Tim Ho Wan

never thought to eat chicken feet (ever) so thought a Michelin star would make it easier to swallow. OMFGood (braised in abalone sauce). dimsum all look pretty basic vs gastro but decidedly another level of yum. go order anything. now in 6 Asian countries + Australia. New York by Sept.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I came here. I’ve heard tales of this place being the cheapest, most affordable Michelin rated restaurant in Hong Kong with good food. I assumed that having the rating meant the food had to be amazing. I was honestly disappointed with my experience. This place is overhyped.
Coming here, there was an incredible line of people (mostly tourists) surrounding the door. You start by telling the employee at the front of the restaurant how many people you’re dining with and then you take a menu card and start selecting what you want before you enter. We waited about 45 minutes to an hour, which gave us plenty of time to choose what we wanted to eat, before we were called in.
This was my first time here, so I ordered a decent amount. I definitely recommend you order their famous BBQ Pork Buns and the BBQ Pork Vermicelli Rolls. They do these two dishes right. The buns have a crust, which isn’t common, but it works, and it works really well.
Now to the stuff I don’t recommend: I do not recommend their congees. I ordered the Congee with Pork and Preserved Duck Egg and it was incredibly bland. The Steamed Rice with Beef and Egg was very bad as well. The beef had a really odd flavor and texture. I couldn’t even finish half the bowl. I definitely would not get it again. I had also ordered the Pan-​Fried Turnip Cake. You would think that something pan fried would have a good crust, but not this place. It was incredibly fragile to the touch. I couldn’t even lift it off the plate without it breaking up on me.
I ended up getting the Tonic Medlar and Petal Cake to end the meal. It was a chilled, herby dessert. It was subtly sweet, which was really good.
So all in all, I’m not sure I really recommend this place. You would assume that a restaurant with less menu items would excel at the ones that they do have on the menu, but not in this instance. They only do some dishes well and I have highlighted them. It just goes to show that having a Michelin rating doesn’t mean much.

Outstandingly delicious. I heard from
the hotel I was staying at that lines could be a little nuts. But I went during a Sunday late morning/​early noon around opening and the line was manageable. The seating is… Intimate, but I suppose it’s part of the charm. And it’s Hong Kong– no space? no problem! Just sit on someone’s lap. Depending on who you sit next to (or on) it can even broaden the experience. I don’t know what was in the dough balls «with meat» but it was very very good. Had a slight sweetness to go along with it. Not expensive definitely worth the trip. Go here. Now.

Really good dim sum. Har gow was clean yet so flavorful and perfect texture. Chiu chow may have been my favorite. So good! I also had the beef and bbq pork vermicelli rolls. They were okay, to be honest I feel like I’ve had better in San Francisco.
I really liked the interior of this location even though it seemed a little chain-​like. It was bright, open and airy. I preferred it to the location at Sham Shui Po. Service at this location also seemed a little better.

Tim Ho Wan
Your food should be spot on
With your Michelin Star
We came from afar
Only to leave wanting more
You left my tastebuds bored
Your service was bad
And I was so glad
To leave your lukewarm food
It left me gassy and I poo’d
All day long
Glad I wasn’t wearing a thong
So don’t believe the hype
You’ll leave disappointed and gripe

Pretty ok quality food here but the employees are rude as hell. I definitely won’t come back no matter how good it tastes

My girlfriend and I met a friend here on a visit to HK. Food was great, the dim sum was the best I’ve had. The service was so so though. We got there around 9p, they take the last orders at 930p. It took a while for someone to pick up our order slip. By the time they came over it was almost 930p. They missed part of our order though, and by the time we realized it it was too late to ask again. (They didn’t charge us for those though, they just missed one order slip completely). They are cash only, and fairly inexpensive.
Location wise they are on the outside of one of the Olympian City mall buildings.

