Streets of Central, Hong Kong

Central (中環) is the central business district of Hong Kong and the home of many multinational companies. I love the uniqueness of this place, where you can find both power executives and expats, together with tourists and traditional old shops all at the same place. 

I will always visit Central whenever I visit Hong Kong. Almost every other street at Central will have a famous restaurant or stall selling something which is highly recommended in every other Hong Kong guidebook. You will always find good food lurking at some corner or long queues for the simple coffee, tea, egg tarts, dim sum, the list just goes on... 

We went to Central on a quiet Saturday morning, minus the bustling crowd of office workers on a normal weekday.

The famous Yung Kee is not opened yet. No chance to try their roast goose.

We also spotted Hide-chan Ramen. Originated from Fukuoka, this famous tonkotsu soup ramen is listed as one of the dining venues in the "Bib Gourmand” section of “Michelin Guide Hong Kong & Macau 2012”. 
Too much delicious food in Central, not enough time to try all... 

Tsim Chai Kee 沾仔记 is also another famous restaurant in Central for Wanton Noodles. 

Similarly, it is also listed in the "Bib Gourmand” section of “Michelin Guide Hong Kong & Macau” from 2009 to 2012.

Choose from either Wanton, Fish Ball or sliced beef topping at HKD17 a bowl, any two toppings at HKD22 or all three toppings at HKD25. 

Just opposite Tsim Chai Kee is another famous Wanton noodles shop - Mak's noodles 麥奀雲吞麵世家.Just watch out for the chinese carving framed windows above the restaurant. Very antiquey!

This restaurant displays a real sample of their Jumbo Farmer bread outside the restaurant. Curry beef brisket with angmor bread? should taste nice... bread tastes nice with almost anything.

Lin Heung Restaurant (蓮香樓) is one of the famous restaurant in Central. Ask any local and they will show you the direction. That was what we did when we couldn't find the restaurant amongst the many small streets of Central. Read more here...

This agnès b cafe is located at Gough street (歌賦街). There are 11 agnès b cafes and 3 restaurants in Hong Kong, why is there not even 1 in Singapore? hmm maybe it's time for me to open one... 

The ordering area for coffee, cakes and pastries.

The seating area - not a lot of seats available, but definitely a nice cafe ambience. 

There is also a florist located at a small corner of the shop. A great touch to the cafe and love the flowers!

A long queue forms near agnès b cafe. We were all very curious what these people were queuing for... some free gift? celebrity ? 

The answer to the queue is this - Sing Heung Yuen (勝香園). There is no shopfront, no air condition, only some tentages a limited tables to accommodate the forever long queue. Sing Heung Yuen is famous for their toast and tomato soup instant noodles. 

Frankly I don't see the reason why people are willing to queue for so long just to eat a bowl of instant noodles in tomato soup. But then again, I'll need to try it first before coming to any conclusion. Sing Heung Yuen will be next on my list for my next Hong Kong trip. 

Directly opposite Sing Heung Yuen is another famous restaurant -Kau Kee Beef Brisket (九記牛腩) - also lots of people queuing up for their famous beef brisket noodle. 

And just next to Sing Heung Yuen is another upcoming cupcake shop - Kisses cupcakes.  

Kisses cupcakes is just a small establishment with a few tables in the shop. 

If I had the stomach of a cow (4 stomachs), I would have tried out their cupcakes and tea. No luck, but I still managed to capture a group of ladies enjoying their tea. Lovely teapot and plate... where can I get these?? ๏̯̃๏

Nice restaurant at the corner of Gough street. 

The name of this shop is: The Palace, Prince and Princess. Kudos to the shop owner for thinking of such a name!

Central is also the home to many artsy fartsy shops. And the items are not cheap at all!

Old shop, New shop. In the olden days, people drink sugarcane juice, nowadays people drink wine.

Anybody wants some Goods of Desire?

Beware as Chairman Mao is staring at you at from opposite shop. 

The pigeons here must be having a good life from all the good food. Look at the size of this one!

Newspaper stall is set up just right in front of Japanese restaurant. Only in Hong Kong will you see this. 

The famous Tai Cheong egg tarts is also here in Central! Seems like they have done some renovations to the store front.  

Tai Cheong old store

Renovated store

Tai Cheong's egg tarts are still the best! Best eaten immediately when the egg filling is still warm and melts in your mouth.

After winding around the backstreets of Central, we reached Gage street (結志街), the beginning of our market experience in Central. 

Stalls selling dried produce, fresh meat and seafood line along the narrow streets. Watchout for the oncoming car or lorry! this is not a pedestrian street. 

Seafood looks very fresh.  

Hard to believe that these stalls are located at Central!

Lan Fong Yuen (蘭芳園), another popular Cha Chan Teng (teahouse) famed for their milktea (絲襪奶茶) and pork chop buns is also located at Gage Street. 

Stanley Street Dai Pai Dong (大牌檔, roadside eateries). Back then, there were 30-40 stalls packed along this street, but nowadays, only a few of the dai pai dong remain. Simple home-style dishes such as Steam fish, Tomato & tofu fish soup, sweet and sour pork, beef rice can be found here. 

One of the Dai Pai Dong. 

Pig blood cubes - not something you can find in Singapore anymore. 

Another tofu stall - but most stalls were already closed by the time we reached there. 

We finally reached Queen's Road Central! 

H&M Central store - This is the first H&M store opened in East Asia on 10 March 2007. H&M is also the ending point of our Central food tour, and the starting point of my shopping spree! 


Popular eateries at Central, Hong Kong  

Wellington Street 威靈頓街
Yung Kee Restaurant 鏞記 
Hide-chan Ramen
Tsim Chai Kee Wanton Noodles 沾仔记
Mak's Wanton Noodle 麥奀雲吞麵世家
Lin Heung Restaurant 蓮香樓

Gough Street 歌賦街

agnes b cafe

Sing Heung Yuen teahouse 勝香園

Kau Kee Beef Brisket 九記牛腩

Kisses Cupcakes

Lyndhurst Terrace 擺花街
Tai Cheong Bakery 泰昌餅家

Gage Street 結志街
Lan Fong Yuen Teahouse 蘭芳園

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