Hong Kong Food Guide: What to Eat, Where, and How Ordering, Paying and Tipping Work

If you have a few days in Hong Kong, these are the things to eat: dim sum with tea, roast goose or char siu over rice, wonton noodles, milk tea with a pineapple bun, egg tarts, claypot rice, curry fish balls and egg waffles from a street stall, congee, and a bowl of sweet dessert soup at night. For the best mix of these in the least walking, eat in three areas: Central and Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, Yau Tsim Mong (Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok) in Kowloon, and Sham Shui Po a few MTR stops north.

Two money rules matter before you sit down. A sit-down restaurant may add a 10% service charge to your bill, and the Consumer Council says that charge should be shown clearly on the menu or on a notice. Some restaurants also charge for tea, sauces and small snacks, so look at the menu or ask before you accept. Beyond that, the two places you will eat most, the cha chaan teng (茶餐廳, Hong Kong-style diner) and the dim sum restaurant, work on a few simple habits you can learn in a minute.

What to Eat and Where to Eat It

Hong Kong food is Cantonese at its core, with a layer of Western diner food that the city made its own. These ten things cover most of it:

• Dim sum (點心) — small steamed and fried dishes eaten with tea. Start with har gow (蝦餃, shrimp dumplings), siu mai (燒賣, open pork-and-shrimp dumplings), char siu bao (叉燒包, barbecue pork buns) and cheung fun (腸粉, rice noodle rolls).
• Roast meats, or siu mei (燒味) — roast goose (燒鵝), char siu (叉燒, sweet barbecue pork) and crispy roast pork (燒肉), hanging in a shop window and chopped to order over rice.
• Wonton noodles (雲吞麵) — thin, springy egg noodles in a clear broth with shrimp wontons. Portions are small, so it works as a snack or a light lunch.
• Hong Kong-style milk tea (港式奶茶) and a pineapple bun with butter (菠蘿油) — the standard cha chaan teng order. The bun has no pineapple; the name comes from its cracked sugar top.
• Egg tarts (蛋撻) — either a flaky puff-pastry shell or a crumbly shortcrust one. Best eaten warm from a bakery.
• Claypot rice (煲仔飯) — rice cooked in a clay pot with Chinese sausage, chicken or beef on top, and a crisp layer stuck to the bottom. Mostly an evening and cooler-weather dish.
• Curry fish balls (咖喱魚蛋) — fish balls on a bamboo skewer in mild curry sauce, sold at street stalls.
• Egg waffles (雞蛋仔) — a sheet of small golden bubbles, crisp outside and soft inside. Eat it hot.
• Congee (粥) — smooth rice porridge with fish, beef or preserved egg and pork. A good breakfast or late-night meal.
• Dessert soups, or tong sui (糖水) — sweet soups and puddings such as mango pomelo sago (楊枝甘露), black sesame soup (芝麻糊) and double-skin milk pudding (雙皮奶).

Where to go for what:

• Central and Sheung Wan — wonton noodle shops, roast meat shops, old bakeries for egg tarts, and dim sum restaurants busy with office workers at lunch. Good for your first day if you are staying on Hong Kong Island.
• Yau Tsim Mong — the densest eating area in the city. Jordan and Yau Ma Tei have old cha chaan teng and claypot rice places; Mong Kok has snack stalls on almost every block; Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei is the evening market with outdoor seafood tables.
• Sham Shui Po — an older, cheaper neighbourhood with small shops selling cheung fun, tofu pudding, noodles and dim sum. Less English on menus, more pointing, and some of the best-value eating in Hong Kong.

A simple way to plan a day: yum cha (飲茶, "drink tea", the dim sum meal) or a cha chaan teng breakfast in the morning; roast meat over rice or wonton noodles for lunch; milk tea and an egg tart in the afternoon, when many cha chaan teng sell cheaper "tea sets"; claypot rice or an outdoor seafood dinner in the evening; and a late bowl of tong sui or congee before bed. That covers most of the list above in one day, and you can repeat the pattern in a different neighbourhood the next day.

Dim Sum and Yum Cha

Dim sum is served in Cantonese restaurants, called jau lau (酒樓), and in smaller dim sum shops. The big restaurants are loud, bright rooms with round tables, and they are most crowded on weekend mornings, when families come for a long meal. If you want a table without a long wait, arrive early in the morning or come after the lunch rush in the early afternoon. Many places serve dim sum only until mid-afternoon and switch to a dinner menu after that; small dim sum shops often serve it all day.

