What I Eat & Shop In Hong Kong
Today I will be sharing with you my 4D3N free & easy itinerary in the Land Of Dim Sum and 茶餐厅:)
For accommodation, I stayed in Metropark Hotel Kowloon. (P.S There are a few Metropark Hotels so do take note of that) [Click on the link on to find out more about the hotel]
Address: 75 Waterloo Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2761-1711
What I did not like was that the distance of the hotel between the nearest MTR is pretty far. The hotel is about 10 minutes’ walk from Yaumatei/Mongkok MTR stations (Exit D3 nearest to hotel)/8 minutes’ walk from Mongkok East station.
However, you do not have to worry:) The hotel provides free shuttle bus to Mongkok (Drop off only) and Tsim Sha Tsui every half an hour in the morning and every one hour during the afternoon and night.
What I love was that the hotel room was relatively spacious and comfortable in consideration that land in Hong Kong is scarce and hotel rooms in HK are pretty small and cramped. What is even better is the hotel even provides you with a mobile phone for you to assess data outside for free during your stay so that you would not get lost while roaming the different places in HK.
Day 1
We did not do much on Day 1 as by the time we arrived and cleared immigration, it was already late and we were all too tired to walk around.
Sea View Congee Shop 海景粥店茶餐庁
- Address: G/F, 103 Argyle Street, Mong Kok
- MTR: Mongkok Station (Exit D2)
- Opening hours: 24 Hr
📷: Fried Dough (油条) and Soya Milk 📝: Fried dough and soya milk is a comfort food combination especially when you are tired from all the walking. The dough was fried on the spot so you can be assured that it will be hot and fresh. Don't worry the fried dough was not oily. Just dip the fragrant fried dough in the soya milk just like oreo with milk...Mmmm ahhh...
What I noticed was that many of the locals love to order a bowl of congee with a plate of fried dough rice roll. We did not managed to give both a try but they sure look delicious so to those who are going, do give it a try since after all the shop is famous for their congee and rice rolls. The congee is those smooth kind and the fried dough rice roll is actually the fried dough in the picture above wrapped with chee cheong fun.
Day 2
Kam Wah Café 金华冰厅
- Address: G/F, 47 Bute Street, Prince Edward (a stone’s throw away from Ladies’ Market)
- MTR:
(a) Prince Edward station (Exit B2)
(b) Mongkok station (Exit B3) > go up the escalator leading up to a bridge > walk along Mongkok road on a pedestrian bridge above Mongkok road > turn to the left and go down that escalator to reach ground floor > walk straight until you come to a T-junction > café is on your left (5 min walk)
- Opening hours: 6.30am – 12am
📷: Bo Lo Bao, Egg tarts, Cheese Curry Chicken Chop Instant Noodles, Maggie Noodles with egg, sausage, ham and luncheon meat, Beef Hor Fun
📝: I decided to pay Kam Wah a visit due to its famous Bo Lo Bao (pineapple bun) and true enough the Bo Lo Bao definitely lives up to its and my expectation:) I highly recommend the Bo Lo Bao from Kam Wah! The buns were freshly baked in the morning and you can see that every table will definitely have the buns ordered at their tables. The outside of the bun was crispy while the inside of the bun was soft and fluffy with fragrant buttery smell. The egg tarts were decent and normal.
Nothing can go wrong with maggie noodles and any toppings would just taste good with maggie noodles haha. The instant noodles were not soggy and had the right springy texture. Special mention to the broth that they use for the maggie noodles which did not seem like directly from the instant noodles packets. The cafe probably uses their own broth for the instant noodle soup . To those cheese and curry lovers, you would definitely love the cheese curry chicken chop instant noodles:) The beef hor fun had the wok hei taste and was delicious. The only difference was that the noodles they use for the hor fun is slimmer but slightly thicker than those from Singapore. The milk tea from here is not too sweet and is worth a try too:)
Hung Lee Restaurant 洪利粥店茶餐厅
- Address: 2A Hou Fook Street, Tsim Sha Tsui
- MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui (Exit A2) (4-5 min walk)
📝: Hung Lee is a restaurant that offers simple and comforting HK meals. It offers similar food fare as the Sea View congee shop (refer to Day 1) such as congee and fried rice rolls. We tried the fish skin dumplings and beef brisket at Hung Lee. The beef brisket was tender and fragrant. The fish skin dumplings resemble of those Mee Kia that we have in Singapore when we order fishball noodles.
