Hong Kong Lounge

4.5 stars
Excellent Food! Excellent service.
Was thinking that this was just another Cantonese restaurant. The starter BBQ mix of BBQ pork and jellyfish was tasty and well prepared.
Jellyfish is hard to do right in terms of texture and flavor. Theirs was mild and not overly salted. nuanced flavors of scallions and sesame oil. The BBQ pork had the right amount of seasoning and fat (meaning not too much).
We also ordered their roasted duck which was excellent (crispy skin and well flavored meat). Their onchoy stir fried was fresh and tender. Excellent veggie fried rice as well.
Serving staff was very pleasant removing plates and checking on our needs periodically.
My wife and I will be making this one of our weekly dining places!

Oh dear – I should have checked the food safety rating before having lunch here today…
60 out of 100???
The bathrooms are really rough by the way.
I did not like the food–
Even though the place was packed and every person was literally shoveling food into their mouths, I found the dishes we ordered not too tasty. Some pieces in fact were terrible tasting.
The shrimp balls (hargau) were actually «crunchy» from the shrimp inside and the House Hong Kong Crispy Noodles contained «something» that I wasn’t sure about… it tasted like how Ajax cleanser would smell. I wound up spitting it out. I think it was some kind of fish.
The jasmine tea was excellent as were the pork buns.
The Peking spare ribs were mostly gristle covered with a very mild coating of some sort.
Service was very good and the price wasn’t bad at all.
$ 37.00
I’m glad to have tried this well known place but I think one visit will be enough. Especially, with a Food Safety Score rating like the one that is shown on Unilocal.

This is a local favorite. I’ve been coming here since as long as I can remember. There has always been a line and nowadays the line only gets longer. I’d recommend coming early just like everyone says… But I was here at 1015am this Thursday morning and there was already a line of your Chinese grandmas. One group even insisted that I go in front of them because they have been up since 5am and are really hungry… How can I resist when I know I’ll try to pull the same shit off when I’m their age? So regardless of when you’ll come, it will be a test of your patience.
Dim sum here is the best in the city in terms of quality and taste. Their hargau has thin skin so you’re eating shrimp and not starch. Their siumai has a generous amount of pork and shrimp so you’re not just eating batter. But the item that shines the most in my opinion is the baked charsiu bao which I only get here. Usually I like the steamed one in other places but here the top of the bun is encrusted with sweet flaky goodness while a generous amount of BBQ pork lays inside. I’m tryna be all artistic but in short, it’s the
! I also enjoy the steamed beef tripe and liver on a bed of steamed bean sprouts that you can dip into their special soy sauce mix. Their fried tofu skin shrimp cake is also a favorite that comes with a tangy black sauce. And last but not least the egg yolk bulk whose Chinese name I will never be able to pronounce. IT’S THE BEST. So runny and rich and not overly sweet nor overly salty. Just the perfect texture and taste. I’ve tried these buns at many other dim sum places all around the bay and even in HK, but HK lounge does it right (the only other place that can compare is Tim Ho Wan in hk lol).
Bring a Chinese speaking friend with you. I know that they are used to white people here now and for the most part, the staff can speak English but at the end of the day, Cantonese beats Mandarin beats English. Bonus points if you’re white or Latino or black friend can lead the conversation in Chinese because Lord knows my Chinese is like that of a 5 yr old.
Happy eating!

I like this place for decent price and perfect amount of food. Great service and fast. Quality of food nice and clean environment.

Food 3 to 4 stars… It or miss. But the bbq pork buns are usually consistent.
Service 4 to 5 stars… Good attitude but can be a bit underwhelming if you’re not an older chinese patron.
Price 2 stars… I would have given it a 3 but 2 for charging 10 cents for a bag for dining with leftover. AND they charged it onto the bill, which will increase the overall tax.
Correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve worked in the food industry for a decade plus. The 10cent bag charge applies only to carry-​out orders. But patrons are allowed to have a free bag if they’ve dined in. Has the law changed? I will change my review if I’m incorrect. I just hate owners who try to bend the law just to earn more profit when they should be paying their staff/​employees more.
Recommendation? I only go for the buns.

