Skaye

I piggy backed on another post re hotels - but would like any help on a reasonable price "nice" hotel..prefer Kowloon but we are willing to take any suggestions- like everyone else we have Champagne tastes on beer budget! Staggered at the price of the Intercontinental after 6 years!! Also.. how about Chinese restaurants read a long post that had mostly non Chinese restaurants! Thank you - guess what I'm looking for is a Hong Kong Bob and Andy!!

Cicerone

What kind of Chinese food do you want? You can go from Swatow to Hakka to Sichuan here. Of course Cantonese is very popular. Give me a cuisine type or do you want to try anything.

Cicerone

On the theory that you want to try other cuisines and not just Cantonese, see a list below. I have not included any dim sum suggestions, which would be a separate list.

Hutong (Beijing- Northern Chinese)
One Peking Road
Kowloon
Tel: 852:3428-8342
www.aqua.com.hk

This is three restaurants at one location, an Italian, a Chinese and a Japanese, all with great harbour views. They are all good, the Chinese is Beijing-style food and is very good. This group has several other restaurants in Hong Kong

Bistro Manchu (Manchurian/Northern Chinese and a little Russian thrown in)
33 Elgin Street
Tel: 25369218

One of my favourites, try the lamb or the chicken in pastry pockets. Not like any namby-pamby Cantonese food you may have had. Often, the chef's special of the day is the best, ask for that. Casual and moderate price. In Elgin street where there are a number of other restaurants.

Hakka Ye Ye
2nd Floor
Parekh House
63 Wyndham Street
Central
Tel: 2537-7060
http://www.yeyegroup.com/

This is Hakka food, one of the only places I know of in Hong Kong that serves Hakka food, and served in a nice ambience in the Hollywood Road area. (No view.) Hakka means "guest family" and refers to people who are not native indigenous people to Hong Kong, nor are they native Cantonese, although they are in fact ethnically Han Chinese (as with everything in China, it's a complicated history). Food tends to be braised and deep fried and chicken and pork feature in the menu. Not particularly spicy, sweet and sour is a staple. Excellent pork belly, stuffed tofu, drunken chicken. The website shows dishes and prices. One of my new favourites!

Dă Píng Huō (Sichuan)
Lower Ground Floor
Hilltop Plaza
49 Hollywood Road
Tel: 2559-1317

Private kitchen. Set meal about 15 courses (!) for HK$220, they have a limited wine list, you can also bring your own for corkage fee of HK$150. Excellent, spicy, but alternating spicy with mild. At the end of the evening, the cook generally comes out and sings...an interesting and delicious evening. Decor is all white with interesting artwork. Restaurant is hard to find, is really in an alley off Hollywood Road and Lyndhurst Terrace, look for a Pacific Coffee Company. Open for dinner only.

Yellow Door Kitchen (Sichuan and Hangzhou)
6th Floor, Cheung Hing Commercial Building
37 Cochrane St. (37-43)
Central Hong Kong
Tel: 852/2858-6555
www.yellowdoorkitchen.com.hk

Cantonese, spicy Sichuan and Hangzhou food. This was one of the first "private kitchens" around, it is now a legit restaurant. Very good food, try the Chinese wine too. This building entrance can be hard to find, look for a 7-11 and the door is around the corner.

Mum Chau's Sichuan Kitchen
5th Floor, 37 D'Aguilar Street
Lan Kwai Fong HK,
Telephone: 2522 0338

At the lower-end of the "private kitchen" budget, but also very much the lower-end of the ambience scale would be Mum Chua's. This type of private kitchen used to be illegal, in the sense that they did not have a restaurant license and now do, but it serves great, spicy, cheap food. This is one of my favorite places for lunch for great spicy food. The may or may not be a menu that day, it may or may not be in English. This is right in the heart of the ex-pat bar district, so easy to find, and you can have a drink before or after.

Gitone Fine Arts (Shanghainese)
1st Floor
100 Queen's Road East
Wan Chai
Tel: (852) 2527-3448
Fax (852) 2525-6077

For an unusual evening, try dinner here at this artist’s studio cum restaurant. It’s a set Shanghainese meal of 8 excellent courses for HK$300 (about US$40). They have a wine list (have not seen it) you can also bring your own and there is no corkgage fee (unusually for a private kitchen.). Days and hours vary, based on the number of reservations, they are not open Sundays; otherwise call a few days ahead. The owners are a painter, ceramics maker and teacher named Terence Lee, and his wife, Clara Chong. By day, it is a gallery showing art and ceramics, with classes for adults and children. The studio is quite rustic, with concrete floors and a low ceiling, and plain wooden tables, but there is lively art all over the alls, and are antique pieces in the room and there is a nice ambience about it. The restaurant is quite small, it has maybe 8 tables in all. The restaurant is on the first floor (i.e. one flight up) in an somewhat old-looking apartment building along busy Queen’s Road East which is crowded with shops; it’s up a narrow staircase, the door is on the right on the first landing.

Fook Lam Moon (Cantonese)
35-45 Johnston Road
Wan Chai
Tel: 852-2866-0663
fooklammoon-grp.com

Well-known and very popular in Hong Kong (they also have an outlet in Kowloon). Good for dim sum (they also offer set menu and a la carte Cantonese dishes), as well as for dinner where they have a very large menu selection both set menu and a la carte. Excellent egg tarts and other deserts.

