Luk Yu Tea House, Central, Hong Kong

After our invigorating hike to Victoria Peak, I was definitely looking forward to dim sum.

We were to Luk Yu Teahouse, one place famed for dim sum...

I had read about Luk Yu even before SF mentioning it and what I read was that

1. Luk Yu is famous for it's dim sum,

2. It's a very popular haunt for local actors/ actress for breakfast

3. A businessman was gunned down in the tea house a few years back.

Luk Yu has been opened since 1933 and I guess most of the decor has been retained since then.. The facade oozes old charm, stepping in seems to warp us back to 1940s, with the dark wood furnitures, the carved windows, stained glass which has seen better times, the old stern looking waiters and even an area for mahjong (it's that divider you see in this picture).

Ordering was really prompt as SF was rushing for another appointment..

We had the siew mai..

This was, by far, the tastiest siew mai I've ever tried. Looks so plump and juicy eh? The pork was extremely fresh (it had the very "seen" taste as cantonese would have described it), the meat was so sweet and yes, it was very juicy. Delicious.

The har gau looks rather sad

Taste wise, it's yummy- huge prawns, well marinated and springy in texture. But if I had to choose between these 2 ubiquitous dish, the siew mai wins, hands down.

The huge beef balls definitely caught my eyes...

This was absolutely scrumptious. The beef, steamed to perfection, had a pinkish centre; oozing with beef juices. The beancurd sheet at the bottom of the plate soaked in all the flavours and was delicious too.

Those who read my blog often would know that I love steam spareribs.. Tummythoz, fellow steam spareribs lover, you would love this to bits! This was so, so lip smacking. The best so far. Gosh, as I'm writing this, I'm missing it already :(. Rather than the conventional bean paste sauce base, Luk Yu's version was with chinese wine and other sauces. The result? Tender spareribs, well marinated and succulent to the bones.

A plate of veggies... Choy sum is a common veg to eat with dim sum in HK. Very sweet and the stalks were not fibrous at all, unlike Malaysia's.

The only mediocre dim sum we had that day..

The char siew bao..

The dough was a tad compact and dry; the stuffing was rather sweet for my liking.

We also had some steamed prawn fish paste mix on mushrooms.. Extremely fragrant and super yummy! Fantabulous. Heck, think this was even better than the siew mai. The seafood ball was so tasty and springy; the texture was just right. The sparse looking sauce, though seemingly non existance, was absolutely heavenly, especially eaten with the sliced mushroom.

When we heard there's boon tong gao, I ordered it immediately..

I missed having the delicious huge dumpling in superior soup and I was looking forward to it..

Imagine my surprise when I saw this..

We didnt order this, I said

But this is boon tong gao..

Wow, steamed version of boon tong gao. Definitely a first for me. So we get this huge ass steamed dumplings, filled with soup. Same concept as xiu long bao, but 3 times the size and the skin is made of dumpling skin. The filling was totally different though. Rather than mince pork, the pork filling was mixed with seafood, and a very obvious ingredient in the filling was crab roe. The combination was potent, it was a tad softer that pure pork filling, hence, it sort of melt in mouth with every bite. And how deliciously sweet the soup filling was! The soup flavour was very different from xiu long bao, this was very rich and thick broth.

While SF left mid lunch, Amy and I continued enjoying the dim sums...

Total bill was HKD395, which was approximately RM180. Yes, having dim sum in Luk Yu does not come cheap :p

Luk Yu Teahouse is located at 24-26 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong. Dim sum starts at 730 am until 530 pm. They also do dinners, serving cantonese dishes.