Eat like a boss without breaking the bank
There are hundreds of excellent restaurants to try in Hong Kong, and every month more new bars and restaurants open up, increasing the size of your ‘must visit’ list. But eating out every night can put a sizable dent in your savings account. Not to mention how hard it can be to score a table at popular restaurants in the first place. A seat at Sushi Zo? Good luck. Even the queues outside local haunts like beef noodle specialist Kau Kee and Spam-and-egg joint Ma Sa can be daunting enough to turn away diners.
But fear not: there are plenty of ways to enjoy all the great food that Hong Kong has to offer without spending your whole monthly salary on restaurants. Trust these life hacks to cut down on costs and score seats at the restaurants you want to try.
Recommended: Have no one to eat with? Check out these great restaurants for solo dining.
Michelin-starred restaurants are amazing, but some of the best dining in Hong Kong happens on the streets or in the hot, loud and hectic mom-and-pop shops and local markets. The best part about eating local is that you can enjoy dishes for under $50, too. From cooked food centres to dai pai dongs and cha chaan teng cafés, these local spots offer delicious meals that won’t punish your wallet.
The lunchtime rush can be outrageous across Hong Kong as office workers descend upon the most popular cafés and restaurants in town. But if you can hold out until 2pm or 3pm, getting a seat becomes a lot easier. And eating at Hong Kong institutions like Paradise Dynasty and Ebisoba Ichigen is a lot more enjoyable when you’re not cheek-by-jowl with your fellow diners.
Your social feed is blowing up with photos from the hottest new restaurants and most Instagrammable dishes in town. Remember how everyone went nuts when Shake Shack launched last year? But sometimes it’s better to wait until the restaurant has been open a while before you visit. After the opening rush has passed, restaurants will often offer deals to encourage customers to come back. If you can wait a month or two, you can enjoy the same great food for less.
There’s something new going on in the Hong Kong food scene every week. It could be chefs creating one-off dishes from special ingredients, major food festivals or fun deals like free-flow French fries. Sometimes events and happy hour specials offer incredible discounts, too. It pays to stay informed.
You don’t always have to go online hunting for dining deals and news. Technology is on your side. Take eatigo, for example. With the app, you can get 50 percent off at thousands of restaurants in Hong Kong every day. From fusion fare at 65 Peel to a slice of pizza at PizzaExpress to the stellar buffet at the JW Marriott, you can score incredible deals at a huge variety of restaurants, and you can book a table with just a few clicks. Plus, the app often has promotions, discounts and special deals like Wow Wednesday, which offers 50 percent off meals for the whole day. And eatigo is totally free, so you're saving in more ways than one.
