Lin Heung Teahouse, Hong Kong 莲香楼

Lin Heung Teahouse's dim sum has always been highly recommended by family members who have been there a few times when they were in Hong Kong. I have tried their dinner menu (which I will talk about in another post), but not their dim sum. What better chance to try out the food and atmosphere this time round when I'm in Hong Kong. 

Lin Heung Teahouse (莲香楼) is located in Central, Wellington Street, not to be confused by another of their newer restaurant Lin Heung Kui (莲香居), also located at Central, Des Voeux Road West. Trying it for the first time, I definitely had to visit the original Lin Heung Teahouse. 

When you've reached Wellington Street, you would not miss the 3 big Chinese words at the entrance. 

The first floor is a small area, selling traditional Chinese pastries. You have to walk up the stairs to get to the main dining area. 

The dining area is packed and not a single seat available. There is no queuing system and you would have to look for your own seats. Having the luxury of having your own table is not possible here... you would have to share tables, even if a single seat is available, someone would just sit down at the extra seat. 

Most of the patrons here have an average age of 55. If you want to find a place with many aunties and uncles, this is the place to go! However, we do notice many tourists dining here as well... you can tell the apart easily - they are either eurasians or younger people who don't speak Cantonese. I guess the younger generation Hongkees don't really frequent this restaurant - no ambience leh!

Whilst wandering around waiting for available seats, this is a common sight you will see in the restaurant - once the dim sum lady pushes a new cart out, everybody will rush towards her to get their first hand of the fresh dim sum. No need to see what dim sum it is, just grab first then try. If you are slightly later, sorry, it's all being taken. 


The resourceful Ms K finally managed to find us 3 seats at the corner of the restaurant after 15-20 minutes of aimlessly wandering around looking for seats. Our small table was shared between 4 different groups of people, a middle age couple, an old gramps dining alone (which you find often at this restaurant), another 2 middle age ladies, and the 3 of us. 


Once you are seated, the waiter will ask you for your tea selection and give you an order chit. Any dim sum you take will have a stamp on the relevant category (just like Red Star restaurant in Singapore).

Below are the dim sum which we ate:

Steamed fish head and cheeks - you would seldom find this item in Singapore's dim sum fare. The fish head is steamed just right, with very tender fish meat.

Steamed rice with chicken, chinese sausage and mushrooms (臘腸蒸雞飯). I must say they are very generous with the ingredients!

This is a very Unique dim sum item (淮山雞扎) - there are chicken, mushroom and fish maw, wrapped in vegetable which I thought was cabbage at first, but after trying, it turned out to be huai shan(淮山). I should get my mum to try this dish at home since she loves to cook huai shan soup.

Braised chicken feet (鳳爪) nothing much special

Steamed beancurd roll (腐皮卷)

Steamed cake (馬拉糕) - this is one of the popular items at Lin Heung Teahouse, once it comes out, it'll be gone in a few minutes! Normally made out of flour, eggs, butter, lard and brown sugar and steamed in a steamer. 

Steamed beef cheong fun ( 牛肉腸粉)

Piping hot Siew Mai (燒賣) from the steamer - you can still see the steam coming out

Lotus seed paste bun - the bun tastes similar to the steamed cake (I guess of the brown suger), just with some lotus seed paste filling.

Last but not least - steamed pork spareribs (豉汁排骨)

The guests sitting besides us ordered this duck soup with rice (陳皮鴨腿湯飯). Must be very flavourful since Cantonese are famous for their soups!

We ordered (or rather managed to grab) 9 items in total. Even the 2 ladies sitting next to us commented on our huge appetite! Well normally the Hongkees just grab 2 to 3 dim sum items, and enjoy their tea with a newspaper or magazine. But I guess any Singaporean there would eat as much as us!

Our total bill came out to be HKD200 or approximately SGD33 in total. No service charge nor GST. I must say their price is very reasonable!

If you are looking for intricate dim sum, Lin Heung Teahouse may not be your no.1 choice. However, for traditional dim sum where portions are huge and ingredients are very fresh - do give Lin Heung Teahouse a try. Furthermore, you can have a first hand experience of finding a seat among the haystack, grabbing the piping hot dim sum once it comes out, or chatting up with the aunties and uncles who are frequent visitors of the restaurant. 


Lin Heung Teahouse 莲香楼


160-164 Wellington Street, Central
中環威靈頓街160-164號
Open daily: 6am - 11pm
Nearest MTR station: Central, exit D1