What to eat in Hong Kong: dim sum, roast meats and milk tea

Cantonese cooking, the Hong Kong way

Hong Kong's food is mostly Cantonese, the same tradition you meet in Guangzhou's tea houses, and dim sum is eaten much as it is in Guangzhou: small dishes shared over pots of tea. Our China food guide covers the Guangzhou tea house and the dishes of the mainland route. What Hong Kong adds is a set of forms of its own, shaped by a crowded, fast city and, as the cha chaan teng shows, by British colonial tastes.

Five of them are worth planning around. Yum cha, tea with dim sum, is the morning and lunchtime meal. Siu mei, the roast meats that hang in shop windows, is lunch over rice. Wonton noodles are the city's comfort bowl, served until late. The cha chaan teng, or tea restaurant, grew out of the working-class cafés of the 1940s and 1950s and serves milk tea, toast and buns. The dai pai dong is a licensed on-street cooked-food stall.

Across the water, Macau is a different table again: Macanese cooking mixes Portuguese and Chinese food with ingredients from several continents, and its egg tart is a different pastry from Hong Kong's. Our Macau food guide covers that kitchen, so this guide stays on the Hong Kong side.

• Morning: yum cha with tea, or milk tea and a bun at a cha chaan teng.
• Lunch: roast goose or char siu over rice, or a bowl of wonton noodles.
• Afternoon: an egg tart and a cup of milk tea.
• Evening: noodles, street snacks or a stall dinner.

Yum cha: tea, steamers and the dim sum order sheet

Yum cha means drinking tea, and the tea is where the meal starts; the dim sum come to the table in bamboo steamers for everyone to share. In the old tea houses dim sum was eaten at leisure over tea, and places such as Lin Heung and Luk Yu turned it into a symbol of the city's dining culture.

How you order. At a traditional tea house you choose from a printed dim sum order sheet listing the dim sum, and hand it to the staff. At Luk Yu Tea House, 24 Stanley Street in Central, the sheet is a tradition of many years and the dim sum change every week. Order a few baskets at a time and add more as you go, so that everything arrives hot. Expect a tea charge: Tim Ho Wan's October 2025 menu for its K11 Art Mall shop charges from HK$8 for each diner aged three or over.

What to order first. Har gow, the shrimp dumpling, is the test of a kitchen: a good one is a half-moon with 12 to 13 folds in a thin skin. Add siu mai, the pork-and-shrimp dumpling, a baked char siu bun with barbecued pork inside, and a plate of cheung fun, the steamed rice roll.

Tim Ho Wan is the easy place to start. Its first shop, at 9–11 Fuk Wing Street in Sham Shui Po, opened as a 20-seat shop in 2009, earned a MICHELIN star and made the baked barbecue pork bun its signature; it opens 08:00–22:00, takes credit cards, and its quick service keeps waits short. From a Tsim Sha Tsui base, its shop on Level 1 of K11 Art Mall, 18 Hanoi Road, opens 10:00–22:00, and its October 2025 menu lists har gow at HK$44, siu mai at HK$42 and three baked char siu buns at HK$35. For a hall with a harbour view, City Hall Maxim's Palace on the second floor of the City Hall Low Block, 5 Edinburgh Place in Central, serves Cantonese food and dim sum; City Hall's page lists Monday–Saturday 11:00–15:00 and 17:30–22:30, and Sundays and public holidays 09:00–15:00 and 17:30–22:30, with an enquiries line on (852) 2521 1303. Lin Heung Tea House is in our Central and Sheung Wan guide.

• Order: choose from the sheet a few baskets at a time; har gow, siu mai, a baked char siu bun and a rice roll make a first round for two.
• Share: baskets are usually shared across the table.
• Tea: it comes first, before the dim sum.

Siu mei: roast goose, char siu and the shop window

Siu mei are the Cantonese roast meats: glossy geese, ducks, strips of char siu and slabs of crackling roast pork hanging in the window of a roast-meat shop. Char siu means fork-roasted, after pork once skewered on forks over a fire; today it is pork glazed with honey or maltose and roasted until the edges char. Ordered over rice with a little greens, it is the city's everyday lunch.

Roast goose is the one to travel for. Yat Lok, a family business founded in 1957 and at its Stanley Street shop in Central since 2011, holds a MICHELIN star and does not take credit cards; its geese are marinated and go through more than 20 steps before roasting. Order a quarter goose with lai fun, round rice noodles in clear broth with a drizzle of goose fat, or the roast goose drumstick rice, listed at HK$179 at lunch in November 2025. Char siu, roast pork belly and soy-marinated chicken are on the same counter.

In Wan Chai, Kam's Roast Goose at 226 Hennessy Road is a second roast-meat counter, open 11:30–21:30 daily.

