I frequent the Dawang Lu branch. The food is good, prompt service for me most of the time (prob because I'm a regular customer). Choice of food is ok, but not too wide a variety. They harp most on the MSG free in their dishes, which seems that the restaurant is aiming for a 'healthy food' positioning. Somehow, this contradicts to the environment of the restaurant. I mean, it's stated as a fully smoke-free restaurant but it's not. It seems every customers are free to smoke in there.

It would be an ideal place for family dining if it's TRULY SMOKE FREE!

PS: Btw, the listing in TheBeijinger says it's a smoke free restaurant, and it's not. Some error there.

Small portions, frozen ready made dim sum that you can buy at any store and steam yourself at home. Tons of MSG, I mean literally tons. The thirst afterwards and my friend's headache spoke of MSG poisoning. The meat in the beef stew was the worst cuts of meats anyone can buy.

The Shai Mai was exactly what you would find in the ready made frozen food section at the supermarkets. The soups were way over done, cloudy and had a taste of being over cooked under high heat.

Cantonese soups that are meant to be cooked slowly over a low flame were instead boiled to death for hours obviously to cover up the substandard ingredients and too much water. If a soup is boiled under high heat to extract the flavor, the soup becomes cloudy as at Herbal Cafe. If a soup is slowly simmered under slow low heat, the soups come out clear and savory. This was not the case at MSG Cafe.

I would not go back even if they paid me. The food was so bad, the service so sloppy that I would rather eat at a dive with no restroom than this fake HK style cafe.

I will not go back, avoid like a disease.

Subpar over cooked herbal soups that are served from a Thermos, miniscule dishes meant for Keebler Elves. Shrimp Wonton that had shrimp that had not been deveined yet. Sub Par stews and meats. The Dim Sim had the taste and texture of frozen ready made dim sum. The Beef Brisket Stew was bizarre.

This is not Hong Kong food as they bill it to be. I've eaten at dives in Hong Kong and they were 1,000 times better than HB.

A really sad and pathetic experience, its not a wonder why the place is loved by locals. The locals in Beijing know nothing of food as I am begining to notice.

And yes the place does use tons of MSG in the food. The headache I had afterwards spoke greatly of MSG poisoning.

The Sanlitun branch of this place seems to have garnered a lot of negative reviews. I've only eaten at the Dawang Lu branch, and have found it to be pretty good.

The food was fairly light and low on oil, which I like. The dumplings were delicious.

The two main issues are the size of the dishes and the service. The prices are a little above average for a Beijing Chinese restaurant, while the size of the dishes are smaller than average.

The staff are very friendly and polite but a bit hopeless. Today we ordered four dishes and they came one at a time, with about 15 minutes between each dish. We had to ask for the final item on our order three times before it came. It was nice when it finally arrived however!

To be honest I've become so numb to hopeless service after a couple of years in Beijing it doesn't overly bother me any more.

One final warning - you often have to wait for a table here at lunch time. Although I haven't been at night, I imagine it's probably busy then too.

Took a while for this place to grow on me (and i still find the menu really difficult to navigate) but it does have it's merits -- the dim sum items on the menu are good, as is the congee and wonton soup. It's the desserts (some might call them sweetened drinks) that really make the place -- the items like sago with mango and coconut ... delicious! Extra points for getting it served with ice in the dead of winter (some places will only sell it warm when the cold weather comes around -- it's just not as refreshing when it's warm).

I have been in the new Sanlitun shop last night. The surroundings are nice and the sofas quite comfortable, but that's it about this place. I don't know about the soups, but I wasn't really satisfied with the food I have ordered. I have to agree with the other review saying that their claim of not putting much oil is false. I got a "Singapore Style Vermicelli", decent but still greasy, a "Signature Minced Pork Pie", have to admit pretty good, and another dish which I don't recall the name: it had some mushrooms, dried shrimps and some kind of melon in it, under my expectations.

The service? No comment...they seem to be in a rush, but without reason, since the place wasn't full.

This place is a HK style Cha Can Ting.

I know the Wanda outlet well, and have been something like 20 to 30 times.

For this style of restaurant, the food is slightly above average standard, and the prices are above average too.

The service is well below average, I often have to wait for a long time for parts of the order, and orders are frequently wrong. The machine for printing receipts is often broken, so receipts are not always available.

On balance, and considering the price premium, I generally avoid it these days.

This place is very cool and the food good quality and affordable. I go to the wanda plaza outlet - its underground and very cool - I highly recommend a visit here.