I was really happy to spend a few days back in Hong Kong, where I lived for a couple of years in my twenties. I remembered it being a very vegan friendly place, because I used to attend Meat Free Monday get togethers with a huge vegan group, where the organisers would order loads of dishes to share at a different vegan friendly restaurant every week. We ended up revisiting a few of the restaurants I attended with the group back in the day. But sadly, I found that while there were lots of vegetarian options, a lot of restaurants were not super vegan friendly and not nearly as good at labelling the vegan options as they were in Taiwan.

Three Virtues

This is a big traditional restaurant with lots of dishes that can easily be shared. We got three main dishes to share between two of us and that was plenty of food.

The deep fried vegetarian squid and cuttlefish shreds with spicy salt was probably the best of the dishes. The fishy bits had a good bouncy calamari texture, great crispy coating, and were well seasoned. The two types of fish on this plate were quite similar but you could definitely tell they were different.

Sticking with the fishy theme, we also tried the fried vegetarian fish made with bean curd sheet and laver. I remembered Hong Kong being good for mock fish dishes like this. There was a flakiness on the fish and the skin had a good crispy texture. There wasn’t much fishy flavour though. The sweet and sour sauce was fine, it’s never going to be my favourite sauce but I enjoyed it. There were lots of pine nuts in the dish too for a bit more texture.

Finally, we had the deep fried vegetarian chicken roll in Fukien style. The chicken looked very promising and had a lot of exciting textures going on. Crispy pastry, crunch from water chestnuts, good chewy mushrooms, and a great mock meat texture on the chicken. Sadly, it didn’t really taste of much. Dr HH ended up slathering them in sweet and sour sauce from the fish as the dipping sauce that came with it was a bit insipid too.

Dishes using egg are clearly labelled on the menu and some dishes that use honey clearly state it in the name of the dish, so this was quite easy to navigate for vegans. We almost walked right past the entrance on the street – the restaurant is on the first floor, so it’s easy to miss!

Chi Lin Vegetarian

I always used to enjoy combining a walk around Nan Lian garden and Chi Lin nunnery with a meal in this restaurant. We made a reservation – the restaurant wasn’t super busy at 6pm, but did fill up quite a bit after that, and I believe reservations are always recommended. We met up with some old friends, so we were a group of four and ordered four main dishes and one side to share, plus dessert.

We ordered the braised porcini with “water ghost” bean curd casserole from the chef’s recommendations section of the menu. I really loved all the mushrooms and tofu in this, and it tasted delicious.

The Singapore noodles were not very spicy at all, to my surprise. They were standard Singapore noodles, not mind-blowing but perfectly pleasant.

The braised bean curd patty filled with enoki mushrooms was tasty. There were four little parcels in the serving. They were generously filled, but a little tricky to bite through. There was some broccoli on the side of this dish too.

Our favourite dish was the braised eggplant and wheat gluten with sweet and sour “Yan nim” sauce. The eggplant was cooked perfectly so it was nice and tender. Usually I don’t enjoy sweet and sour sauce, but this was really flavoursome and well balanced.

We also got a side dish of bok choy, which were pleasantly small and tasted fine.

The steamed brown sugar and ginger cake was really tasty and not at all what I expected when my friends suggested ordering it! It’s not a sponge cake, it’s quite gelatinous in texture. The ginger taste is so strong, it’s got a really great kick to it. I loved it!

The menu is in English and staff were attentive and helpful. There were quite a few dishes on the menu that I’ve never tried before, so it was a fun opportunity to try something a bit different. There’s no vegan labelling on the menu, you just have to hope that only the dishes that obviously list cheese/egg in the menu are non-vegan, or ask the staff for clarity.

LockCha – Admiralty

We had a good meal at LockCha but were frustrated by the lack of clear labelling. There were a couple of symbols that popped up next to some dishes but there was no key explanation of what they were. A small number of items clearly said they were vegan but the vast majority said nothing. Some things had egg or cheese in the name so we knew to avoid those. We found an online menu on Deliveroo which had more things labelled as vegan so we generally used that as a guide. After guessing our way through some orders, the staff had a look over and confirmed everything we ordered was vegan but we would have much preferred a clear menu rather than having to guess.

