Hong Kong Food Part I : Lei Garden

Did a whole lot of research on Hong Kong before going on the short trip two weeks ago. Wanted to make the most out of it since it was our first family trip there. Plus, there are so many good places to eat and too little time to try all of them. Read about Lei Garden on the net and it seemed to be pretty popular among the locals for my fave - dim sum! And how lucky we were to have stayed in a hotel which was directly opposite! I swear I didn't know about this. My eyes seriously bulged when I saw the restaurant right across the street. So off we went for our first (and only) dimsum meal in Hong Kong.

Of course, the egg tarts were amazing. Freshly made each time you order, took around 15 minutes for our second, (yes second, one's definitely not enough) order to arrive.  

The first bite is so warm and heavenly you can't resist having another one. The best part, wait there is NO best part, everything from the crumbly pastry to the egg custard is just great. 

Next were the Siew Mai and chicken feet. Dad enjoyed the chicken feet, though he was a bit stunned by the pale appearance at first, not like the reddish 'Ge Ka' you can find usually.

The siew mai were good as well, very authentic. You could tell from the texture of the skin which wasn't sticky like the ones you get in some coffee shops here. The fresh prawns were a plus too. Our only gripe however, was there wasn't any sweet chili sauce available! So we were kinda bummed, having to eat dimsum on its own! We Malaysians sure do love our chili sauce.

The customary Char Siew Bao. Or BBQ pork buns. Come to think of it, I suppose all the aforementioned dimsum are indeed customary! Ordered this twice, as the little sister loved it.

Wow, can you see how steaming hot it is? That's the steamed rice rolls with pork. Again, the above dish appeared bland without any seasoning, but it tasted not too bad. Something like our chee cheong fun. Without the sauce.

The same dish, but with prawn instead or pork. Forgot to mention they do provide the soy sauce in a little condiment bowl, so you can still dip away if you find it too bland for your liking. They use very big prawns, I must say.

Finally, we asked the waiter whether they had Lor Mai Kai, but they offered us this instead. This is their version of the Bak Chang (glutinous rice dumpling). Don't let the picture above fool you, the chang was HUGE! We were struggling to finish it, but we still did in the end. Heh.

Tsim Sha Tsui Lei Garden Restaurant (website)

Address : B-2, Houston Centre, Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel.NO. : (852) 2722 1636

Opening Hours:

Monday to Saturday & Public Holidays
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Dinner: 6:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.

Sunday
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Dinner: 6:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.

So that's it for Part I. Part II will be up soon!