Tai Fung Lau Peking Restaurant    泰豊廔酒家  

Set menu for 8-10 people was a good deal, $1158 includes an assortment of appetisers, a soup, peking duck, mandarin fish, spare ribs, beef, abalone with vegetables, dessert, and probably some other dish which I've forgotten. The portions are huge, the quality was decent, the cooking style is a little unpolished but still reasonably tasty. The peking duck was the show of the night, naturally.Don't expect service to be polite and consistent, it's old school hustling with this lot. Don't be shy to flag them down and ask for stuff. Your neighbours won't notice you because they'll probably be louder than you.

The temperature dropped, there was no better time for a nice "hot-pot" session to warm up your body and heart.

We are spoilt with many choices in Hong Kong - Cantonese style hot pot in hot pot chains, dai pai dongs or even at our own home; Japanese style shabushabu; Korean kimchi pots etc etc. There is one type which always has this special place in my heart (and one which I always return and enjoy in cold winter nights) - 涮羊肉 ("lamb hot pot") (or for a more direct translation, "thinly-sliced-lamb-to-be-boiled-briefly-in-boiling-soup").

"Lamb hot pot' is a type of traditional hotpot very popular in northern China and has a long history dating back to the Yuan Dynasty. The essence is not the soup base, but fine lamb slices, the distinct lamb aroma and the personalised sauce.

Simple menu with a good range of choices. "Must-orders" - thin lamb slices!After taking our orders, a waiter swiftly brought to us a big tray of different sauces and seasoning. Thick sesame sauce, red beancurd (nam yu) paste, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, chilli oil, hua diao wine, fish sauce (魚露), vinegar, spring onion, parsley etc! You could then pick and choose (or indeed have a bit of everything) and mix your very own personalised sauce for the cooked products later! Much treasured. The old waiter then served us with a coal-fuelled hot-pot with chimney. The pot was then topped up with more plain water. Soup base could not really be classified as a "soup base"; it was just a lot of plain water with some seaweed; but such simple base was essential to bring the most out of the lamb.We ordered a variety of food. Featuring in the photo: fresh prawn fillets, sliced beef omasum, lamb dumplings, thinly sliced lamb and romaine lettuce. Fresh prawn fillets were very fresh, tasty, of good size and "al dente". Sliced beef omasum felt clean and were fresh and not rubbery. Loved the lamb dumplings, powerful lamb aroma which was further spiced up by dashes of spring onion wrapped within. Romaine lettuce, fresh and crisp! YUMMM!! No, I did not forget about the thinly-sliced lamb; but given that it is the star, the focal point and the reason I was there. I thought that we should have a close-up photo of the thinly-sliced lamb. We ordered a big size for our first round; they served it on two plates for our convenience. Sliced thin enough, not too fat, tender - with room for stronger lamb aroma though! Overall, very nice!



Cannot wait to return. To savour the lamb, to experience the tradition and to be warmed up inside out.

It is the 3rd time visiting 泰豊廔. The quality is as good as usual.

Having dinner with my family, total 8 people. We ordered:

4-6 people set, includes:
北京填鴨 (the must order item, as good as usual)
蔥爆牛肉 (鐵板 a bit better)
賽旁蟹 (normal)
水餃 (good)
粉皮 (都唔錯)

separately ordered
鐵板蔥爆牛肉 (unintended outcome. I didn't aware the set include蔥爆牛肉 already. hm... the taste is similar, but it's much hotter than without 鐵板)
京燒羊肉 (the first time order this dish. It's the best dish of the dinner, very good)
拔絲香蕉 (the sugar 外層好脆, 甜度適中. but my parents feel too sweet)
上湯豆苗 (size big comparing with most of the chinese restaurants, taste normal)

I've heard good things about this place, so was keen to try it out....but was dissapointed to discover that it is really only for Chinese diners. We were turned away at the door, while some some Chinese customers behind us were let straight in, and proceeded to turn round and laugh and wave at us. Very poor experience, won't bother coming back...but somehow I don't think they will mind!