One of the better dim sum restaurants in SF. The wait is usually 30 – 45 minutes on the weekends, but once you’re in, food comes out quickly after you place your order. Go with groups of 4+ to get more variety!
FAVORITES:
— Baked BBQ buns (the BEST)
— Pork siu mai
— Egg tarts (dan tat)
— Garlic pea sprouts
— P/​F pork & taro dumplings
— BBQ spare ribs
— BBQ beef noodle roll
JUST OK:
— Egg custard buns (too sweet here, Yank Sing’s are better)
— Shrimp dumplings
— Chive dumplings (I’m just not a fan)
— Xiao long bao (these came in little metal containers, which made it hard to eat)

Pro tip: If you can, go on a weekday. The restaurant will still be busy, but you can avoid the hour long wait. And the dim sum is still fresh. I think the dim sum lives up to its reputation. My only quibble would be that there seems to be a decent number of baos (buns) on the menu, but no bo lo or gai mei baos – at least the waiter told me they didn’t have any.
On weekends, I prefer Ton Kiang because I think it’s still good, but there isn’t a wait. But Hong Kong Lounge is cheaper, and the clientele is more Chinese (usually a good sign).

Back when PF Chang’s was having a moment, a gaggle of us dined al fresco at their beautiful Rancho Mirage location. I hadn’t often consumed Chinese banquet food (which this wasn’t) but throughout dinner my ABC friend kept remarking on how pricey everything was and how she knew places where we could have twice the food at a quarter of the price.
Game on.
Since that time, I’ve joined her and her extended family at several of those San Francisco places which, by and large, serve great tables full of food at really reasonable prices. It’s the reason why, walking in, she seems to spy every auntie, uncle, and cousin among the crowded room of people seated at big round tables.
Hong Kong Lounge would probably be too on-​the-​radar for my friend but she’d definitely approve, price-​wise and taste-​wise. I joined a party of ten in dining at this popular outpost and would take a bet that my friend had relatives in the crowd.
I had no idea that a pairing of Chinese food with Cognac is a «thing». It is. The Chinese like their Cognac and HK Lounge looks the other way as you freely dispense the amber liquid into your teacup. Bring a bottle or two from home. It’s a perfect food/​booze pairing, will liven up your party, and there’s zero corkage fee.
Cognac in one hand, chopsticks in the other, I ate with abandon, everything that arrived at our table. One amongst us had handled the ordering process and I was game to try whatever arrived. I couldn’t have asked for a less stress-​inducing meal. No concern among table-​mates with worries of who likes what. This is what we’re having, take it or leave it and we all took it, gladly. Crab, Imperial Duck (with puffy, white bao in which to envelop it), Crisply Fried Chicken, Pork Belly, Oyster Clay Pot, Mushrooms with Bok Choy & Tofu… the list goes on. Everything was quite delicious, there was nothing left over, and we all left well-​satisfied.
What more could you ask for?
The last time I dined as a party of four in San Francisco (albeit, not at a Chinese restaurant) we ran the tab up to $ 450. This feast which, frankly, was more fun and more food trickled in at a grand total of $ 200 all in for 10 diners. That’ not a typo: we paid $ 20 per person.
My friend knew of what she spoke when she was making those statements long ago at PF Chang. They still apply today, as every Chinese person seems to know. Now I can second that motion.
If you’ve got a big crowd to feed well and entertain you can do so at an extremely moderate cost at many of the City’s Chinese restaurants. Hong Kong Lounge should be on your short list as the ever-​present crowds attest. They do a great job at a fair price leaving you to spend the remaining cash, in advance, on that bottle of Cognac.

Extremely inefficient table wait system; someone please fix or be prepared to receive a little raffle ticket number. The only thing you will win is a longass wait time.
Service was shit shit, as expected. I’m not even sure if we got the right food, but things tasted pretty good so I was pleased. I’ve only had dim sum with pros, so I never even picked things on the menu. This time, my friends and I picked some random items including the pork buns, egg custard bun, xiao laong bao (YES), pork flaky pastry… thing, eggplant… thing, some shrimp… thing and some other random items. The eggplant thing was good but unexpectedly fried. Remember that not all things that are fried will have ‘fried’ written — maybe in Chinese, but definitely not in the translation.
Remember, there’s gluten here; you cannot avoid it.

