Hong Kong: The Non-Stop Eat & Drink Guide!

Hey folks!

Wow, it’s been quite some time since my last blog entry! Truth be told, life has been rather too busy for my liking and I’ve delegated blogging to the back burner: It’s something I keep telling myself I want to do but I never seem to muster up the energy to actually sit down, log into my blog and start writing.

No more excuses: I’m gonna make a conscious effort to blog every Thursday and Sunday (see, I’m committing it down in words here!) so please come back to this space regularly? If not, you know where else to look for me: On Instagram and Dayre!

I just came back from RISE conference in Hong Kong with the GetKlarity team, and the short trip has re-ignited my love for this bustling cosmopolitan city! I’ve previously wrote day-to-day travel entries on Hong Kong before, but I’ve decided to consolidate my favourite eats of Hong Kong together into one blog post, which I shall call “Yina Goes To Hong Kong: The Non-Stop Eating Guide“! I’ll try to keep it as short and concise as possible. *fingers crossed*

Disclaimer: All the below recommendations are my personal opinions and you may or may not agree with me.. But regardless of whether you do/don’t, please feel free to leave a comment to share your own opinions!

To me, Hong Kong is all about the food! Unfriendly locals and annoying water drips every-freaking-where aside, Hong Kong is the absolute best place to eat til you drop. I love most of Hong Kong cuisine, and somehow there’s never enough time for everything I want to eat!

The quintessential Hong Kong breakfast has got to be scrambled eggs on toast, with macaroni and a cup of sweet, strong milk tea, or 鸳鸯, (half coffee, half tea) to wash down all that goodness! There are many different restaurants serving up similar meals, but I’ve tried a few to know that there are good ones and bad ones.

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1. Australia Dairy Co. (Jordan)

G/F, 47-49 Parkes Street, Jordan 

佐敦白加士街47-49號地下

Opening Hours: Mon to Wed & Fri to Sun: 07:30-23:00

Closed on Thu

Amongst all the different 茶餐厅, Australia Dairy Co. is arguably one of the most famous, but not without reason! It is easy to find, you exit at Jordan MTR and take a short walk to Parkes Street. In fact, it was just one street down from our Roomorama apartment at Temple Street, and was one of the reasons why I booked that particular apartment on Roomorama!

Australia Dairy Co. is super cramped with both tourists and locals alike. Don’t be scared off by the queue outside Australia Dairy Co.  It moves super fast and we got ourselves seats in probably ten minutes or less? Be prepared to share a table with other customers if you have less than 4 pax, though.

The breakfast set comes with one macaroni, one eggs on toast, and one drink. I recommend two to share one set: It’s a lot of food, and you wanna save your stomach space for a second breakfast, or even an egglet waffle snack on the street!

The macaroni is nothing to shout about, for sure. If you are not having the breakfast set and ordering ala carte instead, skip the macaroni.

The toast though, is one of the best I’ve had! Ask for the scrambled eggs (the other option is sunny side up), they are incredibly fluffy and delicious! The two slices of bread are freshly toasted and go perfectly with the eggs.

The one thing you have to order at Australia Dairy Co. is the warm milk pudding. It was as silky as bean curd, with a smooth, creamy, sweet flavour and texture that simply melted in my mouth!

We also tried Yee Shun Dairy Company just the next street down from Australia Dairy Co, which sells almost the same sort of breakfast, except that Australia Dairy Co. is just TONS better and Yee Shun kind of sucks in comparison, so really, don’t waste your calories there.

2. Capital Cafe (Wan Chai / Mong Kok)

華星冰室

Shop B1, G/F, Kwong Sang Hong Building, 6 Heard Street, Wan Chai

灣仔克街6號廣生行大廈地下B1號舖

G/F, 107 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mong Kok

旺角西洋菜南街107號地下

Opening Hours: 7am – 11:00pm

Another breakfast cafe highly-recommended on my list is Capital Cafe! If you’re a fan of Hong Kong breakfasts like the sort that Australia Dairy Co. offers, I think Capital Cafe can give ADC a run for its money! It’s located in a totally different part of town though, so depending on where you’re staying, you might wanna decide which is the better option.