We went to the Fortress Hill branch. This is very delicious and I can see why it was given Michelin star. There isn’t alot of dim sum choices. However the one given isostly the classic people order in Hong Kong. The best for me is the Char Sui bun as this has a very nice crusty bread that taste like Pineapple Bun. The rest is still delicious but some is quite average. The bad thing for me is the table settings the waitress have to pull the table out for you to wedge in. Otherwise I will definitely go again.

More like a 3.5. Oh the famous Tim Ho Wan, I visited the location in Thailand and I thought it was just OK so I had to try a Hong Kong location to compare and it was pretty much the same. Tim Ho Wan is the cheapest Michelin starred restaurant and has become insanely popular over the past few years but truth be told, I felt like this was more new age dim sum or Americanized dim sum. It was good but I felt like it was missing the love. The hits were great but limited, the misses were disappointing and abundant.
The food:
Steamed Fresh Shrimp Dumplings (Ha Jiao) This was surprisingly the best dish. I usually skip this since it is done to death but the one here was made so incredibly well. The dough was nice and thin and the shrimp flavor was outstanding.
Baked Buns with BBQ Pork– This is their signature dish and it was good. The dough is super flaky and buttery and the filling has good flavor. My issue with this dish as a whole was the sweetness, the dough is sweet, the filling is sweet.
Tonic Medlar & Petal Cake– I actually really liked this, it was kinda like a desert jelly but with a nice floral aroma.
Glue Rice Dumpling– It’s called «Lau my gai» and the one here was decent. The sticky rice was soft and clumps together but has good flavor, this does come off a tad sweet.
Phoenix Talon with Abalone Sauce– It’s basically braised chicken feet and I thought the flavor was great but I wish the chicken feet was cooked more.
Steamed Beef Balls with Bean Curd Skin– The version here was OK, the beef had that typical nice, smooth texture but the flavor was lacking and I felt like it was missing that Worcestershire type sauce.
Pan Fried Dumpling with Beef– I did not like this, it was weird since the dough had a very chewy/​gummy texture and the flavor was not great.
Scallop Churn Fun– I was not a fan of this either, the flavor was really out there and overall not very flavorful.

My first Michelin star experience. So excited. I’ve been to HK multiple times but never been here. So it was one of the only places I wanted to go to while on my most recent trip. We got here about 10 minutes before it opened and there was already a line. But really only like five or so groups ahead of us. So we knew we would be with the first seating. They opened at 10 and let us in with the quickness. We were a party of three and there happened to be a single girl so they put us at the same table. Now this is typical in Asia so don’t be surprised if you have to share tables. It’s a little awkward but quickly forgotten since the food is so good. Anyways they first brought out tea and an empty bowl. Being noobs, we didn’t know that this was for washing our utensils and bowls. So the empty bowl just sat there for the longest time till we saw other tables around us doing it. The place is not very big and it’s packed so tightly together to maximize the number of people that can fit in there. It’s a paper ordering system — no room for carts. Things may take longer to get but it seems fresher as it seems like it’s all made to order. Especially their world famous BBQ pork buns. (back to them in a bit) And they must know they get a lot of tourists because they have a English menu in addition to a Chinese one. So that made it a lot easier to order. We got chicken feet, shrimp cheung fun, egg rolls, har gow, sui mai, chive dumplings, fish dumplings, and scallop cheung fun.
But if you only get one thing, the BBQ pork buns are it. These are hands down the best BBQ pork buns I’ve ever had. And it’s probably one of my favorite dim sum dishes so I get it everywhere. It’s small, with like a pineapple bun crust on top. Inside is gooey, BBQ pork. Small chunks of pork, not too much fat and the «sauce» was super flavorful. One plate is three buns so it worked out perfectly. They tried to give us our check halfway through our meal and we asked them to take it back and we ordered another plate of BBQ pork buns. It took awhile to come out — by then the restaurant was packed and food is made to order, remember? And we sat right by the kitchen — they looked like they were making them is the smallest toaster oven. Small batches = quality. But glad we had it as «dessert.» All in all, it was a $ 30 meal for the three of us. So cheap and so delicious. Cannot wait till the location in the US opens up or my next trip to HK.