Here is how a typical meal goes:

1. Get a number and wait. At busy places, take a ticket or give your party size at the front desk. When your number comes up, you may be seated at a shared table with strangers. This is called daap toi (搭台) and is completely normal; just nod and sit down.
2. Choose a tea. A server will ask what tea you want. Pu'er (普洱, bo lei in Cantonese) is a dark, earthy tea that goes well with oily food; jasmine (香片, heung pin) is lighter; chrysanthemum (菊花) is floral. If you are unsure, say "pu'er". Dim sum places usually add a tea charge, often per person. Some restaurants charge for tea and extras such as sauces and snacks, so check the menu or ask before you accept.
3. Rinse your bowls if you want to. You will often see locals pour hot tea or water over their bowls, cups and chopsticks and tip it into a large bowl. This is habit more than hygiene. You can do it or skip it.
4. Fill in the order sheet. Most places now use an order sheet, called dim sum ji (點心紙): a printed list where you write the number of baskets next to each dish. Many sheets are in Chinese only. Ask for an English menu, or use a translation app's camera on the sheet, or point at baskets on the next table and show the server. The old rolling carts still exist in a few places, but they are now the exception.
5. Order in rounds. Start with three or four baskets for two people, then add more. Dishes come when they are ready, not in courses.
6. Ask for more tea the local way. Leave the teapot lid open or tilted on the pot and a server will refill it with hot water. When someone pours tea for you, tapping two fingers on the table is a quiet way to say thank you.
7. Pay. Your table card is stamped or your sheet is marked as dishes arrive. Some places bring the bill to the table; others want you to take your card to the cashier near the door.

Because dim sum restaurants are sit-down places, many add a service charge. The Consumer Council says the charge should be shown clearly and that staff should explain it if you ask. Before you sit down, it is also fair to ask whether there is a minimum spend, a time limit or table sharing — the Consumer Council suggests exactly that.

If you are also visiting Guangzhou, its morning tea culture is just as strong; see our Guangzhou and Shenzhen guide for where yum cha fits into a trip there.

Cha Chaan Teng: Hong Kong's Diners

A cha chaan teng (茶餐廳, literally "tea restaurant") is a fast, cheap diner serving Cantonese dishes next to Western ones adapted to local taste. You will find one on nearly every street. They are the easiest place to eat on your own, at any time of day, and they are where Hong Kong people have breakfast, a quick lunch and afternoon tea.

What to order:

• Milk tea (奶茶) — strong black tea strained through a cloth filter and mixed with evaporated milk. Ask for it hot or iced (凍, dung). Cha jau (茶走) is the version made with condensed milk instead of sugar.
• Yuenyeung (鴛鴦) — milk tea mixed with coffee. Try it once; it is better than it sounds.
• Iced lemon tea (凍檸茶) — black tea with several lemon slices you press with a long spoon. The most popular drink on hot days.
• Pineapple bun with butter (菠蘿油, bo lo yau) — a warm sweet bun split open with a thick slice of cold butter inside.
• Hong Kong French toast (西多士) — two slices of bread with peanut butter in between, deep-fried, served with butter and syrup. Share it unless you are very hungry.
• Macaroni soup with ham (火腿通粉) — a classic breakfast. It comes with toast and a drink in most breakfast sets.
• Baked pork chop rice (焗豬扒飯) — fried rice under a pork chop, tomato sauce and melted cheese, baked in the oven. A filling dinner.

How it works: walk in, take any free seat (sharing a table is normal here too), and order from the menu or the set-meal board. Set meals are the best value; breakfast sets run in the morning and "tea sets" in the afternoon, usually with a drink included. Iced drinks often cost a little more than hot ones. Staff are fast and can seem abrupt; that is just the pace, not rudeness. When you are done, many cha chaan teng want you to pay at the cashier by the door, with your bill slip in hand.

Small cha chaan teng usually do not add a service charge, but some larger ones do. Whichever kind you are in, the Consumer Council says a service charge should be shown clearly on the menu or a notice. For paying, carry an Octopus card (八達通, Hong Kong's stored-value card for transport and small purchases) and some cash; the ordering and paying section below covers both.

Michelin Bib Gourmand: Good Food at Fair Prices

The Michelin Guide has a separate list called the Bib Gourmand for restaurants that serve good food at reasonable prices. In the 2026 Hong Kong & Macau edition, announced on 12 March 2026, 70 places in Hong Kong and 13 in Macau made the Bib Gourmand list, 83 in total, from street food stalls to family-style restaurants. Eight of those were new in that edition — six in Hong Kong and two in Macau.

For a visitor, the Bib list is the most useful part of the guide. It points you to noodle shops, roast meat counters, dim sum shops and street-food places that are already good value, and it is a better shortcut than a list of starred restaurants. Look up the current list on the Michelin Guide website.

