走中高檔菜館路線，環境好．
據聞小菜不錯．
但若只論蛇羹，幾乎全部是雞肉，
性價比極低，只能給喊臉．

Famous shop in Central.
Nice decor. Service was OK.
Comprehensive upmarket menu.
But Snake soup barely had any snake.
Really just taste like chicken.



Ser Fun:

This is conveniently located at a major tourist area. Near the mid-levels escalator in Central. I've walked past it many times but never tried it. I was interested in this shop after trying different "Snake Kings" on HK Island.

The name of this shop "Ser Wong Fun" literally means "Snake King Fun". "Fun" is possibly part of the owner's name, nothing funny about it.

I have no idea why some shops are spelt as "Se Wong" , "She Wong" or like here - "Ser Wong".



Nice decor:

This place is brightly lit, clean and smart. Decorated like a traditional Cantonese tea house. Nicely spaced out tables. Quite cozy.

Possibly the most nicely decorated Snake King around.

Much more spacious than Se Wong Ye for example. Furthermore, you won't see live snakes or lizards in cages (like those you see in Sheung Wan "She Wong Lam" and Sham Shui Po "Se Wong Hip".)

Menu:

Other than the snake soup and other herbal soup, The menu was quite comprehensive.
It had quite a lot of Cantonese dishes like fried rice, casserole and some upmarket Chinse tonics.

I just ordered a snake soup as I got there quite late. Snake soup was the only item available.

Perhaps that explains what follows...



Ser, it taste like chicken:

Looks decent:The size of the bowl was similar or slightly bigger than those at Se Wong Ye and She Wong Lam.

Nice presentation: covered with lemon grass, chrysanthimum petals and crispy fried dough - like how it should be.

It was a bit watery for my taste. Nevertheless, the chicken soup was quite flavourful. It had fungi, mushrooms and a lot of shredded chicken as well.

However, that's about it.

Ser, it's not funny.:

At least 90% of the broth consisted of chicken (plus perhaps a bit of shredded pork)! I did not notice snake, at least it wasn't obvious to me.

I paid HK$85 for essentially a bowl of shredded chicken soup.

Too expensive.



Not Fun:

I heard that they do pretty good dishes other than snake, which is putting the cart before the horse.

Ser Fun definitely had the least snake content of all the snake shops I had so far, whether on Hong Kong Island or at Kowloon.

Se Wong Ye also had chicken but also substantial amount of snake. Se Wong Sun at Wan Chai used whole snake chunks (including some skin! ) with very little "additives" . I just tried She Wong Lam as well - they had even more snake than Se Wong Sun! But the broth was not as flavourful.

So if you want to find a place to bring your squeamish friend from abroad to have a toned down HK experience, this is a clean and safe tourist version you might consider.

If a traditional snake broth - with substantial snake meat - is what you're looking for, this is not the place.

Out of the four shops I've tried on Hong Kong side, I will recommend Se Wong Yi for a more comfortable setting but decent amount snake; Se Wong Sun for not very much decor but packed with snack chunks in a strong flavoured broth and She Wong Lam for the old school experience - i.e. tons of snake in a light broth & seats are available at your own risk - you sit next to quite a lot of live poisonous snakes!

蛇王芬 is one of my favourite hot spot in the winter, the Snake soup has always been one of the “must eat” winter dishes. Actually, 蛇王芬 does serve snake soup 365 days a year, if you are looking for one, please make a visit!

Cuisine: Cantonese
Food rating: 5/10*
Service: 3/10
Ambiance: 4/10
Price: HK$100pax

* Food Rating: 6/10 is equivalent to 1 Michelin star, 8/10 to two Michelin stars, and 9/10 or above to three Michelin stars

Stir-fried grouper with broccoli (5/10)
The fish was very tender, and lightly seasoned. The gravy went well, where as the broccoli was very crunchy. A classic Cantonese dish served at very high standard. Sweet and Sour Pork (5/10)
The pork was first deep fried and then stir-fried with the pineapple and peppers. The balance of sweetness was perfect, yet the chilli gave the dish some heat, it helped to bring it to another level. 蛇王芬 served very traditional Cantonese food, and the snake soup is always the specialty that worth trying.

Give me a thumbs up if you like it!

We went for late dinner and was nearly 9 when we arrived.

We came for the double boiled soups but most of them were sold out. We only managed to get a melon with whelk soup. All the other ones without chinese medicine ingredients were sold out. So we also ordered a bowl of snake to share.

The table next to us were Japanese tourists. They had a plate of friend rice with minced beef which looked nice and one of the guys took up the whole plate and scooped the rest into his mouth directly. Anyway, that convinced me it must be really good, so we ordered one. It was just good. Not good enough for me to do the same.

We also had braised bean curd and chicken with salted fish, fried long bean with minced pork and pickled black olive vegetable and a plate of roast goose. The goose was very good as the meat was soft with a nice meat taste. It was the type where the skin is not crispy. The bean dish was a little too salty and the bean curd was tasty.

It was a good enough dinner and we told ourselves to come earlier next time we want to have soup.

If you wanna eat snake soup, i suppose you come and try this shop, snake
are so fresh even must be "freeze snake", may be many ginger, so can't feel that!
Will come again

The husband of a friend of mine recommended this place for a group dinner back in September.

I wasn't very impressed. The prices are quite expensive for what is essentially 煲仔飯 and white chicken, etc. We didn't try the snake soup.

Chicken is OK, nothing impressive and a bit tough and not meaty enough (a lot of bones). However, my main problem was with the sausage 煲仔飯, sausage is OK, but the rice is too soft!! 煲仔飯 should have firmer rice due to the cooking method. The preserved sausage rice here was pretty bland, and the rice was very soft and felt like it was not cooked in the pot but in the rice cooker. It felt like eating wet tissues. There even wasn't any proper "Fan Chiu" (crispy rice crust on the pot) with our rice. Such a failure!

Better to go have 煲仔飯 on Temple Street, at least you can get better-cooked stuff for cheaper.

As the weather is getting cooler these few days, I decided to try their 蛇羹 and 潤腸雞煲仔飯. They are just great ! The 蛇羹 is not cheap but it is well worth the price - I don't recall having taken another one with more snake meat and other ingredients inside. Likewise, the rice is simply delicious, especially the 潤腸 - very tender, juicy and, of course - very oily !! (the chicken is less impressive). Needless to say this is the ultimate cholesterol- loaded diet - but who cares ? This is the thing to indulge yourself in once in a while especially during the winter seasons. Will definitely come back to try their 小菜 later.

(1) Melon & Welk Soup was good.
(2) Signiture Sweet n Sour Pork was bad, not crispy, too much sauce.
(3) Preserved Sausages were good.
(4) Rice was good.
(5) Waiter was cool, he took order, chopped roast pork, refilled tea, scooped rice, and served diskhes from dump-waiter. haha eventhough he face was so miserable, but apart from that he was really doing his job.

I think the material they used were quite good, but the chef wasn't all that brilliant.

Very bad service: I didn't expect mush from this kind of small restaurant, but it's like I need to beg the waiter to serve me.
Expensive food : $300 for 2 soups, 1 plate of BBQ pork rice and 1 dish of fried vegetable
Good soup: Tasty soup, the only reason to go.

I don't know why the eating magazine chose this is one of HK's good restaurant. In fact, I think it's not good as it said. The soup is not very special, i think "Ah Yi" is better. The dish size is very small. we ordered 2 dishes and one soup, $200, not worthy!