This is the third installement of the same question for 4 cities we are visiting next summer.

thanks again for bearing with me. It is easier to keep my questions seperate so I can files your answers in different folders.

Even though I am in the food business and have lots of contacts, I trust you guys so much, I'd love your recommendations for the best in Hong Kong dining.

We eat anything and everything. We like a mixture of real gems that are not touristy as well as happening places if the food is good. The decor should be inviting, but even so , if it is not as good as the food, that is fine.

We like all forms of Chinese cooking and prefer to stick with Asian influenced food. No need for Italian, etc.

We'd like one special meal for dinner and price is not really a factor. although nothing too outrageous.

We love places with views as well.

Lunch and dinner recommendations are welcomed.

Thanks!!!

For a western friendly chinese meal - in a busy upmarket ornate chinese style restaurant I love the Shang Palace at the Kowloon Shangri La.

Top notch cuisine, yet without being frightningly expensive unlike Man Wah at the Mandarin, with a great lively atmosphere.

The 100 year old eggs are fantastic!

Spring Moon in the Pen is lovely!

Thank you so much!!1

Just what I am looking for.

any other suggestions!!!

many thanks again!!!

tripgirl, before I went back to Hong Kong in April of this year, I asked people on this board for recommendations of "special" places to eat. I received quite a few responses. You might search for that thread as well as my Hong Kong Trip report that was posted in May.

I can?t find Kathie's post from April for you, so I have provided some of my favourites below.. I would definitely ask your contacts too, as new places are always opening up.

Do you speak or understand Mandarin or other dialects or can you read written Chinese? I can recommend some places but you must be able to speak and understand and/or read characters fairly well. These are mostly "illegal" restaurants in apartments run by PRC immigrants which Chinese-peaking friends bring me to, I just sit and eat. For the most part very good food and dirt cheap for Hong Kong. BYOB too.

Re the comment on Café Deco on the Peak, I agree that food is just OK, but the views are great. I think it is good for lunch or dinner IF you get a window view, as the view makes up for the food (very much like the old Windows on the World.. .) If you don't get a window view (and call to reserve one) that it is not worth the trip IMO. If you are having drinks only, you won't get near the window. A compromise if it is a nice night is to ask to have desert out on their tiny balcony.

Some of the best French and Italian food in the world can be found in Hong Kong (as they will pay the chefs) so don't rule this out. Also, as Hong Kong was a British colony for a long time, they have a good afternoon tea tradition. The Peninsula and the Mandarin have very good ones, other hotels offer them as well.

Many good restaurants in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia are found in hotels, so don't be put off by this.

For the special meal, my choices would be Felix at the Penn, Yu at the Intercontinental, M at the Fringe, Vong at the Mandarin, ToTTS at the Excelsior, or if you can get someone to get you in, the China Club (the latter good but not great food, but great atmosphere).

Consider taking cooking classes in Thailand (see that is on your itinerary). I am not sure if hotels offer them in Hong Kong, you might ask at your hotel, sometimes they have a chef there for a limited time who offers classes.



Here would be my choices for lunch or dinner, some with views and great food, some with just great food. All have menus in English.

1. Felix
The Peninsula Hotel
Salisbury Road, Kowloon
(852) 2366-6251

Continental/fusion, fantastic views, Stark design

2. Vong
Mandarin Hotel
5 Connaught Road, Central
2825-4028

eclectic fusion, great views

3. Yu
Intercontinental Hotel
18 Salisbury Road
Kowloon
Ph: (852) 2721-1211

Chinese seafood with great view,

4. M at the Fringe
First floor, South Block, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central
Tel: 2877 4000. Fax: 2877 0135
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.m-atthefringe.com

Fusion Asian/Continental with a twist of nouvelle. artsy ambience. No views. In an interesting area of Central

5. Talk of the Town (TTot's Asian Bar & Grill)
Excelsior Hotel
281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
2837 6786

Asian fusion, modern, younger crowd, great views, small terrace for drinks

6. Petrus
Island Shangri-La Hotel
Supreme Court Road, Central
Tel: 2820 8590

On the top floor of the Island Shangri-La. Great food and views. Very good wine list.

