Kam Tung Kitchen

Kam Tung Kitchen does not feel like a restaurant chasing attention. Instead, it feels like stepping into a story still being told. Opened in 1990 as a humble canteen for fishermen in Shau Kei Wan, it has grown into one of the last places in Hong Kong where the cooking of the Tanka, Hong Kong’s historic boat-dwelling community, still lives on the table. Here, preservation is not a trend but a necessity inherited from life at sea. Salted fish, fermented shrimp paste and sun-dried seafood anchor the menu, flavours that once allowed families to stretch the ocean’s bounty through storms and long journeys. Those traditions appear vividly in dishes like the deeply savoury salted fish pot or golden sea urchin toast, created as a tribute to the chef’s father who once harvested urchins from local waters. Meanwhile, stir-fried clams with pork liver and vermicelli transform a grandmother’s nourishing tonic into something briny, silky and quietly restorative.

Tatler Tip

For a deeper dive into the family’s culinary heritage, book The Treasure upstairs, where the Po family present a meal based on chef’s choice with each dish explained like a chapter of their history.