Food & Cuisine in Hong Kong

Hong Kong, with over 9,000 restaurants, is the world's top destination for food and dinning, featuring a vast range of Eastern and Western flavours. Famous food districts include Kowloon City, Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom in Kowloon; Causeway Bay, Lan Kwai Fong, SoHo (South of Hollywood Road) and Stanley in Hong Kong Island; Lamma Island, Sai Kung and Lei Yue Mun across the New Territories. Each of these gourmet areas guarantee to satisfy even the most eclectic in gourmet.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) website maintains an online database of restaurants that belong to the Quality Tourism Services (QTS) Scheme. QTS-accredited shops and restaurants need to comply with government established set of criteria, thus guaranteeing a good level of customer service.

Kowloon City and Hung Hom districts are in the epicentre of Asian gourmet, with Cantonese, Southern and Northern Chinese cuisine on the spotlight. Fans of the Japanese cuisine will certainly be impressed with the Aoba Japanese Restaurant in Mong Kok that offers sushi and sashimi buffet at fantastic prices, although there are dozens more to choose from in the area. In addition, Tsim Sha Tsui, on top of the traditional Chinese dishes, features international cuisine that can be found across Nathan Road, located on the doorstep of Hong Kong's shopping district.

Causeway Bay offers a wide range of eateries from budget to cosy and luxurious restaurants. SoHo and Lan Kwai Fong boasts with international cuisine including Mexican, French, Italian, and Middle Eastern to name but a few.

Finally, Lamma Island, Sai Kung and Lei Yue Mun are all dominated by seafood restaurants. Customers get to choose their own fish, lobsters and other seafood from the tank were they kept alive. Food doesn't get any fresher than that.

Although cuisine options in Hong Kong are nearly endless, Dim Sum is definitely one of the highlights. Dim Sum is a Chinese light meal making it more suitable having as brunch. Dim Sum can be made out of a wide combinational range of steamed or fried meat, seafood and vegetables with most typical dishes made of dumplings and rice rolls filled with beef, chicken, prawns and other ingredients.

Dessert houses are popular in Hong Kong, offering a wide range of puddings and other sweets made of exotic fruit. One of the best has to be a chain of over 15 dessert houses (Cantonese Website) spread across Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway bay. They offer desserts made of chilled fruit; mango and watermelon being amongst the favourites. This is an excellent way of indulging and refreshing at the same time especially during the hot summer months.