7. Thai Basil
Shop 5, Lower Ground Floor, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway
Tel: 2537 4682

Fusion Thai, sleek modern design, no view, in the Pacific Place shopping center so great for in-between shopping

8. Soho Soho
9 Old Bailey Street, Soho, Central
Tel: 2147 2618. Fax: 2522 3387.

Modern British cuisine. It is very popular for office lunches. In the Soho area (south of Hollywood Road, in this case uphill from Hollywood Road.) Interesting area of antique shops and other shops.

E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.soho.hkdining.com

9. Aqua
49 Hollywood Road, Central
Tel: 2545 9889. Fax: 2542 3999.
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.aqua.com.hk

Australian international fusion cuisine. A glassed-in street corner restaurant with views of the lively street life in the Lan Kwai Fong/Hollywood Road area.

10. The Verandah
Repulse Bay Hotel,
109 Repulse Bay Road, Repulse Bay
Tel: 2812 2722.

International cuisine. This is more for ambience and a chance to see another part of Hong Kong away from the city. In Repulse Bay with great water views, a nice place to stop either before or after a trip to Stanley. The beach at Repulse Bay is beautiful long and curving and there is a temple at the end which is worth a visit, dedicated to the goddess of the sea.

There are shops in the Repulse Bay shopping center where the Verandah is located, as well as more casual restaurants and a nice interior courtyard where you can sit and eat takeaway from the casual restaurants.

11. Ye Shanghai (Pacific Place and Kowloon)
332 Pacific Place Shopping Mall
Tel: 2918 9833

Shanghainese food. Sleek modern design. Very popular with local tai-tais and local professionals. In the Pacific Place shopping center so great for in-between shopping. Has a sister restaurant in Kowloon.

12. China Club
Bank of China Building
Harcourt Road, Central

This is a private club, but depending on your hotel, they may be able to get you a table here. Located in the old Bank of China building. Designed and decorated in 1930's colonial Shanghai style. Food is good. Has a good bar. There is a tiny terrace with good views over the city (no tables have views.)

13 . Café Deco
Peak Galleria, 118 Peak Road
Tel: 2849 5111
Website: www.cafedeco.com

Asian, continental, stunning views, ask for window seat upstairs if possible. Not really upscale but views are so great and it is a fun place

14. The Boathouse
86?88 Stanley Main Street, Stanley
Tel: 2813 4467.

Seafood-focused but offers other dishes. Nice sea views from the upper floors, there are outside terraces. In Stanley so it is great for a rest between frenetic bargain hunting. Not really upscale but again food and ambience are so good and views are lovely.

15. Chilli Club
1/F, 88 Lockhart Road, Wanchai
TEL: 2527 2872

Thai food, no décor, no views, but fantastic Thai food. Not upscale at all, but great food. Good if shopping in the Wanchai/Causeway Bar areas.


16. INDOCHINE 1929
California Tower
Lan Kwai Fong, 2nd Floor
Phone 2869-7399

Vietnamese-French

17. TANDOOR
3/F, On Hing Building, 18-20 Wyndham Street, Lan Kwai Fong area
TEL: 2845 2299

North Indian. Live Indian music in the evenings.

18. VA BENE
G/F, 58-62 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong area,
Central, Hong Kong
TEL: 2845 5577

Italian.

19. WYNDHAM STREET THAI
G/F, 38 Wyndham Street, Central
TEL: 2869 6216



For dim sum try:

1. Zen
Shop 001 (lower ground floor)
88 Queensway, Admiralty
Tel: 2845 4555

Kind of a noveau Chinese dim sum, in a modern setting. Menu is in English, and nice ambience in the restaurant.

2. City Hall Chinese Restaurant
2/F, Low Block, City Hall Central
Tel: 2521 1303

This restaurant is on the third floor of City Hall in Central (very close to the Star Ferry) and has a very nice harbour view. They have carts, and is one of the few places left which uses dim sum carts. No English menu as I recall. Good food and a good view of the harbour. Very popular with local Hong Kongers. Not expensive by Hong Kong standards.

3. Metropol Restaurant
4th Floor, United Centre
95 Queensway, Admiralty
Tel: 2865 1988
http://www.heichinrou.com

Also has the carts. Good food and good value. Very crowded at lunch on workdays, you may need a reservation. Probably the most expensive of the three restaurants named here.

4. Wan Loong Court Restaurant
Kowloon Hotel
19-21 Nathan Road, Kowloon

Excellent, and many locals go there so that is a good sign. The hotel is located behind the Peninsula, and is in fact operated by the Peninsula.


