Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

This is one of my top 10 favorite restaurants in Durham, NC. To me, it's most important that a restaurant have (a) unique character or charm and (b) lovingly prepared, amazing food. Hong Kong Chinese has both. I agree that the service is adequate at best, but one simply shouldn't hold authentic Chinese wait staff up to the usual U.S. standards. Instead, just take it as it is. This restaurant is a gem, and if anyone doesn't agree, that's fine -- it just means more delicious food for ME! :) I eat at Hong Kong as often as I can! more

Went for Dim Sum on a Sunday morning. By 11:30, the waiting line was out the door. The crowd moves fast, though, and once seated, we were treated to some tasty dim sum treats. Excellent shu mai dumplings, rice noodle rolls, shrimp and crab balls. We went with a big group, which is the best way to do things--you get to try a little of everything. Be careful parking--while we were leaving, the Durham police were ticketing every car on the street. Pros: Good Dim Sum, lots of choices, prices reasonable Cons: Small place, crowded on weekends more

This is the WORST restaurant I have ever been to in my life. First of all, the restaurant is so small but on top of that the service is even worst. They would round their eyes at you and would make you wait a long time before you get what you ask for. So after horrible service and a long wait, the food would come out. Every food item I order were either hard or disgusting and plus there were a piece of hair on top of this dumpling type food. The only thing that was good was the tea and thats about it. Pros: They have tea. Cons: Horrible service, hair in the food, and leftover more

I moved here about three months ago from Cleveland which, despite its ""mistake on the lake"" namesake, has some very fine Chinese food - and dim sum on the weekends. Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant is excellent. Their selection of dim sum choices include typical shu mai, har gau, and pork bun dumplings, but also include more unusual (and delicious) braised pork slices, honeycomb tripe with black bean sauce, and stewed beef tendon. Contrary to a previous review, all of the food is served piping hot in generous quantities by extremely pleasant servers. The restaurant is not large, but conceals large numbers of tables throughout the nooks and crannies of the dining rooms. They also understand and speak English with ease, something the folks back in Cleveland never did.\r \r They are very busy Sunday morning, so come immediately when they open at 10:30AM or after 12:00PM. Although the steam cart is present, it is emptied so quickly that most of the servers bring just-cooked dishes directly to the table. If you flag and employee down and tell them what you want, especially if it's not something white people normally eat, they will smile and bring it to you at once. They also serve dim sum during the week from 11:30AM-3:00PM. Visit soon! Pros: great dim sum, helpful and friendly staff, fast service Cons: poor parking, extremely busy Sunday morning, somewhat disorganized more

It has an amazing buffet which hosts distinct tasty food. I recommend it for the chinise food enthusiest. more

Love this restaurant's dim sum. The whole process is an adventure in eating - you have to work with the group to decide what items you want. (Differences can - um - anger the minority who want the shrimp ball, etcetera.) The taro is great, the shrimp ball, the sausage something-or-other - very tasty. You never know what your lunch will be. Go early - it gets crowded, and the parking is awful. Pros: Awesome food, unique experience Cons: Terrible parking, semi-grouchy servers more

My family comes from New York City, so we KNOW authentic food. After moving to Chapel Hill, we were dissappointed at the lack of Chinese food! We've tried out every single Chinese restaurant in the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, and this is the single place we come to again and again.\r While at other restaurants you can chow on ""americanized"" Chinese (sesame chicken, fried rice, spring rolls), you can have some REAL Chinese at this place! We're talking chicken feet, taro, hombow...\r The food is delicious!\r The wait staff is so friendly, too! They've come to know us personally when we come in the door :)\r An IMPORTANT tip: Don't arrive there after 10:45 or so for bruch/lunch, because it starts to get extremely busy. The restaurant is humbly small (although very pretty), and there get to be 30 or so groups there waiting. We always get there around 10 or 10:20, and this seems to be the ideal time. By the time we're leaving, there's a huge crowd around the door!\r Enjoy THE fabulous Chinese restaurant in the area!! Pros: Incredible food, quick seating if you arrive early, wonderful and friendly service Cons: Gets really busy at times, small-ish more

