Starz Kitchen 左麟右李, Hong Kong

Starz Kitchen is opened by two famous Hong Kong singer Alan Tam and Hacken Lee. The restaurant serves traditional Cantonese delicacies such as noodle soup, roast meat, congee.

There are many branches in Hong Kong, with their original branch located in Causeway bay. We visited their Mong Kok branch as we were in the area needing brunch. If you compared to the tradition noodle or congee restaurant in Hong Kong, Starz Kitchen felt more upmarket and modern.

We ordered a two roast meats platter and selected their two signature roasted meats to try – roast pork belly (also known as crispy pork) and BBQ Pork.

It was beautiful to see the roast pork belly with the different layers and the top was crispy but one you could bite in to. The BBQ pork itself was beautiful with it sliced in to thick pieces.

I also tried their lean pork and preserved egg congee which I probably could had shared. The congee had a smooth paste texture and there was a generous amount of shredded pork.

Steamed fried doughnuts rice noodle rolls (Chinese doughnuts wrapped in a rice noodle) was well made as the rice noodle was almost crystal see through. It was a thin layer just enough to wrap around the crispy doughnuts.

For those who is not familiar with Chinese cuisines, in the UK this is commonly found as a dim sum under one of the choices for cheung fun. It is a savoury dish which is typical known to have with congee.

(Not Sponsored. Menu correct at the time of dining)

Starz Kitchen 左麟右李 (Mong Kok branch)
G/F, Sai Yeung Building,
190-194A Sai Yeung Choi Street South,
Mong Kok,
Hong Kong

(旺角西洋菜南街190-194A號西洋大廈地舖)

http://www.starz-kitchen.com

Via Tokyo, Hong Kong

Via Tokyo is a dessert cafe in Hong Kong that serves Japanese desserts. They are most popular for their soft-serve ice cream, especially Matcha (green tea) flavour.

The soft-serve ice cream are served in variety of ways, from just the basic ice cream cone to the traditional Japanese way with fruits, red beans and/or mochi.

I thought the Matcha soft-serve ice cream was nice and creamy with the taste of matcha. But whether it is worth the queue to get in is debatable. Hong Kong is known for queues especially when there is some thing new and in trend.

If you want to try both flavours then you can get it as a swirl with half matcha and vanilla flavour. 

But if you worry about sleepless nights after having green tea for dessert in the evening, then you can just get a basic vanilla soft-serve.

As well as ice cream, Via Tokyo also serves a range of hot and iced tea latte and coffee. This could not be with out the matcha latte.
I went with a few friends after dinner and there was a queue which was expected. We would not had been the only one thinking of dessert. The waiting time was not long for seats of five at this small shop in Causeway Bay.

(Not Sponsored. Menu correct at the time of dining)

Via Tokyo
Shop 1A-1B, G/F, Leishun Court,
106-126 Leighton Road,
Causeway Bay,
Hong Kong

(銅鑼灣禮頓道106-126號禮信大廈地下1A-1B號舖)

https://www.facebook.com/viatokyocafe

Kam’s Roast Goose 甘牌燒鵝, Hong Kong

One of the food that you should have when you are in Hong Kong, is the roasted meat such as roast duck, crispy pork and BBQ pork.

Kam’s roast goose is a 1 michelin star restaurant in Hong Kong. As the name suggest, the restaurant is known for their roast goose. They do serve other roasted meat but if you come here then you will want to have their roast goose.

The roast goose can be ordered on its own in half (HK$270) or whole (HK$520). It can also be ordered with rice and noodle.

I ordered the roast goose leg with noodle in soup 甘牌燒鵝髀瀨粉 (HK$95). The noodle is not the typical thin egg noodle or ho fun, instead it is lai fun (round rice noodle) which is a thick and almost clear. The texture is smiliar to al dente spaghetti.

You can also pair the roast goose with suckling pig on rice 燒鵝乳豬飯 (HK$82) or any other common roast meat. This combination is definetely one classy roast combo rice. Suckling pig is one of the most expensive roast meat and nor is it commonly found on a typical menu.

Kam’s Roast Goose 甘牌燒鵝
G/F, Po Wah Commercial Center,
226 Hennessy Road,
Wan Chai,
Hong Kong

(灣仔軒尼詩道226號寶華商業中心地舖)

http://www.krg.com.hk

The Chairman 大班樓 – Hong Kong

It was great pleasure to be able to dine at The Chairman and have got to thank a friend booking a table for us. I have been told it is a restaurant that is difficult to book the prime time slots.

Hong Kong is fascinated by trends which seem to fix on Japanese or Korean. It some what has lost of good quality Cantonese food. Don’t get me wrong, being in Hong Kong you will definitely find more Cantonese food then in the UK, but it would not be the latest craze in the country. So it is welcome to see The Chairman bringing quality ingredients to create quality Cantonese dishes.

The restaurant is small restaurant which had this feeling that I had gone back to the 20th century. The place was difficult to find being located on a quiet street in Central, but we managed to find it with out the need of a taxi.

We started off with Smoked Baby Pigeon with Longjing Tea & Chrysanthemum 龍井菊花煙燻乳鴿 (HK$148 each). The flavour of tea was distinct but you could taste the smokey-ness which was beautiful. The pigeon was cooked well with crispy skin but it was not dry.

