Hong Kong & Macau - Day 7 (Part 1: Lin Heung Tea House)

Lin Heung Tea House is one of the oldest Hong Kong style restaurants in Hong Kong. Like many traditional restaurants, they serve dim sum only during the day, and main courses only during the night. Lin Heung's food is traditional and authentic, especially their dim sum, which makes the restaurant quite famous and popular among local people, as there are not many restaurants that still provide traditional dim sum nowadays.

This older-style Cantonese restaurant is worth a visit for the tableau: 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. This restaurant fits my preconceived notion of how a dim sum place should be: a great old hall complete with grumpy waiters and waitresses creaking trolleys, old men reading newspapers, lazy ceiling fans and lots of cigarette smoke and tea.

Despite its popularity and quality, it is not a good place for dim sum if your expectations towards the food and service are high. We walked past the ground-floor pastry shop and up the stairs, where we found a very simple room that's packed no matter what the time of the day. Don't expect to see any unoccupied tables in the restaurant. You should count your blessings if you found any seats that are not taken.

We walked in off Wellington street and were greeted by the din of the crowded dining room. We were told that nothing has changed here since it first opened 80 years ago. Once were seated, we chose our tea .

 

 The name of the restaurant is printed on every the tableware

 

 

Once we were seated, we chose our tea . The waiter then poured scalding hot water from a huge kettle which was placed on top of the charcoal stove beside the tables.

 

Those were the days...

 

 Weaving in between tables, the waitresses push rickety metal carts laden with all their specialties. 

 

 Pig's Stomach Siu Mai

 

 Minced pork laden with a large piece of pig's stomach is a typical type of dim sum from the olden days.

 

 Quail's egg Su Mai (another morsels inherited from the olden days)

 

 Kai Chat (the dim sum comes with chicken fillet, mushroom and fish maw)

 

 Char Siu Bao (Pork's Rib Bun)

 

 Ma Lai Koh (Steamed Cake)

 

As a whole, Lin Heung Tea House is a place where you can experience one of Hong Kong's most interesting food culture in a special ambiance and taste some of the most authentic HK style dim sum on earth. I can ensure you that all their dim sum are so unique that it wouldn't be easy to find something similar anywhere else.

Lin Heung Tea House

160-164 Wellington Street,

Central, Hong Kong.