Sorry HK Lounge, you can’t beat Millbrae’s HK Lounge.
So came here around 11am with my parents, and we were seated immediately. The size of the place is big enough for what it is, and the dim sum only comes by checking off a menu list. No moving carts in sight, which could be a good thing to avoid congestion. Okay now I’ve heard recommendations from people to try this place. Since my parents and I happened to be in the area, why not try it.
We ordered the average staple dishes, and I for one was not impressed.
The shrimp had a weird taste to it that just didn’t appeal to me very much, although I did like how there was a little bit of soup, probably due to condensation, inside the har gao. The chicken feet were not that great either, and the steamed beef balls were just okay. Don’t even get me started on the beef rice roll. That dish, for some reason, came out last and immediately made me grimace at the sight of it. The beef didn’t even look right, and it turned out to be too salty. All the dishes came out to be sub-​par compared to what I’m accustomed to in Millbrae.
HOWEVER, the baked bbq pork buns were bomb. Basically every table ordered them, and it’s probably one of their best dim sum dishes. It’s packed with lots of meat, and the exterior is a thin crispy & flaky bread similar to bolo baos (pineapple buns).
Tried it out, and I think I’m good.

WHOOOOO HOOO love dimsum.
First things first, the service is not really optimal at all, but I kinda figured that would happen because a lot of dim sum places are pretty brusque and busy…
To be honest, it was hard figuring out what to order, because the menu could reeeeeally benefit from having more photos of the food, and my friends and I ended up being surprised by almost everything we ordered because when it came, it… wasn’t really what we were expecting. THAT BEING SAID, they were happy surprises, because I thought everything was pretty finger-​licking good.
I would get the rice wrapped in lotus leaves (so good I wish I could have it everyday…) and the large pork buns, which were encased in this soft, sweetish puffy bread that was crumbly on the outside and stuffed with luscious pork. So, so, sooooooo very good.
We also got this other pork pastry that was encased in a flaky, crust pastry thing. Kind of made me appreciate just how much I love braised pork.
Just a note, if you come here, be sure to go to the front and get a number, and come early to avoid long lines!!!

SERIOUSLY, HEED THE POOR FOOD SAFETY SCORE!!! DONT EAT HERE!!!
Service went downnnnn hill. Used to love coming here but after what happened to my brother and dad, me thinks not.
Came back to the city and decided to take my dad and brother out to dim sum.
They are trying to cram everyone in that they actually started offering «dop toy» which means sharing a table with another group.
My dad said okay to the dop toy offer because he didn’t wanna wait any longer.
Ordered a bunch of things but only things I didn’t eat were the shrimp dumplings and shrimp noodle roll.
My brother ate 3 shrimp dumplings and my dad ate the 4^th. I lucked out by being generous.
Long story short, my dad and brother got major food poisoning from this place. They are still sick and today is Thursday. You really don’t want to hear the extend of their symptoms.
I don’t think I’d be coming here again especially since they’re hella rude.
Come here if you wanna have the run for days if not, run the other way.

Hong Kong Lounge is a good restaurant.
Personally, i recommend putting together your own family styled meals as opposed to ordering the pre fixe meal plans, as it may even be cheaper, and you get to pick something if not everything that everyone can enjoy and wants.
We made reservations and they honored it on time perfectly.
The one dish i thought was extraordinary was the green string beans.
Get the Mango Pudding Koi Fish, good for at least 4 (if you like large portions) and as many as 10 (for a decent sized tasting portion) guests per fish.
Parking can be tough, it is in the Richmond district on Geary Blvd.