Steamed Fresh Flowery Crab with Aged ShaoXing Wine, Fragrant Chicken Oil & Flat Rice Noodles 雞油花雕蒸花蟹配陳村粉 (Market Price). This was not as good as the ShaoXing wine crab we had at Xi Yan private dining restaurant (囍宴 廚‧藝) which I felt was more flavoursome. But The Chairman was still good which came served nicely with flat rice and it was beautifully presented.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Balsamic Vinegar and Pickled Plums 話梅肉桂糖醋排骨 (HK$188) was an upmarket version. Each ribs had meat and was wrapped in the sauce – not too much and not too little.

Steamed Kai Lan with Pickled Chinese Vegetables 梅菜蒸芥蘭 (HK$128) was a dish that reminded me of home. The pickled chinese vegetables dressed up the steamed kai lan and gave it life of flavour.

Fried Rice with Dried Scallops, Egg White and Vegetables 瑤柱蛋白菜粒炒飯 (HK$188) was another beautifully presented dish. There was not much flavours which meant it compliment the other dishes.

The service is better than your average Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong. It had that fine dining service and was on par with Xi Yan private dining restaurant. It is more of an upmarket Chinese restaurant which does mean the prices are more expensive than average.

(Not Sponsored. Menu and prices are correct at the time of dining)

The Chairman 大班樓
No.18 Kau U Fong,
Central,
Hong Kong

www.thechairmangroup.com

Xi Yan Hong Kong 囍宴 廚‧藝 (CLOSED) – Hong Kong

There was a period in Hong Kong when private dining restaurant was really popular it was like a new trend.  However, trends in Hong Kong never last long. Xi Yan was once one of those popular private dining restaurant in Hong Kong that was fonded by Jacky Yu in 2000.

The private dining restaurant is located in a building in Wan Chai area of Hong Kong. The building looked like a shabby block of flats, but it actually house a range of restaurants and shops. The restaurant has two section, the main dining area has two large table. It was not totally private as we shared the evening waith another table. But since we arrived earlier we had most of the space ourselve.

Usually a private dining restaurant there is no menu and the chef themself will create and cook for the table. But Xi Yan now a day has become more commercial and menu are available in advance and you have to choose one of them for the whole table. There is an advantage to this, as in you will have an idea of what food will be served that day.

The menu at Xi Yan changes daily so although I booked in advance, I did not know until about three weeks before the menu was available during the period I was dining. We had three menus to choose and pre-order that was price at HK$368, HK$528 and HK$628 per head.

We choice the HK$528 per head menu (excluding 10% service charge) which is not cheap. But Xi Yan was doing an offer which we took advantage, where we dine as 6 people but pay for the price of 5 people. Therefore, it actually worked out less than the menu originally costed.

The dishes are fusion, combining Chinese and Western, which is served like a Chinese banquet that is based on the number of heads you have booked. So do not expect to just bring another head if you have not let the restaurant know in advance.

Appetizer 頭盤

Pan fried Hokkaido king scallop with sea urchin sauce (海膽汁香煎北海道帶子皇) – It was a nice light start to the meal with beautifully cooked scallops.

Crispy silver anchovies on mustard thin beef slices with Singaporean sauce (香酥銀魚伴燈影牛肉) – The texture of this dish surprise me, it was crispy but not hard that I could not bite in to it. This dish reminded me of the upmarket version of a dish that you commonly find in UK Chinese restaurant or takeaway, deep fried shredded beef.

Main 主菜

Steamed crab with egg white in Huadiao Wine (花雕蛋白雞油蒸蟹) – I thought this was beautifully cooked and full of flavour with the Huadiao wine. It was even better than the one we had at The Chairman in Central area of Hong Kong.

Braised pork belly (雲上東坡醉千層) – The presentation of this was artistic and brings a traditional Chinese dish of brasied belly pork with preserved vegetable to life. The intense flavour was great with a bowl of rice and it brought the feeling of home.

Longnan and jujube sorbet with aloe (養顏桂圓紅棗蘆薈雪葩) – This was a palette cleanser and really suited to have it after the braised pork belly.

Deep fried grouper with lemongrass and shrimp paste (香茅蝦膏炸鮮斑) – The presentation of the fish brought “woah” to our table. It is not often you get your fish served like this.

Double boiled chicken soup with Chuan-Bei, red date and pear (川貝秋梨棗皇燉土雞)

Sautéed fish maws with asparagus, Chinese yam and fresh lily bulb (花膠鮮百合蘆筍炒淮山) – The main courses was finished with a light dish which was beautifully presented on a plate that had a sauce drawn picture.

Dessert 甜品

Walnut puree pudding with glutinous rice dumplings (養顏核桃露伴流沙湯圓)

We completed our meal with a shot of sour drink which was a great way to digest all the food.

There were in total two waiters serving us that night and each one was friendly and provided us a great service on the night. They would explain to what each dish was and was patient to let us take a photo of each dish before helping us serving the dish to each of us.

I and every one really enjoyed the meal, which was Chinese style cusines but giving it a modern touch. It was well worth the visit.

(Not sponsored. Menu and prices are correct at the time of dining)

Xi Yan Hong Kong 囍宴 廚‧藝
3/F, 83 Wanchai Road, Wan Chai
灣仔灣仔道83號3樓

http://www.xiyan.com.hk