I have a thing for tradition and old-school. Recently I've been trying to visit more classic dining establishments in Hong Kong - the kind that in-the-know families have been going to for decades, but would never even consider if you asked them for a recommendation. It seems weird, but of my favourite sources to ask is one of my aunts who works in the film industry. By no means is she the oldest of my aunts (in fact, she's probably on the young side), but possibly because she's always on the lookout for innovative places to film, and is a bit of a foodie (runs in the family), she knows a lot of tucked away nooks and crannies.

It was this aunt who took me to Tai Fung Lau, an almost crumbling Peking-style restaurant known for its authentic cuisine from the capital, including shuan yang rou (shaved lamb), which is what Beijingers call their hot pots (because shaved lamb is almost exclusively what you eat). I love them not just because they serve good food, but also for the coal-fuelled hot pot.

The hot pot is totally old-school, complete with a chimney, which is needed for the charcoal that's burning underneath. It keeps the water (plain water, not soup is used) at a dainty simmer with tiny bubbles rather than a violent boil. It's increasingly difficult to find places that use these pots, even in Beijing.

The tray in the second pic contains the sauces that you get to mix yourself. Start with the sesame on the left as your base, then add splashes/dashes/sprinkles of the other condiments. Next to the sesame is a sort of fermented soy bean paste that has a slight sour/sweet/yeast-like flavour that I'm not too fond of, so I skip that, but I add a bit of everything else. In the teapots there's the usual soy sauce and chilli oil, but also the very fragrant huadiao wine (that's also used to make things like drunken chicken and steamed crab - omg that reminds me of the awesome rendition at The Chairman!). I also add copious amounts of parsley.

Once you're done with the sauces, the waiters (who are about as old as the restaurant and all have very lovable non-Cantonese accents) take the tray away, move the flimsy metal disk away from the middle of the table to reveal the circular pit that the hot pot will go into. The ingredients you put in are up to you - pretty standard hot pot stuff, but their meats are so thinly sliced, you can see through it like a lantern. The curls also remind me of shaved jamon. Mmm...

(see my blog for more: http://www.e-tingfood.com/2010/05/coal-hot-pot-tai-fung-lau.html)

Date: February 4th, 2009 / Wednesday
Table for 5

It's an old style Chinese restaurant. Old style means ...

1) The smell in the restaurant
2) The servers are all old men / women
3) The decoration
4) Dirty (you must clean ur tableware b4 use)

We order a small 6-course set dinner (includes Peking Duck), Xiao Long Bao, and a noodle.

The portion is big. Service is acceptable considering this is an old style Chinese restaurant.

Dinner: $673 Nett for 5 people

i got dinner on 24 Dec. before 7.30pm, basically, U can have a table without booking. of course, U can't miss hot pot with lamb. i think 1/2 portion is very enough for 4 unless U are a lamb addict. but i don't like their sauce for lamb bcos it's not too original. in beijing, U can have several dishes for different taste of sauce but here they just give U a bowl and mix all the sauce into a bowl. it seems a bit awful. i asked waiter how come they don't provide different sauces and he said it's a very traditional way to eat lamb with different sauces but they can't provide it like that. a little disappointed!!! however, U can ask waiter to give U more bowls for different sauces. actually their hot pot was burning by coal. so i suggest someone who want to eat it to choose a table next to the window and if necessary, U can open the window and let fresh air coming in. i also tried their sweet and sour fish. it's $88 for a whole fish. big portion! if U try it on Thur. it's just for $65 something. but it's not too crispy. maybe the fish is not fried deeply. i also tried their dumpling for hot pot. $30 per 10 pieces. quite good! and hand-made noodle for hot pot too. $20 per bowl. Okay! the shreded meat with fired box. the fired box is quite crispy. i can say U can have it at another peking restranut. MUST TRY!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!! but the service is not so good! waitdress is better. she provide some dessert with complimentary.