Lock Cha Tea Shop     樂茶軒  

Lock Cha Tea Shop is a nice place for Chinese tea and vegetarian dim sums.

I found this place via open rice because i was looking for a lunch spot to take a vegetarian buddy to near work. The concept looked promising and I like the tea museum exhibition, so I booked a lunch table and we were seated immediately upon arrival (to bring up another story that I had to bail on my 1st attempt to come here due to work blowing up, and they were very nice about me canceling the appointment afterwards)

ENVIRONMENT:Looks very 古色古香 which was cute, but AC was on way too low and there was mosquitos and ants everywhere Especially after drinking hot tea, we were dying to leave... I will give it benefit of the doubt since we sat in the side room (which we thought should've been more 'VIP'), but perhaps the larger main room would be less stuffy and plagued by bugs.

EXECUTION OF CONCEPT:
What I expected: elegant tea ceremonies accompanied with explanation of the tea or the tea brewing technique, since it's a tea museum/cafe afterall
Actually happened: waiter brought already brewed tea in cups and poured into our cups, we had a electronic kettle on the table to refill the water ourselves as needed

FOOD:
Majority of the dish were very average (steamed bun 小笼包，turnip cake萝卜糕，lotus leaf wrapped rice荷叶糯米）
The only ones I would recommend is the veggie wrap 龍華寺素卷 and the jasmine sesame ball 茉莉芝麻汤圆 (pictured below).This was my favorite dish for the whole meal, because it had the level of attention to detail that I expected from a such sophisticated-sounding place.

Overall I was disappointed, I think with just a bit more training and thought into the customer experience in its tea program and food, this place could deliver a much more sophisticated and relaxing experience, which is the attraction of the concept. Especially at the price level, for 80/person lunch I expected at least being full, but all of us ended up buying sushi from international 2 hours later because the portion were so small and not appetizing

Hong Kong is a busy and noisy city. So to have a vegetarian dim sum restaurant decorated in traditional Chinese style inside Hong Kong Park is a real sanctuary. But I have known this secret place for a long time and taken many people there for their first time.

Vegetarian dim sum are generally not very tasty food items because of the limitations, so Lock Cha is very clever to focus on teas. There are about 10 types of teas and each person can pick their own, have their own teacups with lids to steep their tea properly. On the table, there is an electric kettle with boiling water that customers can add anytime themselves.

We were there for me to present my friend with the birthday cake that I had made for her. The cake only took a few hours but the decorates took a total of 15 hours as they were made from hard sugar icing and I made about 8 types of different flowers and a bluebird of happiness.

So back to the food at the restaurant. We each ordered a different type of tea. There were about 15 choices of dim sum and 3 of us. We chose about 10 types as some names do not really describe what they are, so all we know was that they are dim sum and vegetarian. Please see photos as I have forgotten most of the very pretty names. The best dish was fried turnip cake, so good I had no time to take a photo before it was all gone. We ordered a second plate but that also went before photo time.

This is a great restaurant for tea lovers who are small eaters as there are no big dishes. Even the daily noodle or rice dish is a tiny portion. The food is healthy though as it is not oily and not many dishes are deep fried.

If you are in the park and want a nice place to relax. This is the best place and it is also part of the HK Tea Museum building.

Lok Cha Hin is a rare find in HK given the quality of food, decor, service and really their approach in running the restaurant. First of all it is hard to find decent Chinese vegetarian food for lunch in the Central/Admiralty area not to mention vegetarian dim sum (there's another one on McDonald Road but I personally like Lok Cha Hin a lot better). The menu is not long but they have different dim sums everytime I go and they always taste good.

I took my family here to celebrate Buddha's Birthday (just an excuse really) and tried their dinner for the first time. Their set dinner is good value for money and the food is a lot more filling than what it seems and it's not those typical greasy Chiense vegetarian food. For dinner set you have to order their tea from the big tea menu (as opposed to the small cheaper one for lunch). They are very professional and helpful in explaining to us the different kinds of tea and it was great fun asking lots of questions and learning about what is the best way to serve different tea.

If you are into Chinese tea, this is a much better alternative than Starbucks to spend an afternoon with a few friends. Actually there was a group of people holding a scrabble night and seem to be having a good time too.

The government building next to HK Park is open for public parking on weekends.

Full of expectations after reading all the reviews posted here but .....

We went with two expatriate friends for lunch. Deciding on a decent place for dim sum is never easy in Central or Admiralty, especially when one wants to entertain friends from afar. The setting, the location and even the comments given here prompted me to give it a try.

Yes, the decor is very impressive for foreign friends but a bit of an over-kill for locals. We didn't actually mind as we had not gone for the ambience.

The tea is good, especially when the hot water sits next to one's table and can be replenished at ease. Tea needs to be served at the right temperature, and drinking it in the traditional cup in the traditional way is a rare find in HK.

The dim sum dishes are limited in choice, and they are small. For the four of us, we had to double-order a few of them to get a bite each. Taste-wise, there are definitely better ones in town. Despite the fact that a lot of them are vegetarian, some of them came soaked in oil which was a big turn off for health-conscious customers. Some of them were even too salty to swallow.

