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Lin Heung Tea House: Oldest Tea House in Hong Kong

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Lin Heung Tea House was established in 1926 and is one of the oldest tea houses in Hong Kong. With over 8 decades of serving locals and tourists, dim sum is served with the most traditional recipes that results in an endless flow of diners. This place is packed all the time! Not many places in Hong Kong still serve traditional dim sum. You may want to come very early in the morning or late in the afternoon ( 6am and 3:30pm).

They serve dim sum during the day and main dishes during the night.

Don’t be afraid to get cozy with strangers. You may be forced to share tables, but it’s a natural occurrence in Hong Kong. It really helps if you come with someone who can speak Cantonese! It will help a lot when ordering and finding your table.

Service is quite horrendous as the servers are very rude and not very helpful. People are here for the food and not the service.

You will need to wash your utensils even if they look its clean. Just dunk it in tea! They don’t give you napkins either, so make sure you bring a pack of tissues with you.

The tea doesn’t come in a tea-pot, but they have these traditional type of tea pots. You steep the tea in the larger cup and pour it into your tea cup when it’s done steeping.

It’s really difficult to pour if you’re never tried it before.

When you need to get your tea refilled with hot water, the server brings a huge kettle and pours with crazy accuracy. Every time they come by to pour hot water, I am always so scared just in case they scald us with hot water.

Steamed Beef Balls comes in 3 pieces and are delicious!

Pork tripe is a bit scary since it’s an organ. It’s a bit tough and chewy

Beef Tripe and intestines were very chewy, but the sauce that it was in was delicious.

Steamed Sausage Bun is yummy and a great item for kids.

Braised Chicken feet is a typical dish found in Dim Sum. Some love it, some find it super scary. You kinda have to get use to it. I personally like it since you essentially just eat the skin off the bones.

Steamed Fish Head is very succulent and has a delicious flavour when you suck the meat off the bones.

This dish has chicken, mushroom, and fish maw in a yummy flavourful sauce.

Braised Liver looks really nasty, but the liver does have a chalky flavour and texture to it. If you haven’t had liver before, you may not like it.

Chicken Feet wrapped in bean curd wrap was something I haven’t seen done before. the bean curd did taste good.

Fish Cake wrapped in Cabbage was one of my favorite dishes.

Steamed Chinese Sponge Cake (Ma Lai Go) is very very tall compared to most places. It’s usually made out of flour, eggs, butter, lard and brown sugar and then steamed. It tasted very good!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Wake up early to order the Big Chicken Bun (“Dai Bao”)
  • Very unique traditional dim sum items
  • Good Prices
  • Horrible service and cleanliness
  • Anthony Bourdain approved

We Rate Lin Heung Tea House:

Address:
160-164 Wellington Street,
Central


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Diana started Foodology in 2010 because she just eats out everyday! She started a food blog to share her love of food with the world! She lives in Vancouver, BC and adores the diversity of food around her. She will go crazy for churros and lattes.

1 Comment

  1. Hi,Diana
    i would like to ask

    Why did HK Cha Chaan Teng always served the customer with a cup of tea when you did not order anything yet?

    They charged you for those cup of hot tea?

    If i had finished my tea, can i ask for refill? Is it free?
    Do it apply to all Hk Cha Chaan Teng?

    Can you answer my question? because i cant find my answer.

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