Capital Cafe is a 10 minute walk away from Wan Chai MTR, and it seems that it isn’t as popular as ADC yet because we didn’t have to queue at all, and were admitted straight away to a table! (Note: Also realised that Capital Cafe has another brunch at Mongkok, which may be more accessible for some! Address listed above for your convenience.)

Food-wise, they serve up a very similar breakfast set consisting of macaroni, scrambled eggs with toast, and a drink.

In my opinion, the macaroni at Capital Cafe is way better than Australia Dairy Co.’s, BUT Australia Dairy Co. has got better regular scrambled eggs!

What you really really need to order at Capital Cafe though, is their special Black Truffle Scrambled Eggs On Toast! This dish alone is 42HKD and costs more than the entire breakfast set at 34HKD, but it is seriously da bomb!!!

Think creamy, scrumptious, scrambled eggs infused with the aroma of black truffle atop a crisp and light toast. Couldn’t get enough of it!

Makes it a tie with Australia Dairy Co. because I can’t decide which is better. ADC wins for their delish regular scrambled eggs toast and warm milk pudding, but Capital Cafe wins with their better-than-ADC-macaroni and EPIC black truffle scrambled toast.

Well, you don’t have to choose between the two, you can try both on different days! Entirely worth it, in my opinion!

After a good breakfast, nothing is more satisfying than a sweet treat. I’ve always loved eggette waffle (鸡蛋仔) but some genius took a modern spin on the traditional egglet waffle and the result was mind-blowing!

3. Oddies Foodies (Wan Chai)

Shop 1F, G/F, 149 Wan Chai Road

灣仔道149號地下1F舖

Opening Hours: 1:00pm – 11:00pm

Closed on Mondays

Most popular Oddies Foodies item: Night Wolf! Extremely decadent and rich chocolate sauce that the chocolate lovers are bound to love.

Oddies Foodies is literally just a hole-in-the-wall. There’s a tiny little space where you can enter the shop to make your order, after which you squeeze out and wait outside on the streets for your order to be ready.

Sometimes there’s a queue, but generally if you go early in the afternoon, the wait is short! If you’re heading to Capital Cafe at Wan Chai, this is just a few minutes walk away so you can strike both off your to-eat list at the same time.

The star item on the menu is the eggette waffle served with low fat Italian gelato, and there were three flavours on the menu:

Night Wolf (50HKD): Italian low fat twist soft gelato served with butter crumbs, caramelised banana ice cream, passionfruit panna cotta, brownie and chocolate chip eggette and sprinkled with crunchy flakes

The Mob (55HKD): Black sesame mocha eggette served with Italian low fat milk gelato, apple yuzu jelly, homemade matcha ice cream, citrus cranky flakes and drizzled with rich matcha sauce

Loner (55HKD): Taiwanese pineapple pastry eggette served with Italian low fat milk gelato, fresh lychee, caramelised brioche croutons, homemade sweet corn ice cream and foam, topped with toasted coconut tuiles

I tried all three and my favourite at Oddies Foodies is actually Loner!

That’s the Loner, with a refreshing pineappley egglette and super tasty toppings (the caramelised brioche croutons OMG)

I expected The Mob (sesame/matcha) to be better because I love sesame flavoured stuff, but although this wasn’t bad too, somehow, the flavours didn’t gel together as well and the yuzu jelly bits confused my tastebuds.

That being said, I will definitely definitely go back to Wan Chai for Oddies Foodies (not forgetting Capital Cafe) because I really do love their eggette ice cream fusion! They also have interesting-flavoured eggette waffles on the menu, such as a vanilla rice pudding (this one was surprisingly good) and even savoury ones like ham and cheese. If you like experimental flavours, you must give Oddies Foodies a try!

I stumbled upon another ice cream place one night at Tsim Sha Tsui, and they serve up very pretty and Instagram-worthy (you know you want to) ice cream cones in unique flavours.

