Islamic Centre Canteen

Getting a plate of siu mai at Islamic Centre Canteen starts with a card. Diners collect one at the door, carry it to a small dim sum station near the kitchen, and choose from steamers kept warm along the counter before the card is stamped and settled at the end of the meal, a system closer to what you would find in an older-style Hong Kong tea house than a modern restaurant.

The canteen occupies the fifth floor of Masjid Ammar and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre on Oi Kwan Road in Wan Chai, and the food is Cantonese with pork removed from the standard repertoire and chicken or beef used in its place. Dim sum here includes chicken siu mai, shrimp dumplings, steamed and pan-fried buns filled with minced chicken, and beef samosas, most priced in the HKD13 to 23 range, well below what the same dishes would cost in a hotel dim sum room. Beyond the trolley, the kitchen turns out a rotating list of stir-fries, soups, curries and a crispy fried chicken that regulars order alongside their dim sum rather than as a separate meal. On Fridays, a curry dish is served free of charge to worshippers attending prayers at the mosque downstairs, a practice tied to the building's role as a place of worship rather than a marketing gesture.

The space itself is functional rather than decorative, built for turnover and volume, and it draws a mix of mosque congregants, office workers from nearby Wan Chai, and visitors who have sought it out after reading about it online. Because the Islamic Centre grants the canteen its space on condition that prices stay fixed and affordable, the food remains some of the cheapest Cantonese cooking available on Hong Kong Island. Lunch is the busier and more atmospheric service, when the dim sum trolley is in full swing, while dinner tends to be quieter. During the day, meals pause briefly when the call to prayer sounds from the mosque, with diners and staff stepping away before returning to finish their food. The canteen sits roughly 600 metres from both Wan Chai and Causeway Bay MTR stations, reachable on foot from either exit, though modest dress is expected of visitors entering the building.