It's time again as we reach 2023. A friend sent me a photo of a posted sign at the restaurant during the final week of 2022, announcing their imminent closing. A few days later, the local newspaper posted an article with details behind their 12/31/22 final service ( Thank you, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, for providing so many wonderful family and friend gathering meals. You were the pioneer of Hong Kong based restaurants to open a satellite location in the U.S. The original location that opened in the late '70's or early '80's was also on the west side of El Camino Real, closer to the San Bruno side of Millbrae. Several years later, the managing partners bought this lot and built this multi-level restaurant that became their flagship. They opened another location in San Francisco on Geary Blvd. that was also popular for many years (now operating as Hong Kong Lounge under new ownership and management). In retiring, the Mayflower group took the reins for this business eventually combining staff from the Geary and 27th Avenue staff to continue the business here. This was a popular restaurant with Hong Kong expats seeking their home cuisine, one of few large enough to host wedding and other large celebratory banquets. From annual "football banquets", my parents' anniversaries and birthdays, friend's birthday, and hosting visiting friends for dinner to random weekday morning dim sum stops, this popular spot rarely disappointed. Thank you to the staff and good luck in finding new landing spots, perhaps still with the same ownership group. For those who seek their food, they have two other locations in Milpitas ( and Dublin ( I guess the Dublin one replaced the one I remembered in Union City. It's too long of a trek for me coming from the City so, unless I'm in the area for other reasons, it'll be a while before I enjoy your food again.
Jacqueline S.
Well, it's a time for change... the long-time owner of this popular restaurant is retiring and this is the Last weekend. We wish them well... and good luck. This restaurant will RE-open in January under new management.
Catherine H.
Services are getting worse and worse. I totally understand those customers that comes a lot will always get all of theirs foods within 10-15mins after they sat down. We waited for the lobster noodles since we sat down till we asked the waiter just passed 1 hour already, unfortunately, the waiter told us that the kitchen just start cooking it. Hah! REALLY?! Are you serious? And no one to clean our empty plates too!
Kyle K.
Came here with my family for dim sum on Christmas Day and the wait was about 30-40 minutes. We walked around some shops 2 blocks away while we waited for our table. Ordering is done by a paper menu now instead of carts being rolled around; due to Covid restrictions I imagine. The food was delicious! We heard this place specialized in the green onion pancake and the steamed beef tendon and both of these items exceeded their expectations. The tendon was so soft and seasoned perfectly. On the other hand, the green onion pancake was just crispy salty goodness. We ordered some other classic dim sum items such as turnip cake, steamed bean curd, and steamed beef balls. If you're adventurous, I would suggest ordering duck tongue. It's my personal favorite. One of the waiters told us that the restaurant will be closing soon and we are very sad about that.
Jennifer W.
Came for dim sum on a weekend and arrived right as they opened at 10am, so didn't need to wait at all. There's parking right underneath their building, or in the lot right across from them. I imagine it'll fill up when they are busy/at capacity. They didn't push dim sum carts around, just handed us a menu to check items off to order. They also have set menus posted up on the walls if you are interested in that instead of dim sum. We ordered a bunch of classic dim sum dishes: shrimp dumplings (har gar), sui mai, spare ribs in black bean sauce, shrimp & chive pan fried dumplings, turnip cake, steamed sticky rice in lotus leaf, and shrimp rice noodle roll. All were solid and tasty. We also ordered a few items we don't see at every dim sum place that were all tasty as well: including baked egg yolk bun, fried bean curd wrapped shrimp rice noodle roll, and fried chinese donut wrapped in rice noodle roll. Food arrived pretty quickly, we got all our items within 15-20 minutes. We enjoyed all our dim sum items and had plenty to take home as well. Tea is per person charge, so make sure they count the number of folks in your party correctly. Interior looks pretty big (has a second story too) and they can accommodate large parties, but it does get busy. Staff was courteous but like the typical Chinese place, service isn't their main focus, though the dim sum was very enjoyable!