• How to order: a quarter goose, or a plate of goose, char siu or roast pork over rice.
• With it: lai fun in clear broth, or plain rice and greens.
• Where: Yat Lok in Central, Kam's Roast Goose in Wan Chai.

Wonton noodles, rice rolls and tofu pudding

A bowl of wonton noodles looks simple and is not. The Hong Kong style is wontons filled with shrimp and pork in a thin wrapper, springy egg noodles that some shops still press with a bamboo pole, and a clear broth deepened with dried flounder, pork bones and shrimp shells. Hawkers used to put the wontons in the bottom of the bowl, the noodles on top and then the broth, to keep the noodles springy as long as possible. Wonton-making has been recognised as part of Hong Kong's intangible cultural heritage.

Two shops cover most of a trip. Mak Man Kee, 51 Parkes Street in Jordan, began as an alleyway stall about 60 years ago and makes its noodles with duck eggs; its own menu lists tiger prawn wonton noodles in soup at HK$46, it does not take credit cards, and it opens 12:00–00:30 daily, which makes it the late bowl after a Temple Street evening. Tsim Chai Kee, 98 Wellington Street in Central, serves only three toppings — wontons, dace fish balls and sliced beef — in any combination, 11:00–21:30 daily. It is cash only; the queue is long at lunchtime, and when it is busy you share a table with strangers, so eat outside peak times to beat the crowd.

Sham Shui Po keeps the street snacks. At Hop Yik Tai, 121 Kweilin Street, the steamed rice rolls are silky and lightly rich with lard, and the counter also sells fish balls, pork skin and braised radish; it opens 06:00–20:30. Nearby, Kung Wo Beancurd Factory at 118 Pei Ho Street, founded in 1893, is known for its silky tofu pudding, sweetened only with brown sugar and served hot or cold, and pan-fried stuffed tofu. Our Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po guide has the shopping streets around them.

• Late bowl: wonton noodles at Mak Man Kee, open until 00:30.
• Central lunch: Tsim Chai Kee, one, two or all three toppings.
• Sham Shui Po snacks: rice rolls at Hop Yik Tai, tofu pudding at Kung Wo.

Cha chaan teng and dai pai dong

The cha chaan teng began in the 1940s and 1950s, when Western restaurants were for the elite and working people wanted the same flavours for less: macaroni in broth with ham, baked pork chop rice and Hong Kong-style French toast all came out of that kitchen. A licence introduced in the 1960s let these cafés serve full meals, and they became the city's canteens, with menus under the glass tabletop, shared tables and fast, brisk service. Many diners use the first cup of tea or water on the table to rinse their chopsticks and spoon.

Milk tea is the drink that defines them. Hong Kong's Intangible Cultural Heritage Office lists the making of Hong Kong-style milk tea on the city's Representative List: tea leaves are blended, boiled and infused, then the tea and milk are poured from height, and the drink is also known as silk-stocking milk tea after the cloth it is strained through. Lan Fong Yuen on Gage Street in Central is credited with that silk-stocking tea and with yuen yeung, coffee mixed with milk tea. For a price to plan with, Tim Ho Wan's October 2025 K11 Art Mall menu lists its hot milk tea at HK$18. Kam Wah Cafe is in our Mong Kok guide, and Australian Dairy Company in our Kowloon guide.

The dai pai dong is a licensed cooked-food stall on the street. Breakfast at one is a bowl of noodles or a crispy bun with lemon, butter and honey, washed down with milk tea while the street goes by. Sing Heung Yuen, the Central example, is in our Central and Sheung Wan guide.

• Cha chaan teng order: milk tea or yuen yeung with French toast, a pineapple bun or a set breakfast.
• Dai pai dong order: noodles or a crispy bun, with milk tea.

Ordering and paying: shared tables, Octopus and the service charge

At a noodle shop, a cha chaan teng or a dai pai dong. Let the stall lead: seating, payment and where to queue vary from shop to shop, so follow the staff. Decide what you want before you reach the front, order in one go, and have notes or your card ready when you pay. Table sharing is usual, and in a cooked-food centre you sit at the tables of the stall you ordered from.

Octopus. The stored-value card you use on the MTR, buses and ferries also pays at shops: it is widely accepted by transport operators, retail shops, parking and self-service kiosks. An adult Standard On-Loan Octopus costs HK$200, a refundable HK$50 deposit and HK$150 of stored value, and is sold at MTR Customer Service Centres; a Tourist Octopus costs HK$39 with no stored value and can be reloaded with cash at transport counters and retailers. Our transport guide explains which card suits your trip.

The bill. Most restaurants add a 10% service charge, though some cafés and diners do not; where none is added, a 10% tip is welcome.

• Share a table when the staff seat you with strangers; it is normal.
• Cash: Mak Man Kee, Yat Lok and Tsim Chai Kee do not take credit cards.