I guess I am of the opinion of most Hong Kongers in that paying a lot of money for dim sum seems like an oxymoron, but Spring Moon in the Peninsula is the way to go if you want a lovely ambience and good food. You would most likely need a reservation.

I also like the Summer Palace in the Island Shangri-La Hotel. (On Hong Kong island, in the Pacific Place shopping center, 88 Queensway).

Hong Kong's eating scene changes very fast, and I'm afraid that much of the above list is very dated, and almost all rather expensive and expat-oriented, although much some of the restaurants have stood the test of time and remain among my favourites, too.

But if you want 'happening' places for foreign food you'll need to look at one or two of the newer dining areas ('Soho East', etc.), several newer Italians (although you really want Asian food, I understand), newer alternatives for dim sum, and most 'happening' of all earlier this year (not even the their own PR firm could get me in), the restaurants atop the new tower at No. 1 Peking Road, one of which is Chinese, albeit northern Chinese, intelligently modernised. The views rival those of the neighbouring Felix atop The Peninsula.

The fashion for the illegal restaurants seems to have passed but they've all been written up in the papers, the HKTB can give you the numbers if you want them, and your hotel can make the call. It's not difficult. A couple of the better ones have gone legitimate while still managing to retain a rather 'hidden' feeling.

But to get the quickest handle on what you really want--the best Cantonese food in Hong Kong--get the 'Best of the Best' brochure from the HKTB on arrival (there are counters at the airport) or from you local HKTB office if you have one. There's now an annual competition for the best dish is several different categories, the winners are all listed in the free brochure complete with prices and locations, and they hang their certificates proudly in their dining rooms.

Some of the dishes are the most plain and simple in the Cantonese tradition, so there's actually a wide range of restaurants and price ranges to choose from, from (almost) street level back up to the bank account-emptying levels of most of the restaurants listed above and below in the next paragraph. Only one of the winners, the last time I looked, could be described as 'touristy'.

If I were wanting to choose one very special meal to finish off with, I'd move away from Chinese, too, I must admit, since there are indeed some superb foreign chefs in Hong Kong. My choice would probably be between the chef's table at Gaddi's (make a provisional booking now), or Grissini. But then both are inside expensive hotels (Peninsula, Grand Hyatt), neither are Asian (French, Italian), and neither are new and happening. Sorry about that.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

This is for anyone asking what's new in Hong Kong, a review of the Luxe city guide for Hong Kong, which comes out every six months and can be ordered over the Web. This is pasted in from a Word file, so apologies in advance if it produces any garbled characters.

Luxe City Guides

Finally someone has produced a series of pocket guides which actually fit in the pocket. Luxe City Guides are concertinas of stiff card currently covering Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, and Bali, which collapse to a mere 7.5cm by 15cm. They?re designed to be worn in the shirt pocket, logo outwards, to show you?re not one of the herd.

At first sight the guides seems to be the triumph of camp over content. ?Greetings, Shimmerknicks,? opens the Hong Kong edition, before getting practical: ?On a budget? Don?t come to Hong Kong.?

Advice throughout is in the manner of someone with a well-manicured hand giving your bicep a gentle squeeze supposedly of emphasis but in fact to see how much muscle is there.

The look matches the general tone, in designer-approved but eye-unfriendly SMALL CAPS throughout. One of the 22 panels is rather wasted with the standard claims of excellence found on the back cover of any guide, including the silly and self-contradictory assertion that it knows of ?secret places?.

?You need only concern yourself with these...? opens the list of accommodation confidently, before describing The Peninsula (one of the best and most famous hotels in the world?hardly a well-kept secret) and the excellent but equally well-known Grand Hyatt.

Nor need the reader expect much practical detail in such a small space. The Peninsula is a ?glammy old dolly... smart as a carrot and sweet as a nut? with a ?fleet of rentable Rolls Royces [sic] (for shopping emergencies)?. All this is both true and to the point, but rates are not given. If you need to ask, sugarlips, you probably can?t afford it.

The guide only lists five properties altogether, but it lives up to its claim to be more up-to-date than others by including the brand new and Phillippe Starck-designed JIA Boutique Hotel, which probably won?t be appearing in other guides for at least 12 months.