The food was worth the effort though! The bean curd rolls were excellent. They had a good crispy outer and were well filled and flavoured.

The fried taro cakes were also great. They had a bit of a potato like texture with some good crunchy bits in there too, again the seasoning was very good. These were our favourites and we ordered extra plates of each of these. I loved all the taro we got in Taiwan and Hong Kong!

The Shao Mai with black truffle were very good. They had a good meaty texture and and were well flavoured. The truffle on the top was a good addition and there wasn’t too much of it – I’m not a big truffle fan.

The fried mushroom bun had a good soft texture and a nice bit of crispness on the outside. The bun was a bit sweet and the flavour of the filling didn’t really shine through – my permanent complaint about this kind of bun, I don’t know why I can’t resist ordering them!

The fried dumpling had a meaty filling and generally tasted better than the mushroom one. We were also given a vinegar sauce to dip these in which I think would have been welcome earlier to be able to dip other things into as well.

The steamed lily bulb dumplings were a bit bland and isn’t something I would want to order again. It sounded so exciting and unusual that we couldn’t resist trying it, but it’s possible that there’s a reason lily bulbs aren’t a big feature on many menus.

And inspired by the previous night, we got some steamed ginger cake to finish. This was tasty but not as good as a similar one we had at Chi Lin. I’m on the lookout for a recipe that will help me recreate this at home!

We got some Lapsang Souchong tea to drink too which we both enjoyed. It has a good smokiness to it and went well with the food.

Overall, it was a good meal. Not everything really hit the heights we were hoping for, and the menu labelling was perplexing at best, but the good stuff was very, very good!

Kung Tak Lam – Tsim Tsa Tsui

This was our favourite place we ate at in Hong Kong. The menu was quite extensive and all of the dishes we tried were a hit and well seasoned. We were meeting another friend there, who took the lead with the ordering, and we shared all the dishes between three of us.

The five fortune cold platter was a lot of fun. There were a few cold noodle and salad bits that were fine. The silken tofu was nice and slippery. The mock meat was cold and slightly sweet, but went nicely with the edamame and black fungus. The crispy bits in the middle had a fantastic crunch and intriguing sweet and spicy sauce.

The soya bean/pork fillets were really meaty with a good crisp coating. The black pepper sauce on the side was thick and delicious.

The fish looked really spectacular – after I took my photo, the staff sliced it up for us at the table. Sadly it didn’t have a particularly fishy taste or texture, like in Three Virtues. Both cases seemed to be style over substance to me, which is a shame when there are some quite easy ways now to mimic the rights flavour and flaky texture.

The braised vegetarian chicken with black mushroom and chestnuts in casserole was good. It had a good helping of mushrooms. The meat bits felt like a chopped up veggie sausage to me, rather than a nice chicken chunk, which was a bit of a shame. But it was tasty.

The fried rice with seaweed and pine nuts was really tasty, perfectly seasoned and with a nice crunch from the nuts. I keep meaning to recreate this one at home, as it seems fairly straightforward.

This branch has really impressive views of the harbour, and it’s definitely a good spot for tourists. The menu is in English and clearly marks items that contain eggs or dairy. Staff were friendly, and service was quite fast. Again, I would probably recommend reserving a table in advance to be on the safe side.

Activities in Hong Kong

Despite the continued high temperatures and humidity, we committed to a few outdoor activities, with my two favourite hikes from when I lived in Hong Kong. The Lamma Island family trail was a quite short and not too strenuous walk across the island – the climb isn’t particularly tough, but the heat and exposure made it quite hard going. Still, we enjoyed the views very much.

The Dragon’s Back hike on Hong Kong Island was longer and tougher, but actually more enjoyable. Again, the climb wasn’t too bad at all and the views were really spectacular. We set off early enough that the sun wasn’t high enough to be too punishing. The descent was a little boring, but we enjoyed a little paddle in the sea at the end of the trail. I really wanted Dr HH to be impressed by the views of this hike, and he was, so it was a great success!