lin heung lau 蓮香樓

This is one of the few Cantonese restaurants left in Hong Kong that preserves the traditional appearance, operation, and most importantly the taste of the food especially when it comes to dim sum. If you want to experience the dim sum 點心 experience of what once upon a time ubiquitous Cantonese tea restaurant 茶樓 during the colonial era Lin Heung Lau 蓮香樓 and the nearby Luk Yu Tea Room 陸羽茶室 are about it. The very well appointed Luk Yu Tea Room 陸羽茶室 however has always been a very exclusive establishment catered to the well heeled businessmen in the Central District. Lin Heung Lau 蓮香樓 on the other hand are for the everyday people.
In Cantonese restaurants that serves dim sum 點心 is called 茶樓 (pronounced as cha lau) - which poorly translates as tea house. 茶 is tea and 樓 is a multistory building as opposed to house. It is called cha lau 茶樓 because most of these restaurants occupy a good part or whole of a multistory building. Most are 2 stories but some can be 3 to 5 stories.

These restaurants typically serve dim sum in the morning starting from 6am to 11am; lunch from 11am to 2pm, and dinner from 5pm to mid night. Most also provides banquets on special appointments. As all serves alcoholic beverages 酒樓 (wine or liquor in Chinese is the same word 酒) and 茶樓 are used interchangeably.

You might notice that Luk Yu Tea Room 陸羽茶室 uses "tea room" 茶室 instead of 樓 implying 茶樓 even though it operates with 3 stories of dinning space. The naming is deliberate to convey the intimate service of the establishment and exclusivity of the clienteles. If you want to experience where the old money dined in Hong Kong there is no better place. A better experience is to pull up in your luxury sedan to have it valet-parked by the doorman.

If I'd not mistaken,  the owner of Lin Heung Lau 蓮香樓 operates 3 tea houses with one in Quanzhou, and two in Hong Kong. The one in Quanzhou is also called Lin Hueng Lau 蓮香樓 while the second one in Hong Kong is called Lin Heung Kui 蓮香居 (less than a mile from Lin Heung Lau 蓮香樓). 蓮香 translates as scent of lotus. Lotus in many Asian culture denotes transcendental purity, integrity, and tranquility.

they were renovating the exterior of this century old restaurant in the Central District

the main lobby

moon cakes sold in the lobby - love the classic packaging and graphic design

pork spareribs with fermented soy beans - the tea is Pu-erh (or po nay in Cantonese) 普洱茶; it is very dark because it is the first brew but it is very easy on the stomach despite of the dark color

steamed beef meat balls

one of many dim sum ladies; the deep fried items are on the middle shelf

having dim sum here is like time travel to the bygone era - everything is genuine; the only thing missing is the real song birds brought in by the customers; the fake bird would do

one of many waiters - he is my favorite; all business

don't let the picture fool you - it is barely 7 am in a weekday; by 9am the place would be packed

folks lining up for rice porridge - they only make one batch a day

i regretted ordering this one as the portion is so big it put a big dent on my gastronomic budget - i took it like a man thought; it is 鮮竹卷

this one (雞扎) has chicken, pork, fish maw, and shitake mushroom; it however is missing the traditional soy milk skin that wraps all the ingredients in a bundle

this is how you signal the waiter to refill the tea with hot water

the old school single serving tea bowl (left) - the same classic graphics

this dish is very rare - is is the head of a big head carp in fermented soy beans

you eat it by sucking the flesh off the bones (what is left on the lower right) - very delicious

雞扎 work in progress...

this guy is the head waiter 部長 - he is surprising friendly towards an expat

note the old school kettle

seeing i am taking pictures he humored me by pouring the boiled water into the tea bowl spinning like a top (note the wobble in the sequence of shots)

 

siu mai 燒賣

closeup of the inside of siu mai 燒賣 - the tastes of dim sum here is not over-the-top tasty as found with so much dim sum now laden with MSG; one dim sum lady told me they use mostly fresh ingredients

 har gow 蝦餃

old school doggy bag - yes i managed to pillage a few as memento; this nice lady and his son shared the table with me

signs listing the in season or promoted specialties (lunch and dinner only)

more signs by a bunch of regular customers

note the dish lady is eating her breakfast from a bowl - this is the only restaurant I ever seen the staffs are allow to eat the food they sell

 i was not the only one taking pictures

 the cashier at the far end

 you can almost judge the restaurant by the condiments they serve to the customers

a rare glimpse of the dim sum kitchen - yes, the chef wears a boxer shorts as it is so hot inside

pork stomach siu mai 豬肚燒賣; this is one sort after dish - i think it is prices as special (特)

a piece of minced pork underneath the port stomach

to Cantonese dim sum is mostly about savory steamed dishes. being a meal for breakfast as early as 6 am, very rarely you see the customer order deep fried dishes. while they serve them I did not see anyone order them during the entire week I went there daily.

 note the classic furniture especially the tables

 the dim sum lady hawking typically 4 - 6 varieties on a trolley

 this waiter fraternizing with a couple of regulars - most of the older customers may only eat 1 or at most 2 dishes; they can be drinking tea and read news paper for hours; that is the norm in the old days

he (the waiter) sports a Rolex on his wrist

when the place gets busy customers get up of their seats to snap up the dim sum from the lady tables away; if you wait for her to get around to you table the favorites are long gone

i learnt too to put my check (the check tellies what you ate) under the glass - you share the table with many folks when the place is full and there is no room on the table for the check

 i polished off 8 dishes of dim sum - an all time record; needless to say I didn't need lunch that day

 by the time i was leaving people are standing waiting for seats to be vacated; good luck if you arrive in late morning in the weekends

the barbecue kitchen downstairs

condiments prepared for serving with the barbecue dishes

all sort of classic pastries sold in the lobby

moon cake 月餅 amongst them

the one in bright color are bought for weddings as gifts

the only modern compromise is they accept Octopus card for payment

they still use hand written bill of sales