Had to stop by Tim Ho Wan while in HK. Note: this location cannot be accessed from inside the mall (I spent a while inside Olympian City trying to find it only to realize it was outside). Oops.
I came on a weekday afternoon and while there was a small crowd outside the place, I was surprised that the line wasn’t larger. Since it was just myself, I headed inside to order takeout. I just got their famous BBQ buns (3 small ones for 20HKD), and although I was skeptical, they were quite good. My issue with BBQ buns is that usually they are huge so there is a lot of air inside the filling, but because these BBQ buns are small, the filling took up the entire inside of the bun. The crust on the outside of the bun is quite sweet, but tasty.
Definitely come for a try!

Very good dim sum. I found this place on Unilocal and as well this restaurant is recommended by my hotel as well. Choices are limited but I guess they purposely shortened their list on things they are good at. I have to say they are the cheapest Michellian award restaurant.
Their dim sum are very fresh. I am guessing they are famous for their BBQ bun. I mean I see almost every table except mine orders it. I got the sticky rice and the portion is huge. As well, i ordered the shiu mai and and bean curb egg thingy and as well, steam vegetable. very yummy. Service is OK.
Decore is clean and nice.

I went by myself during a solo trip to Hong Kong. Despite a crowd waiting around outside, I was taken in immediately. The hostess sat me with a family of 3 to fill out a table for 4. A little awkward, but I wasn’t about to complain.
However, it turned out that I ordered some of the same things as the family. So when plates arrived at the table, we all sort of looked at each other silently figuring out who would take it. Again, just a little awkward. But everything I ate was terrific and the service was extremely fast. Highly recommended.

Wonderful value for money. Cash only, so beware!
No line when we went there around 17:00 pm.
The menu sheets to check off orders are placed on the table. No alcohol (I think), Coke and other soft drinks only.
There is English explanation on the sheets, so one can guess what they might be to certain extent.
Turnip curd (pan-​fries) was great. In the other hand, their famous biscuit bread with sweet-​salty pork was not exactly my taste.
Two of us ordered 7 – 8 small dishes and tea. We paid something like $ 11.00 per person. Is it really a Michelin star restaurant? Great place.

Wanting to see if this place was the real deal or overrated, I placed Tim Ho Wan high on the priority list during my trip to HK. Fortunately, there was a location a fairly short walk from my hotel. It’s in a rather obscure exterior part of a rather large mall complex, but you can probably tell where it is by the line that is outside. When you combine the value and quality of the food, the dim sum experience is worth the added effort.
Almost everything in terms of food was a home run. I’m not the biggest fan of baked pork pineapple buns in the States (the sweet/​savory ratio just doesn’t work for me), but I am a fan of these. They’re not too much of either sweet or savory and the buns were warm and fresh.
The har gao were delicate and full of flavor. The skin was the right texture and not too starchy. The siu mai wasn’t too fatty and weren’t dry. Having the goji berry on top was thoughtful. The ha cheung (shrimp rice rolls) had a really nice rice skin and plump shrimp inside.
The spring rolls (laugh all you want) were actually interesting. The filling inside consisted of shrimp, carrots, and egg whites. I had never seen egg whites as filling for spring rolls and it actually worked pretty nicely.
The sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf was fantastic. The chicken and pork inside, laden with soy sauce, wasn’t too salty and provided savoriness. The rice itself was sticky and soft, but not clumpy at the same time. The turnip pudding cakes were probably the weakest of the dishes. It wasn’t dreadful but it is easily overshadowed by everything else with its pedestrian flavor.
My dessert consisted of egg custard buns, which were outstanding. I loved the eggy sweet flavor of these soft buns. My mom thought their Malay brown sugar cakes (malay gow) were the best she’s ever had.
The décor isn’t the greatest, but you’re not coming here for that. Space is rather tight, as I’m sure the restaurant tries to sardine can everyone to maximize efficiency. Overall, the dining area is clean. Likewise, don’t expect fantastic service and just bring cash.

