Hong Kong restaurant
Chinese restaurant · Islington ·
Authentic halal Cantonese dim sum & roast duck
Authentic halal Cantonese dim sum & roast duck
"Not only does this cosy spot on Upper Street serve halal roast duck, whole soy chicken, and fried shredded crispy beef, it doesn’t serve any pork. That’s right, no playing dish detective, or keeping a menu to hand in case you need to double check if there’s a surprise meat. At Hong Kong Restaurant you can order with confidence. It also helps that the dim sum is good, and the dan dan noodles come in an earthy peanut sauce that we’d happily lick from the bowl." - rianne shlebak
"Hong Kong Restaurant on Upper Street is the kind of quick, casual Cantonese restaurant best reserved for trackies that have never seen the inside of a gym and some quality time with your social media algorithm. Just you, yourself, and a plate of crispy, light mango golden floss prawns. It’s Exhibit A in our long-standing campaign that sweet and salty things belong together and we have it on good authority that its subtle crunch factor still hits a few hours later if you take your leftovers to go." - rianne shlebak, heidi lauth beasley, jake missing
"Few modern restaurants understand the profound power of combining excellent food with a healing soundtrack of pan flutes. Hong Kong Restaurant is one of them. A haven of dim sum and juicy whole roast duck on Upper Street, this place is the closest you’ll ever get to being able to eat hypnotically chewy beef ho fun and glistening siu mai at a spa. The walls are a crisp white, the service is dutifully relaxed, and in a win for night owls everywhere, almost all of the expert dim sum is served until 9pm. Don’t be deceived by the laid-back approach though, this place is home to some of the best cheung fun in London. But if you want to get involved in gloriously slippery king prawn rice noodle rolls, you’ll need to head here before 5pm when the designated cheung fun specialist clocks off." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, rianne shlebak
"We are in full support of any dim sum that laughs in the face of physics. How does Hong Kong Restaurant load these epic, meaty king prawns into such a narrow tube of chewy dough without gravity causing it to fall apart? We’ll never know. We will however be adding the resident cheung fun specialist of this remarkably zen Cantonese restaurant to our Christmas card list, because this glistening and surprisingly filling dish is one of the best ways to spend a fiver in London. It’s salty, a touch sweet, loaded with enough prawn perfection to cover every last soy-soaked bite, and it’s potentially the most hypnotically chewy thing we’ve eaten since quitting the Fruit Winders game in Year Six. Critical intel: the resident cheung fun master clocks off at 5pm, so make your way to Upper Street before dark." - daisy meager, jake missing, rianne shlebak, heidi lauth beasley
"When Hong Kong Restaurant first opened, it became one of our favourite places for R&R—that’s relaxation and reliability. There are still glistening ducks in residence in its windows overlooking Upper Street, but this Chinese spot has become a little more unpredictable and has traded its flute soundtrack for the kind of sad pop that is salve to the end of situationships. This might be because the once hypnotically chewy cheung fun is now prone to breakdowns at the nudge of a chopstick and therefore requires some Bieber-sponsored motivation. It’s still the kind of casual place you can go to in your trackies—you know, the fluffy ones that have never seen the inside of a gym—for a speedy round of dim sum after dark, but it’s best reserved for quality time with your social media algorithm rather than a catch-up. Food Rundown King Prawn Cheung Fun These prawns are the kind of epic meaty numbers that will make you want to join a fictitious club called Crustacean Nation, but the slippery cheung fun noodle skin is too thin and prone to splitting. Prawn in lap situation pending. photo credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Crab Xiao Long Bao Unlike your school counsellor and whoever wrote that nice poem about being yourself on Instagram, we can't get on board with individualism. Not when it comes to molten dumplings anyway. One of this trio had a great little doughy bite, but the other two were resolutely glued to the bottom of the bamboo steamer and we lost out on the subtly salty broth. One to skip. photo credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Mango Golden Floss Prawn Crisp and light, salty but sweet from the mango, and a crunch fest worthy of some liberal soy sauce dipping. The portion suits sharing but we have it on good authority that these still hit the spot a few hours later if you take your leftovers to go." - Heidi Lauth Beasley
