Hong Kong Wok

I feel compelled to review this place prior to its closure on May 31. The owners have decided to retire after more than 20yrs of service in the Madison area. You will always find this place packed with happy customers. Everything from the prototypical Chinese American food like Sweet&Sour Chicken to congee tastes fresh and comforting.
Congratulations to Hong Kong Wok, we are sad to see you go!

Very disappointed in takeout dinners this evening. Cashew chicken had few or no cashews. Chicken in the Curry chicken fried rice was undercooked. Governor’s Beef lacked flavor.

WOW… this place is LEGIT! Talk about a hidden gem… it’s tucked away in a corner in the Hilldale Mall. You almost think it’s one of those places in the mall food court… it’s NOT. This place has some serious authentic Chinese food. Come on a Saturday or Sunday for lunch and it’s filled with Chinese families. The food is ordered fast food style and brought to the table.
I had the sliced pork and preserved egg congee (rice porridge) which is a very traditional Chinese brunch dish. It was flavored perfectly, not too salty and topped with fresh scallions. I also ordered some Chinese fried bread, which looks very similar to a churro. It was hot, delicious, and oily (which is how it is supposed to be). I also ordered two dished which are traditional Dim Sum dishes, rice noodle with Chinese fried bread and shrimp. Both of them were very good. Finally, I had the beef ho fun. There are only a few places in Madison that have this dish, but Hong Kong Wok is among the best.
The atmosphere was mall food court style with some paper plates and plastic utensils. For those who want a slightly better dining experience, bring your own chopsticks and Chinese soup spoon ladle (looking around there were several people who brought their own). The food came out very fast and fresh. I didn’t get a chance to try, but they also have Chinese bao (buns) on the menu. The congee is only served on Saturdays and Sundays for lunch but they have a full menu as well. It is very casual so if you’re looking for fine dining, this is not going to be your place. If you’re looking for delicious authentic Chinese food, this is the place in Madison to be.

After seeing I have 10 check-​ins at Hong Kong Wok, and that’s when I remember to check in — I admitted this review needs an update.
It needs an update so I can tell you I have since moved to Madison, and I live and work close enough to Hong Kong Wok to create an incessant urge for their shrimp fried rice, shrimp with scrambled egg, and Lemongrass soup. I crave their garlic chili sauce so much that I bought a mason jar of it from them.
This has become out of control, a full blown addiction. I need to sit on my couch with loved ones and have an intervention… but I can’t! They are addicted, as well… I drive past and my mouth waters… I type about it and I realize I will need to stop there for lunch tomorrow.
I need therapy.

For Madison, this is a good as it gets for cheap, genuine chinese food. The number of international students who flock to this place should be proof enough. Their mapo tofu with pork is very good, and so are their black bean sauce dishes. The calamari in black bean sauce is surprisingly tender and delicious for the price. Their congee is consistently good and their soups aren’t bad. Before this place opened, there weren’t any good chinese fast food places in Madison at all.
Be forewarned, if you’re the kind of person who’s just looking for some orange chicken or kung pow, you’ll probably be unimpressed. But if you’re looking for real chinese fast-​food, this is the place.
I have fond memories of this place. I live in California now and I’m surprised that I have yet to find a cheap chinese place here quite as good as this.

Hong Kong Wok has been the most dependable Chinese restaurant in my 2 ½ years in Madison. You can mainly find your usual Americanized-​Chinese suspects on the menu (e.g. sweet and sour pork, beef and broccoli, fried rice) and some more «authentic» dishes for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays (e.g. congee and a few other items you might find at dim sum). I used to come here often, and the food has always been pretty good and consistent. While you won’t get a spectacular meal, you’ll get a tasty meal to satisfy your MSG cravings. The portion sizes and price are right as well (under $ 8 for a meal with rice).

Hong Kong Wok is one of the Asian fast food sit-​downs that my friends and I had frequently dined at.
I appreciate the cheap and semi-​authentic menu items here, and they aren’t bad either. My favorites dishes here are the beef with scrambled eggs, the beef fried hofun, and the lemon grass chicken. When I’m in the mood, I also dig the congee varieties that are offered here.
I’d say most of the dishes at Hong Kong Wok are under $ 10. It’s fast and it’s pretty decent compared to other Asian restaurants in Madison. I wouldn’t go out of my way to try this place, but give it a shot at your own convenience.

I was surprised to have such good food at a mall. Great Dumplings and noodles… get wok you like… I’m sure you will enjoy…

Generally pretty good. As takeout Chinese places go, the food is decently seasoned, not oversalted or oversauced, and reasonably fresh. A few items on the menu lean towards the greasy — the chicken and blackbean hofun noodles, for example, are difficult enough to eat without being over-​lubricated with cooking oil. The soups are slightly bland — while the idea of a soup with dumplings and fish balls is a solid one, the broth is bit on the weak side.
However, there are a few less-​standard menu items worth trying — the «lemongrass pork chop», while not strictly traditional, is moist and tender and full of good lemongrass flavor. The weekend congee menu is also the real deal — it’s homestyle enough that it attracts a large crowd of international students, and the congee is delicious (which is saying something for a rice porridge). They don’t skimp on the additions (I’m partial to the sliced pork and preserved egg), and the available special appetizers (spicy beef tripe, fried bread, chicken feet with black bean) are worth trying. Their homemade chili-​garlic sauce is a winner, too — spicy and garlicky, it’s worth picking up a jar (which they sell at the counter). It’s oily, so is best used in small quantities, but is really quite delicious.
Service is primarily counter-​based, and a bit on the charmingly grumpy side, although some may find it less charming than others.

