Overcoming Disappointment at Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong

Simon - Running For Status

9 years ago

This flight is part of my trip to Melbourne through Hong Kong and Macao:

John Carter over at Top Travel Tips was raving about this restaurant on his trip about six months ago, so I decided to try it out. I actually never thought to look for great Dim Sum in Hong Kong as I get it often in New York and its quite good.

I got lazy and went to the one in Hong Kong Station. I should have known better than to not go to the main branch near Olympic City. It was much more convenient for my day so I decided to go there. Of course there was a long line but I managed to squeeze into one of the single seats.

I sat down and ordered what was on the wall and a few other items I like. There are pictures of eight dishes on the back wall and I picked 4 of them.

Pork buns – These were great. It is a little different from the ones I usually have. It has a nice sweet topping on top with the pork nicely done on the inside.
Pork Siu-Mai – They were ok. Lacked much flavor but was done nicely in terms of size, structure and physical appeal.
Shrimp Dumpling – They were ok. Had a bit of shrimp flavor and was done nicely in terms of size, structure and physical appeal. Things can easily go wrong with shrimp dumpling in that it can just fall apart when you pick it up.
Shrimp Steamed noodle – It was ok. The flour was done nicely and shrimp was a good size, but it was just an ok dish for me.
Lotus Seed Cake – It was ok. I didn’t like the lotus seed flavor so it didn’t appeal to me. I can’t say if it was good or not as I just don’t like that flavor.
Steamed Beef Balls – they were ok. They lacked any real flavor but the texture was right.
Steamed Cake – this was quite nice. Airy and had a nice flavor to it.

And yes I ate all of that. Score one for the American-Chinese tourist. I think people around me got concerned I was eating that much, but proved them wrong by finishing the whole thing.

Homer Simpson: “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

Tim Ho Wan @ Olympic City

I had about a seven hour layover in Hong Kong on my way back to Dallas on American Airlines. When I checked into Melbourne, they couldn’t provide me with a boarding pass as it was a different itinerary and also that the flights were about seven hours apart. I decided to leave the airport around 8am and go into Hong Kong and eat my way back to the airport until my flight at 1pm.

I stopped into Tim Ho Wan on my way back to the airport. I took the train from Hong Kong Station to Olympic City. After asking a few shop keepers where this place was, I went to Tim Ho Wan. Here are some tips on how to get there from the Olympic City Station:

Get off at Exit D for Olympian city 2.
Tim Ho Wan is on that map (in the third picture). Easiest thing to do is find the Mcdonalds and go out the doors beyond the escalator. By then you should see a banner before the door that points to Tim Ho Wan (see fifth picture)
The Entrance to Tim Ho Wan is outside of the mall

Here is the entrance, which is outside the mall.

These are the items I ordered:

Pigs Liver Noodle – The noodle was much better, despite me not liking the pigs liver that much. It was better than the shrimp noodle I had in my last visit
Pork Siu-Mai – This was fantastic. It had tons of flavor. There was a great mushroom taste with the taste of pork at the end. Small and compact but very well made.
Beef-Balls – This was great as well. It was a bit softer at this location, yet had tons of flavor. I don’t think I ever had beef balls with that softness and texture before but it was amazing.
Pork and Duck Egg Porridge – This isn’t something commonly ordered here but I thought I gave it a try. Many of the locals seemed to be getting it. It was very good with a good pork flavor in the porridge.

Summary:

Most posts I read online said that both locations were about the same. I cannot disagree with that more. The Olympic City one is much better than the one in Hong Kong Station. Maybe the chef wasn’t very good on the day I went to Hong Kong Station but if I only had one chance to go to one, I wouldn’t waste my time at Hong Kong Station. Go to the original (well it moved from the original location) one in Olympic City.