Lung King Heen
For Lung King Heen's opening menu in 2005, Chan Yan-tak made fried rice out of orzo pasta and tossed it in XO sauce.
Why go
The Four Seasons built Lung King Heen around one cook, Chan Yan-tak.2 He started work at 14, carrying dim sum in a big basket from table to table in a teahouse. He moved on to Fook Lam Moon, a kitchen he remembers for its premium ingredients, and opened Lai Ching Heen at the Regent in 1984. When his wife died in 1999, he stayed home to cook for his 13-year-old daughter and iron her school uniform.1 Alan Tsui, a colleague from the Regent who became general manager of the Four Seasons project, persuaded him to come back for the hotel's new Cantonese room, on the fourth floor over Victoria Harbour.2 In the first MICHELIN guide to Hong Kong and Macau it became the first Chinese restaurant to win three stars. It kept them for fourteen years and has held two since 2023.12
Chan told the South China Morning Post in 2022 that he cared more about heat than looks: I'm not the type to focus too much on the presentation of dishes because by the time you serve them, the food is cold. The food has to arrive piping hot.
He put the three stars down to the owners telling him to buy good ingredients, and to a kitchen he could staff and pay well, with cooks who had been with him since the 1980s.1 SCMP's 100 Top Tables named him executive Chinese chef in its 2026 guide, overseeing the menu.4
Come at lunch for the dim sum, and order the dish Chan created for the opening. We needed new dim sum dishes so I created the baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken,
he said.1 A diner posting as moonboy403 on the Food Talk Central forum ate it in December 2018: Imagine the best ever chicken and mushroom tart with a supremely buttery and delicate pastry crust,
with the abalone set on top.7 Order the baked barbecued pork buns with pine nuts beside it. Darin, a California food blogger, ate them in March 2016 and wrote that they may have been the best bbq pork buns I've ever had.
6 Agustin Balbi, the chef at Andō, named Lung King Heen's char siu (Cantonese barbecued pork) his top choice in Hong Kong in 2023.8 Darin paid more for this lunch than for any dim sum before it, yet found the food very good, though nothing mind-blowing by any means.
Apart from some premium ingredients, he rated it little better than the dim sum at Tim Ho Wan.6
Epicurus, who writes the Hong Kong restaurant blog Epicurus's List, ate dinner here a la carte for two in August 2026 and paid HK$3,600. The wok-fried sea cucumber with leeks in abalone sauce came slathered in the rich sauce with plenty of wok hei
(the breath of the wok). The waiter halved their order of fried rice. Epicurus preferred Lung King Heen to Lai Ching Heen, Tin Lung Heen and three-starred T'ang Court, and found the bill far lower than I expected given the ingredients and the setting.
The verdict: This was one of the best Chinese meals I had this year.
2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken. Darin found
plenty of abalone in this buttery tart
in 2016.6 - Order: the baked barbecued pork buns with pine nuts. Tatler's 2026 listing:
the sweet crust and smoky filling striking a satisfying balance.
3 - Order: the superior pottage with shredded chicken. moonboy403 in 2018:
It's the best chicken soup ever. My only complaint is that the shredded chicken is a bit overcooked.
7 - Order: the steamed lobster dumpling in fermented bean sauce, one to a steamer basket. moonboy403 in 2018:
almost the whole thing is filled with tender but snappy lobster that's flavored with just a hint of the fermented bean sauce.
7 - Order: the fried puntalette, Chan's orzo fried like rice with minced beef in XO sauce. Tatler in 2026:
tiny grains of pasta tossed in savoury heat.
3 - Order: the fish maw casserole at dinner, with abalone, shrimp, scallops and shiitake in an oyster and abalone sauce. Epicurus called it one of the restaurant's most famous dishes in 2026.2
- Drink: Chinese tea. Tatler's 2026 tip: ask the staff to talk you through the Chinese teas, since several
pair naturally with the menu
. Epicurus had a Lapsang Souchong smoked over pine needles, washed and brewed at the table.32
What locals & experts say
- MICHELIN Guide (2025):
Dim sum lunch is a delight; so is their hearty double-boiled soups brimming with ingredients.
5 - South China Morning Post, 100 Top Tables (2026):
remains a benchmark for high-end Cantonese, even if one star has been lost due to Michelin's vagaries.
4 - Dan Hong, the Sydney chef (2024): on Forum for dim sum:
Either there or Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons. Those two are my top two [spots] for dim sum.
9 - Jade Lau, the Hong Kong bartender (2024): asked where she goes for wine:
Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons Hong Kong – the sommelier there is very nice and professional.
10 - The Infatuation (2016):
For a super high-end take on Cantonese, Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons does it best. There's a view, plenty of white tablecloths, and a menu the size of a novel.
11 - Award: MICHELIN two stars, 2026. Tatler Best Spotlight, 2026.23
Good to know
- Price: about HK$2,000 a head (SCMP, 2026). The weekday yum cha set menus cost 920 and 1,680 Hong Kong dollars a head, read in September 2026. Corkage runs HK$400 to HK$1,500.413
- Timing: lunch and dinner.5
- Booking: tell the restaurant about dietary restrictions when you book.12
- The window: Tatler says the harbour view
does much of the talking when you first sit down
; moonboy403 found the window seatnot much of a view compared to Tin Lung Heen
across the water.37 - Families and groups: a children's menu, one private room and vegetarian dishes (SCMP, 2026).4
- Where: 4/F, Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, 8 Finance Street, Central.5
Verdict
should-visit — Go at lunch for the dim sum, above all the abalone tart Chan Yan-tak created for the opening and the pine-nut pork bun, in the Four Seasons room that was the first Chinese restaurant to hold three MICHELIN stars. Expect about HK$2,000 a head. One 2016 eater found the dim sum no great step up from Tim Ho Wan's apart from the premium ingredients, and a 2026 eater rated the dinner above Lai Ching Heen's and T'ang Court's.