Chains are your friend - at least initially

Chain Restaurants - Cheap and Cheerful.



Hong Kong has chain restaurants a-plenty.  I'm not talking about McDonalds, Burger King or KFC (though there are plenty of those too), but local ones (or near enough).

A quiet street in Mong Kok

You see, if you have lots of kids and are new to HK (especially the main areas of HK), it will overwhelm you.  Disneyland (if you go there first) and HKIA lull you into a false sense of security and do not prepare you for the heaving mass of human beings that is HK.  

It is a culture shock.  If you add in trying to figure out where to eat for the first day in 'real' HK, it all becomes too much.  Especially with kids and a possible language barrier.  Don't worry, go with it, they and you will get used to it.

For this reason I've not included Cha Chaan Tengs (HK Tea Cafes that do breakkie onwards).  Sure, do it at some stage, but not your first day.  Unless you have a high coping mechanism for lots of people and the possibility of no English menu.

The other thing is with HK - if you're an early bird (and what parent isn't), it's still quiet on the food front.  And breakkie in HK generally is either Congee (Juk) which is a savoury rice porridge, or Western breakfast (which isn't always that Western).  Yoshinoya is an exception, but not all are open early.

Cafe de Coral - Breakfast menu (with English)

Cafe de Coral.  This does a mixture of Western style food and local food.  Again, it's like comparing a McDonalds burger to a real, local hand made shop burger.  Maybe that's a bit harsh.  Expect to pay around HKD$80-$120 (about AUD$11-$18) for a family of 5-6 for a filling breakkie.

Western Breakfast at Cafe de Coral

Yoshinoya, my personal favourite chain

Yoshinoya is a Japanese chain, with Gyudon (Slivers of beef and Onion on top of rice) among other things for a very reasonable price (it was about AUD$14 for all of us to eat).  Good for when you don't want ham and eggs for breakkie.

Maxim's MX is another one.  I don't like it.  My kids (who aren't usually too fussy) don't like it.  My wife doesn't like it.  'nuff said.

If you're feeling really anti-social, try 7-Eleven for some sandwiches or a microwave meal (they supply the microwave)or a local egg-tart place, (more on this in another post).

Tips with kids:

You've got that card right - the Octopus card.  You can use that as a tap n go payment for most of these chains.  Load it with minimum HKD$50 at a time (notes in machines at the train station or 7-Eleven) or more.  Makes life uber-easy.

Learn a few basic things in Cantonese, people speak a little English but it varies.  Don't expect Disney style proficiency.  People appreciate it (you're in their country, right) and will be more likely to help.  The numbers (so you can point to a board in CdC or a menu at Yoshinoya and say '2'), please/thank you (Mmmh-Goi (like boy) will do for both or Ching for please if you are really good), and Yes/No (Hai (like a long "Hi") and Mmmh-Hai).  Look at wikitravel.org under Cantonese for an online phrasebook that served me well.

Figure out where each of this is, close to your stay.  It takes the stress out of thinking of it.  Same goes with 7-Eleven.