With 14,000 restaurants at your service in Hong Kong, where do you even start? Read on for a guide to the city’s not-to-be missed eating experiences. Whether Chinese, Asian or from farther afield, each bite is truly Hong Kong.

If you want a ‘must-eat’ list for Hong Kong, look no further. From dim sum to milk tea, put at least some of the city’s renowned must-eats on your menu.

Dim Sum

Dim sum means ‘touch your heart’ and with as many as 150 items on a restaurant menu, and 2,000 in the entire range, it is a challenge to not find something you love. As Cantonese people tend to avoid fried foods early in the day, steamed dishes dominate most dim sum menus. There are also snack-sized portions of pan-fried, deep-fried, and baked foods served in bamboo containers, which are designed to be eaten communally and washed down with tea. Hence, going for dim sum is known as yum cha, which literally means ‘drinking tea.’ Usually a brunch or lunch affair, it is a common form of family, co-worker and other group get-together.

Hong Kong-style Milk Tea

Chinese tea culture features strongly in Hong Kong but the local milk tea is a more recent concoction, having only come on the scene in the 1950s. Various blends of Sri Lankan black tea are infused with evaporated or condensed milk. It is called Stocking Milk Tea because it is percolated in a stocking-like filter. The brew is smooth and creamy in texture.

The local passion for this beverage cannot be understated: it drives the consumption of hundreds of millions cups of milk tea every year, has inspired competitions to find the best vendors and turned the beverage into an icon of Hong Kong’s food scene.

Local Snacks

Snacking in Hong Kong is a diverse business, with everything from slush drinks and egg tarts to octopus balls available on the streets. In Hong Kong, snacks are usually sold in restaurants or from take-away windows on the street. Just look out for the long lines of customers and you’ll be onto a good thing.

Keep an eye out for the fleet of food trucks on rotation, cooking up everything from local street foods to international classics. You will find them at visitor hotspots including Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai, the Central Harbourfront Event Space, Ocean Park, Salisbury Garden, Art Square, the Energizing Kowloon East Venue 1,Wong Tai Sin Square, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

The best way to get into the true food culture of Hong Kong is to try the unique food experiences it offers. Let’s go and enjoy.