The best cheung fun in Hong Kong

A Tai Po institution, Chan Hon Kee is loved by many local residents thanks to their signature dishes of claypot rice, congee and cheung fun. Their cheung fun has various fillings including the classic zha leung (Chinese fried dough), beef, prawn and, if you’re into it, pork liver. The cheung fun here is made to order, so you can see them in action if you want. The result of which is soft, silky and served with a perfectly balanced soy sauce mix so you can slurp it up instantly. Trust me, you’ll probably want to order one for yourself here.

Opened in 1951, the original Keung Kee recently moved down the road in Wan Chai. The new Keung Kee restaurant is a newer and bigger space offering a wider variety of local snacks. Their signatures, however, remain and include their fishballs with pork skin, Chinese sausage with sticky glutinous rice, beancurd sweet dessert soup, and pan-fried cheung fun with dried shrimp. You can add fried egg which adds great flavour, texture and fragrance to the dish. Make sure you ask for the chilli sauce if you want to add a kick to your cheung fun.

Sham Shui Po has no shortage of street food but Hop Yik Tai’s cheung fun (the plain kind) is what people travel across the city for. It doesn’t sound like much but their cheung fun, made fresh every day, is incredibly smooth and pairs perfectly with sweet sauce, sesame sauce and soy sauce. Local residents frequent this spot, many of which have been coming here to enjoy cheung fun for many years.

Cheung fun is a street food staple loved by many, but it can also be enjoyed as a dish in its own right. Modern Chinese bistro Happy Paradise has taken on the carb with creativity in order to do it justice. The result is the silky thick-cut rice noodles topped with tender cuts of Australian Wagyu skirt steak and thin slices of preserved lemon. The noodle absorbs all the seaweed butter to create a real umami stunner.

Cantonese comfort food comes in many forms, but two of these are what Fat Kee does best: congee and cheung fun. Their freshly made cheung fun is made to order and comes in generous portions filled with prawn, char siu, or fried dough. The fried dough version comes with dried shrimp and green onion on top too for a mouthful of different flavours and textures in one.

Ming Kee is known for its cheung fun with dried tangerine peel fish balls and pork skin. It’s a humble dish that reminds many of their childhood. The cheung fun is smooth while the fish balls are fragrant and pork skin is cooked perfectly. The owner is from Sheung Shui and he gets to the shop every morning at 5am to prepare for opening at 7am.

This popular spot in the street food haven that is Tai On Building bangs out the wrinkled version of cheung fun. It’s made from rice that is ground with a millstone, releasing a rich flavour and smooth texture. After they’re steamed, they scrape the cheung fun instead of rolling it up, creating thin strips with creases and folds to better hold the sauce it comes with. You can choose to add your preferred topping and they have everything from egg, prawn and char siu, as well as some unexpected toppings like salted egg and pork and preserved egg with minced pork. Don’t forget to add their seasoned soy sauce which is savoury but balances. 

This special cheung fun dish at The Chairman combines a steamed whole flower crab in aged Shaoxing rice wine with chicken oil and serves it with plain rice noodles. It’s actually more like Chen Cun rice noodles, but much like Hong Kong’s cheung fun, its soft and silky texture soaks up all the aromatics and flavours wonderfully. You can taste the sweetness of the crab and the combination of flavours is just spot on.