For the life of me, I would not have been able to find this restaurant on my own. A hole-in-the-wall eatery with no English on it's signage whatsoever. It's owned by Chef Mak Pui Gor, who was formely the chef of the Four Seasons Hotel's Michelin-starred restaurant Lung King Heen.
If I took 5 long strides down Kwong Wa St. I could have easily missed Tim Ho Wan because that's about how narrow the store front is. Only it would be pretty hard to casually walk past Tim Ho Wan especially with the crowd of hungry locals and tourists taking up the whole of the sidewalk in front of the resto. If you can't read their signage, then this would definitely clue you in. Thank God we had our friends with us to lead the way. Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Diplomat for this amazing experience!
Mr. Diplomat met us at our hotel. What he initially described as a 5-minute walk from our hotel to Tim Ho Wan, turned into 10-minute walk because me and Yuri were slowing our friend down. Apparently it was a "5-minute Hongkongese walk", and they can walk with the best of them in New York. People over there, as I've observed, walk EVERYWHERE. They can walk really fast too. We Manila city-folk are not a walking people. Or it could be just me. My excuse is that the pollution would probably do me in, what with my annoying allergies and asthma. My walking is confined within the filtered and AC comforts of the malls and the semi-fresh air of the Academic Oval in UP.
Back to the program. When we got there Mrs. Diplomat was already in line outside the store. They'd given us a copy of their menu, which had English translations, to hasten the ordering process. It was a little after 7pm and we had to wait for 30 minutes which is a relatively short waiting period. The air was rife with anticipation and impatience. Yuri and I didn't know what to expect, but we kind of knew it would be awesome just by looking at the amount of people in line and the faces of the exiting customers.
It was a tight squeeze inside. I was already on elbow-to-elbow terms with diners seated at the table beside us. There was definitely a method to the madness. The servers just whizzed by with a don't-mess-with-me-glare from table to table in an extremely efficient manner.
Please do not judge me by my poorly taken pictures. This was pre-LX5 and my old camera was not the best with low-light settings.
Feast your eyes on these!
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| Hakaw (Steamed Shrimp Dumplings) & Steamed Egg Cake |
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| Steamed Beef and Mixed Vegetable Dumpling |
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| Cha Siu Bauu (Barbecue Pork Buns) |
Between us four we probably ordered 2 sets of 9 different dishes. The hakaw and cha siu bauu was to dieeeeee forrrrrrr. In between bites I could not stop raving, giggling, and drooling. The steamed shrimp dumplings were delicately encased in translucent melt-in-your-mouth pastry. When you bite into them they just burst in your mouth the most beautiful way possible. That was arguably the best hakaw I've ever eaten. The cha siu bauu was such a treat too. This dish is usually steamed but at Tim Ho Wan they serve it fried. It's light and fluffy with a delicate caramel crisp on top. Other dishes that really stood out for me were the Steamed Egg Cake and the Pan-Fried Turnip Cake. The couple from Amsterdam seated beside us were trying to strike up a conversation but I was too distracted by the food to contribute anything useful to mix.
My senses were on overdrive. The artistry with the pastries and flavors was intense. And to think that each dish costs only 10 to 20 HKD. You can't get that at any other Michelin-starred restaurant for sure. We owe it all to our gracious hosts.
Tim Ho Wan I shall return.
Address: Tsui Yuen Mansion, 2-20 Kwong Wa St., Mong Kok, Kowloon
Hours: 10am -10pm (but I heard that they stop giving out tickets at 8:30pm)
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You shall return. And I'm coming with you! :)
ReplyDeleteSure! Your treat? Weeee! :)
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