Hing Kee Claypot Rice Restaurant
- Address: G/F, 15-19 Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei
- MTR: Yau Ma Tei station (Temple Street Exit) (4 min walk)
📝: Hing Kee is famous for their claypot rice and fried oyster omelette. However, I was disappointed with their food standard as the fried oyster omelette was so oily that we dare not to even eat it. The claypot rice was not as fragrant as those that we ate in Singapore but it could also be due to that we did not order salted fish to be added into the rice. What caught me by surprise was that there were business taunting between the neighbour shops where the shop owners approach the customers and like "pull" them into their shop with their words before the customers can even reach or consider eating at their neighbour shop.
Shopping:
1. Citygate Outlet
- Largest outlet mall in Hong Kong that houses designers brands offering all-year round 30%-70% discount
- Address: 20 Tat Tung Road, Tung Chung, Outlying Islands
- MTR: Tung Chung station (Exit C). Take MTR from Yau Ma Tei to Lai King -> Change to Tung Chung Line **Exit B for the cable car to Lantau Island
- Opening hours: Mon-Sun 10am – 10pm
2. Tsim Sha Tsui Area
- Local HK designers and mid-priced youth street labels
– Address: Granville road
- MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui station (Exit B2). Walk along Cameron Road to Chatham Road South, turn into Granville Road
Day 3
Jenny Cookies
- Address: Shop 24 Ground Floor, Mirador Mansion, 54-64 Nathan Road. However due to shop's renovation, you would have to proceed to Shop 42 1st Floor to purchase those cookies.
- MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui (D1/N5 Exit)
- Opening hours: 9AM - 6.30PM
📷: 4 mix butter cookies (Butter flower, coffee flower, shortbread and raisin oats) 📝: Initially I did not really understand the hype about Jenny Cookies...like why would people queue up so long just to buy their cookies. So since I am in Hong Kong, I thought why not give it a try since I am already there haha and I did not regret my decision. The butter cookies were REALLY GOOD! Perfect to go with your afternoon tea:) They were very fragrant and those buttery cookies just melt in your mouth...My personal favourites are the butter flower and shortbread cookies:) The coffee flower had a strong coffee taste while the raisin oats cookies were slightly dry. Do go earlier in the morning around 9am-10am to avoid the crowd and queue. Heard from others that the cookies are much cheaper to buy in Hong Kong so to those who are buying many boxes back home, I would suggest that you bring a hand carry luggage to put these lovely boxes of cookies inside as they are quite heavy. Just be careful to buy from the original shop and not buy the counterfeit ones!
Yat Lok Restaurant
- Address: G/F, 34-38 Stanley Street, Central Hong Kong
- MTR: Central station (Exit D2) (6-7 min walk)
📷: Roast goose leg with rice and assorted roasted meat (烧肉) and bbq pork (Char Siew 叉烧) 📝: Yat Lok, a one michelin star restaurant is just like the typical HK 茶餐厅, crowded and packed with locals, tourists and office people sharing tables together, with not much of personal space. You should have probably heard stories from others that one should not expect good service from eateries in HK as those service staff expect you to order fast, eat and then leave and not sit there to chill and chit chat with your friends over meals.
However, all of these should not deter you from visiting Yat Lok for its roast meat. The roast goose meat was tender and juicy and when paired with the rice with slight oil and gravy was just heavenly...The roasted meat and bbq pork were also roasted perfectly where the juiciness and fragrance of the meat were still retained and their skin were crispy. Not forgetting the ice lemon tea that was so refreshing especially on hot weather. The HK version of ice lemon tea is slightly different from those SG ones where the tea is lighter and slightly sweeter but the HK ice lemon tea is still good!
P.S: The noodles in soup (above) were not bad too! When paired with the roast meat, the slightly chewy noodles in soup were light-tasting and complemented the roast meat well.
Tai Cheong Bakery (Tai Chang Bing Jia)
- Address: 35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong
- MTR: Central station (Exit C) (9 min walk) (3 min from Yat Lok)
- Opening hours: Mon-Sat: 7.30am – 9pm; Sun – Public Holidays: 8.30am – 9pm
📷: Egg tart
📝: Tai Cheong bakery is famous for their egg tarts and they have a food booth in Takashimaya Singapore Basement 2! The egg tarts were freshly baked as they were all still displayed on their baking trays taken directly out of the kitchen. I felt that the egg custard filling was a little sweet for me as I prefer the Portuguese egg tarts from Macau instead. However, the pastry of the tart crust was really good as it was crispy and fragrant. If you prefer your egg tarts to be on the sweeter side, you would definitely love the egg tarts from Tai Cheong Bakery:)
Oddies Foodies
- Address: 45 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong
- MTR: Sheung Wan station (Exit A2)
- Opening hours: 12pm – 10.30pm daily
📷: Night Wolf 📝: Oddies Foodies is definitely for those dessert lovers as their desserts are both insta-worthy and delicious:) Night Wolf is an Italian low fat twist soft gelato, served with butter crumbs, caramelised banana ice cream, passionfruit panna cotta, not forgetting the highlight of the dessert which was the brownie and chocolate chip eggettes. The eggettes are made upon order so there will be waiting time so do go early in the afternoon when their shop just opened so that the wait won't be too long. Their Wan Chai branch already closed on 15th May so Gough Street is the only outlet.
