Located on the highest peak in Hong Kong, the Duen Kee Chinese Restaurant provides an authentic Hong Kong tea house experience, though its self-service style may be different from other tea houses you would find in Hong Kong. The restaurant serves a variety of Chinese 点心 (dim sum), from 燒賣 (siu mai) to 蝦餃 (har gow).
Most of the time, the restaurant runs out of food quickly at around 1pm as it will get busy (this says a lot about the number of customers that come to eat!), so planning ahead and making sure that you’re there earlier might guarantee that you will be able to get a variety of food.
Getting your own table, serving yourself – it’s all part of the experience. The restaurant has plenty of spaces, with a couple tables outside and the restaurant having a second floor.
Looking around, most customers are families from the nearby village. They bring their pets – dogs, birds – to the restaurant. The air is filled with chatter, villagers excited to catch up with each other and let their dogs play with each other.
How do you get there?
Since the restaurant is quite a ways up the hill, I would recommend going by taxi (or if you have a car, drive up to Chuen Long and there’s a path that leads you to the restaurant – there’s an empty space right in front of the restaurant that most people just use as a “parking lot” – people usually park randomly in that open space). The taxi ride up (from the MTR station) shouldn’t cost more than 50-60HKD, and the ride should be around 11 minutes long.
Another choice would be to take the 80 minibus from the Chung On Street bus station, which is really close to the MTR station, and travel 10 stops. The stop you should get off the bus at is at Chuen Lung Tsuen, Route Twisk. The fare will be either 6.4 or 4.6HKD.
Here are some of the highlights (of the food):
1. Cheung Fun (腸粉, also called rice noodle rolls)
The rice noodle rolls are made out of a wide strip of rice noodles, wrapped around different ingredients – beef, pork, vegetables, etc. Seasoned soya sauce is poured on the dish.
The rice noodle roll here is fantastic, with a thin layer of rice noodle and the juicy meat inside. The soya sauce that the rolls are paired with gives taste to the rice noodles and enhances the overall taste of the rolls.
2. Silver needle noodles (银针粉)
The silver needle noodles are short noodles, shaped quite like a needle (hence the name, silver needle noodles). This dish is stir-fried, paired with other ingredients such as ham, carrots, peas, eggs, and corn. It is well-seasoned and delicious.
3. Siu Mai (烧卖)
This popular dim sum is made mostly from pork, black mushroom, shrimp, and dough. At the Duen Kee Chinese Restaurant, Siu Mai is steamed in a basket steamer. This ensures that the dim sum is cooked evenly throughout and gives it the best taste it can. Soya sauce is usually added with it, but the flavors are great whether you decide to add it or not.
4. Har Gow (蝦餃)
This is another popular dim sum, and is composed of an outer, transparent layer and shrimp wrapped inside the dumpling. The dumpling is cooked in a basket steamer as well, and the flavorful shrimp balances out the plainer-tasting wrap. Har Gow is often served with Siu Mai, and together they are referred to as hagaau–siumaai (蝦餃燒賣).
5. Watercress (西洋菜)
This dish shines above the rest. The vegetables are grown in a small plot of land very close to the restaurant. The watercress is handpicked every day and the restaurant makes this dish out of them.
Consisting just of watercress, you will be able to taste the freshness of the vegetables and the flavor from the oyster-sauce seasoning.
Is it worth it?
Though these five dishes totaled up a cost of around 145HKD (which is pricey, though not exactly the most expensive if you consider the prices of eating at other tea houses in HK), I would definitely say that this restaurant is worth going to. Because they need to keep up with the number of customers that come in and go, there is always fresh food. The food tastes great and it provides for a new experience.
Location: 57-58 Chuen Lung Estate, Route Twisk, Tsuen Wan
Opening Hours: 6am-2pm
Phone Number: +852 2490 5246
Vlog: https://poyineats.food.blog/2019/03/02/duen-kee-chinese-restaurant-vlog/
Po Yin Eats 