Since I don't want to be the totally boorish ugly American and go to McDonalds in HK, I want to know what Chinese food is generally considered the most palatable for Westerners.

I had a bad experience with some real Chinese food before (not the Food Court Chinese food, which I love)...  so I'm a bit scared of the 'real' Chinese food.

This is a tough one. I can only assume you are not French as most westerners like their foods with a fairly strong taste and no bones. So I advise you stay from most Cantonese food as great Cantonese food's taste tend to be quite subtle and light. Plus many of the dishes, seafood and poultry dishes are not boneless making it a hassle for those who are not used to picking bones out of their teeth.

The only Cantonese / HK cuisine I could recommend for you would be going to Dim Sum as it is mostly the same as those in the West or going to the HK-style diners (cha chan tengs) like Tsui Wah. These diners like Tsui Wah, a chain all over HK, serve a menu that consists of HK'interpretation of common western dishes and often have a menu in English too.

For stronger flavors, I would recommend Sichuan and Peking cuisines for their stronger flavours and fewer bones. Search this website : www.openrice.com which is a bilingual website that contains the largest db of all the restaurants in HK. Openrice is a great website with decent reviews and recommendations. You can search by cuisine or district.

Hmm it's a tough one cause it depends on your taste.
A bit pricy but with friends I recommend 'the American restaurant' in between wan chai and admiralty - Peking duck is awesome, and it's catered to tourists. Good place tostart.
Dim sum - lee gardens or graces garden, both have and English/ Chinese menu you can tick off dishes you like some favorites with friends that come to visit are, please excuse my spelling as I don't speak Chinese:
Siu Mai - shrimp
Hakaw - beef ball
Char siu bao - BBQ pork in a white bun
Chow fan - fried rice
Most noodles you can't go wrong with, but they are different types
Ho fan - flat thick noodles
Min ( sounds like mean) thin egg noodles - wan ton min is a usual dish, wonton is boiled shrimp dumplings. This is also made as a fried dish, fried wonton for dim sum served with sweet sour sauce
You can get sweet and sour pork I cant remember the chinese

I also recommend shanghainese food
They have spicy dumplings
Dumplings with soup in them
Drunken chicken
And so much more

In cha cha tents you can get the BBQ pork with rice - char siu fan
Go a little nuts with it, have them put fried egg on it
Char siu Dan fan, and char siu siu Dan fan, one is an egg sunny side up and the other is scrambled
Curry pork with rice - sounds like cah lay chu pow fan

Have any local Chinese friends you can go with?

What area do you live/ work in, perhaps others can make recommendations based onyour area too..

This is an excellent definition of real Chinese food.  And it was a shock to me when I first arrived from the US.  Where's the kungpao chicken and the stir fried dishes made in a wok?  Yeah I was an ignorant American.

One place that reminds me a bit of western Chinese is a place in TST called Mask.  Its on Salisbury road opposite to intercontinental hotel and the star walk of fame.

It's not food court Chinese but has more spices and flavors and stir fried dishes and meat dishes without bones.

Here is the number: 2311 9233.  

It's not food for locals but for tourists and is not like authentic Cantonese food at all.  Every time I take a tourist there they seem to enjoy it.

[ Last edited by  mchk at 25-6-2011 01:10 ]

bros, what about the street food ?
i love to eat same as the locals where they go to eating something, does it's not too spicy ? the food in the street can be trusted ?

and old proverb say "when you can see some locals eating somewhere, don't think too much and order !"

Before you leave your country, make sure you complete your Hepatitis shots set. It will take about a few months to finish the whole regimen but will stay effective for 10 years. The food places are generally very clean but occasionally you will get food poisoning which is expected as your stomach may not be accustomed to the local water and how cooked a dish may be. Food poisoning is a temporary thing while hepatitis is incurable. Get your shots.

There are three types of Chinese street food. One is the old daipaidong whereby the dishes are literally prepared and cooked on the street in a free-standing kitchen. There are a few around Central and they are very good. They serve mainly soup noodle dishes with dumplings.

The second type is these little snack carts that just serve to either cook or keep warm prepared food (food is prepared elsewhere). These snacks can be anything like snacks on skewers to sweet potatoes to roasted nuts. You more likely to see these snack carts in busy areas like Causeway Bay, TST, Mongkok, Wanchai, etc and more often in night.

The third type is technically not street food but actually outdoor seating on the streets in front of the restaurants that make the food. These places are all over Yaumatei, Jordan by Temple Street, Sai Kung, Cheung Chau island, and some wet markets. These places have full menus and not all of them have English menus.

Yum cha / Dim sum is a must.......!!

For english menus i would tend to stick to hk islands area and certain TST places.

Once know the basic or favourite dimsums then note down on pronounciations or even take a pic.....my ex GF did. Seemed quite logical as you can show waiter what you want?

Then you can go to original or more traditional chinese dimsum places anywhere and show pics what you want to waiter...will be cheaper too.

One of my favourites in HK is the restaurant in the empire hotel in happy valley. Quiet ambience and a lot more relaxing than your average restaurant....food is top notch too...
http://www.emperorhotel.com.hk/zaspx/default.aspx

A good food blog in english...  http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/Deli-Prince/