Mak's Noodle
Mak's Noodle serves its wonton noodles in a small bowl, the way they were served when, as Jeremy Li of the company puts it, they were "a rich person's snack between meals."
Why go
Mak King-hung founded Mak's as a street stall in Central in 1968 and opened a shop in 1989, by the company's own account to the South China Morning Post in 2024.1 His father, Mak Woon-chi, was known in Guangzhou in the 1920s as the king of wonton noodles.
1 By 2024 the business ran 12 shops in Hong Kong. Li says it still makes its own noodles and wonton skins in its factory.1 Li says Mak's was the first to create a wonton recipe with shrimp and no minced pork.
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Treat the bowl as a snack. Jennifer Che ate it at the Ocean Terminal branch in Tsim Sha Tsui in 2017 and called it more like an appetizer soup with two medium-sized wontons.
3 She liked the noodles very al dente (more al dente than the ones at Tsim Chai Kee), almost to the point of being 'crunchy' but in a pleasant way.
3 Her one complaint was the broth: a bit too alkaline.
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Other wonton shops carry the Mak name and are separate businesses. Mak Man Kee in Jordan belongs to a cousin's family. Mak An Kee on Wing Kut Street is the one the Sydney chef Dan Hong named as his favorite in 2024.16 The Wellington Street shop is the one to walk to. Jess Basser Sanders wrote in The Infatuation in 2016: We're partial to the Wellington St location in Central (the family business has a few outlets both in Hong Kong and Singapore), where the service might be grumpy, but you can happily slurp through a bowl (or two) with both tourists and locals.
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Order this / avoid
- Order: the shrimp wonton and beef brisket noodles. Foodie, 2026:
Their star dish is the signature shrimp wonton & beef brisket noodles, which carry that essential toothsome texture with the bouncy and slightly-sour noodles, plus a handful of plump wontons bathing in their warm soup.
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What locals & experts say
- Luke Nguyen, chef (2018):
A place that I find is really consistent, I think it's called Mak's Noodle. So I eat there all the time – breakfast, lunch or dinner.
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Good to know
- Price: HK$40 a bowl at the Ocean Terminal branch in December 2017.3
- Timing: open every day, from late morning into the evening.7
- Payment: cash, Octopus, cards, Alipay and WeChat Pay.7
- Where: G/F, 77 Wellington Street, Central. Tsim Chai Kee, on the same street, is a different business.73
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Chain of local wonton places, famous"
Verdict
could-visit — Stop in for a small bowl of shrimp wonton noodles as a snack between meals, the way the family says wonton noodles used to be eaten. The Wellington Street shop is the one The Infatuation prefers, grumpy service and all. The bowl is small, and one eater at the Ocean Terminal branch found the broth too alkaline.