Wing Lai Yuen

popular with locals, this restaurant is always busy (even on weekdays), but well worth the wait. It’s technically a sichuan restaurant, but offers many shanghai specialities. My favs are the spicy dan dan noodles with meat mince (擔擔麵), shanghainese soup dumplings (xiao long bao 小籠包) & spicy eggplant /​aubergine (魚香茄子). I also love the sweet fried bread (銀絲捲) with condensed milk.
just to be clear, it’s not a comfortable restaurant. you’ll be sitting on plastic stools (a seat against the wall helps), most likely at a shared table with strangers. but for all the discomfort & potential awkwardness, you’ll be rewarded with good food and more than likely, good company. It’s a very social space; I’ve chatted with everyone from families with curious kids to delightful grandpas. The staff are very helpful & will recommend dishes, though their English is basic, at best. Menus are in both Chinese & English.

My ex-​co-​worker took me to this off the beaten path Sichuan restaurant located few minutes away from 黄大仙 station for our reunion. She used to live in this neighborhood when she was a child and this was one of her favorite restaurants back then. It’s very popular among the locals and there are hardly any foreigners. I’ve been living in China for over 6 months but this Sichuan restaurant serves more delicious food than what I had in Mainland! I especially liked their 擔擔麵 (dandanmian) and 小籠包 （this is not really 川菜 but who cares? 好吃！）, so good! 不錯！For desserts, I recommend 炸銀絲卷 (sweet fried bread which is crunchy on the outside, you eat it with a condensed milk like dip), 雷沙湯圓 (hot mochi with black sesame cream inside), and 豆沙鍋餅 (Awesome pancake with sweet red bean paste! H-​A-​O-​C-​H-​I!)
Fast, inexpensive, & delicious. Highly recommended!

Wing Lai Yuen is a Sichuanese restaurant located in Wong Tai Sin. It is a short walk from the MTR station of the same name.
This restaurant is a bit out of the way and the kind of place you wouldn’t know about unless you knew a local. I learned of this spot from my aunt who lives in HK and has brought me here for dinner a couple times.
The storefront does not have an English name so you will need to look for the Chinese title. Look for a red color sign. The restaurant interior has a feel of a hole in the wall. When you enter, grab a table if there is one open. Though be forewarned that you might need to share it if the restaurant fills up. It is best to get in early (5-​ish) before the crowd at dinner time.
There isn’t an English menu, so it helps if you come here with a Chinese speaker. But there are menu item photos plastered over the wall so you could simply point to what you want here.
The signature menu item here are their dan dan noodles. They are also a very good deal since it is just HK$ 24. This dish is spicy, though you can ask for a less spicy version but it is a bit watered down in flavor.
On my recent trip, I had a few other items in addition to the dan dan noodles and all four of them were great. They have this fried fish appetizer which are crunchy that I couldn’t get enough of.
Then there were the two Sichuanese standards, chili green beans with ground beef and ma po tofu. The green beans were nice and crisp with plenty of garlic and chili pepper. The ma po tofu was silky and comforting.
They also have xiaolongbao here which are HK$ 50 for an order of 8. For a restaurant that does not specialize in Shanghai cuisine, I thought these were quite good. Not the best I have had, but solid.
The service is great here. And the chef was quite accommodating despite all of the special requests we had. The restaurant is a bit off the beaten path, but if you are looking for good Sichuanese food, Wing Lai Yuen is worth seeking out.