4. Oh! Cow Soft Cream (Tsim Sha Tsui)

G/F, 32 Moody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

尖沙咀麼地道32號地舖

This super pretty-looking lavender-flavoured soft serve comes in a rainbow cone and right then and there, I knew I had to buy it even if it didn’t taste good lol. Maybe that means my expectations for it were lower, but I thought it was delicious! The only thing I didn’t like was the waffle embellishment on the soft-serve, which looked nice but tasted dry and rubbery.

I’ve never been a fan of lavender-flavoured food because it just feels like you’re eating hand cream, yucks. But this lavender-flavoured ice cream was actually nice, it was very delicately flavoured without that overwhelming “hand cream” taste.

Hidden inside the ice cream are also little pieces of nitrogen-frozen pineapple pieces that added a tangy burst of flavour to the mild, milky ice cream. Also, the cone was super crunchy and had a fragrant buttery taste. When you get to the bottom of it, you discover chocolate rice krispies that rounds off the entire ice cream cone perfectly!

Oh! Cow also serves other very interesting flavours, like a chilli chocolate that comes with candy floss topping and more! Worth a visit for the sweet-toothed. However, if you’re not a fan of new-fangled sweets but prefer traditional sweet pastries like the famous Hong Kong 老婆饼, then you might be interested in Hang Heung instead.

5. Hang Heung Cake Shop

恆香老餅家

http://www.hangheung.com.hk

Hang Heung – Yuen Long

66 Castle Peak Road

+852 2479 2141

Hang Heung – Mong Kok

579 Nathan Rd

+852 2394 7668

Hang Heung – Causeway Bay

555 Hennessy Rd

+852 2831 8414

Hang Heung is popular for their 老婆饼 and I’ve had this brought back for me from other friends and relatives since years ago, so it’s a favourite! It’s best to have it fresh though, so try buying one just to nibble on as you stroll along the streets. The pastry is flaky and crumbly, and the warm winter melon filling is melt-in-the-mouth kind of soft! Not too sweet as well, really addictive.

If you’re buying Hang Heung back for family and friends, don’t buy them too early because they won’t be as tasty if they’re not so fresh, and also they are very delicate due to the super crumbly nature. Try to buy them on the second last day to last day if possible. And remember to hand carry it! It’s the best lo po peng you can find in Hong Kong!

6. Jenny Cookies (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Tsim Sha Tsui: Shop 24 Ground Floor, Mirador Mansion, 54-64 Nathan Road (Open 9AM – 6.30PM)

Sheung Wan: 15 Wing Wo Street, Ground Floor (Open 10AM – 7PM)

This is not strictly a “to-eat”, but maybe more of a “to-buy”! Jenny Cookies is one of those cult favourites that everyone knows of, and I always get requests to buy Jenny Cookies back whenever I’m in Hong Kong!

The queue to buy these cookies can be horrendous at times, so I recommend going earlier in the morning (the last time I went around 11am-12noon and there was almost no queue) to avoid the insane queue.

There used to be a limit on how many tins each customer can buy, but they’ve since removed the limit, so feel free to go crazy with these cookies, they make really good omiyage for your friends and family at home!

The buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, cookies even come in a cute little metal tin with a bear illustration on its cover! That’s why they’re also known as “小熊饼干”.

I recommend getting the basic 4 Mix Butter Cookies, which is HKD70 for a small tin and 130HKD for a big tin. Heard that the nut cookies are good too, I’ll give that a try next time!

We also discovered quite a few hipster cafes and coffee places during our Hong Kong trip, but the most hipster of all that I recommend you go seek out is a joint so hipster that it’s located inside a residential apartment and is basically inside someone’s home.

7. Mum’s Not Home (Yau Ma Tei)

油麻地熙龍里入口（上海街302號1樓)

1/F 302 Shanghai St, Yau Ma Tei

Disclaimers first: Don’t expect to seriously get a fantastic drink at Mum’s Not Home, I’m purely recommending this place based on its 10/10 hipster factor, the act of finding Mum’s Not Home will make you feel that extra bit of cool swag, just because.