Two things to keep in mind. First, the list changes every year, and places that once held a star or a Bib may not hold one now, so check the current edition instead of relying on an old blog post or a sign in a shop window. Second, a Bib listing brings queues. Go at an off-peak hour, such as mid-afternoon, or pick a Bib place outside the most touristy streets.

Street Food and Night Markets

Hong Kong street food is snack food: you buy it at a window or a stall and eat it standing up or walking. The best area for this is Mong Kok, where the streets around the main shopping blocks have stalls selling curry fish balls, egg waffles, street-style siu mai covered in soy sauce and chili, cheung fun cut into pieces with sweet and sesame sauces, and stinky tofu (臭豆腐), which you will smell from down the block. In the cooler months you will also see roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes. Sham Shui Po has a similar mix, a bit cheaper and less crowded.

Temple Street Night Market (廟街) in Yau Ma Tei is the best-known evening market. The stalls set up from late afternoon, and the street is busiest after dark, when the open-air seafood and claypot restaurants put tables out on the pavement. Most of the market stalls sell souvenirs and cheap goods; the reason to go for food is those outdoor tables. Try stir-fried clams in black bean sauce, typhoon-shelter-style crab (避風塘炒蟹, fried with a heap of crispy garlic and chili) and claypot rice.

You may also see the word dai pai dong (大排檔): open-air food stalls with folding tables and stools, cooking wok-fried dishes to order. Only a handful survive, and they are worth a visit if you see one. Another local option is the cooked food centre (熟食中心): a floor of small food stalls, usually upstairs in a public market building. They are cheap and noisy, and most of the people eating there live or work nearby.

For more on street food in other cities, see our list of the best street food cities in China.

Ordering and Paying

Hong Kong is one of the easier places in the region to eat without speaking the local language. Staff speak Cantonese, but many understand basic food English, and restaurants in Central, Tsim Sha Tsui and other tourist areas usually have English menus. In older neighbourhoods such as Sham Shui Po, the menu may be in Chinese only, sometimes just written on the wall. In that case, point at what other diners are eating, use a translation app's camera on the menu, or order the set meal. Our guide to ordering food with zero Chinese has more tricks that work here too.

Service charge. Sit-down restaurants may add a 10% service charge, known locally as "plus one" (加一); the Consumer Council says the charge should be shown clearly and staff should explain it if you ask. Check the menu or the notice by the door, especially if the charge only applies at some times of day.

Tea and extras. Some restaurants charge for tea, sauces and small snacks placed on the table. You can read the menu or ask the staff and then decide whether to accept. The Consumer Council also suggests checking the bill before you pay and keeping your receipt.

Tipping. Tipping is not expected. If a service charge is on the bill, that is enough. At small places, some people leave the coins from their change or round up, but no one will chase you if you don't. Our tipping guide explains how tipping works on the mainland too.

How to pay. Bring three ways to pay:

• Octopus card — the stored-value card used on the MTR, buses and ferries, and accepted at convenience stores, bakeries, fast-food chains and many cha chaan teng (look for the Octopus logo at the counter). The Tourist Octopus sold to visitors costs HK$39, has no stored value and needs no deposit. You then add money to it at MTR stations or convenience stores. Our Hong Kong and Macau guide compares the card versions, including the one on iPhone.
• Cash in Hong Kong dollars — still the safest option at street stalls, small noodle shops and market food stalls. The Hong Kong dollar is held between HK$7.75 and HK$7.85 to the US dollar, which makes it easy to estimate prices in your head.
• A Visa or Mastercard — usually accepted at mid-range and higher restaurants, hotel restaurants and chains, but check for the card logos at the counter before you order. Small family-run places often take cash and Octopus only.

Mobile wallets are mixed. Many shops show logos for local wallets such as AlipayHK, and some also take the mainland versions of Alipay and WeChat Pay, but this varies shop by shop, so check the logos at the counter before you rely on your phone.

What a Meal Costs

Hong Kong is more expensive than mainland Chinese cities, but eating well does not have to be. Prices change often and vary a lot by neighbourhood, so here are rough levels from cheapest to most expensive instead of exact numbers:

• Cheapest: street snacks such as fish balls and egg waffles, a pineapple bun from a bakery, a bowl of congee or wonton noodles.
• Cheap: a cha chaan teng set meal with a drink, or roast meat over rice. This is the everyday lunch of office workers and the easiest way to eat on a budget.
• Middle: dim sum at a restaurant. The total depends on how many baskets you order, plus the tea charge and any service charge. A small dim sum shop costs less than a large restaurant with tablecloths.
• Higher: outdoor seafood dinners, where crab and lobster priced by weight push the bill up quickly, and restaurants with a harbour view.

