Temple Street is usually featured in lots of HK gangster movies like the Young & Dangerous Series. If you are visiting Temple Street in street in search of that kind of adventure you will be disappointed. Most tourists nowadays visit Temple Street in search of the Dai Pai Dong style fare. Hubby and I were in the neighborhood because I wanted to eat at a famous congee place nearby and we ended up eating a second dinner at the stand pictured below:
We proceeded to order 2 large-sized mantis shrimps, a plate of spicy shrimp on a stick and beer. Hubby and I are usually teetotalers, but this time we ordered a beer to kill some of the bacteria that would be surely lurking in a restaurant with oily floors and oily sidewalks.
The order of the shrimps consisted of around 10 medium-sized shrimps. Good but not great. At $90 HKD ($12USD) definitely not cheap for hawker styled fare. Cannot find my picture of the mantis shrimps but they cost around $90 HKD as well.
The beer was definitley cheap though at only $25HKD ($3USD) for such a large bottle, but there were even cheaper ones! Check out the $15HKD beer in the poster in the picture. I can’t tell you the quality as all beer tastes the same to me except for the fruit flavored ones. Hubby and I choose to sit inside because it was over 90 degrees when we went, even at 8pm at night.
Eating street side on a hot muggy night with smokers puffing away is not my idea of a good time. The food is not bad, but food is generally not bad anywhere in HK. Also it is not cheap if you order seafood. We spent around $200HKD($27USD) for 3 dishes and if it was not for our previous meal, we would have needed a carb dish and a vegetable dish to fill up.
With that said, it is a prime example of a classic Dai Pai Dong. I would go there to check it out, but skip on actually dining there. Or at least dine somewhere with AC. But then again, I am not a beer drinker and I am sure that cheap alcohol is a huge selling point at these places.
Temple street, MTR stop Jordan exit A and follow the signs.
I have never thought of consuming alcohol to kill unsavoury bacteria at such places, but it totally makes sense! Shame that neither hubby nor I are alcohol drinkers (I’m allergic to alcohol), and it’s just as well because we usually avoid dining at these kind of places when we eat out with our 3-year-old.
It is not kid or allergy friendly. =)
I deal well with alchol, no Asian flush or anything but I only like the girly drinks. Hubby, on the other hand is allergic and gets hives so we steer clear of alchol. Which is good because dining out is not as expensive.
Forgot to mention there are these girls with skimpy branded outfits whose sole job is to sell alcohol. Must work since all the places there have them.