regis kwong
HK Flower Lounge is a solid old school Chinese Food restaurant. It offers traditional cantonese dishes and a unique culinary experiences.The flavors are authentically Hong Kong style cooking. The menu is extensive as it has some of the unique foods that you normally can only find them in Hong Kong. Like the ice vegetables cooked in clear broths, I haven’t seen this dish on any of the Chinese restaurant menus in LA. They also have Chef’s recommended dishes that are not typical dishes of Chinese restaurants in the US. In other words, if you want to explore some of the authentic Chinese dishes, this is the place to do it.The restaurant provides very good value for your money too. Although prices for its individual dishes are average, the set menus offer excellent deals. When we dined there, we ordered a set for $55 that included scallion and ginger crab, fried pigeon, ice veggie, Buddha jump over the wall soup, and fried tofu. They also threw in three desserts for us. We couldn’t finish all the food as the portions were so generous.Lastly, the service was excellent. Our waiter Jackie constantly checked on us and changed plates. He was the one who brought us the extra desserts like the red bean paste soup, wife cookies, and sponge muffin. We were so impressive with the food and the service. We definitely will bring our friends here when we visit San Francisco.
Regis K.
HK Flower Lounge is a solid old school Chinese Food restaurant. It offers traditional cantonese dishes and a unique culinary experiences. The flavors are authentically Hong Kong style cooking. The menu is extensive as it has some of the unique foods that you normally can only find them in Hong Kong. Like the ice vegetables cooked in clear broths, I haven't seen this dish on any of the Chinese restaurant menus in LA. They also have Chef's recommended dishes that are not typical dishes of Chinese restaurants in the US. In other words, if you want to explore some of the authentic Chinese dishes, this is the place to do it. The restaurant provides very good value for your money too. Although prices for its individual dishes are average, the set menus offer excellent deals. When we dined there, we ordered a set for $55 that included scallion and ginger crab, fried pigeon, ice veggie, Buddha jump over the wall soup, and fried tofu. They also threw in three desserts for us. We couldn't finish all the food as the portions were so generous. Lastly, the service was excellent. Our waiter Jackie constantly checked on us and changed plates. He was the one who brought us the extra desserts like the red bean paste soup, wife cookies, and sponge muffin. We were so impressive with the food and the service. We definitely will bring our friends here when we visit San Francisco.
Elena W.
I came to eat here a lot over the years but the quality has since gone down. I was here for dinner last Friday and service was so slow, looks like they're heavily impacted by the labor shortage. They have some inventory issues as well since they ran out of the noodles that they normally use for their beef chow fun and instead used a thinner type of noodle. Taste wise everything was fine except the red bean soup at the end, which is fine since we didn't pay for it but still feels bad to waste food. The texture was just super unpleasant, very grainy. In the past they used to do the coconut mochi and almond cookies (those were very good) but looks like they've been to busy to offer that anymore. Overall, the whole meal took so long because they were understaffed and I didn't have a particularly spectacular experience so Hong Kong Flower probably won't be my go-to Chinese restaurant for a while.
Kevin J.
Came here after a funeral on a Wednesday afternoon and it was surprisingly crowded for a weekday. We had made reservations 3 days in advance for the outdoor patio area. It's pretty nice and can hold a decent amount of people as we had around 20. 1 star for the nice outdoor area with heaters. They do have a table charge if you turn on the heaters though ($3!). They gave us the menus and we filled it out and got your normal offerings of dim sum. They don't come out with the cart since it's outside, so you just order off the menu. 2 stars because the food is really good. One of my favorites was the fried taro with meat and the durian pastry. 1 issue i have with this place that is not shocking for a Chinese restaurant. The service is horrible. I wanted to go out and get my own tea and napkins because it took ages to get anything. There is essentially no servers before or after you get your food. On top of that, they ran out of certain dishes. The other issue with this place is that it's expensive. Like really pricey. Each large dish is $20 even if it's just noodles. I didn't even want to see the bill for 20 people because I'm pretty sure it came out to be around $50-$75 per person. That's a nice steak at a fancy restaurant. Overall it's good but this is a once every 2-5 years type of place and not a place you would frequent unless you're $$$
Venus A.
Another day of yumcha day for me and husband. We used to come here before pandemic and was first time after... place still the same. dimsums and dumplings are still the same when it comes to servings and taste ( menu was updated to less choices on daytime) the only dish I can complain is the XLB..dough was tough and dry and no soup inside..I was expecting a thin layer of dough and when u poke u can see the soupy meat inside. It's Tuesday and not so much people... Service was good.
