Went to hv dim sum with my family on a sunday. surprisingly its not that full! the decor is very old style, "retro" feel. actually i kinda like it in a sense. if u r to take ur overseas friends to try some traditional dim sum, this would be the place i suggest after 蓮香樓. 蓮香樓 is a bit of a chaos. whereas here, u can still sit and chat comfortably.

The dim sum menu looks as if it has been used for years. and they do hv some very old style dim sum that u cannot find in many chained chinese restaurant. I was so thrilled to see sesame paste bun!! (not the black sesame type) It was my big favourite!! and it seems to be extinct nowadays. Unlike others, the sesame paste bun here came as one big bun. Yet... it was a BIG disappointment. the bun itself was dry and hard. the sesame paste was equally dry and hard!!!! arrh...

anyway this restaurant still takes credit for its preservation of "orginal". i think i'd still visit with my family from time to time...

I've always heard quite a lot about Luk Yu Tea House and went there for the first time today for some Sunday dim sum.

Decor: Very old school but the place is quite clean. We got a booth to share between the 3 of us which I thought was a little cramped but not too uncomfortable.

Service: Dim sum took a little longer than expected to come out but once they did come out there were no other delays. The waiters spoke very little too us but was efficient.

Now onto the food. Here is what we ordered:

Shrimp Dumpling (傳統蝦餃): Very high quality shrimp dumpling. Shrimp was flavorful, dumpling skin was very light/thin and a little puffy. Very good.

Pork Liver Siu Mai (豬潤燒賣): I'm a fan of liver but I'm don't quite get this dish. The pork liver is so big it's hard to eat...plus for me the liver was on the tough side. The bottom line is I'm not sure how the liver compliments the siu mai. The siu mai itself I thought just tasted more like a meat ball than an actual siu mai but it did taste pretty decent by itself.

Beef Sui Mai (牛肉燒賣): To me this is more like a beef ball. Regardless, pretty tasty.

Spare Ribs (排骨): I liked this. Spare ribs was quite flavorful. Although it might sound a little strange I thought our spare ribs had a little too much bone to meat ratio.

BBQ Pork Buns (叉燒包): Pretty decent by normal BBQ pork bun standards go but I thought it lacked a little in the flavor department (pork-wise) and was a tad too sweet for my tastes.

Baked Fatty Chicken Rice (焗肥雞飯): To me this was the major standout of the afternoon. The dish is simple and pretty much Baked Portuguese Chicken (similar to curry chicken except flavor is a lot more mild due to the infusion of coconut milk) but it tasted so good. The fatty chicken was cooked perfectly and so flavorful. The sauce I thought was just right. Only downside is the portion is rather small. Regardless I would definitely consider this to be a must order dish at Luk Yu.

Overall I thought the dim sum was good...but not great. The major standout for me was the Baked Fatty Chicken and I am definitely ordering that again when I come back next time.

Great place to visit, for very authentic and local Cantonese dim sums - you rarely finds some of those in the other restaurant. Luk Yu serves unique dim sums. Good ambience and services - good introducing your friends from overseas to this place. Love coming back.

The food is really bad. There are not much to choose from the menu.
The deep fried is not crisp at all.
The chichen bum wasn't soft enough to be clasify as a chinese bun.
The "Thousand Level" bun was very English bun , because they used custard instead of egg york for the filling.
Real bad dim sum place in HK

With many heavyweight Cantonese restaurants already crowding the scene, and the influx of newer high-end / fusion Chinese restaurants coming onto the market, it is so easy to forget about restaurants that breathe and live Hong Kong.

Luk Yu Tea House rests unconspiciously in the crowded and hip scene of Lan Kwai, and has quietly withstood the test of time to provide wonderful food for generations of Hong Kongers. It's traditional decor of white walls and dark wood looks like it came straight out of the 1950's.

We started off with a beautifully prepared soup, boiled immaculately using a base of fatty pork and fish (粉葛鯪魚煲豬踭 ). As hard as we can try, it is simply impossible to get the richness and flavour of soup that is made at restaurants. Being a soup-nut, I easily polish three bowls of this wonderful broth.

Next came the sharks fin stir-friend with crab roe, egg and spring onions (珊瑚炒桂花翅). It was tasty and rich, but not the finest ever. I felt they overloaded the dish with too much roe, overpowering the fin.