To impress foreign friends who want to experience a bit of culture, there are more local ones. To have decent dim sum in nice surroundings, hotels are better bet. To have traditional dim sum dishes, this place is not even up to par. To have a healthy meal, the dishes here are both too salty and oily to my liking.

For tea, there are simply too many tea houses to choose from.

I really enjoy the dim sum at Lock Cha Tea Shop.

Went here again with my family and ordered the usual tea I like, which is Green Tea. I like the fact that they give you the traditional utensils for you to enjoy the tea.

We also went for the turnip cake, which was as delicious as usual and ordered the pan-fried vegetarian noodles. Tasted pretty good, but not as good as the plain noodles!

Anyway, the soup tasted good as well. Would definitely come here again if I'd like to try out some vegetarian food. Prices here are reasonable, but definitely not low. Wish the food here were cheaper. Service is not too bad either.

Went here to try out the vegetarian dim sum again yesterday.

Ordered various dim sum.

The turnip cake tasted good as always. Sometimes I find it a bit too oily.

The vegetarian buns were horrible. Outside was warm, but the filling inside was cold.

The dessert - coconut mochi was delicious. It was hot and not too sweet.

I liked the pan-fried noodles the most. They were just soooo good! And not too oily.

Went here today for some vegetarian dim sum with my mother.

Forgot to take pictures again and will try to take some next time.

Anyway, I was really impressed with the dim sum here.

We ordered the following dishes:

1) Vegetarian Wo tip (鍋貼): it was really delicious. Not too oily and the vegetables tasted so good!

2) Fried vegetarian noodles: the noodles were fried with some vegetables and tasted really good!

3) Glutinous rice with mushrooms (糯米雞): the steamed glutinous rice had a little bit of pepper and the filling was mushrooms! It was so much better than the ordinary glutinous rice with meat!

4) Crystal buns with custard (水晶包): it was my favorite dish of the day not only because it was a dessert, but also because the custard tasted sooo good! It wasn't too sweet and the bun wasn't overflowing with custard!

Price here is very good as well with dim sum ranging between $15 per dish to $30. The tea here is very expensive though at the price of $25 each.

I would definitely come here again! Service is also not too bad even though the waiters seemed to forget what we ordered. There's still room for improvement but given the price of the lunch, it's already not too bad!

I enjoy Chinese Tea as they seem healthy and full of antioxidant properties, therefore here and another shop in SOHO are on top of my list! Situated inside Hong Kong Park - its a bit awkward to access and surprisingly nearly always fully booked:

TEAS -
春碧螺茗 $20 -
This was good to great and as expected, had a dry grassy finish for a floral green tea!
正山普普洱 $20 -
Pu-erh Tea are usually rarely good unless they're top notch tea cakes and aged properly. I didn't expect miracles but in the end I was disappointed at how strong but unsophisticated this version is.

DIM SIMS -
蜜汁燒餅 - A
Mochi like skin with a mushroom and gravy based interior. Good!
香煎芙蓉角 -
Egg Crepes wrapped around what seemed like another eggy mixture. Very bland and under seasoned, yet oily.
龍華寺素卷 -
A dried bean curd sheet dish, the name sounds better than it is in real life. Half way between crispy and moist, it had the right texture and taste but ultimately too oily for a vegetarian, so called healthy dish. The pu-erh came into play here cutting down the grease!
百摺鍋貼 -
Thickish skins, with Chinese Celery and forgotten vegies fillings. Again, way too oily and the skin dough was a bit... I think just not thoroughly cooked enough?
千味素炒飯 -
Another super oily dish and very expensive for what was essentially 5 spoonfuls at $26.
*********************

OVERALL - SORELY DISAPPOINTED WITH ONE OF ITS TEAS, AS WELL AS THE OVERLY OILY AND NOT VERY THOUGHTFUL DISHES, PLUS EXPENSIVE PRICE.

Taiwan has way better Vegetarian Tea Houses and Food everywhere, so does Japanese. Even most Taiwanese 'moms' cook way better food than here as I have had some amazing Zen like meals in their houses.

HIGH '2' TO MID '3'.

came with a friend for afternoon tea,
not as crowded (ppl said lunch time is chaotic!!)

we got a table by the window
the shop is nicely decorated, very comfortable!!

the service is good, waitress explained to us about the teas~

12 choices of dim sum only, we tried 6, but all are quite good!
i like the soup most~ taste really great~ like mom's soup at home!! ^_^

the tea is great! we kept chatting and tried 3 teas. the waitress demonstrated to us how to make it, it's fun!!! haha

overall nice place to kill time and have a relaxing afternoon~!

Very nice place to spend a afternoon here. I ordered a $48 "floral long jing" tea along with plenty of dim sum.

The tea is just normal tea to me + some floral taste....may be my tast buds are not sensitive enough.

All dim sim are veggie dishes and they are very light.