Came for a work dinner and it was a beautiful private space for a little mingling and also dinner as a large group. The food is classic Chinese food. We had so many dishes and everything was amazing. I didn't care for the lemon chicken only because it was sweet and artificial tasting. I loved everything else. Great noodles. Sweet and sour pork was 5/5! Fried rice was really good. Beef dish was also excellent and very tender. Everyone else liked the walnut prawns but I don't care for mayonnaise. Egg rolls were so good with shrimp 5/5. Cashew chicken was nice too. I was too full to do dessert but our party loved it.
Khanh L.
Very nice Cantonese restaurant. The cooking was on point, flavor was well balanced. Steamed clams, mild sauce, clams were soft not too chewy, light and fresh. Walnut prawns, walnut were crispy and prawns were sweet and just cooked, texture was soft springy. Lobster noodle had a nice garlicky flavor. Peking duck was crispy, hard to mess this dish though. My favorite though was the beef stir fry. Beef had good flavor, it was well seasoned and the veggies were crunchy. Perfect contrast.
Bill Melcher
A friend recommended this place as a dim sum spot near the airport. Our caveat is that we arrived a half hour prior to closing on a Wednesday when of course dim sum is not available. We were reluctantly seated and rushed through the meal until the bill came, when they warmed up a bit. The fried rice was a bit wet and lacked significant flavor. The honey walnut shrimp was good, as was the won ton soup. We’d have to be pretty desperate to come back and try the dim sum.
Von R.
Food overall is 4/5, they come out hot from the steamer or the kitchen. Wonderful hospitality from the servers with fast service. However overall the place seems disorganized with water all over the counter/ dripping in the water/beverage room room and papers on the floor in the bathroom, lots of boxes at the front check in desk. The wind plastic covers have no aesthetics along with red drape coming out of one tent when looking at the restaurant from the Main Street. Food is great but not sure how clean the kitchen and prep area would be given the semi-maintained conditions.
Will T.
Good food, exceptionally bad service. and thats compared to other dim sum places. Haven't experienced many rude waiters but they are completely inattentive. Expect to serve yourself. Great candidate for a dine and ditch restaurant. The outdoor dining is cool but they might charge you a $3 propane fee.
It's time again as we reach 2023. A friend sent me a photo of a posted sign at the restaurant during the final week of 2022, announcing their imminent closing. A few days later, the local newspaper posted an article with details behind their 12/31/22 final service ( Thank you, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, for providing so many wonderful family and friend gathering meals. You were the pioneer of Hong Kong based restaurants to open a satellite location in the U.S. The original location that opened in the late '70's or early '80's was also on the west side of El Camino Real, closer to the San Bruno side of Millbrae. Several years later, the managing partners bought this lot and built this multi-level restaurant that became their flagship. They opened another location in San Francisco on Geary Blvd. that was also popular for many years (now operating as Hong Kong Lounge under new ownership and management). In retiring, the Mayflower group took the reins for this business eventually combining staff from the Geary and 27th Avenue staff to continue the business here. This was a popular restaurant with Hong Kong expats seeking their home cuisine, one of few large enough to host wedding and other large celebratory banquets. From annual "football banquets", my parents' anniversaries and birthdays, friend's birthday, and hosting visiting friends for dinner to random weekday morning dim sum stops, this popular spot rarely disappointed. Thank you to the staff and good luck in finding new landing spots, perhaps still with the same ownership group. For those who seek their food, they have two other locations in Milpitas ( and Dublin ( I guess the Dublin one replaced the one I remembered in Union City. It's too long of a trek for me coming from the City so, unless I'm in the area for other reasons, it'll be a while before I enjoy your food again.
Well, it's a time for change... the long-time owner of this popular restaurant is retiring and this is the Last weekend. We wish them well... and good luck. This restaurant will RE-open in January under new management.
Services are getting worse and worse. I totally understand those customers that comes a lot will always get all of theirs foods within 10-15mins after they sat down. We waited for the lobster noodles since we sat down till we asked the waiter just passed 1 hour already, unfortunately, the waiter told us that the kitchen just start cooking it. Hah! REALLY?! Are you serious? And no one to clean our empty plates too!
