Old Fung Tea House: Must-Try Retro Dim Sum in Tai Po

A Step Back in Time

Walk into Old Fung Tea House and the food is not the first thing you notice. It is the room. Hand-painted shop signs from vanished Hong Kong businesses cover the walls: a mountain goods store (錦華記山貨店), a tailor’s workshop, a badminton club on Nelson Street. Red pendant lamps hang above round marble tables. Bamboo birdcages, vintage enamel basins, and rooster-patterned bowls (公雞碗) line every shelf. The whole space is built to feel like a neighbourhood street from 1960s Hong Kong, back when tea houses were the living rooms of the community.

This is not a theme restaurant chasing nostalgia for Instagram. Old Fung Tea House (老馮茶居) has built a loyal following across Hong Kong by doing two things right: handmade dim sum at honest prices, and an atmosphere that makes regulars feel like they are back in their grandparents’ tea house. The Tai Po branch sits inside Treasure Garden (海寶花園) on On Chee Road, serving the surrounding residential neighbourhood seven days a week from 7:30 in the morning. On weekends, expect a queue. Twenty minutes is normal. That should tell you something.

What to Order (and What to Order First)

The menu is classic Cantonese dim sum with a few house specialties that keep people returning week after week. Start with the Old Fung Fresh Shrimp Dumplings (老馮鮮蝦餃). Hand-pleated wrappers, thin enough to see through, with whole prawns that snap when you bite into them. The difference between these and the factory-made versions at chain restaurants is not subtle.

The restaurant’s signature, though, is the Lava Taro Paste Bun (流沙芋泥包). Tear it open gently. The purple taro centre, mixed with salted egg yolk, oozes out like lava. It is one of the most photographed items on the menu for good reason. The Traditional Beef Balls (古法牛肉球) are another standout: made without baking soda, so instead of that bouncy, processed texture you get elsewhere, these have genuine bite with visible chunks of meat. The kitchen makes them fresh each morning, and once the batch is gone, it is gone.

Worth trying: the Fresh Shrimp Tofu Skin Roll (鮮蝦腐皮卷) for its crispy wrapper, the Crab Roe Siu Mai (蟹子燒賣皇) for sheer generosity of filling, and the Taro Puff (芋角) with its crispy shell and warm, packed interior. For something you will not find easily elsewhere, the Five-Spice Fried Wontons (五柳炸雲吞) are a retro dish that has mostly disappeared from modern dim sum menus, served here with a tangy sweet-and-sour sauce that feels like a time capsule.

The full menu runs to over 50 items on a single laminated sheet that doubles as your order form. The Steamed Rice Rolls (腸粉) come in several variations, including spring onion with dried shrimp (蔥花蝦米腸) and a vegetarian mixed-vegetable version (羅漢齋腸粉). For dessert, skip the usual suspects and go for the Malay Sponge Cake (馬拉糕), steamed to order rather than sitting in a warmer, or the Osmanthus Cake (桂花糕) if you prefer something lighter and floral.

The Dim Sum Experience

Old Fung runs on a paper order slip system: mark your choices, hand it to staff, and food starts arriving fast. Most items fall between HK$16 and $38, making this one of the most affordable sit-down dim sum spots in the New Territories. No 10% service charge, which is increasingly rare for a full-service restaurant in Hong Kong. The only extra is a tea charge of HK$6 per person for unlimited refills.

The rooster bowls and cups (公雞碗) are a nice detail. These hand-painted ceramics were once standard in every Hong Kong household and are now collector items. Using them here is not just decoration but a quiet reminder of how tea houses used to operate.

The vibe is deliberately no-frills: paper menus, quick turnover, families with children, elderly couples who clearly have been coming for years. This is not a refined afternoon tea. It is a proper neighbourhood tea house where the food does the talking and nobody is trying to impress anyone. Vegetarian options are limited (mainly rice rolls, custard buns, Malay sponge cake, and osmanthus cake), so plan ahead if dining with non-meat eaters.

Getting There (and Why Tai Po Is Worth the Trip)

The Tai Po branch is at Shop 14, G/F, Treasure Garden, 1 On Chee Road (大埔安慈路1號海寶花園地下14號舖). Nearest MTR: Tai Wo Station (太和站) on the East Rail Line, about 11 minutes on foot. From Central or Tsim Sha Tsui, the East Rail Line takes 40 to 50 minutes. Street parking is limited, but there is a public car park on Heung Sze Wui Street.

The surrounding neighbourhood is worth the early start: a wet market, several local eateries, and Tai Po Waterfront Park and the historic Tai Po Market are all within walking distance. Arrive before 9am on weekends, grab dim sum, then spend the rest of the morning exploring. It makes for a better Saturday than most people realise.

Old Fung now operates six branches across Hong Kong: the original in Yuen Long (大棠路), a second Yuen Long location on Sai Ching Street, plus Tsuen Wan, Tai Po, Mong Kok (inside The Forest at 17 Nelson Street), and Tseung Kwan O. The Mong Kok branch is the most convenient for visitors, but for the full neighbourhood tea house experience, the Tai Po and Yuen Long branches are the ones to visit. If you are exploring dim sum across the border, Old Fung offers a distinctly Hong Kong contrast to Shenzhen’s Cantonese teahouses. For another New Territories heritage food spot, Wing Nin in Yuen Long has been serving cart noodles with a secret curry-spice broth for over 60 years.

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