Hong Kong Lounge… what can I say about this place other than I absolutely love it. I’d like to ignore all the mediocre and bad reviews. Their food is bomb!
This place is pretty popular. I’ve been lucky enough to grow up just 2 blocks away from this restaurant and use to eat here at least once a month with my family. There’s always a line on the weekends. It’s best to show up maybe 30 minutes before they open on the weekends and wait in line.
When they seat you, you’ll be given a menu and you just write down how many orders you want next to each item. They do not walk around with carts.
One of my favorite dishes there is their coffee spareribs. You get that hint of coffee. just enough and not too much. So delicious! I always fall back on shrimp dumplings, tripe, chicken feet, etc… It’s so hard not to order everything on the menu! I recently just tried the egg yolk almond balls. Those are sooo freakin good! I nice way to end the meal with a sweet dish.
People complain about the service, but you know what? This is how the culture is. Service isn’t going to be the greatest. I’ve been to Hong Kong and it’s just the same. Because the food is so yummy, I’ve accepted the fact that service will be a hit or miss. You just have to speak up or call out to them if you want to get their attention. Sometimes, they won’t bring you the bill unless you ask. Regardless, I think this is one of the better authentic dim sum restaurants in SF. If you want a more stereotypical dim sum place that caters more to tourists, then go to Ton Kiang instead.
Parking is difficult, but if you get there first thing on Sundays, I think you can roam around and find a spot. Other than that, there are a couple of small parking lots within 2 blocks of this place.

Hong Kong Lounge is our go-​to dim sum place in the city. We have come for lunch and dinner several times. It is a spacious restaurant, usually have no problem getting table for dinner, but it is always crowded during lunch time even when we came at odd hours on weekdays.
Their dim sum is good, and I particularly like their deep fried items, like Ham shui kok and fried sticky rice balls. They are always fresh and crispy, never soggy or having been sitting out for a long time. I also like their pepper salt deep fried tofu, it was a good amount and the contrast of the crispy hot crust and soft tofu inside is just amazing.
It is a ‘order on the paper’ dim sum place, so you mark the card instead of looking for food on the carts. The card is quite confusing, because the line where you mark does not line up with the name of the dishes next to it… It is very confusing as to am I checking the correct dishes? Sometimes I have to double check with the staff when I hand them the order card.
For dinner, they also have dim sum but a lesser variety. We also tried their chow mien, fried rice and shanghai soup dumplings, which are all quite good. I would say their eggplant dishes are on the greasy side, but all their taro dishes are pretty good.
A very solid dim sum restaurant, ok service and good food, will come back for sure!

This place was better than expected. We arrived on Sunday around 1:30pm (an hour before they closed) and waited about 15 mins for a table for two. While we were waiting, I took a paper menu and stared circling things we wanted. When we were sat, the waitress took it right away and imputed our selections quickly. It felt a little rushed, but I assumed that was because she wanted to get us out quickly. Food, service, and cleanliness = overall 4 stars.
FOOD: 4 stars.
We ordered traditional dim sum and all of it tasted very authentic. The pan-​fried potstickers were so freaking good — they reminded me of my grandma’s. I highly recommend those. They have a really extensive menu which is nice. It also includes some untraditional dishes which seemed interesting to try but we were way too full. We ordered 6 dishes between the two of us and we could barely finish the last one. It came out to about $ 35 which is very reasonable.
SERVICE: 3 stars.
Typical traditional Chinese dim sum service. Very little interaction, very short and to the point, and a lot of miscommunication. They didn’t start treating us decently until one of the waiters said something in Mandarin and I caught on… then he walked away apologizing (again in the native language) saying he didn’t knew I understood. Shady. This place is untraditional in the sense that there were not any Lazy Susan’s on the tables (at least in the front part of the restaurant — when I went to the restroom I noticed that there was a back part to the restaurant). They also don’t push carts around; instead you have to order from the menu they provide you. I tried to order more Har Gao, but it never came out :(
LOCATION: 4 stars.
Pretty clean for the most part. There are much worse places in Chinatown and even two streets over that reek and look really dirty. This place appears to be clean and the dining room is pretty big. The hostess does not wait for anyone so make sure you’re close enough to hear the numbers or else she’ll give up your table within 39 seconds (no joke).
TL;DR: Good food, but typical bad service. Come here and be prepared to wait. Stand close to the hostess stand and while you’re waiting, grab a menu and start making notes of what you want to order.

