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69 Shanghai Restaurant
Low-key Shanghainese eatery that's nothing like five-star but does the dumpling job well. It's family-run and there are some comfy booths in the front window. It's open late too, so you can come here after a draining dance. Try the signature hot-and-sour soup, almost a meal in itself - or the aubergine fried with garlic.
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American Restaurant
The friendly American (which chose its name to attract Yank sailors cruising the 'Wanch' for sustenance while on R&R during the Vietnam War) has been serving decent Northern Chinese cuisine for well over half a century. Famous for it's Peking duck and beggar's chicken (order in advance).
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Carriana Chiu Chow Restaurant
For Chiu Chow food (from Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong), the Carriana still rates right up there after all these years. Try the cold dishes (sliced goose with vinegar, crab claws), pork with tofu or Chiu Chow chicken. Enter from Tonnochy Rd.
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Che's Cantonese Restaurant
This crème de la crème of Cantonese restaurants, opened by a local showbiz celebrity, serves home-style delicacies and offers a special seasonal menu with a dozen additional dishes. A must-try is the freshly baked Chinese roast pork puffs. Prices are high but loyalists say it's worth the extra bucks.
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Chong Fat Chiu Chow Restaurant
While this place isn't easy to get to and communications are limited, it has some of the best and freshest Chiu Chow seafood in the territory. Don't miss the crab dishes, sek-làu-gài (chicken wrapped in little egg-white sacs) and the various goose offerings. Chiu Chow cuisine originates from Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong.
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Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant
Chuen Kee, the granddaddy of the Sai Kung seafood restaurants, has three several nearby branches to house customers when capacity is maxing out. A standard stir-fried clams costs around HK$48 .
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City Hall Maxim's Palace
For many years HK Magazine readers voted this place as the best dim sum restaurant in town, and while probably not everyone would agree, this establishment does offer food of solid quality. The ambience is civilised but not snobbish, and at busy lunchtime there is always a nice buzz to the place. Dim sum ladies walk around with trays of food ready to be served, saving you from having to read the menu.
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East Lake
This Cantonese restaurant, away from the waterfront and close to Tung Wan Beach, is popular with locals and expats, especially in the evening when tables are set up outside.
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Eastern Palace Chiu Chow Restaurant
Chiu Chow dim sum is served at this large hotel restaurant from to daily. Particularly good are the crab and shrimp balls, as well as the sliced goose in vinegar.
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Fook Lam Moon
One of Hong Kong's top Cantonese restaurants, the Fook Lam Moon takes care of you from the minute you walk out of the lifts, with cheongsam-clad hostesses waiting to escort you to your table. The enormous menu contains a lot of unusual and expensive dishes (shark's fin, frog, abalone), which would shoot your bill up to at least HK$1000 per head. You might sample the pan-fried lobster balls (from around HK$440 ), which are a house speciality.
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Forum
The Forum's abalone dishes have fans spread across the world and have won countless awards. What restaurant owner Yeung Koon-Yat does with these marvellous molluscs has earned him membership to Le Club des Chefs des Chefs and the moniker 'King of Abalone'. The pan-fried redfish and crunchy-skin chicken are also recommended.
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Grand Stage
This wonderful place, with balcony and booth seating overlooking a huge dance floor in Western Market, features ballroom music and dancing at high tea ( to ) and/or dinner. The food is fine but come here primarily to kick your heels up.
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Heichinrou
This stylish Cantonese restaurant is arguably the most elegant eatery in what makes up the four-level Food Forum (floors 10 to 13) in the Times Square shopping mall. The dim sum (around HK$16 to HK$45 ) is excellent.
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Hunan Garden
This elegant place specialises in spicy Hunanese cuisine, which is often hotter than the Sichuan variety. The Hunanese fried chicken with chilli is excellent, as are the seafood dishes. Views, overlooking the harbour or into the heart of Central, are a bonus.
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Islam Food
If you fancy trying the cuisine of the Wui (Chinese Muslims), come here. Order the mutton with scallions on a hotplate, or minced beef with pickled cabbage stuffed into sesame rolls.
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Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant
The larger of two floating restaurants moored in Aberdeen Harbour and specialising in seafood, the Jumbo is touristy in the extreme and the food is so-so. The interior looks like Beijing's Imperial Palace crossbred with a Las Vegas casino; think of it as a spectacle - a show - and you'll have fun. There's free transport for diners from the pier on Aberdeen Promenade. Dim sum is served from to on Sunday.
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Kung Tak Lam
This long-established place, which serves Shanghai-style meatless dishes, has more of a modern feeling than most vegetarian eateries and is usually packed out. All the vegetables are 100% organic and dishes are free of MSG.
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Leung Hing Chiu Chow Seafood Restaurant
The staple ingredients of Chiu Chow cuisine - goose and duck but especially fish and shellfish - are extensively employed and delectably prepared at this very local place.
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Lin Heung Tea house
This older-style Cantonese restaurant is worth a visit for the tableau: old men reading the newspaper, extended families chatting and large office groups noshing. There's decent dim sum served from trolleys so it's good for a late bite or those eating alone.
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Liu Yuan Restaurant
This stylish restaurant serves superb Shanghainese dishes, including things like crab claws cooked with duck egg; the tiny prawns steamed with tea leaves are superb. Highly recommended.
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Luk Yu Tea House
This old-style teahouse is a museum piece in more ways than one. Most of the staff have been here since the early Ming dynasty and are as grumpy and ill-tempered as an emperor deposed. The booths are uncomfortable, it's not cheap, prices aren't marked on the English menu but the dim sum, served from to , is really quite delicious.
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Lung King Heen
It's not just the view that you should come for, it's the plump and fresh crustaceans and the divine roast duck (around HK$560 each, good for six people), whose aroma lingers on long after you've devoured every bit of the bird.
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Lung Moon Restaurant
The dining experience at this very basic (and friendly) Cantonese restaurant has not changed a great deal since the 1950s, and the prices, while not quite at 1950s levels, are still reasonable. Dim sum is available daily from opening until .
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Mak's Noodle
This noodle shop sells excellent won ton soup and the beef brisket noodles, more of a Western taste than a Chinese one, are highly recommended. Go for lunch or eat early; it's shut tight by . Branches: Causeway Bay (2895 5310; 44 Jardines Bazaar, Tai Kok Tsui (2740 4129; Shop K09, G/F, Olympian City Phase 2), Tsim Sha Tsui (2730 0710; Shop C03, 2/F, Gourmet Express, China Hong Kong City, 33 Canton Rd).
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Man Fai
Any time of day you can see people squeezed together here at the few communal tables, slurping up noodles. It's not a heaven for hygienists, but it is for noodles lovers. The signature squid balls, loved for their al dente texture, can be had alone or with a variety of noodles (around HK$20 ), and with other ingredients such as beef balls, fish balls, crispy fish skin and seaweed (assorted around HK$23 ). There is a Sheung Wan branch (2543 8468; 274 Des Voeux Rd Central; - ).
