Street Eats: Try the Hong Kong-Style Milk Tea and Egg Puffs (Not the Noodles) at U-Town's HK Mai Chi Ling

You have to be determined not to like Cantonese food – the lovely dim sum, the refreshing sugary drinks, and the creamy desserts. As it’s been a while since I dipped into Beijing's other southern treats at Puffy Torch or Espressamente Illy, it was about time to re-up, which led to my discovery of the small HK Mai Chi Ling in the basement of U-Town. Don't live near Chaoyangmen? No problem, this trendy chain has 15 shops scattered across Beijing.

Located near U-Town's cinema, the restaurant is bright and decorated like an old Hong Kong street-side table-and-stool joint, with a counter to order inside, and two neglected tables that were acting more like trash cans – not a good sign. To make first impressions even worse, half of the menu was redacted, the fancier choices either never existing or the secret recipes lost to a likely neverending cast of turnover staff. Unsurprisingly, the items that made the cull were the simple classics.

RELATED: Street Eats: The Sugary Pleasure of a Puffy Egg Torch

We opted for the bestsellers: the original egg puffs (RMB 13), which were hot and crispy with a delicious creamy flavor and true to the authentic version, as well as cheaper than Espressamente Illy's rendition; and curry balls (RMB 12 for four), which were similar to the variety at Tiger Mama.

If those were going some way to winning us over, the kitchen completely dropped the ball on the Rickshaw Noodles (车仔面, chēzǎimiàn). Perhaps it was the 10-minute wait that was getting our hopes up, but the result was not all that convincing – three fish balls resting on a pile of flavorless noodles and some soup from the balls from which the balls were boiled, with no other ingredients whatsoever. I know that RMB 15 doesn’t get you much in Beijing anymore, but as a self-proclaimed “authentic” shop, the so-called Rickshaw Noodles should at least come with a little pig skin, fish balls, sirloin, carrots, vegetables, flavorful sirloin soup, satay, and curry sauce.

To add insult to injury, HK Mai Chi Ling doesn't even provide chopsticks, but instead bafflingly opts for sporks, which made the whole thing nigh impossible to eat. After several attempts of spooning, stabbing, spooning, stabbing, I weighed up my options before giving up entirely.

One saving grace was the Hong Kong-style milk tea (RMB 13), made from black tea and condensed milk. The sweetness balanced perfectly with the milk and tea, proving an even better version than Lou Jau Cha Don's tea in Sanlitun Soho. Although again, beware the strong caffeine content – this one kept me awake the whole night.

All in all, we loved the egg puffs and authentic milk tea here, but those were not enough to satiate my growling belly. At least we know what to grab before heading to the movies. To be honest, we ended up rushing to nearby The Top Best (第1佳, Dìyījiā) for a fried chicken fillet to ease our dissatisfaction. 

HK Mai Chi Ling
Daily 10am-9.30pm. B1, U-Town Shopping Mall, 2 Sanfeng Beili, Chaoyang District (8527 0644)
香港米芝莲：朝阳区三丰北里2号悠唐购物中心B1楼

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos: Tracy Wang