Hong Kong Mongkok Tim Sum @ Chinatown Complex Market

Located on the second floor in Chinatown Complex Market, this humble dim sum hawker stall whips out decent and fresh dim sum at affordable prices. If you are expecting hotel or restaurant quality dim sum from a hawker centre joint, you might be disappointed. But since the prices charged at the stall are much less than those places, so naturally expectations should be lowered too. But that doesn’t mean freshness and quality is compromised here.

There is a ready stream of customers at this stall and a queue system is implemented to cater to customers. So when you arrive here, you should get a queue number first then wait patiently for your number to flash on the electronic board before proceeding to place your orders. The wait depends on how many people are in front of the queue and also depends on how fast the stall is able to churn out dim sum to meet the orders. Dim sum is freshly made and sold on the day and the stall closes once they have run out of dim sum. I waited about 25 minutes and explored the other stalls in the meantime.

There actually isn’t much food choice from this stall: the 6 main dim sum dishes served are shown on the signboard on the store’s front (Char siew bao, siew mai, har gow, chicken feet, prawn and char siew chee cheong fun). Each dim sum item costs $2 and it’s really cheap and good! All dim sum is also freshly taken from the steamer, so they are served piping hot!

Char Siew Bao ($2 for 3 pieces) is incredibly fluffy and soft when it’s warm. Not like those hard, dense overly sticky buns you might get elsewhere. The fillings are a nice surprise- the char siew filling is really fragrant and juicy. The char siew meat had been diced into smaller pieces and you can taste the roasted meat which complements the nice sweet red marinade sauce.

Siew Mai and Har Gow ($2 for 3 pieces of each kind): Siew Mai was not bad- each bite is filled with chunky pieces of fresh, succulent pork. The har gow is also fantastic- the prawn pieces inside were really fresh and crunchy. The outer skin was neither too thin nor too thick; just enough to encase the prawn fillings and complement the prawn fillings.

Prawn cheong fun ($2) was really tasty too- the rice noodle roll was really smooth and each roll contained generous portions of chopped chunky fresh prawns. The soya sauce provided the main bulk of flavouring for the dish and it really enhances the dish with its salty, sweet combination of flavours.

Although you might have to brave the queue and the stuffy atmosphere of the food centre, this is nonetheless a great place for your fix of affordable dim sum! Do note they close on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Hong Kong Mongkok Tim Sum

335 Smith Street, #02-097 Chinatown Complex Market