From the beginning, we tried to stick to small basic restaurants with a menu only in Chinese, simply to practice for the month to come… Often we had to decide by choosing from the pictures displayed in the restaurant. Up to now, communication has always worked, with someone translating for us or someone pointing at the menu just saying: specialty, specialty?
How many restaurants are there in this city? This is what we truly would like to know. There is no type of food or price range that cannot be found, from basic restaurants serving huge dishes for 2 less than Euros to others where starters sells for more than 20 Euros!
From the beginning, we tried to stick to small basic restaurants with a menu only in Chinese, simply to practice for the month to come… Often we had to decide by choosing from the pictures displayed in the restaurant. Up to now, communication has always worked, with someone translating for us or someone pointing at the menu just saying: “specialty, specialty”.
Hong Kong is also truly Asian with small restaurants where neither the menu nor the staff is able to communicate with the foreigner about what there is to eat, buzzing markets with people selling just about everything, touts trying to lure into buying tailor made shirts and suits, fake Rolex and pirate DVDs. We just love it!
Yes, we are still in Hong Kong, but do not take it for granted that staff in such restaurants speak English. If nothing else works, we ask for dim sums, but even our pronunciation of “dim sum” obviously needs improving…
Of course, there is a completely different side of Hong Kong, especially in Lan Kwai Fong and Soho, where all the expatriates and business travellers enjoy themselves. There, everybody speaks English and a quick look at a few menus immediately made any desire for a drink or dinner fade away. There, it is more expensive than at bars in Vienna! So after strolling around for a while, looking at all those yuppies spending tones of money, we went back to Causeway Bay, our temporary neighbourhood, where we sampled a huge soup dish for less than 2 Euros…
Hong Kong is also truly Asian with small restaurants where neither the menu nor the staff is able to communicate with the foreigner about what there is to eat, buzzing markets with people selling just about everything, touts trying to lure into buying tailor made shirts and suits, fake Rolex and pirate DVDs. We just love it!
On the third night, Heidi grew tired of soups, so we followed a recommendation by the Lonely Planet and went to Lin Heung Tea House, supposed to be THE place to have dim sums. There, we learned this is a dish mainly served in the morning or for lunch, hardly ever for dinner, bad timing! Food was good but not spectacular and prices absolutely in our price range with main courses selling for 4 to 6 Euros, so it was a fine recommendation.
After being to this popular place we realized that restaurants here, except the most expensive ones, are never a cosy place. Bright neon lights, plastic tables and chairs, huge rooms with lots of people talking loudly or very cramped places characterize such eateries.
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