Egg tarts, milk tea and the afternoon break

Hong Kong's egg tart, daan tat, arrived in Guangzhou with the British in the 1920s and was adapted in Hong Kong after the Second World War by bakers who brought their dim sum skills to it: a flower-shaped crust, a firm, glossy, sweet custard and a stronger egg flavour than Macau's caramel-topped Portuguese tart. You find it in bakeries, in cha chaan tengs and on dim sum menus, with milk tea.

Tai Cheong Bakery, founded in 1954 and known for its butter-flavoured shortcrust tarts, has its shop at 35 Lyndhurst Terrace in Central, open Monday–Friday 09:30–19:30 and 09:30–20:00 on weekends and public holidays; a Mirror Media report on the shop dated 25 September 2026 gives HK$12 a tart. For the flaky, caramelised version, Lord Stow's original bakery in Coloane is the stop in our Macau food guide.

The pairing has a name: saam dim saam, three-fifteen, the mid-afternoon break of strong milk tea and a pineapple bun that began with the city's office workers and labourers. The pineapple bun has no pineapple; it is named for the grid pattern of its crust, which looks like pineapple skin.

• Egg tart: Tai Cheong on Lyndhurst Terrace, on the Central walk.
• Milk tea: at a cha chaan teng.

What a meal costs

These are dish prices from the shops' own menus, a MICHELIN Guide listing and press reports, each with its own date; all were checked on 27 October 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a guide to the level, not as a bill.

For a day, not a dish: about HKD 250 a person at cha chaan tengs, noodle shops and dai pai dongs — a bun and milk tea for breakfast, noodles at lunch, a rice or noodle dinner and a tea and egg tart in between — about HKD 550 with dim sum and sit-down dinners, and about HKD 1,500 with hotel lunches, afternoon tea and a good restaurant at night. These are the same levels as our trip-cost guide, which also costs rooms, transport and sights for the whole trip.

• Cheapest good meal: a bowl of wonton noodles, or tofu pudding and a rice roll in Sham Shui Po.
• Dim sum for two: a first round of har gow, siu mai, buns and a rice roll at Tim Ho Wan's October 2025 K11 prices comes to HK$156 before the tea charge.

Meal by meal on the first-trip route

This day plan follows our first-trip plan: four nights in Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and the Peak on day 2, Lamma on day 3, and M+, Mong Kok and Temple Street on day 4. Opening hours are given with each shop.

• Day 1, arrival: after the waterfront, a late bowl of wonton noodles at Mak Man Kee in Jordan, open until 00:30.
• Day 2, Central: roast goose at Yat Lok on Stanley Street for lunch (10:00–20:30); an egg tart at Tai Cheong on Lyndhurst Terrace in the afternoon (until 19:30 on weekdays, 20:00 at weekends); or swap lunch for wonton noodles at Tsim Chai Kee on Wellington Street (11:00–21:30).
• Day 3, Lamma: the Lamma guide covers where to eat on the island.
• Day 4, Kowloon: dim sum at Tim Ho Wan in K11 Art Mall from 10:00, then KMB HK1 from Star Ferry to M+ as the plan has it. Optional, on the Mong Kok leg: Sham Shui Po is the next Tsuen Wan Line stop north of Prince Edward, for tofu pudding at Kung Wo (until 21:00) or the original Tim Ho Wan (until 22:00). Dinner on Temple Street follows our Kowloon guide.
• Swap day: on a Sai Kung day, our Sai Kung guide covers the waterfront seafood restaurants.

Halal, vegetarian and allergies

Halal. Char siu, roast pork, wontons and most dumplings contain pork, and goose and duck are roasted beside it in the same shops. Hong Kong's local halal certification authority is the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Tourism Board works with it to encourage restaurants to certify. The Financial Secretary put the number of halal-certified restaurants at over 190 in October 2025. For halal dim sum, Cathay Pacific's halal dining guide (February 2025) lists the Islamic Centre Canteen, 5/F, 40 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, as a halal-certified restaurant serving pork-free dim sum until 15:00.

Vegetarian. Cantonese menus lean on pork and seafood, and broths, sauces and fillings often carry them even when a dish looks like vegetables. LockCha in Tai Kwun, which serves vegetarian dim sum, is in our Central and Sheung Wan guide.

Allergies. Shrimp is in har gow, siu mai and most wontons; wonton broth is made with dried fish and shrimp shells; wonton noodles contain egg and wheat; char siu is glazed with honey or maltose; and rice rolls may be made with lard. Tell the staff about an allergy when you order, before the baskets reach the table.

• Halal: look for a certified restaurant.
• Vegetarian dim sum: LockCha in Tai Kwun, Central.
• Shellfish: in har gow, siu mai, wontons and wonton broth.