After reading so many decent reviews we showed up hoping to enjoy some authentic dim sum. We were duped. We have had dim sum in some of the premier locations around the world (New York, Boston, Hong Kong, Beijing, San Francisco, etc.). We are not as concerned about the service, it was fine, and the environment was ok...but the key to a good restaurant is the food...and they did not score high. The pork shiu mai meat tasted like it was a couple days past its shelf life, worst we've ever had, and the shrimp ball should have been called the corn starch special. There are others raving about how good this place is...you wonder where they're coming from and what they usually eat. It's too bad there are so few dim sum restaurants in the Triangle to compare. Pros: Quick service, clean, friendly staff Cons: food quality, tasteless food more

Hong Kong is the best Chinese Restaurant in NC, I live here but I spend a lot of time in California too, and one thing I really miss while I'm here is the authentic chinese like in LA's Chinatown (favorites: Full House, ABC). While Hong Kong is not necessarily better than any of LA's it's such a relief knowing I can always go to a place like this. Their food is authentic, warm and comfort food to me. Their pan fried noodles, squid and other dishes are magnificent, and I could go on all day thinking of good things about them. My family and I are regulars there and have sort of gotten to know the whole staff and I love being able to sit among fellow asians because that's where many go because like I said it is authentic! I know that people complain about their so called bad service but it's just something I don't even notice because they are welcoming, and they are busy, so if you want to be greeted quietly and bowed to, like you are some royal american go somewhere to pay greatly for less than awesome food. I hold Hong Kong close to my heart and forever will! Pros: Authentic Food, Staff, Customers Cons: Small parking lot more

This is just the best dim sum in the state. It's an authentic Chinese dim sum restaurant, which means that, like in China, or any other real dim sum place, there's lot's of people waiting, and you're not going to get your hand patted. But if you can deal with being treated like just another person at lunch rather than a self-important American, go here. If you can't, go somewhere really expensive and mediocre instead. Pros: It's real. It's fantastic. It's totally affordable. Cons: Don't go if you're in a hurry. more

As a person who grew up in Hong Kong, I have been to Hong Kong Restaurant every opportunity I get as an undergraduate here at Duk. The dim sum is probably the best in the Triangle and I highly recommend it. Their dinner options are also very good, although be sure to try out the ""authentic"" menu versus the pseudo chinese food i.e. general tsou's chicken, chow mein, broccoli beef options created just for americans. For dim sum, be adventurous and try the Chicken's Feet which is braised in a slightly spicy red bean sauce. My favourite! other options include shrimp dumpling (that's a must!) and carrot cake. Pros: great food quality Cons: long wait at times, hard to find parking more

Food was pretty good for Triangle Chinese. Service was incredibly bad; some of the worst in recent memory. We went for the Dim Sum on Sunday at lunch. After a moderate wait we sat down. Then the waiting really began. Just very slow to bring things out. If customers didn't eat the dim sum they brought out, instead of bringing new selections out, they just rolled the carts to corner and waiting until people were hungry enough to eat items they didn't initally want. To add insult to injury, the waitresses were noticeably exasperated and let you know it if you asked them questions about the food items. After that they would roll right past if you didn't raise your hand and get their attention. The food was pretty good but the service was so bad that my family and in-laws have no intention to return. Pros: Decent food, Non-corporate Cons: Rude service, Slow service, No service more

In my opinion, this is the best place to get dim sum here in the triangle. I grew up eating home made chinese food and dim sum in NYC's Chinatown and this place is about as close as you can get to the real thing. my favorite are the BBQ pork, taro cake, shrimp crepe, ""har gow"" (shrimp dumpling), siu mai (pork dumpling), sticky rice... the list goes on. Get jasmine green tea to go with your dim sum! Pros: great food Cons: parking more