Came here with my family for dim sum on Christmas Day and the wait was about 30-40 minutes. We walked around some shops 2 blocks away while we waited for our table. Ordering is done by a paper menu now instead of carts being rolled around; due to Covid restrictions I imagine. The food was delicious! We heard this place specialized in the green onion pancake and the steamed beef tendon and both of these items exceeded their expectations. The tendon was so soft and seasoned perfectly. On the other hand, the green onion pancake was just crispy salty goodness. We ordered some other classic dim sum items such as turnip cake, steamed bean curd, and steamed beef balls. If you're adventurous, I would suggest ordering duck tongue. It's my personal favorite. One of the waiters told us that the restaurant will be closing soon and we are very sad about that.
Came for dim sum on a weekend and arrived right as they opened at 10am, so didn't need to wait at all. There's parking right underneath their building, or in the lot right across from them. I imagine it'll fill up when they are busy/at capacity. They didn't push dim sum carts around, just handed us a menu to check items off to order. They also have set menus posted up on the walls if you are interested in that instead of dim sum. We ordered a bunch of classic dim sum dishes: shrimp dumplings (har gar), sui mai, spare ribs in black bean sauce, shrimp & chive pan fried dumplings, turnip cake, steamed sticky rice in lotus leaf, and shrimp rice noodle roll. All were solid and tasty. We also ordered a few items we don't see at every dim sum place that were all tasty as well: including baked egg yolk bun, fried bean curd wrapped shrimp rice noodle roll, and fried chinese donut wrapped in rice noodle roll. Food arrived pretty quickly, we got all our items within 15-20 minutes. We enjoyed all our dim sum items and had plenty to take home as well. Tea is per person charge, so make sure they count the number of folks in your party correctly. Interior looks pretty big (has a second story too) and they can accommodate large parties, but it does get busy. Staff was courteous but like the typical Chinese place, service isn't their main focus, though the dim sum was very enjoyable!
HK Flower Lounge is a solid old school Chinese Food restaurant. It offers traditional cantonese dishes and a unique culinary experiences.The flavors are authentically Hong Kong style cooking. The menu is extensive as it has some of the unique foods that you normally can only find them in Hong Kong. Like the ice vegetables cooked in clear broths, I haven’t seen this dish on any of the Chinese restaurant menus in LA. They also have Chef’s recommended dishes that are not typical dishes of Chinese restaurants in the US. In other words, if you want to explore some of the authentic Chinese dishes, this is the place to do it.The restaurant provides very good value for your money too. Although prices for its individual dishes are average, the set menus offer excellent deals. When we dined there, we ordered a set for $55 that included scallion and ginger crab, fried pigeon, ice veggie, Buddha jump over the wall soup, and fried tofu. They also threw in three desserts for us. We couldn’t finish all the food as the portions were so generous.Lastly, the service was excellent. Our waiter Jackie constantly checked on us and changed plates. He was the one who brought us the extra desserts like the red bean paste soup, wife cookies, and sponge muffin. We were so impressive with the food and the service. We definitely will bring our friends here when we visit San Francisco.
HK Flower Lounge is a solid old school Chinese Food restaurant. It offers traditional cantonese dishes and a unique culinary experiences. The flavors are authentically Hong Kong style cooking. The menu is extensive as it has some of the unique foods that you normally can only find them in Hong Kong. Like the ice vegetables cooked in clear broths, I haven't seen this dish on any of the Chinese restaurant menus in LA. They also have Chef's recommended dishes that are not typical dishes of Chinese restaurants in the US. In other words, if you want to explore some of the authentic Chinese dishes, this is the place to do it. The restaurant provides very good value for your money too. Although prices for its individual dishes are average, the set menus offer excellent deals. When we dined there, we ordered a set for $55 that included scallion and ginger crab, fried pigeon, ice veggie, Buddha jump over the wall soup, and fried tofu. They also threw in three desserts for us. We couldn't finish all the food as the portions were so generous. Lastly, the service was excellent. Our waiter Jackie constantly checked on us and changed plates. He was the one who brought us the extra desserts like the red bean paste soup, wife cookies, and sponge muffin. We were so impressive with the food and the service. We definitely will bring our friends here when we visit San Francisco.
