Hon Kong Restaurant with Teenagers
 

We will be in Hong Kong with 3 teenagers. We are looking for some fun, reasonably priced restaurants with local color. We are more interested in the experience than the "gourmet" quality of the food. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

If you want an upmarket lively family friendly western restaurant I'd recommend Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill - at either Pacific Place on HK island or at the Ocean City Terminal at Kowloon.

Quite reasonably priced for HK (But that is not necessarily cheap)

Are you looking for Western food or Chinese food?

For Chinese stuff, here are a few things one can do:

- Dim sum at a Chinese restaurant. Go to one that locals eat, not those at a 5* hotel. They'll push the dim sum cart around, and you just pick whatever that look and smell attractive to you.

- Seafood at Sok Ku Wan on Lamma Island, or at Sai Kung. These places have a lot of live seafood tanks with dozens of fish/lobsters/shrimps/clams from all around the world <b>outside the restaurant</b>. You look at them all, compare to restaurants near by, and then decide. Seating is very casual - under a tent, by the water (at least on Lamma). Just make sure you know the price clearly. Some seafood are extremely expensive, and traditionally, they are sold by the unit &quot;tael&quot; (about 1.3oz).

- Try some of the noodle shops. They are all around Hong Kong, and can give you quick, cheap meals.

- Finally, go to McDonald's and have a fried apple pie. ;)

Take the Peak Tram from near central up to the Peak and have a meal at one of the restaurants there - maybe the Peak Lookout tho u have quite a choice. Try to go up on a clear day as all of you will enjoy great views of the city from the viewing platform. Also a decent place to buy some touristy souvenirs. Not local colour but a fun outing. Pull up an earlier post I put up re Hong Kong Home Kitchens - that could be a fun dinner experience for all of you. Again, not cheap by non HK standards at HK$200-300 per head, set menu.

Thanks for the responses. We are looking for the Chinese restaurants, not Western. Of course looking for places not similar to those at home!

We were there with two teenagers in June and enjoyed Sweet Dynasty, a simple, but more traditional Chinese restaurant, very reasonably priced, and a short walk from the ferry in the TST section of Kowloon. Across the street from the Marco Polo Hotels and shopping arcade. It gets very crowded at lunchtime with locals, so try to avoid the rush.
If you walk around whatever area of the city you happen to be in and see food that looks really good through the window of the restaurant, and what appears to be locals eating inside, give it a try. We did this from our hotel (also in TST Kowloon) but do not remember the names of them. After a meal or two, you will have figured out what dishes suit your taste and that of your teenagers. We especially liked simple restaurants that hung roasted meats in the front window that served platter rice dishes. They were very reasonably priced. The good ones sell out of the most popular dishes early, something to keep in mind.

Many teenagers love malls, and the Pacific Place mall in Admiralty (connected directly to the Admiralty MTR station, as well as to the Conrad, SHangri-La, and Marriott hotels) has a terrific food court call grEAT.

grEAT has half a dozen or more food stands -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and one or two Western types as well, and all that I've tried have been excellent, with everything made to order. While each stand has a seating area near it, it is no problem to bring a tray from one area to the other, so everyone can choose their own food and you all can sit together.

The Pacific Place mall has at least 3 different food courts, so be sure to go to the one you want (1 with mostly sit-down restaurant near the MTR entrance, 1 fast-food/McD's-type place in the middle of the mall, and grEAT, which you access via escalation near the entrance to the Shibu department store.)