Holy crap the rumors are true! This place really delivers the best dim sum! Even the best restaurants in the U.S. can’t compete. The ingredients taste so fresh and simple. But packed with flavor. No wonder there are huge lines to this place. We ordered one of almost everything. It was a little embarrassing especially since a lot of people go solo and a lady had to share a table with us. She ordered the rice and pork and one side. We on the other hand had stacks of food. She definitely was judging us. It’s ok it was so worth it. My favorites were the tofu wrap, har gow, rice with pork and chicken feet, chicken feet and the buns!!! Delicious! I must return.
The facility was sleek and clean. Like any other dim sum joint hectic and fast paced. One of the downside is if you are an odd person they will seat other people at your table. It was awkward. But I think they do this all over HK. The restroom is also in the mall which is outside of the restaurant.
All in all … I am craving for more now.

This place is a MUST when in Hong Kong. Cheap Michelin star Dim Sum place!
My friend and I got a little lost taking the bus from the main area of Hong Kong to get here. After 30 minutes of getting lost, we finally arrived. I must say it was worth it! I don’t mind getting lost again as long as I end up here! We were in dim sum heaven.

Okay, so the other day I was meeting up with someone in Tsim Sha Tsui. We wanted to have some good Hong Kong dim sum. Since she was the more familiar of the two of us she bust out some app local Hong Kong version of Unilocal (not Unilocal) looking for a dim sum spot in the area. We ended up at Canton Deli, which didn’t have dim sum at the time we were there and we ended up eating some horrible over priced food.
The next day I bust out my trusty Unilocal app and discover this place. Figured it’s a lot cheaper than the place I was at and I’ve been told that «you HAVE to have dim sum while in HK». So at 10AM I decide to skip breakfast in lieu of some solo dim sum. When I arrived it was a little past 11AM and there was already a line outside. I asked the person at the door how long would I have to wait. She said max 20 mins. I was seated in 10.
Now looking at the vast menu I decided on 8 things to try. In hindsight 8 seemed like a lot. but it wouldn’t be dim sum if you didn’t have a good spread of food, right? So after submitting my order a waitress comes up to me and says I can’t eat 8 dishes, it’s too much food. So she shows me the paper and crosses off 2 of my dishes (she doesn’t take away my dessert). I said okay and the food started coming.
First the baked BBQ pork buns. I ate all 3 of them. Damn they were the best thing on that menu. Next was the steamed vermicelli pork rolls. These weren’t as tasty as the previous but still good. Next was the beef balls wrapped in bean curd skin which were succulent. After that was something crispy… there wasn’t any meat in it but I liked it nonetheless.
Home stretch! Okay, the last two dishes were the steamed shrimp dumplings and the sticky rice roll with chiu, which I deduced as some kind of nut. They were both good and I would have been stunned to have eaten all of that if I didn’t have dessert… yes I ordered the Tonic Medlar and petal cake, which looked a little weird, like Jello with flower petals in it. It was actually very fragrant and sweet.
I finished every last appetizer and my bill was surprisingly cheap. $ 135 for all that food was definitely worth it. the only remorse came from me now having to wobble all the way back to my hostel with a belly full of food. You know what I don’t even feel remorse since this is my only meal for the entire day. Dim sum is done.

I’m not ashamed to say that within 12 hours of landing, the boy and I were chowing down at Tim How Wan (and yes, it was amazing). Anyways, rather than recount every minute detail, here are the main highlights:
THE GOOD.
+ BBQ PORK BUN (oh my god yes)
+ The dim sum in general is fantastic
+ One of the cheapest Michelin-​starred restaurants out there
THE BAD.
— Extremely close together tables (we ended up getting sandwiched in by two couples, not fun)
— It was a little hard getting the server’s attention (not that that’s unheard of in HK)
— Charged for the tea that they brought to us
— Long lines if you come during peak hours (normal, but just saying — we know someone who literally waited 5 hours)
If I lucked out with a 0-​minute wait time again, I’d definitely be back for those hauntingly delicious BBQ pork buns!