Via Tokyo
- Address: Shop 1A & 1B, G/F, Lei Shun Court, 106-126 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay
- MTR: Causeway Bay station (Exit F1)
- Opening hours: Mon-Thu:11:00 am - 10:30 pm; Fri-Sat: 11:00 am - 11:00 pm; Sun:11:00 am - 10:30 pm
📷: Matcha soft-serve with ice blended green tea 📝: Calling out to all matcha lovers, you will definitely want to visit Via Tokyo as it is your matcha heaven:) As the shop was pretty small, there was a long queue outside so we had no choice but to have our desserts takeaway. The matcha soft-serve had a smooth texture with a rich and distinct green tea taste. Coupled with the ice blended green tea, the dessert was very refreshing. Even my daddy who is a non-Matcha lover gave a thumbs up for the green tea soft serve with the ice blended green tea. The only regret was that I was not able to try their other matcha and non-matcha desserts like sesame, houjicha. I will definitely be back there again when I return to Hong Kong the next time round.
Shopping:
Island Beverly Centre
- Shopping mall for slightly cheaper youth fashion (Korean and Japanese) around HKD100-200+
- MTR: Causeway Bay Station
Day 4
Australia Dairy Company
- Address: G/F, 47 – 49 Parkes Street, Jordan, Hong Kong
- MTR: Jordan station (Exit C2) -> walk towards Parkes St. After you exit, just walk straight and turn right and walk for 20s and you will see the café. (1 min walk)
- Opening hours: 7.30am – 11pm. Closed on Thursday.
📷: Scrambled eggs 炒蛋多士, buttered toast, ham & macaroni, warm milk and almond puddings 📝: One cannot leave Hong Kong without trying the typical HK breakfast from Australia Dairy Company:) The breakfast set comes with one bowl of macaroni, one plate of eggs on toast and one drink (as shown above) which I recommend two to share one set. You can choose the way you would like your eggs to be done. I chose scrambled eggs after hearing so many people raved about their smooth and silky scrambled eggs and the eggs indeed did not disappoint me. The macaroni was well-cooked and was more of a comfort breakfast food:)
The milk puddings was SUPER SMOOTH omg that they just slurped down your throat:) How I wished my skin was as smooth as the puddings haha. However, I prefer the almond pudding (in yellow) as I found that the milk pudding was a little too milky for my liking but if you love milk you will definitely love these puddings. Do go there early and in small groups so that you will be able to get seats fast. If you see a long queue, do not be afraid, just join in the queue and within a few minutes you should be able to get a table since after all the service in HK eateries are fast to ensure high turnover rate:)
Shopping:
Allied Plaza
- Shopping mall for slightly cheaper youth fashion (Korean and Japanese) around HKD100-200+
- MTR: Prince Edward station (Exit B2)
If you would like to purchase data for your phone, you can purchase data cards at the Airport Arrival Hall or from any 1O1O centres (5/F of the HK International Airport Arrival Hall), 7/11, circle K or VanGO convenience stores, csI, HKT, PCCW shops. Different phone lines will offer you different pricing and plan (like 5 days/7 days/8 days) so you just choose the one that suits your needs like whether you need more overseas calls or data usage.
If you are going to travel by the MTR for your trip, I recommend you to purchase the Octopus card as it is cheaper than purchasing the single journey tickets. The Octopus card can be purchased at any Airport Express Customer Service Centre/any MTR Customer Service Centre (except Racecourse station)/other Customer Service Centres of public transportation companies. To purchase the Octopus card, you would need HKD150 = Deposit HKD50 + Initial stored value HKD100. At the end, when you leave Hong Kong, you can return the card to the Customer Service Centre at the airport or any Customer Service Centre at any MTR station to get the refundable deposit of HK$50 and the remaining value in your card. A refund fee of HK$9 will be deducted if the card is returned within 3 months from the date of issue.
Till the next time:)
With Love,
R