Mum’s Not Home has NO signboard, so you locate a dingy-looking apartment with these very arty farty posters next to the stairwell, and make your way to the second storey (which is their 1/F, because ground level is called G/F), and then ring the doorbell to an apartment which you cannot see anything of from the outside.

It was very exciting, actually. Once you ring the doorbell, you wait for a bit and a cool, hipster-ish guy will open the door for you: It’s like being granted access to a super exclusive cool-people-only sort of club.

I think Joelle (my very hipster-ish partner at GetKlarity) nearly went crazy with excitement when she stepped into Mum’s Not Home. This place is seriously the ultimate hipster joint! Apart from just serving beverages, Mum’s Not Home sells vintage clothes/accessories/other stuff too, and I read that you can get an actual haircut here (??) which I guess I wouldn’t really suggest you do.

Hipster joint also comes with quirky and whimsical hand drawn menu! As you can see, Turmeric features prominently in a Turmeric Cheese Cake avnd Turmeric Latte, but I wasn’t that brave and went for a safe green tea latte, which tasted normal-ish. Joelle went for the Turmeric Latte, though, and it was very interesting-looking!

It was really fun to just chill there for a little bit and soak in the mellow, relaxed vibes at Mum’s Not Home!

We even made friends with the staff: Not sure if his funky haircut was cut at Mum’s Not Home, but I totally wouldn’t be surprised if it were.

Love this shot of Joelle and I in the quirkily decorated space!

8. Hung Lee Restaurant (Tsim Sha Tsui)

洪利粥店茶餐厅

2A Hou Fook Street, Tsim Sha Tsui

尖沙咀厚福街2號A

＋852 2721 6606

Opening Hours: 6:30am – 2:00am

If you’re looking for a simple, honest-to-goodness Hong Kong meal, Hung Lee at Tsim Sha Tsui is the best recommendation I have for you! Hung Lee isn’t very famous, but I was brought here by Trish, who stumbled upon it and has been going back regularly ever since, for their incredible 鱼皮角, or fish skin dumplings.

They serve regular congee and noodles sort of fare, but the food at Hung Lee is generally affordable and authentic.

I love fish skin dumplings, and when I tried the ones at Hung Lee, I was pretty much mind-blown.

Easily the best fish dumplings I’ve tasted, and our local ones can hardly be any comparison. The fish dumplings at Hung Lee are huge, with a chewy and moist skin and juicy, hearty filling! Must-order! I love the fish skin dumplings there so much that I’ve gone back at least three times on separate trips! I’ve yet to find another one as good, so please share if you have recommendations!

Another item I really like at Hung Lee is the beef brisket! You can order it on its own or in a noodle soup, but since I usually have the fish dumplings soup, I usually order the beef brisket on its own. It is extremely well-marinated and very tender and chewy!

Call me weird, but I always make it a point to order a 油菜 in any Hong Kong restaurant I step into! Especially during autumn/winter season, the vegetables in Hong Kong are extremely fresh and sweet, and a simple dish of  blanched 菜心 in oyster sauce tastes amazing.

Definitely give Hung Lee a try if you’re in Tsim Sha Tsui area!

9. Kau Kee Beef Brisket Noodles (Sheung Wan)

九記牛腩 

G/F, 21 Gough Street, Central

中環歌賦街21號地舖

Opening Hours: Mon – Sat 12:30-22:30

Kau Kee Beef Brisket Noodles is well-known as the best beef brisket noodles in town! Personally, I enjoyed the beef brisket noodles at Kau Kee very much and I think it’s worth a visit! Getting to Kau Kee Beef Brisket Noodles is a bit of a hike because it’s a distance away from the nearest MTR (Sheung Wan) and is an uphill climb!  But this also means you work up a good appetite.. Why not?

We went there late at night, which is a good idea, it’s best to go there either really early, or late at night because the queue is otherwise very long.