In the restaurant selections it?s possible to detect the hands of Hong Kong?s cannier PR people, although newly-opened choices such as Aqua at the top of Kowloon?s latest tower, No. 1 Peking Road, were so fashionable in March that not even the Peninsula?s concierge or the PRs themselves could get me a table. The guide claims to offer ?the best of the best?, and Aqua was indeed the hottest of hot.

The guide proclaims itself ?Brutally frank, and sometimes, frankly, brutal.? Hong Kong?s Temple Street night market is obviously far from glam enough, described as ?Everything you never wanted in one rancid place.? Macau?s casinos win the crushing, ?Take your pick, they?re all pretty foul.?

The claim to have ?services you can?t find in any other guide? is certainly justified. ?Sculptress Louise Soloway life-casts body parts into plaster, porcelain, or bronze so you can remember what they looked like before they dropped around your ankles.? This is certainly a remove from riding the Star Ferry across the harbour to find a tailor to copy that favourite shirt.

No replacement for a full-scale book, Luxe is nevertheless an entertaining supplement to your usual choice of guide, and with considerably more charisma. Excellent on spas and shopping, feeding and flirting, it also offers several compressed but detailed sightseeing walks, although many of the sights are shops.

With new editions every six months it certainly has its finger on the pulse, poppet. Probably on the one in the groin.

HK$60 each in Hong Kong, or US$7.50 plus shipping in advance from www.luxecityguides.com.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

Hi, Cicerone! Great, great list! Am downloading it for my files.

tripgirl: I can't give you any specific restaurants - all a matter of taste. The best Chinese restaurants cater to the Chinese. If you find a place with mostly Chinese in it, then it has good Chinese food - if that is what you want.

You really need a Chinese friend to take you to a restaurant and explain the regional dishes that that restaurant specializes in.

Hong Kong is a great gourmand's delight. Enjoy!

Peter, (even tho it is rude to address someone directly on this forum in your book!), I am so glad finally SOMEONE shares my enthusiasm for the Luxe guides. I have been recoing them fo a while now. Bought Bangkok while we lived there, Hanoi and Bali before trips and now HK while we are here. Best $7/50 I have spent! Even reviewed them for an Ind magazine as feel it is the best inv you can make before a trip!

Tripgirl, let me add to Cicerone's list - for good (not outstanding) Indian food in a good ambience, Veda or Bombay Dreams

The day you are in Times Square area for reasonable Chin food for lunch - Water margin in the Food Forum. Do NOT go for the set lunch and if you like vegs and can eat spicy DEF order the spicy lotus roots and capsicum.

If you want to have a comp diff dining experience then go to one of the "home kitchens" sprouting up where you get a set menu for dinner, cooked by the owner. I posted in response to someones qn about this a few days ago. The one we went for the food was excellent - 6 courses and the cook came out and sang a small piece of Chin opera when her husband finished serving. Have to reserve as very small. That one is Da Ping Huo, Hollywood Rd, Central 2559 1317. Others I have read about but not tried are also below :

Bo InnoSeki, TM Leung Building, 16 Gilman's Bazaar,Central, (852) 2850-8371. Hours: noon to 3 p.m. and 7 to 11
p.m.
Secret Pantry, 1/F Hoover Tower 3, No. 15 St. Francis Street, Wanchai, (852) 3421-2330, fax (852) 3426-9234. Dinner from 7 p.m.

Chinese again - Shui Hu Ju at Central, 2869 6927. Japanese - Wasabi Sabi at the Food Forum at Times Square - great both for lunch and dinner, fusion Jap so not just sushi, great ambience, formalish.

Although the opera singing (brief, at end of meal) makes Da Ping Huo a bit of a novelty night out, the Sichuan cuisine really is good, and the decor odd and interesting (singing chef's husband, who's at reception, is an artist and the books which line the walls are all art and art history). The entrance is hard to spot, but as each of the two evening sittings is about to begin, there's a man with a clipboard hovering in the street outside. It used to be impossible to get in, but there are often short-notice cancellations. Gets my vote.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

Hobbes, Peter-thanks for that tip and comment on Da Ping Huo-this sounds like just my kind of place!

Peter,
I bought these luxe guides for Hong Kong and Bangkok. You are right to the point. The guide is eye unfriendly, the colors and size combination makes it difficult to read. I just skimmed them through. We do have accommodations, so I was looking at dining and shopping. I am in my late forties and somehow got impression from the tone that this is more for younger crowd, what do you think?
Plus this tone like sugarlips, poppet, gorgeous, turned me off. I might re-read it again. But size is good.

