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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The egg tarts and pineapple buns (can be purchased at the stand right outside of the restaurant)…read moreare the best things offered here. They're baked fresh every ~20 minutes. The breakfast sets were so so SO disappointing. First of all, the breakfast menu is very limited compared to other HK style cafes. They offer mainly noodle dishes and no Western-style items like oatmeal, sandwiches, etc. The breakfast sets do come with thick toast & fried eggs... but the toast was the most disappointing of all!! It was rather flavorless and not toasty :( They do have several large tables, so it's good for bigger parties. The food also comes out in record time, and the service is actually okay (for HK-cafe standards). However, I'm not a fan of the actual restaurant food and would recommend just sticking with the baked pastries :)

I came here with my parents to grab some breakfast and I'd definitely recommend coming here. The…read morefood is relatively cheap and worth your every single dollar. Compared to HK cafes in Los Angeles, this spot is so much cheaper and more filling compared to the ones I've had. My favorite was their pineapple bread, especially when it's fresh out of the oven.

Darrie Go Noodles focuses only on dim sum and noodle soup…read more In Hong Kong, you'd rarely go get dim sum by yourself at a restaurant because a dim sum plate usually comes in a size for 3-4 people to share. If you want to try variety of dim sum plates, going to a restaurant for dim sum by yourself is not a good idea. Targeting on patrons who would love to get dim sum by themselves, Darrie Go Noodle provides a very special menu/set meal that enables patrons to get various small dum sum plates and noodle soup. Order a set meal ($183 HKD) which serves 2 party, and it comes with 1 appetizer, 5 dim sum plate, i vegetable plate and 2 bowls of noodle soup, all with your own choices. For the noodle soup, there are 3 options: , beef bone broth(黑高湯葛粉絲), fish broth (白高湯米粉), and pork and dried ham broth (大高湯陽春麵). The broth is clean, sweet, non-greasy, and MSG-free!

What a difference it made for my wife and I standing outside this restaurant on our first evening…read morein Hong Kong when the manager opened the door and greeted us in English. We were welcomed inside, promptly served hot tea, and handed well-explained English menus. We got a dim sum set and were very pleased with the beef brisket, dumplings, chicken soup, and lemon date tea. We went from hungry and travel weary to filled and southed. Would come again.

Ying Kee Noodle (英記油渣麵) features pig lard noodles…read more Apparently, lard noodle originated from the 60s and 70s as a traditional Hong Kong food. Ying Kee has been operating for more than 40 years with its pork soup and deep fried pork belly as its signature dishes. I was excited to try it out despite looking at the photos originally and not truly interested in the thick-cut noodles (I prefer thin noodles). We walked in at 1:30 p.m. on a Friday. Right as we walked in to choose a table, the owner asked us what size of noodle we wanted. We replied we'd take a look first. The owner said there were only two size bowls -- small or large -- and proceeded to show us the actual bowls. We chose the small size. She asked if we wanted chicken wings or vegetables, and I said yes to the wings and chose "yau mac choi" (油麥菜) for the vegetables. This was a typical and very traditional dai pai dong style of eatery where there were fold-up stools at each table with all the self-serve utensils and condiments on the table. The bowl of pig lard noodles arrived almost instantly. It was filled with long thick noodles, lean and fat prices of pork belly, and diced Chinese mushrooms in the pork soup. There were green onions and preserved veggies scattered on top. I took one sip of the soup, and it was wonderfully umami and delicious. The thick noodles were very tender and smooth, completely unlike other thick starchy noodles I've had before. It wasn't greasy or fatty despite being fried in pig lard. It was really tasty and unique. No wonder this place was so popular! The fatty pieces of pork were tasty too. I finished all of the pork soup too. The plate of four chicken wings arrived, and it was so home-style. It was delicious! It was fresh, slightly seasoned, and perfect. The Indian lettuce (油麥菜) was also great and fresh. It was delicious as well. During our visit, I saw so many people come in for a bowl of the pig lard noodles. Some were locals, coming in and asking right away for a large or small bowl with customization requests of "small bowl, more lean pork, less mushrooms" or "large bowl, more mushrooms, less soup", etc. A few were newbies like us where the owner waved the size of the bowl to them in the air. It was very fast, effective, and no-nonsense service. Having only three main items on the menu made for such a simple ordering process too (noodles -- large or small size, chicken wings -- two or four, and vegetables -- a few kinds). I really liked this place and would recommend it to tourists and locals.

Ho mei! Love their…read moresoup and noodles. Also their hot sauce which you can buy. And they're perfect for that midnight snack.

Much talked about Fishballs are very ordinary and we got diahrrea due to the curry sauce. Service…read morewas good and efficient. Beef brisket was not soft The ambiance is as expected. But clean.

Yum yum. This is one of my favourite street food places, and they sell a variety of classic street…read morefood. One of the staples is always the cheung fun (rice rolls), lathered in soy sauce, peanut sauce and sweet sauce, with a sprinkle of sesame. Their stuffed "3 treasures" are good as well. That is another classic dish consisting of green bell pepper, eggplant and tofu, each stuffed with a generous amount of fish paste. It's a difficult dish to get right. If not floured well the fish paste will not stick to the vegetables, and the veggies can get overly soggy due to the deep frying. But not here! They are generous with the amount of fish paste, and the vegetables were fried to decent crispiness. This is food that seems like they should be everywhere but is slowly getting replaced by trendy foods. It's also very difficult to get decent versions of these outside of Hong Kong. I highly recommend just stopping by and trying a few things as breakfast or afternoon snack.