Hong Kong

Hong Kong is definitely one of my favorite cities in Asia, it has the whole package: people are super nice (and speak english), so much history and culture to witness, so many buildings and innovation, and of course (and more importantly) so much great food.

Since HK was part of the british empire, up until 1997, it is a very approachable city for tourists, everything is in chinese and english, most of the people speak english. However, it still does have that historical and culture side, which makes it a great city to visit, you can go to museums, temples, to soak in all of the culture, but then you get to the main island where the technology and amazing buildings take over, for me it is like the New York of Asia.

Getting to the good part, there are many many options for eating here in HK, I am going to give you some of my amazing finds and recommendations.

Lamma Rainbow

If you only have 1 meal in HK, this is the place you want to eat, no doubt about it. This restaurant is the place where to local people go to eat and celebrate specials occasions, one waiter told me that even the CEOs of the big banks in HK reserve the whole restaurant for their clients or important visitors. This is the restaurant you want to go, and if you are thinking it is a super fancy, black tie type of place, you are incorrect, the place is super casual and the food is the main attraction. The restaurant is in it’s own island! Lamma Island, when you make a reservation they confirm your boat ride, where 1 hour before you eat, you meet the boat at the pier and they take you to the island. There is nothing else at the island but the restaurant. When you get there you see tanks full of all the amazing seafood you are about to eat, there is no better definition of fresh seafood than here. The menu is suuuuper long with unlimited options to choose from, but my fave are the special set menus, where they bring you different plates to taste and enjoy, it depends on the number of people, the first time I came here we were a party of 12, so they brought us 10 different plates to taste (all amazing), the last time I went with BAE, so we ordered the set menu for 2, and they brought the most amazing dishes: Lobster, abalone, special fried rice, and others that we devoured.

Tim Ho Wan

This place is perfect to enjoy traditional Cantonese Dim Sum. It is a chain-type of restaurant now (they have many locations) but with good reason, the Dim Sum is to die for, and may I say, it is the cheapest 1-michelin star restaurant I have eaten. The taste and quality of the food are of a 5 star restaurant, but the price is of a street cart, the perfect combination. It is usually full, so you have to wait in line, where they give you a pencil and paper where you can start your order, so when you get to your table you your dishes are already in preparation. We ordered the steamed fresh shrimp (my fav, they were ridiculously out of this world), deep fried spring rolls (Bae’s fav), baked bun with BBQ pork, pan fried dumplings, and many more.

Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant

It is one of the restaurants to be found at the Royal Garden Hotel (we stayed here the last time, amazing hotel), and it is amazing traditional Cantonese food. I chose to eat here because they had HOTPOT, if you don’t know what it is, you are missing out. They put a “hot pot” of stock and bring you trays of uncooked food for you to put it in the pot, cook it and eat it; it is a whole entertainment meal that makes it that much fun. We ordered the Sichuan chicken stock (which is super spicy BTW) and as sides mushrooms, calamari, fresh pasta, lotus root, potatoes, and truffle dumplings (my absolute favorite). I got super excited and ordered a ton of food so we ate until we couldn’t move anymore.