was available, the manager said they couldn't serve it because some of the dishes were "out of stock". Strike two. Or maybe it's three at this point. They also sold out of the fried red bean pancake for dessert when I tried to order it. Definitely a strike three now. When we asked for hot water refills, the servers kept trying to put a pot of tea on our table when we hadn't even ordered tea. What kind of BS is this? I hand you one pot of water, and you return with the water plus a pot of tea we did not request? The same thing happened twice, with the SAME server, with the SAME kind of tea! Unbelievable... Strike four. Customer service was meh. Food tasted average, and not worth it. At this point, they're OUT. Bye-bye!