As Hong Kong’s most popular and famous Michelin-​starred restaurant, Tim Ho Wan had me anticipating for some of the best dim sum in the world. I had high expectations, but the food and overall dining experience left me slightly disappointed.
The turnip cakes were a bit bland and not pan-​fried long enough to yield nice and brown charred sides. The vermicelli roll stuffed with shrimp had some of the tiniest shrimps I’ve ever seen in this type of dish. The sui mai were very meaty and juicy, wrapped in a thin yet not too chewy skin. But the most stellar item from the menu was the BBQ pork buns — the outer shell was a crispy, crumbly goodness that held a good amount of sweet BBQ pork filling. If you go to Tim Ho Wan, these BBQ pork buns should be #1 on your checklist. I would return only for this dish! But overall food is a little overrated; it’s really good but not amazing.
With its popularity, expect a long queue time during rush hours. We were lucky enough to only wait a few minutes on a weekday around 11am. Plus, there’s five different locations in Hong Kong, but that fact doesn’t necessarily make the queue at one location shorter than that of another.

My mom’s friend took us here for brunch. It gets very crowded in the early morning.
We ordered a lot of food. Very interesting and neat dim sum here. You don’t see a lot of variety dim sum in Hawaii. Food taste pretty good. Food take long to come out. I really love the fried fish balls!
Pricing is not bad. It’s a nice restaurant. Not shady and sketchy looking. Service is kind of slow. It’s an experience when you go Hong Kong.

You’ve probably heard many people ranting and raving about how good Tim Ho Wan is and have it bookmarked for a while. Well, let me tell you that it is totally worth the hype. Yes, it is the world’s cheapest Michelin star restaurant. And yes, the queue can be ridiculously long. But once you sit down, the food comes out pretty quick and you’ll be getting your dim sum fix in no time!
I highly recommend coming here right before they open. Or at least no later than 11am. I lived right upstairs and would come down in the mornings just to get my yum cha cravings satisfied. No matter how many times I’ve dined here, I’ve always enjoyed it each and every time.
Though it’s a Michelin star joint, don’t expect Michelin rated service or ambiance (no-​frills décor and environment). This is HK and yes, you will get typical HK service as expected in other dim sum joints. But c’mon, you’re here to grub out on some delicious dim sum.
Come with a few people and order everything. Or if you’re like me and have a massive appetite, you can still order everything (just be prepared to be stared at by everyone) but prepare for the inevitable food coma!
The BBQ pork buns (菠蘿叉燒包) are a must have. Shoot, perhaps you can get two orders as it is that good.
Enjoy!

This place whips up some awesome dim sum. I am soo glad I got a chance to check it out on my trip to HK!
I’d read all about it before going including the crazy waits but luckily had no issues whatsoever. We showed up 10 minutes before opening along with only a handful of other parties waiting for doors to open. One of the staff ladies handed us slips to begin checking off what we wanted before we went in.
OMG those bbq pork buns? INSANE. The bun was so thin and buttery crisp. The filling was such a fragrant steam pocket of savory bbq pork. So. Good.
We ordered a bit of everything else — all the rice rolls (hahha), beef balls, bean curd rolls, shrimp dumplings, veggie dumplings, turnip cake, sticky rice, etc. Solid. More than solid. Some of the better dim sum that I’ve tried and with the most reasonable prices. My absolute favorites were the bbq pork buns of course but also the rice rolls and shrimp dumplings. They had the thinnest of skins but didn’t fall apart and was so fresh.
Any future trip to HK will include Tim Ho Wan. x5. And some bbq pork buns to go.