Michelin restaurant dining in Hong Kong – for less than £10

By Adrianna Zawadzka

A restaurant with a Michelin star sounds like an assurance of a high-quality food, amazing service and unforgettable experience. However, after spending six days in Hong Kong, on a trip organised by De Montfort University in Leicester, I know now, that in this city everything can surprise you.

A few years ago, in a documentary about different and interesting restaurants around the world, I saw a place called Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong. The authors explained how cheaply and well you can eat there, which caught my attention. The restaurant sounded like one of the biggest attraction of the whole trip.

Once we arrived to China, I bombarded my friends with questions about visiting Tim Ho Wan. On the last day, we finally managed to  give the place a chance, hoping to get swept away consuming traditional, Chinese dishes in a traditional, GOOD, Chinese restaurant.

The journey to get there took about an hour from the hotel. Hong Kong Station which was our destination, turned out to be a shopping centre. Tim Ho Wan was on the 3^rd floor; tiny restaurant with a queue outside.

What surprised us at the beginning was the menu we were given while waiting for our table. A green piece of paper with the dishes divided by the type of food and a pencil. To order a dish, you simply indicate your choice of food on the menu and give it to the waiter when you are seated.

Not long after we sat down at very cramped, tiny table, the variety of dishes filled up the rest of the free space. Sweet buns with BBQ pork, steamed egg cake, spring rolls with sea food inside and many more. Each person ordered three dishes, each of us tried everything, and each of us harmoniously was surprised. That might be the perfect word. Surprised with the customer service in this place, surprised by the food, but most importantly – by the price. For three dishes of the traditional, Chinese food and a can of traditional American coke, each of us paid equivalent of less than £10.

While leaving we all agreed it was worth it. We ate in a Michelin star restaurant for less than a tenner. We tried most of the food, we always wanted to try while we were in Hong Kong. Probably more than the food, we will remember the whole experience. At the end of the day, life is all about trying something new ever day.