Lin Heung Kui    蓮香居  

蓮香居 is another classic Cantonese cuisine restaurant. During dinner services, it provides a lot of classic/traditional dishes that probably a lot of us have heard of. However, to try it out, it would surprises you. The restaurant is located in Sheung wan and décor in traditional style.

Cuisine: Chinese
Food rating: 5/10*
Service: 4/10
Ambiance: 3/10
Price: HK$40ax

* Food Rating: 6/10 is equivalent to 1 Michelin star, 8/10 to two Michelin stars, and 9/10 or 10/10 to three Michelin stars

Doughnut (4/10)
The dough was very soft and more importantly a lot of space after baking. I liked it much more than the westerner style. Iit doesn’t has the butter taste, but it was still delicate and rich.Prawn Cheung fun (5/10)
The prawn was crunchy and didn’t lack the prawn flavour and sweetness. The wrapper was very smooth and more importantly it has the elasticity, not like the conventional one. The soy-sauce was nicely made, wasn’t too salty yet delicate. Pineapple Roasted Pork Bun. (4/10)
The bun was soft and the pineapple pastry was crispy and full of the flavour. The pork was sweet and tender, but this dish has be serve HOT, otherwise it loses its WOW factor. Turnip Cake (6/10)
This has to be the best dish of the meal. Because a lot of the dim sum only serve warm, since the dim sum were stored in the dim sum trolley. But the turnip cake was cooked as diners order. The turnip cake was delicate, rich and creamy (full of turnip flavour). More important, it was fairly seasoned, however if the turnip cake can be fried to crispy would be even better.The dim sum was extremely cheap but with high standard. The bill was HK$86, but HK$20 dollar was for the tea and HK$8.6 was for the service charge, you can imagine how cheap it was. If you do live/work in the area, this is a great place for lunch.

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Was told to try this because its the most traditional type dim sum in Hong Kong. The food was not very exceptional but the experience was interesting since, we had to sit at a table with strangers and hygiene is not their strong suit. However, the tea was served in a traditional way where the tea leaves are cleaned first and the water discarded before you pour your own tea. You need to pour quickly in order to make less of a mess.

I read about this place from Openrice, sounds interesting and decided to make a visit.
First of all because I wasn't local , this place could be more impressive Just to set expectation!

I went over for lunch and enjoyed the walk from MTR to the restaurant , I passed by a few streets where they distribute dried seafood and herbal goods. This place is definitely less crowded in comparison to many other places in HK , hence I really enjoyed the walk.
The restaurant is located not too far from the MTR , took me less than 10 minutes to find it. I also got some tips from other review earlier to go straight to 3rd floor for a table to avoid waiting.Here's what I ordered :The food is a bit cold when it served but the texture of the Cheong Fun is good. What is missing is some belacan on top...just like what we have back in Malaysia . Anyway this is tasty

Worrying too many people on weekend and sunday, we on a weekday and its the first time we have afternoon in this resaturant. We tried because of its fame. The restaurnat is very classically furnished, food not bad, courteous services, worh trying!

Finally tried this restaurant for a big-group gathering on a Sunday evening. Settings are very similar to the "old" one at Wellington Street at Central, but I'd say the food and services are considerably better.

We ordered about 9 typical "family dishes", including "fried egg with silver egg", "eight treasures duck" - good portions and delicious, and no extra charge for a bottle of wine we brought in. Recommended for group or family gatherings, and I'd say a much better choice than stalls in cooked food markets, including the one next to it at Queen's Street.

We came here last year over the weekend or weekday night. This was the 1st time that we checked in during the weekday lunch time, busy business hours.
Suprisingly, it was very easy to find seats, we shared the table with the other visitors or customers. It was of good services, spacious environment and friendly waiters around.
The dim sums we ordered were okay, not super delicious we must say. It was the affiliate of the other Lin Heung of Central, this one was far easier to get the seats. Not bad to come during the busy lunch hour.

I joined my parents for morning tea in Lin Heung Kui this morning, this is my 2nd time patronized to this restaurant. I was sitting on 3/F during my last visit, this time I was sitting on 2/F, the decoration is basically the same, have some beautiful bird cages hang around, but of course the bird inside the cage was not real.

Each guest will have 2 tea cups, tea leaves of your choice was put into the cup with cap, the waiter pour over boiling water into the cup with cap, let the tea soak for a minute, then strain the tea from the cup with cap into the other cup. I have difficulty in carrying the cup with hot tea, especially when the tea cup and the cap get too hot to touch, tea was poured on the table eventually. So my father taught me how to do it, when I do it twice, I get used to it. The secret is to carry the edge of the cup by your finger tips, and press the cap tight by your first finger tip. To make it easier, you can ask the waiter to give you a teapot instead.

