I found this particular restaurant via another blogger who referenced an article from the NY Times talking about the little speak easy restaurants that are cropping up all over Hong Kong. You can tell it’s a popular location with locals by the large numbers that stream in for lunch, and my guess is that is becoming more popular with visitors as word spreads of this hidden gem, nestled in the heart of the ex-pat heavy Lan Kwai Fong. I went for lunch and arriving there at noon when the place opens is a good idea as it fills up quickly, and dinner requiring prior reservation.

The concept of this restaurant is simple – freshly made, hand pulled noodles and dumplings combined with the fierce spicy sauces of home-style Sichuan cooking. You place your order by putting numbers against a small slip of yellow paper. Thankfully they are considerate enough to have an English menu, giving you a great game of matching Chinese characters and prices, but dish names like Yibin Noodles and Tan Tan Noodles still didn’t really help me work out what I was actually ordering. Nevertheless I thought it would be fun ordering something I had no clue about and so ordered the Yibin Noodles.

The owners decorated the restaurant appropriately with many traditional style art pieces and paintings decorating its walls. Plastic tablecloths drape the small number of tables scattered across the room, but don’t hold that against the wonderful food that arrives quickly. Each table is also equipped with various cups chopsticks, straws, napkins, and toothpicks as well as little jugs of soy sauce just in case.

Someone who I could assume as one of the owners (perhaps Mum Chau herself?) soon brought one of the largest servings of noodles to my table. It was accompanied by a plate of what later tasted like Sugarloaf Cabbage stir friend with chillis. I found the Yibin noodles, though difficult to describe in flavour had a great balance of flavours with enough kick to give it a bit of an edge and the noodles themselves tasting as if they had just been formed and cooked. The noodles definitely had peanuts and sesame oil, but there were several other layers there but I couldn’t quite identify them.

Details: Mum Chau’s Sichuan Kitchen
Found On: Floor 5 of the Winner Building, 37 D’Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
Contactable On: (852) 8108-8550
Highlights: Authentic fresh noodles and dumplings. Apparently a mean dinner set as well.
The Kua Rating:8 out of 10