Carrianna Chiu Chow Restaurant (Chiu Chow)
151 Gloucester Rd
First Floor
Wan Chai
tel: 852- 2511 1282

Good food, the only things I don’t like about are that it is huge, so can get very noisy and really busy, and the level of English is not great. The do have English menus.

Hunan Garden
The Forum (3rd floor)
Exchange Square, Central
Hong Kong
852/2868 2880

Hunan Food. Located in the same building as the stock exchange, close to the Star Ferry and the Airport Express station. Live music in the evenings.

Lumiere/Cuisine Cuisine (Sichuan and South American)
3107
IFC Mall
8 Finance Street
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 852-2393-3933

Lumiere is Sichuan and South American (yes, hard to believe), pretty good harbour views, although only from the third floor. Cuisine Cuisine is their Cantonese restaurant next door, you can make a booking by calling the same number. Nice ambience and décor in both (unusual for Chinese restaurants), good service

Ye Shanghai
88 Queensway
One Pacific Place
Hong Kong
Tel: 852-2918-9833

Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel
Harbour City, Kowloon
tel: 852- 2376 3322

Shanghainese food. This restaurant has two outlets, one on Hong Kong Island and one on the Kowloon side. The Pacific Place one is sleek and modern, the Marco Polo Hotel one is more pre-war Shanghai. There is no view, although there is a bit of a street view in the Pacific Place one. They also have a branch in the Xiantiandini area in Shanghai.

Green T.House Hong Kong (region not really definable IMO)
No.208 The Arcade
100 Cyberport Road
Tel: 852 2989 6036
http://www.green-t-house.com/hong.html

This is the Hong Kong outlet of the Beijing restaurant. Interesting presentation. Fusion Chinese, I think the woman who came up with the concept calls it "modern Chinese". The chef worked at Citronelle. Has a separate tea room as well. A little bit of a pretentious atmosphere, but good food. Expensive. Not in any downtown area, but on the way to Aberdeen and Stanley, could be combined with a visit to Aberdeen (where restaurants are to be avoided other than Top Deck of the Jumbo).

Peking Duck

Spring Deer Restaurant
42 Mody Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel: 852/2366 4012

Although a little bit touristy the Spring Deer Restaurant in Kowloon has good Peking Duck IMO.

American Peking Restaurant
20 Lockhart Rd
Wan Chai
Tel: 852-2527-7770

Another good place to try is American Peking Restaurant in Wan Chai if you are in the area, very inexpensive.

Noodle Shops

Petit Olala
Corner Star Street and St Francis Street
Wan Chai
Tel: 852-2294-0426

Despite the French name, they serve excellent Shanghai noodle, and in a nicer setting than most of the noodle shops and the dai pai dong (see below). They are located in the Star Street area which has about half a dozen excellent western restaurants. They are an offshoot of the main Olala Restaurant which is a French bistro a few blocks away on Electric Street (and which is just OK, IMO, the food is fine I just don't like the ambience, the plastic menus, etc). The Petit Olala has a nice setting on a corner with lots of windows and light and is very nice for lunch (open for dinner too). Note that as of my last visit, there is no name on this restaurant, you will see a white building on the corner with big windows and a white awning with the word "Sandwiches" written on it in red, that is the restaurant.



For a very basic inexpensive meal, try any of the myriad of "dai pai dong” which are all over the city. These are extremely casual basically street restaurants. In the Central area, walk up either Stanley Street, or Wellington Street and you will see many of these, in particular at the far end of Wellington after you cross under the escalator. In Wan Chai, there are noodle shops on Landale Street which is about 3-4 blocks east of Pacific Place Mall, in particular Charlie's Place at No 8 (as they have English menu). Others would be fine, but may not have English menus. Basic but good, not expensive, maybe US$4 a bowl. You will undoubtedly find these in the Nathan Road area in Kowloon and also in Causeway Bay.

Cicerone

Oh my God, I fogot to include info on egg tarts! These are a Hong Kong institution. They are a pastry shell filled with egg custard. Good for breakfast, a snack or dessert. The best place to get the sort of famous ones is Barista Caffe at 35 Lyndhurst Terrace in Central on Hong Kong Island, as their egg tarts are made by a very famous local baker. Another good place is just up the street at #50 Lyndhurst Terrace (no English name for the shop). There is a coconut egg tart that is excellent as well. You also will see egg tarts on offer all over town, and in restaurants for dessert.

If you go to Macau, the quintessential place for egg tarts is the Lord Stow Bakery in the village of Coloane on Coloane Island. (There are 3 branches in the town, which is about 500 yards wide, so you can’t miss one...). These are Portuguese-style and are caramelized on top.

Elizabeth_S

Cicerone - your list is fantastic! I never would have found Yellow Door had it not been for a previous posting and it was terrific.

Skaye - re hotel - look at the YMCA Salisbury in Kowloon - right next to Pen and a terrific value.

Skaye

Cicerone: Thank you so very much. How absolutely fantastic - you absolutely make me wish we were staying longer - and thanks for the YMCA Salisbury hint - we have looked at that.. Happy travels!