The food choices is similar to ordinary Chinese restaurant, I tried their pork liver siu mine, Congee in hot pot, cane sugar steam cake, and also glutinous rice with lotus leave.

The pork liver siu mine is over cooked;
The Congee is good, with variety of ingredient, served with deep-fried dough stick, the portion size is enough for 2 people sharing;
Cane sugar steam cake is tasty, soft and not too sweet;
The glutinous rice with louse leave is also good, not too salty, portion size is quite big, good for sharing.

So I went here today for dim sum with 2 other people. We originally wanted to try Lin Heung Tea House on Wellington Street but my friend could not stand how dirty the place was so we tried the newer Lin Heung Kui instead.

Tip #1: Go to the higher floors for dim sum. The lower floors naturally get crowded earlier first.

Tip #2: If possible take the stairs. They only have 1 super small elevator and the strange thing is even the DIM SUM CARTS (not a typo) take the same elevator to travel between the floors. So avoid the long wait or even to be squashed next to a hot dim sum cart just take the stairs (it's an easy walk).

So we sat down and got some pui li tea (a little strong for my tastes but very fragrant and tasty). We ordered the following:

Tofu skin rolls (腐皮捲) - Not bad. Pretty normal tasting.
Big bun (大包) - Not bad. I like how the chicken tastes but the egg inside actually I thought made it worse
Shrimp dumpling (蝦餃) - This was good. The shrimp inside was big and flavorful. The skin was quite perfect.
BBQ pork cheong fun (叉燒腸粉) - This was also good. The BBQ pork wasn't super flavorful but the best thing about this was the skin of the cheong fun. Super smooth and just the right thickness.
Siu mai (燒賣) - Shrimp was flavorful. Pretty decent.
Steamed beef balls (牛肉球) - Pretty good. Meat was flavorful and texture was also pretty good.

I was really hoping to get some BBQ pork buns (叉燒包) or maybe even some chicken's feet (鳳爪) but it was not on a single cart at all (major bummer ).

Service: Well the good thing is your don't have to fight for your food like Lin Heung Tea House but the service from a few dim sum ladies were pretty bad. There was at least one lady who I misheard and he gave me attitude when I asked her about a certain dish she didn't have. A simple "I don't have it" would have been sufficient.

Environment: The place is definitely cleaner than Lin Heung Tea House since it is only 2 months old but it is still pretty crowded and chaotic relative to most dim sum places.

Overall a pretty decent lunch. Food was pretty good but not great. Our final bill was $300 for 3 people which was kind of expensive for dim sum at normal place like Lin Heung Kui. A fun experience but not really sure I will be back per say mainly because Lin Heung Kui is pretty out of the way in Sheung Wan (not really close to MTR station).

It was the first time to visit 蓮香居.
We used to go to the one in central. The service there is sucks, but well we accept it, it used to be the "attitude". When 蓮香居 appear, we wonder if it will be the same.
First we entered the restaurant, we still feel the "mood" of 蓮香, then when we started to order, we realize the difference. They are more polite here. They even changed the plate for us!!!! so surprise!!!!!
蓮香居 is actually an advanced version of the previous 蓮香, place bigger and cleaner, service is super!!!

Next time, we will try to go there at lunch hour, would love to try the dim sum.
蓮香居, i will be BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have long wanted to visit since reading about its grand opening while i was still in frigid toronto - so happy to come at last!!!
satruday afternoon, SO crowded. didn't bother looking on the first floor, where people were already spilling out of the entrance. hiked up 2nd floor where there were even more people waiting, i couldn't even look inside. on the 3rd floor some people were leaving. squeezed my way through many tables and was greeted by a server, who very nicely said "i have a great spot for you two!" (me + dad)
of course we had to 'darp toi' (share a table with strangers) but that was expected. the floor is still very new-looking and clean. i smiled when the teacups, teapot (not exactly a teapot - it's called a "cha jong") arrived, with 'lin heung kui' printed on it.
i did not know how to order - was told the lady with the carts will come to our table; but it waited for so long, so i went up to the lady and asked what she had - first order: steamed black bean spare ribs slightly fatty, chewy cartilage - mmmmm good!
waiting for the next cart lady seemed forever, dad told me to order from the menu. asked the very kind server for a menu and ordered beef with woodear fungus, lilybulb flower (aka golden needle, "gum jum") in a claypot lots of woodear, lilybulb, dried dates and occasional bits of fried garlic, chopped ginger and spring onions - nice balance of flavors! beef was obviously tenderized with baking soda (or some tenderizer/alkali); it has that chinese-stirfry-beef texture, if you know what i mean. enjoyed the dish, but the bottom bits were all burnt.
more dim sum!
egg tarts - 4 small pieces per order. impressive remark: their crust is so incredibly thin, the eggy custard taste was more dominant!!! HO HO MEI!
siu mai with quail eggs: never had siu mai with QUAIL EGGS before! quail eggs are hard boiled; really enjoyed the bites of shrimp in my siu mai! even the pork was 'darn nga', nicely chewy - think it was quite thoroughly pulverized. and the taste was good, not overly salty at all! the skin of the siu mai is thin and stikcy AND chewy - WOW-impressed!
chicken packet ("gai jard"): i like the accompaniments but chicken was so-so.
shrimp cheung fen: soft, slippery rice sheet layers with occasional pieces of shrimp. liked the sweet soy sauce.

