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Where to Eat/Drink

Wonton-noodle restaurant with character

The noodle restaurant is hidden in a street in Central. It is quite small. You won’t step in if you do not know its history and reputation. It is among the town’s most famous wonton-noodle restaurants.The restaurant’s owner is the third generation of a wonton-noodle master who operated a very successful business in Guangzhou, before moving to Hong Kong in 1938 when the Japanese occupied the city. The master’s son Mak An inherited his dad’s wonton noodle making skills and ran a DaiPaiDong (once a very popular open air food stall in Hong Kong) in Central.

The business has been passed on to two of his sons who now run two separate wonton noodle shops on Hong Kong Island. This one (Chung Kai) in Wing Kat Street, Central, belongs to the elder brother.

Here, a small bowl of wonton noodle sells for HK$26, an exorbitant price for such a small bowl. But customers keep coming. There is reason, of course. The restaurant has kept the very tradition of making wonton noodle and all three elements – the wonton, the noodle and the soup base – all taste exquisite. Just look at the bowl of noodle: the spoon is at the bottom, the wonton in the middle and the noodle at the top, a way to keep the noodle crunchy, from absorbing too much of the soup base.To taste the real and exquisite wonton noodle, this is the place. I really like its low-profile. It is like an ordinary noodle restaurant, but there is so much character with it. Despite its repute, it has no comfortable seating and no frills. A noodle restaurant in Hong Kong usually offers a dish of vegetable or drink alongside the noodle if you are willing to pay a few dollars more. Not here. It sells only wonton noodle and noodle of other types. It is the way it has been. Be reminded that a small bowl of wonton-noodle is good for snacking and afternoon tea, not for a proper meal. So come here for afternoon tea. Its business hours are: 10:30am to 8pm (except public holidays: 10:30am to 7pm).

Mak An Kee Noodle(麥奀記忠記麵家)
Address: G/F, 37 Wing Kat Street, Central

By Anna

With a wanderlust and lusts of other sorts, I look to sth new, sth different, sth fulfilling, and find myself on a journey...

2 replies on “Wonton-noodle restaurant with character”

Thank you again for another nice recommendation about where to go in Hong Kong. We would never have found this one on our own. Very nice food we got here for lunch. – But we almost didn’t find this place: once in Central I tried to locate the “Wing Kat Street” with google maps; but after typing in the street name, google maps insisted that the place was near MTR station “Yau Tong”, which was somewhere completely different. Since I knew we wouldn’t find the place without the map, I tried various thing and finally was successful by typing “Wing Kut Street”. This is what directed us directly to this nice and hidden place!

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