The Best Hong Kong-Style Cafes In NYC

With their diner-like atmospheres, sprawling menus of affordable comfort food and—most importantly—strong, creamy milk tea, Hong Kong-style tea restaurants have become a staple of NYC. Melding Cantonese and Western cuisines, cha chaan tengs originated in the 1950s, during the British administration of Hong Kong. Decades later, shiny new cafes with increasingly photogenic lava toasts and bear-shaped foods keep popping up around New York, joining older cha chaan tengs with budget breakfast sets that are still worth seeking out. For spam sandwiches, cart noodles, and glasses of 7 UP with salty preserved lemons, here's where to go.

THE SPOTS

Kong Sihk Tong

Kong Sihk Tong in Flushing is a big, pastel-and-neon wonderland of Hong Kong-style food. The breakfast sets are all under $10, making it perfect for a casual morning meal, or lunch when you want to hang out for a while without spending a ton of money. The salted egg yolk lava french toast is our favorite dish, but the beef satay instant noodle soup is a close second. They also make the best milk tea around. On weekends, expect to wait a while for a table if you don’t get there before 10am. Kong Sihk Tong has another location in Chinatown that is cash-only.

Mabu Cafe

Everything at this Chinatown cafe is over the top, from tables made of mahjong tiles to the teddy bear-shaped ice that comes with your milk tea. The oversized menu has a dizzying array of cha chaan teng classics, like a salted egg yolk french toast topped with a heap of pork floss, baked macaroni casseroles, and souped-up instant noodles. Mabu Cafe doesn’t take reservations, and you’ll probably have to wait in a line, but it’s worth it for the fun, photogenic food that actually tastes good.

Kowloon Cafe

Located in Bensonhurst’s Chinatown , this cha chaan teng is dark, loud, and almost always packed—a good sign. Come here solo for a quick $7.50 breakfast set, or with other people for their baked rice casseroles. The HK staple involves fried rice, topped with a generous serving of sauce, chopped meat, and tons of melted cheese, before being baked into a gooey casserole that has the same effect on your body as a weighted blanket. We like the Portuguese chicken baked rice, which has a coconut curry sauce on top instead of the tomato-based varieties.

Sing NYC

Bring a buddy with you to the West Village location of this international chain. They do two-person combos for around $50, which come with an appetizer, two entrees, a dessert, and two beverages. It’s a good deal for some decent renditions of HK food—we especially like the fried shumai, slippery eggs with Malaysian curry chicken, and french toast covered in ovaltine powder. The place sort of looks like a mini cafeteria, with an open kitchen and iPad stands, but you can still have a cute date or meet-up here, with adorable bear-shaped ice cubes and Pepto-pink strawberry toast.

Fok Noodles

We go to Fok Noodles, formerly known as E Noodle, when we want to get our fill of HK-style cart noodles. Head to Chinatown, past their cramped front counter on Catherine St. and through a silver door, where you’ll find a room that sort of looks like a makeshift preschool with pastel murals on the wall. Then, it’s playtime. After you choose between four types of noodles—egg, rice, ramen, or udon—and load them up with toppings like roast pork, wontons, and fish balls.

M Star Cafe

Many of the spots on this list are part of a new, flashier wave of cha chaan tengs, where the food is just as social media friendly as it is tasty. But when we just want a basic breakfast set, we head to this old-school cafe on Division Street in Chinatown. They’re available until 11am, and cost $7.75 for a couple dishes and a milk tea or coffee. Our go-to is Set C, which comes with buttered toast and macaroni and ham. Getting a table can be tricky during peak hours, but they have a quick turnover.

Cha Cha Tang

This West Village restaurant isn’t exactly a cha chaan teng in the traditional sense. They're not open for breakfast, and they serve their spam macaroni soup, cheesy pork chops, and siu mai in a semi-formal dining room with pink tablecloths and a wine list. The food is beautifully plated, and brought to you by a server in a red counter jacket. You will spend a lot more here than at an actual cafe, but the upgrades are worth it, because that soup has fancy spam wontons, the pork chop is chophouse-perfect, and you won’t find anything like these skewered pineapple siu mai elsewhere. Come here for a low-key birthday dinner.