The next two dishes were classics, we had the braised goose (烤鹅掌) and garoupa (石斑翅). The quality was fantastic, especially the garoupa. The delicious starchy sauces that accompanied both dishes did not stick long to the palate, always a good sign. Our meat dish was (咕嚕肉), I had a problem with this dish not because it was cooked or tasted badly, but because they use the traditional young ginger instead of pineapples. I don't mind the essence of ginger in dishes, but draw the line at eating it! Objectively, the dish was good, but I wasn't too big a fan of it

Our carbs was a noodle dish that I have not had for at least a decade - crab meat piece-noodles (蟹肉片兒麵). You'll have to excuse my translation, but it consisted of pieces of flour - sort of the kind you'd find on boiled wontons (雲吞) in a crab-meat broth. It was a cross between a soup and a noodles, and its savoury taste was phenomenal.

For desert, we had another classic cantonese dish (蛋白杏仁糊). I'm not a big fan of desserts, so I'm probably not the best judge of this dish. It was enjoyable, but I hardly touched it.

Even with the sharksfin and large helpings of everything the meal came up to about 600 per person. We had plenty of 打包, which would end up almost lasting another meal! For a authentic experience, whether for classic dishes or dim sum, come to Luk Yu. Word of warning, be respectful towards the waiters, they have usually stayed with the restaurant for long periods and don't take any lip, especially from foreigners! (If possible, go with a Cantonese friend)

Today is a special day coz we can take a break in the afternoon. We planned to celebrate in a famous restaurant. Again, I promise I will give the food comment in English if you (Caroline) join us! So….my second time…..

We arrived at about 2 o'clock. The restaurant was only half full and the waiter arranged a small table for us. They were not so sincere but I don’t think they were impolite. At least, they added the water to the teapot for us frequently. Four of us shared seven Dim Sums and a dish of sweet and sour pork.

Pan-fried dumpling in soup (煎粉果連湯), $50, the stuff inside is not so much, it is an old-fashioned style dumpling served with a bowl of soup. Nothing special!

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun with oyster sauce (蠔油叉燒包), $30, I found from the OR that its comment is very good. However, the texture of the bun is not soft enough and the pork is not so tenderized. A little bit disappeared!

Egg Tart (層酥雞蛋撻), $30, I didn’t take this one but I can’t hear any good comment from my friends.

Pastry filled with sweet gourd squash (冬蓉雪酥餃), $30, the pastry is hard and tough, the stuff inside is not very sweet but the taste of gourd is not so strong enough.

Steamed minced beef ball (鮮牛肉燒賣), $33, it is not similar as I ate in other restaurant. Although the texture is not so elastic, the taste of beef is rich.

Crab meat Omelet (蛋煎蟹肉角), $50, the taste is flat, which just like homemade food. It’s just an omelet.

Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf (荷葉飯), $70, the price is expensive, but the stuffs inside are very full with many shrimps. The rice had been fried quite dry.

Sweet and Sour pork with pineapple (菠蘿咕嚕肉), $110, the pork is very juicy and the sauce is just covered the surface of each meat. It is the best dish in this meal!

Tea (茶芥), $20/person, Pu’ er tea, the taste was very strong but no bitter feeling at all. Quite good!

It is advisable to visit such a kind of famous and expensive traditional Chinese restaurant and I enjoy the meal with my friends.

Thanks to our lovely Caroline!

Having dim sum @ 陸羽 during the afternoon hours is such a pleasure. Not only can you avoid the frantic crowds during lunch time, you can also 慢慢品嚐陸羽的傳統點心和懷舊陳設. Knowing that serene is a luxury and a rarity at Central, I couldn't bypass the opportunity to have dim sum @ 陸羽 on Monday's afternoon when I was nearby.

When I arrived at the restaurant at 3pm, the ground level was hardly full. A quick glance revealed that 90% of the diners there were Westerners (tourists, I assumed), with a table of Singaporean visitors and a table of seemingly locals. After seated, I ordered my favorite tea there – their famous 普洱. 唔食都知唔好食 described the tea perfectly in the previous post – it was 香濃不苦, very soothing. It didn’t take a tea expert to tell that this tea was a notch better than what you got at normal dim sum restaurants. The paper menu (點心紙) featured this week’s offerings, most of which being traditional dim sum items. Having had dim sum at Luk Yuk before, I forwent my usual “must-order” of 蝦餃 and went straight to their specialties which you could hardly find elsewhere, namely, the 蟹黃灌湯餃, 上湯煎粉果 and 奶皮千層餅.