I came to eat here a lot over the years but the quality has since gone down. I was here for dinner last Friday and service was so slow, looks like they're heavily impacted by the labor shortage. They have some inventory issues as well since they ran out of the noodles that they normally use for their beef chow fun and instead used a thinner type of noodle. Taste wise everything was fine except the red bean soup at the end, which is fine since we didn't pay for it but still feels bad to waste food. The texture was just super unpleasant, very grainy. In the past they used to do the coconut mochi and almond cookies (those were very good) but looks like they've been to busy to offer that anymore. Overall, the whole meal took so long because they were understaffed and I didn't have a particularly spectacular experience so Hong Kong Flower probably won't be my go-to Chinese restaurant for a while.
Came here after a funeral on a Wednesday afternoon and it was surprisingly crowded for a weekday. We had made reservations 3 days in advance for the outdoor patio area. It's pretty nice and can hold a decent amount of people as we had around 20. 1 star for the nice outdoor area with heaters. They do have a table charge if you turn on the heaters though ($3!). They gave us the menus and we filled it out and got your normal offerings of dim sum. They don't come out with the cart since it's outside, so you just order off the menu. 2 stars because the food is really good. One of my favorites was the fried taro with meat and the durian pastry. 1 issue i have with this place that is not shocking for a Chinese restaurant. The service is horrible. I wanted to go out and get my own tea and napkins because it took ages to get anything. There is essentially no servers before or after you get your food. On top of that, they ran out of certain dishes. The other issue with this place is that it's expensive. Like really pricey. Each large dish is $20 even if it's just noodles. I didn't even want to see the bill for 20 people because I'm pretty sure it came out to be around $50-$75 per person. That's a nice steak at a fancy restaurant. Overall it's good but this is a once every 2-5 years type of place and not a place you would frequent unless you're $$$
Another day of yumcha day for me and husband. We used to come here before pandemic and was first time after... place still the same. dimsums and dumplings are still the same when it comes to servings and taste ( menu was updated to less choices on daytime) the only dish I can complain is the XLB..dough was tough and dry and no soup inside..I was expecting a thin layer of dough and when u poke u can see the soupy meat inside. It's Tuesday and not so much people... Service was good.
Restaurantji Recommends
Came for a work dinner and it was a beautiful private space for a little mingling and also dinner as a large group. The food is classic Chinese food. We had so many dishes and everything was amazing. I didn't care for the lemon chicken only because it was sweet and artificial tasting. I loved everything else. Great noodles. Sweet and sour pork was 5/5! Fried rice was really good. Beef dish was also excellent and very tender. Everyone else liked the walnut prawns but I don't care for mayonnaise. Egg rolls were so good with shrimp 5/5. Cashew chicken was nice too. I was too full to do dessert but our party loved it.
Very nice Cantonese restaurant. The cooking was on point, flavor was well balanced. Steamed clams, mild sauce, clams were soft not too chewy, light and fresh. Walnut prawns, walnut were crispy and prawns were sweet and just cooked, texture was soft springy. Lobster noodle had a nice garlicky flavor. Peking duck was crispy, hard to mess this dish though. My favorite though was the beef stir fry. Beef had good flavor, it was well seasoned and the veggies were crunchy. Perfect contrast.
A friend recommended this place as a dim sum spot near the airport. Our caveat is that we arrived a half hour prior to closing on a Wednesday when of course dim sum is not available. We were reluctantly seated and rushed through the meal until the bill came, when they warmed up a bit. The fried rice was a bit wet and lacked significant flavor. The honey walnut shrimp was good, as was the won ton soup. We’d have to be pretty desperate to come back and try the dim sum.
Food overall is 4/5, they come out hot from the steamer or the kitchen. Wonderful hospitality from the servers with fast service. However overall the place seems disorganized with water all over the counter/ dripping in the water/beverage room room and papers on the floor in the bathroom, lots of boxes at the front check in desk. The wind plastic covers have no aesthetics along with red drape coming out of one tent when looking at the restaurant from the Main Street. Food is great but not sure how clean the kitchen and prep area would be given the semi-maintained conditions.
Good food, exceptionally bad service. and thats compared to other dim sum places. Haven't experienced many rude waiters but they are completely inattentive. Expect to serve yourself. Great candidate for a dine and ditch restaurant. The outdoor dining is cool but they might charge you a $3 propane fee.