It has been a number of years since I have been to this restaurant. It was quite a random decision to come to this place tonight, to have something different, something more interesting than the usual western or Chinese cuisines near the Central or Soho area. Before arriving, I already have the following in mind in terms of expectation or what this place lacks of: (1) service, (2) clean environment & (3) comfortable seating. Then again, when I come to here for dinner, I would expect great food quality (or so I assumed).
I am sure many of you have heard of this chiu chow restaurant and it is rather famous for its so-called authentic chiu chow cuisine. My friend and I arrived around 730pm and got a table near the entrance on the ground floor. I was right, this place certainly lacks a clean environment and comfortable seating area; but then again, I expected because I was there for some good food, especially some traditional dishes! We ordered the following: (1) 蠔餅, (2) 鵝片鵝血, (3) 椒鹽白飯魚, (4) 蘿蔔牛腩, (5) 糖醋麵 & (6) 清心綠豆爽
(1) 蠔餅 (mini oyster pancake?)
They were very generous with two things for this dish: 1 - is the mini oysters & 2 - OIL ! YES, excessive OIL. I do understand that to cook this dish requires a lot of oil but not to the point of soaked ingredients in it ! I did not dip any pieces into the fish sauce because I did not want the sauce to overtake the taste of other ingredients, but I should have dipped into the sauce because it might be able to take over the oily / greasy taste it gave me. (2) 鵝片鵝血
It was my first time trying the 鵝血 and it has an interesting texture which I liked. The 鵝血 itself was rather tasteless, it was more about the texture. Along with the sauce, it was a fair item considering this is the first time I tried this. The 鵝片 was nice, the meat was tender enough for me to give it a thumbs up.(3) 椒鹽白飯魚
This dish was fair indeed. Maybe abit less batter would be better but it was not bad at all. It was a very generous dish and the spices used were not excessive to a point that made me very thirsty. It was lucky that we did not order 白飯魚炒蛋 because I am pretty sure that it will be as oily or as greasy as the 蠔餅. Maybe their deep-fried items are fairly good, maybe.
(4) 蘿蔔牛腩
A very disappointment dish indeed. The sauce / soup are too creamy, thick and salty. Beef briskets were TOO chewy and beef tendons were not soft enough. The best item in this dish was the 蘿蔔 (white radish). We were both fans of beef briskets but we could not even finish the dish. Maybe this was not a common dish people would normally order during dinner but we were hoping for something better. Very disappointed.
(5) 糖醋麵
We were looking forward to this dish from the beginning but came out to be another disappointment. It was too greasy even the sugar and vinegar sauce that come with the dish did not help much. The noodle itself was alright, very crispy but it was pan-fried on one side only. I thought 糖醋麵 is supposed to be fried on both side or maybe we should have ordered the 雙面黃 instead? I thought they are basically the same thing.
(6) 清心綠豆爽
My friend is not a fan of sweets while I considered myself to be one. However, for this free dessert, for some reasons, the color seemed so wrong and artificial. 清心綠豆爽 is actually one of my favorite Chinese desserts but the one being served here was not that tempting at all. Tried a few spoons of it and it was very watery. It was only 8pm and the dessert was already that watery? I wonder how it will taste later on the night. Hummm ....Likes:
- Good fried items
- Good 鵝片鵝血
- Service (as expected)
- Environment (expected)
- TOO many greasy / oily dishes
- Watery dessert (too artificial in color)
Shung Hing Chiu Chow Restaurant
G/F, 29 Queen's Road West,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Tel: 2854-4557