Not worth it… their signature coffee ribs was bitter, did not like it at all, okay meat but expensive for like $ 8
It’s a mark and order dim sum place, tea was a bit too bitter for my liking, quality is not that good too, rather go to those take out dim sum places

Not a lounge.
Not a very HK tea café serving HK milk tea and wonton noodles with TVB on large LCD screens in the background.
But a solid for traditional Chinese fare, from dim sum to Koi-​shaped mango pudding to extravagant banquet menus complete with abalone.
[Part 1: Dim sum]
— Traditional: ha gaw, siu mai, turnip cake, rice noodles stuffed with beef
— Less common: steamed bean curd, and pork meat balls coated with fried rice
–No durian puff because I’m not adventurous enough for that (yet), but it is one of their specialties!
The quality and taste were legit – arguably the gold standard for dim sum in SF, though Koi Palace in Daly City supersedes in originality. I’ve never really been a fan of the hole-​in-​the-​wall take-​out dim sum places with everything premade in display cases; although significantly less costly, it takes away all the warm fuzzy family bonding time at a sit-​down restaurant and the spontaneity of the dim sum carts. HK Lounge wins as the go-​to for good conversation over good dim sum, in a traditional ambiance with round tables and tiny tea cups that need constant refilling (an excellent way to please your elders!)
[Part 2: Dinner]
Peking duck omg. Undoubtedly the highlight, and probably the primary reason for me to come back. While my all-​time favorite remains Great China in Berkeley for their epic and de-​boned Peking duck, HK Lounge does a good job with the crisp flavorful skin and succulent meat. The portion makes the price worth it, and my only complaint would be the plastic spoon for the hoisin sauce.
Other dishes are decent too:
— Chicken and corn cream soup: I was expecting Campbell’s cream of corn, but it was actually that Chinese soup with egg! Would recommend if you want a soup
— Eggplant: on point, satisfying and not too oily
— Clay pot: not bad, but in my opinion all the hodgepodge assortment loses focus
— Walnut prawns: classic and delicious, would have liked more candied walnuts
— Complimentary almond cookie: meh… lackluster but it’s complimentary and satisfies the sweet tooth
[Part 3: Other notes]
— Service is fairly professional – not the place to expect angry 1-​star tirades. For the most part, they speak Canto, Mandarin, and English
— Parking is horrendous as is expected in the Richmond
— There’s always a huge crowd waiting outside on weekends, but it’s fine if you get here before 10 or 11am (that SF loves waiting in lines Tumblr is too true)
— The tea tasted funny but it’s a minor consideration because of their epic Peking duck. I can’t stop thinking of the duck! The funny thing is, if you get duck confit at a fancy-​pants restaurant it would probably cost close to the same price for a fraction of the amount. Lesson of the day: go to HK Lounge when craving duck.

This place is one of the better dim sum restaurants inside the city of San Francisco. HK Lounge doesn’t have the ladies pushing around the dim sum carts, but instead they have a menu and pen for you to order your selection of dim sum dishes.
We ordered the honey walnut shrimp, baked BBQ pork buns, shrimp har gou, pork shu mai, shrimp and beef rice noodle dishes and the lotus-​leaf rice wraps. All of the above were delicious but what really stood out were the baked BBQ pork buns. They had sufficient pork filling inside and the exterior of the bun was baked to perfection.
Service was also great, compared to most dim-​sum restaurants. A lady came around refilling our water glasses numerous times. There were just two things that I disliked about HK Lounge. Management makes smaller parties share a table, if necessary. So there’s a chance you might share a table with another random party if the restaurant is full. This practice is common in restaurants throughout Guangzhou, China. There is also a mandatory $ 1.25 per-​person tea fee.
Street parking is hard to come by on the weekends, so leave sufficient time to find parking. If you can’t venture out to Daly City or Millabre for dim sum, Hong Kong Lounge will satisfy your cravings!

The dim sum here is top notch. Everything is extremely fresh and flavorful. You can’t go wrong with any of the dumplings. Keep in mind, the actual size of each piece of dim sum is bigger than average (another reason why they’re great!). For two people, aim to order 5 – 6 plates.
This is one of those places where the wait is worth it.