This place is conveniently located near Macy’s so I’ve stopped by here after a day of too much shopping. The place is tiny but there are always empty tables whenever I go but then again I don’t go during peak hours. The menu is pretty extensive, I just wish they had more options for their version of dim sum. The ingredients they use don’t seem that fresh and for many of their dishes, at least the 10 or so I have ordered, they usually overload it with lots of water chestnuts and green onions and add very little meat. I do love their noodle soups, but I’m such a huge fan of noodle soup that it’s hard for me to not like one. They also have this chili oil that is super yummy so don’t forget that when you get takeout. The place is convenient and decent enough for me to go back multiple times but then again I don’t expect much from this place.

super americanized chinese food. maybe I ordered the wrong thing (see pic)

Family owned restaurant located in Hilldale Mall. As far as Chinese restaurants go, Hong Kong Wok is above average in quality and affordability — there’s always plenty of food to eat for the price.
The food is made to order, so it’s always hot and fresh, and very authentic, with freshly made soy bean milk available everyday and congee on Sundays.
It’s a must-​frequent place every time I visit home.

Just like Hongkong Wok, I’ll make this review straight forward, no BS needed.
Straight forward, cheap, free parking, and delicious and comforting! One of the two most authentic Chinese restaurants beside Fugu (authentic is the keyword here). I won’t dare to compare it to the real HK foods in HK, but it’s so good for Midwest standard. That’s all I have to say about HK Wok. I love the noodle soup with beef stew, salt and pepper pork chop on rice, beef with scrambled egg on rice are the musts. On weekends, we loved to go there in the morning for the dimsum (yeah, the only dimsum place in Madison) for the tripe, pork congee, chicken feet, fried chinese donut, chow mien, and soy milk.
Don’t expect a good service here, which gives the more authentic feeling. Seriously, if you’ve been to HK, you’ll know that bad service is part of the culture there.

Went there with a group of friends on a Sunday afternoon. Be ready for long lines and racing for your tables.
Food was decent. Egg drop soup was too salty, the steamed rice rolls with shrimp were very good, & the beef lo mein noodle soup was ok. Everyone enjoyed their food. The price was right!

The positive reviews for this place are entirely misleading. This is in no way authentic Chinese food. The only thing authentic about the food is how authentically terrible it is.
My girlfriend had some merely adequate noodles from this place that hinted at decent food, but a subsequent visit revealed this as illusory. We had a chicken dish that could be described as chicken nuggets in a gravy. This gravy, despite being advertised as spicy, had no flavor, not even a generic spicy flavor. We also had another noodle dish that was not just underseasoned, but not seasoned at all. Even the mushrooms had no flavor and mushrooms are notoriously flavorful. We ended up pouring soy sauce on it to give it some semblance of flavor.
Perhaps we just ordered the worst things on their enormous menu, but to even offer such offal reflects badly on an establishment. If this is the best Chinese in Madison I am going to have to move.

Damn it, I just came from Hong Kong last week and I have to say, the food at HK Wok is even better than the food in HK!!! No joke. Everything is so delicious! My favs are the beef and egg on rice, BBQ pork noodles, and calamari. I should have more favs, but then everytime I go I can’t resist the beef and egg on rice dish… mmmm delicious.
On a sidenote, I love the mall location. It’s clean and tidy, and it’s right by Macy’s and Anthropologie! :D

Eh. Very big eh.
We’ve been here twice. I’ve had the chicken with black bean sauce, and the mushroom chicken. Both were your average americanized chinese slop. Not that I don’t enjoy that, or think there’s good or bad in that genre (heck, I grew up on that shit, and when it’s good, it’s pretty frickin good), but this wasn’t very good. The lady had a curry chicken, and it was that same yellow curry chicken you get anywhere else.
Not bad if you think 6 or 7 dollars for a very satisfying portion of chicken and rice is good for lunch. I’m cheap, so I don’t. But that’s just me.
As far as the proprietress being rude? Didn’t notice anything like that either time.

Oh I totally miss this place the most in Madison after moving to LA. As much as there’s MSG on each of their dishes, it tasted fabulous and those Hongkong Crispy Chicken, their #1 best dish ever, top notch. Nothing beats that, I dunno what sauce they use but boy oh boy… but after you eat in here, make sure you don’t go to something that needs lot of concentration cause you won’t be able to stay awake. The msg usually started kicks in about 30mins later: P. If you like chilli oil, they have the good one too (due to msg: P) and they sell it for like $ 3 or $ 5, ahhh… writing this review makes me drooling and craving for the crispy chix… If you come to Madison, you should try and eat here…
As to response on the other ocmments, yes the owner isn’t friendly but if you eat there a lot and she recognized you, she will start treating u really nice and even sometimes she memorized what you like to order :)

The best Chinese food ever!
I took off one star for 2 reasons:
1) The mall location does not make for a very cozy or intimate setting
2) The lady at the counter is pretty obnoxious… no smiles… only glares… rude at times… but i guess that’s just a part of eating Chinese food!
In short, definitely go here for the food… not the service!

I miss Hong Kong Wok. It’s been almost 20 years, so I don’t know if this is the same place that use to be on campus on University Avenue in the food court. Everything is decent to good here.
Sometimes my friends I would order the Chicken Fried Rice just to hear the elderly women who announced completed orders at the top of her lungs, «Cheeee-​cken Frieeeed Lice!!» Her voice would echo through the food court.
Also one time my friend, Bob, ate like 5 dishes in one sitting… I think it was 4 but 5 sounds more impressive.