Another thing Hobbes and Peter, it is very interesting to find out about "home kitchens". I will be meeting with reps of Hong Kong tourist board, so I will check with them how we can get there. I will also check with my agent in Hong Kong. My concern :is food safe there?
Besisdes I do not want to get sick, I also do not found myself eating some unknown animals, insects or worse : dogs! I hope I am not offending anyone, this is my first time in Asia and I am trying to absorb as much information as possible and experience Hogn Kong in it's best.

thank you

emtravel - Nobody eats dogs in Hong Kong, and it's illegal. If it's some "strange" food, they are trying to feed you, they'll let you know what it is beforehand. Food is very safe there, though there are still occassional outbreaks, just like anywhere in the world.

I assume you aren't including hot dogs in that statement? (smile)

To each his own I guess - I found the writing style of th4e Luxe guides very entertaining - has me in splits! On the home kitchens at Da Ping Huo they told us clearly before each item was served what it was and further whether it was spicy or non spicy. Our exp was fabulos - 1 Indian, 1 Australian and 2 Belgians and all enjoyed and no-one fell sick. The only caveat is what I have already mentioned i.e. there is no a la carte and the menu is pre set so special foods, allergies, etc cannot really be catered to. Another equally small, less glam home kitchen is Helen Changs Kitchen on the first floor at Leighton Rd, Causeway Bay very near Times Square. Dinner only. Think this one satisfies the "do locals eat there" question as only locals except us and waiters did not speak English - Helen herself had to come and help us out re what we were eating!

I'm confused Peter, I am an expat, but the restaurants I have recommend are out of fashion and dated? How can that be, as all expats are, and here I am quoting you, " the victim of whatever the latest trend is".

Could it be that there are some ex-pats that are NOT trendy? Could it be that we enjoy the local culture, have local friends, and don't feel the need to hit the latest night spot?

Remember that not all ex-pats have cushy packages, live in ex-pat ghettos and only have contact with taxi drivers and maids. The word refers to someone living outside his country of nationality, it does not mean "snob". Some of us even LIKE the local culture and don't feel the need to denegrate it every chance we get. I know that to the English, appreciating the local culture is viewed as letting the side down, but to those of us who aren't English, we bear no shame for it and make no apologies.

hobbes,
these home kitchens look very interesting. Is reservation neccessary?

btw my agent from HK replied today:

"During SARS last year all business did not work out well. Many people took this opportunity to open ?home kitchens? in private premises. This is illegal but the government at that time did not take any action. Anyhow since business of ?home kitchens? does not work out well recently many such restaurants have been closing one after the after. Nobody is going there for dinner anymore.
"

So I see it is not true and this trade still exists?

I do not care if there is no menu, since I realize it is just a kitchen, not a restaurant. As long as dishes and spiciness are explained I am ok.

DEF reserve because food is cooked daily based on the number of people who reserve (they say the cook goes out and shops after the reservations are all in but this seems a bit extreme IMO) and as importantly these restaurants all seat max 25-30. Just returned from another home cooking exp this evening! Called Yellow Door. Da Ping Huo was better both in terms of food and ambience. Did I mention fixed rate of $300 per head?

The fad may be over, but clearly *some* people are going to eat there. If the HKTB is proving sticky about providing the numbers of the illegal establishments, your hotel concierge (if you're staying anywhere halfway decent) will have numbers, or you can simply ask around, since many have been written about in newspapers (although the peak of this was about two years ago). Perhaps Hobbes might be kind enough to mention his sources, and whether any of the premises he's visiting are the truly illegal, with some kind of cloak-and-dagger method of getting to the venue, or whether these are those now gone legitimate, as Da Ping Huo has.

The point of the home kitchens/secret restaurants was that they served food commercially without having to conform to health and safety regulations, fire escapes, toilets, ventilation, etc. required of public places where food is sold, and, of course there were tax evasion issues, too.

But there's so much good food to eat in Hong Kong and which is of much easier access, that there's no particular reason for the short term visitor on a first or single visit to the city to feel compelled to try them. I'd be interested in more detailed accounts of the ones Hobbes has visited, however, if he has time.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html