To keep costs down, eat your main meal at lunchtime, when many restaurants have set menus, use afternoon tea sets, and look at the Bib Gourmand list for good-value places. The prices on the menu are what you pay, apart from any service charge and tea charge shown on the menu, because Hong Kong has no sales tax added at the till. Our Hong Kong shopping guide explains what that means when you shop.

Food Safety and Tap Water

Hong Kong's food and water rules are different from the mainland's, so use the advice below for Hong Kong and our food safety guide for mainland China once you cross the border.

The quick checks are easy. A licensed restaurant has to display its licence in a place you can see, and you can look up licensed premises on the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) website. The Centre for Food Safety lists raw oysters as a high-risk food and advises pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weak immune system or liver disease not to eat them. For most other dishes, cooked-to-order food at a busy place is a safe bet.

The short version: Hong Kong's water supply meets the Hong Kong Drinking Water Standards. Run the cold tap for two minutes after the water has stood, and use the cold tap, not the hot one, for anything you drink. Many locals boil their drinking water or buy bottled water out of habit, most hotel rooms have a kettle, and bottled water is sold in every convenience store. The reason for running the tap is that old pipes inside a building can affect the water that reaches you, so the Water Supplies Department recommends running it for at least two minutes when water has stood in the pipes for hours or overnight, and not using hot-tap water for drinking or cooking.

Vegetarian, Halal and Allergies

For vegetarian food, look for Buddhist vegetarian restaurants (look for the character 齋, jaai, on the sign or menu), which serve meat-free versions of Cantonese dishes; many dim sum places also have a few vegetable dumplings. Be aware that ordinary vegetable dishes are often cooked with oyster sauce or meat stock, so say you are vegetarian when you order. Our vegetarian and vegan guide has phrases you can show. For halal food, Hong Kong's certification body is the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong, which inspects and certifies halal food in Hong Kong, Macau and parts of the mainland, so look for its certificate on the wall; see our halal food guide for the wider picture. For allergies, carry a card with your allergy written in Chinese characters: shrimp, other shellfish and peanuts are common in Cantonese cooking, including in dumpling fillings and sauces.

A Side Trip to Macau

Macau is a short ferry or bridge-bus ride from Hong Kong, and its food is different enough to be worth the trip. Eat a Portuguese-style egg tart (葡撻), with a caramelised, slightly burnt top; a pork chop bun (豬扒包), a fried pork chop in a crusty bread roll; and at least one meal of Macanese food (土生葡菜), the cooking of Macau's Portuguese-Asian community, which is on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage. Macau is also a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, and it had 13 Bib Gourmand places in the 2026 Michelin Guide. Most places in Macau take Hong Kong dollars, and you will usually get change in patacas. The pataca is pegged at MOP103.20 to HK$100, so a pataca is worth a little less than a Hong Kong dollar, and paying in Hong Kong dollars at a 1:1 rate costs you about 3%. Card and mobile payment is common there too, including the mainland and Hong Kong versions of WeChat Pay and Alipay. For how to get there and the entry rules, see our Hong Kong and Macau guide.

Food Tours and Seasonal Food

You do not need a guide to eat well in Hong Kong. The city is compact, and the list above is enough to plan your own meals. A food tour makes sense if you only have a day or two, if you are nervous about ordering in Chinese-only places like Sham Shui Po, or if you want someone to explain the dishes as you eat. A good walking tour covers several stops in one neighbourhood in a few hours. You can compare Hong Kong food tours on Klook.

Some foods are seasonal. Hairy crab (大閘蟹), a small freshwater crab, appears in autumn and is eaten steamed with ginger vinegar. Claypot rice and snake soup (蛇羹) are cold-weather dishes, so winter is the best time for them. Around Chinese New Year, many restaurants sell poon choi (盆菜), a big communal basin of layered meat and seafood for groups and families. Mooncakes fill bakery windows in the weeks before the Mid-Autumn Festival. If you want to spend your days walking between food stops, the drier months are easiest: from November to February, average rainfall is under 40 mm a month.

To put it all together: have dim sum one morning, eat at a cha chaan teng at least twice, try roast goose and wonton noodles in Central or Sheung Wan, spend one evening at Temple Street or in Mong Kok, and finish with tong sui. Check the menu for service and tea charges, carry an Octopus card and some cash, and use the Bib Gourmand list when you want a reliable good-value pick. For transport, money and sights beyond food, start with our Hong Kong and Macau guide.

Last updated: October 2026