chinese sponge cake "mar lai go": pillowy soft, incorporated with the richness of brown sugar (as opposed to white sugar which tastes much more 'light' and less overwhelming) ho!
the grand finale: CHAR SIU BAO! two tennis-ball sized buns per order. the skin was a bit thick, filling is the usual char siu - good that it didn't appear too artificially colored. pretty good, but not the best char siu bao ever.
servers are very friendly! and the refill rate of teas and water is very fast - the "teapot master" (learned something new today - tea servers are called "cha bok si"!!) are always busy, pouring boiling water from table to table.
for all the stuff that we ordered the bill came to only $180!!!! wah! (the claypot dish was $50, think dim sum was around $15-20 each)
after our very pleasant lunch, we had a little shop downstairs (ground level, right at the entrance) - they sell a great range of culinary delights - from pastries to tea leaves to even soup packets! we thought the tea was really good, so we bought a packet of "Loong Jeng" tea leaves.
there WILL be a next visit, but will try to come on a weekday! (if that makes a difference)

went to 蓮香居 for dim sum on Friday afternoon

well frankly... for food...don't expect high quality food here whether the taste or the presentation, or anyway fancy offering, but something which is very basic like what it used to be sooo years ago...and they are edible....

the place if you are used to those usual restaurants all around, then, I will suggest you not to go, because you have to look for your table, by either standing behind those who're eating and wait or if u spot someone is leaving run and put your butt onto the seat or else you will never get a seat..

The waiter most likely just take your oder of tea and give you new bowls, cup, chopsticks, and refill ur tea pot with hot water....and remove the empty plates, or if you are they VIP or frequently repeated customer, they may place a table cloth on your table and make it looks nicer..

The dim sum cart aunties can't really reach your table and serve you, cos once they come out....everyone just run to them a grap their own dim sum.....

The place is noisy, crowded, and not too clean and tidy......

Having said that, I did enjoy the lunch there because it reminds the way I went for Yum Chai with my parents when I was a kid at the late 60s and early 70s...So I really don't mind to go there once in a long while just for FUN!

The food quality is really bad and the looking of food is very bad too. The waiters have really bad attitude. The tables has no table cloth and anyway the whole restaurant is so old fashion. And i do not know why so many people is lining up to go in.

I would tell you, DON'T GO THERE!!!!!

Its been a long time haven't write eat comment because abit busy. This sunday gf's family dinner here, ordering many of their name dish. But none of it can say it's ok for eating.
Me always go drink tea with my grand father in their Centrol resturant. Because they make very good and old fashion Dim Sum. And my grand pa love it. But we never dinner at there. So I'm realy exciting for having dinner here. But the food they serve make me sad.
鴨腳紥 the 鴨腳 are hard as stone, can't even eat it, only can eat the thing around it.
八寶鴨 didn't try because its too wet, just think its not gona be good.
金錢雞 just normal but we having too much duck liver (because 鴨腳紥 already got it)
醬燒骨 is a pork cook long long time, soft but got no meat tast (I think they use it to cook for their daily soup) then add a sweet and sour sause on top...........
貴妃雞 are the best of the night, its not fresh chicken but they cook it well, the meat still soft and juicy.
干燒伊麵 not enough colour, i think the most important thing for 干燒伊麵 are the soy sause and oyster sause. But you can't tast any on that.
This new place are very nice, clean and sharp enough, but dinner here is abit disapointed. Better only drink tea in here. And dinner here are not so expensive. Maybe thats why their food are not as good as other chinese resturant.
Will give them a second chance for drink tea here and report on Open Rice again.