蟹黃灌湯餃 were the first to arrive. Since it was during off-hours, the three jumbo sized dumplings were obviously freshly steamed and piping hot. 從半透明的的餃皮中可以看到黃油色的蟹黃和豐富的湯汁, these beauties seemed to be smiling at me! 咬一口, 湯汁不如想像的澎湃, 蟹黃也沒有預期的濃烈, 但豬肉餡是做得鬆軟出色, 蟹黃的分量也非常慷慨, 兩者配合相當得宜, 整體依然是美味非常. Whenever I came to Luk Yuk, I had to order their 灌湯餃 or else I didn’t feel like the meal was complete.

Another 懷舊點心, 上湯煎粉果, came next. 剛煎好的熱粉果浸入上湯內再吃, 外層微脆內層煙韌, 配合上湯的鮮味, 即使上湯味略淡, 餡料也簡單, 那一濕一乾, 一濃一淡的組合, 仍是令人吃得心滿意足.

The last order, 奶皮千層餅, was actually for my mother as a takeout. I tried it at home and it had a very mild custard taste without the cloying sweetness that most Chinese traditional desserts had. While lacking in milk flavor, this dessert was very approachable and when steamed hot, it was very 香甜美味.

I was always surprised when people complained about the service at Luk Yu. I am no regular customer, but when I was there their service really couldn’t have been nicer. They were VERY courteous and always smiling, and I didn’t feel that they were only serving tourists. Even though I forgot to tell them that the dessert was for takeout, they were very helpful and immediately helped me to pack them in a box. Perhaps that’s another advantage of visiting Luk Yu during afternoon, as you can slowly enjoy the food, the nostalgic ambiance, and the attentive service in the less-crowded tea house.

Overall, I still think that 陸羽 is a Hong Kong’s treasure. 在陸羽, 吃的不僅是懷舊點心,更欣賞的是茶室傳統的尊重和堅持. Too many restaurants put 懷舊 as a gimmick, without showing the seriousness like Luk Yuk does. 有這樣認真的傳統餐館, 香港人真是非常幸福!

(p.s. I apologize that I have to use a mix of English and Chinese writing in my post. I tried to write Chinese reviews but it took me too much time (just the few sentences above took me an hour...). As soon as I learn how to type in Chinese I will post some Chinese reviews. In the mean time, please bear with me...)

The comment is good and I am interested to try lunch tea. Just called to make appointment for lunch tea (Mon am), yet they said they are very busy and this week is fully booked. Then I asked if there is any seat next week, they replied NO (of course the tone is rude and not patient). Before I can ask if there is any seat in the coming month, they have already cut my line!!

How come Hong Kong restaurant can provide such quality service? Because I am not their loyal customer? Or I am not a famous guy?! Very disapointed of the services, before i even try their food!!

Many people have complained about poor service at Luk Yu, especially when you are new customer. This is the primary reason I stay away from this place and never set foot in it. Recently, some family event will take place on Dec 24th and we thought Luk Yu might be a good place especially for the senior members of my family. I also thought the poor service issue might have been fixed after all these years. So I made a reservation weeks ahead knowing it is Dec 24th. Then, on Dec 22nd, I call Luk Yu to reserve some special order, and the Luk Yu guy told me he NEVER spook with me and transferred me to another guy. This other guy then told me the restaurant is now fully booked, and hung up on me just like that without even saying goodbye. I guess this is the way Luk Yu has always been and always will be. To me, good food and good service goes hand-in-hand, and Luk Yu can kiss my business goodbye forever.

Yesterday, a good friend organized a surpirse birthday party, disguised as vertical wine tasting for a group of 12 people The heresay reputation of this restaurant in my case was unfortunately a negative one so I did not go there with a high expectation, and oh boy we were all so delighted!
The soup ( black chicken soup) was so full of flavour, I was still yearning for it the next day.
One of our friends ordered the dishes a few days in advance. He ordered a simple but lovely vege in soup, deep fried fish, braised sea cucumber with dried prawn, tiger prawn in tomato souce, deep fried cured ham, crispy skin chicken with glutenrice ( amazing dish), lamb stew.
The waiters were friendly and polite. The most fun thing to do may be to listen to them, talk about the dishes and some good old days. People get disappointed if they expect western style service ( young staff, trendy uniform, polite but distant, attentive but un obtrusive and so on ) If I come here more often, which I am sure I will, I think their service will be very personal, just the way it should be like the good old days.
We dined on the thrid floor. To get to the third floor, you have to walked up the stairs. The marble walls, the bronze decor and stairs reminded me of childhood dining experience. Wow, this place is oozing with lovely nostalgia