Six bowls of piping hot beef brisket soup noodles and beef brisket curry noodles! Kau Kee Beef Brisket Noodles serves beef brisket noodles in either a clear broth or a curry broth, and with two kinds of noodles too, bee hoon and a flat egg noodle.

The beef brisket in curry broth was very flavourful and spicy, so be prepared to wash it down with some ice cold milk tea!

In my opinion, the flat yellow egg noodles went very well with the clear broth, and the beehoon went well with the curry. Both were just as gratifying after a long day!

10. Ozone Bar (Kowloon)

118/F, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui 

尖沙咀柯士甸道西1號環球貿易廣場(ICC)香港麗思卡爾頓酒店118樓

For a different take on Hong Kong, go to Ozone Bar! Ozone Bar is the highest bar in the world, located on the 118th story of ICC (International Commerce Centre) where Ritz Carlton is!

It’s one of the best places in Hong Kong to chill out and enjoy a good view at the same time. Price-wise, I’d say it’s fairly affordable despite the upscale location, perhaps about 100-200HKD for a drink, but of course you’re really paying for the view too.

The GetKlarity team with some newfound Hong Kong friends!

And here is the amazing view from the 118th floor! A very nice way to wrap up a long day of eating and drinking.

That brings me to the end of my top 10 Hong Kong “to-eat-and-drink” recommendations!

You might have noticed that I didn’t recommend any typical eats like Dim Sum (now that Tim Ho Wan is already in Singapore..) or even Roast Meats (I hear a lot about Yat Lok).. That’s because while I’ve had a few decent ones here and there, I haven’t discovered any rave-worthy ones apart from those that are already very well-known. Also, this food guide is nowhere near comprehensive because Hong Kong has got way too many good eats I haven’t even yet gotten a chance to try!

I’ll hopefully be heading back to Hong Kong in October, and maybe then I’ll come up with a Part 2 food guide to round off this one! I do also want to compile a “to-go” and “to-shop” list too, so hit me with a comment if you think you’d be keen! 🙂 

To round off this post, here’s some other information that might be useful to you if you’re travelling to Hong Kong! 

Accommodation – Roomorama

During this trip, I was fortunate enough to stay at one of the nicest apartments I’ve ever stayed in (in Hong Kong), thanks to Roomorama! The last few times I was in Hong Kong, I’ve always been staying at regular hotels, which are fairly pricey and tiny at the same time. If you’re travelling in a group of 4 pax or more, booking an apartment may be a way more economical idea!

My Roomorama apartment was located on Temple Street just next to Jordan MTR and it was super accessible to everywhere else! It was also surprisingly spacious and homely, in comparison to other apartments and hotels that I’ve previously stayed before at Hong Kong. Here’s a direct link to the Roomorama apartment I stayed in at Hong Kong.

Roomorama is also giving away US$50 credits so you can get US$50 off your next Roomorama apartment booking!

Click on this link to get your US$50 credits on Roomorama 🙂

Wifi Device – VISONDATA

For my past few overseas trips (to Japan, Phuket and Hong Kong so far), I’ve been using VISONDATA pocket wifi and it has always worked wonderfully. VISONDATA wifi is available in 50 countries, and one pocket wifi can be connected to up to 5 different devices! 


It’s extremely convenient and handy. I was really impressed with the battery life of the pocket wifi device too, because I almost never had to worry about it running out of juice before I returned to my apartment at night! I’m constantly updating on social media and checking on emails on-the-go, so that is quite a feat.

Quote “VDSGYINA” when you check out on VISONDATA for 20% off your order!

Dressed in TheVelvetDolls panelled mesh top and upcoming crochet panel culottes

Past Hong Kong blog entries below:

Read Hong Kong: Mongkok

Read Hong Kong: Citygate Outlet Shopping

Read Hong Kong: Prada and Space Outlet Shopping

Read Hong Kong: Stanley Market and Kau Kee Beef Noodles

Read Hong Kong: Disneyland Day 1

Read Hong Kong: Disneyland Day 2 and 3

Also giving away a $100 ZUJI voucher, read this previous entry to find out how to take part!

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