Dimdan Maidan, Hong Kong cuisine like in a real cha chaan teng in Paris

On every street corner, the cha chaan teng is to Hong Kong what the café-restaurant is to Paris or what the diner is to the USA: a friendly, comforting restaurant where families and gangs of friends gather at any time of day.

Faced with a desperate shortage of cha chaan teng in the French capital, Chef Chan (formerly of Buddha Bar and Shangri-La) and his wife Shan decided to bring back this tradition from the chef's homeland, and thus introduce Parisians to the inseparable specialties and iconic dishes of these traditional, affordable and popular restaurants.

From lo mien mixed noodles to wontons, brioche bolo and roast and rice bowls, the Hong Kong chef delves into his childhood memories at Dimdan Maidan, a small Asian restaurant on the Arts et Métiers side of Paris.

In a simple atmosphere that pays homage to the country's pop-culture (retro posters and old advertisements on the walls, audio K7s by local artists hanging in the toilets), Dimdan Maidan is a real little Hong Kong den in Paris.

The restaurant's menu is built around several totems of Hong Kong cuisine. To begin with, there's a whole host of small dishes as snacks, which some would say are akin to street food, and which you're happy to gobble up with chopsticks or even your fingers.

Among the must-eats are the street curry fish balls (6.50€), bouncy fish balls cooked in a homemade curry-garlic-chili sauce; the bolo brioche (4€) generously filled with beef in satay sauce; and the fried wontons (9.80€), with a texture so unusual that they disappear on the tongue (fans of fried kale will find the same sensation here).

The menu then moves on to the three main courses: Lo Mien Mixed Noodles, with a base of Chinese noodles, meat and vegetables; Roast & Rice Bowls, with a bowl of fragrant rice, roasted meat, fried egg and bok choy; and Wontons & Soup Noodles, with noodles and/or ravioli and braised meat.

For our part, we opted for the lo mien mixed noodles with wontons (16€), with its large ravioli filled with pork and shrimp; for the honey char siu rice (14.50€), the restaurant's signature specialty, with its pork marinated in a sweet-savory mixture then roasted to a caramelized glaze; and for dessert, the particularly light coconut-red bean flan (7€). But we must admit that the HK-style egg tarts were also very appealing!

As far as drinks are concerned, here again tradition takes precedence and offers some fine discoveries. These include Yuen Yeung (a drink made from mixed coffee and tea) and mojité (€6), a refreshing choice in these hot weather conditions!

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please let us know.