fish congee

fish is very thin and very fresh and no bones...have some seasame oil taste too~

congee is hot and 綿, they added lots of 芫茜 and 荵 in the congee as well~~, if can add some ginger will be better!

炸兩
the outer layer of cheung fun is very smooth! however the 油炸鬼 inside is not very cripsy but abit soft......, they add too much soya sause as well, too salty....

i needa wait for 20 mins coz only one ppl pull cheung fun......

duck cheung fun

the cheung fun layer is very smooth, it's 手拉cheung fun!!! the duck meat is very tasty but not too fatty...portion of duck meat is large...
soya sause is sweet enough, it's perfect!

pig's liver and prawn son cheung fun

pig's liver is just 熟and very fun, very smooth!! prawn son is not small and soft enough~

dried vegetable pork congee

just like home made congee, not much MSG, but too much bone, not much pork.....the congee is 綿and rice is all broken

It was quite a contrast to come here to a restaurant which has no air conditioning and tables were placed on the side of the street with exhaust fume all around you after watching Sex and the City 2. At the same time it reminded me that a meal is not all about the glamorous decor, expensive food and extravagant dining scene; it is an experience, a less than pleasant atmosphere can be as enjoyable.

Tong Kee is famous for its congee and rice noodle rolls which are made to order. The menu clearly states that during rush hour, you may need to wait as long as 20 mins. Also, this place closes on Wed and Sun ... humm ... those are the two horse racing days ... hummm but they do open til 2am or so. Considered yourself warned.

Pork Bone Congee with Dried Bok Choy 菜乾豬骨粥 was very flavorful but rather watery for my personal liking. I like my congee more mushy, but then again, purely personal preference. The inclusion of the pork bones was to tell you that they did use plenty of them?

We also ordered the 柴魚花生粥 (dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna and peanuts congee I suppose?) which had a richer flavor that the one we just had.I am not a big fan of soaked peanuts or those being cooked but the best way get the most flavors out of this congee was to consume all ingredients together if possible.

Time for some steam rice noodle rolls, my favorite! Duck and Pig Liver Rice Noodle Roll was an interesting yet very satisfying combination. Both items have rather strong flavors so the duck flavor somehow overtook the pig liver's taste in my opinion. The pig liver was a bit too firm (sign of a bit overcooked?) but no complaints. The rice noodle paper was silky smooth by slightly too thick.

We had to order an extra one with just plain pig liver because we wanted get the rich flavors out of it. This time we can taste the it without the duck! It was slightly overcooked once again but decent enough.

In order to balance the flavors in our taste buds, we ordered the Dried Shrimps and Fish Rice Paper Roll. when I say light flavors I mean really light, it is the sauce that made the world of differences. Since I am on the topic of the sauce, I am quite certain that they did something special to it because it carried hints of sweetness to it and a dose of MSG perhaps? The sauce really made a huge difference in my opinion.

We cleaned the plates completely!!

Oh yes, almost forgot. When I tried to order the Plain Rice Noodle Paper Roll, I was informed that they are not making them??? The exact words were "sold out." Humm ... I was quite confused as to why it can be sold out when they were still pumping out orders. I bet it was because the plain version has a very low ROI (return on investment)? Higher cost? I am still quite puzzled by it.

Likes:
-Special Soy Sauce with hints of sweetness to it
-Very flavorful congee (柴魚花生粥 (dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna and peanuts congee I suppose?)

Dislikes:
-Pig Liver slightly overcooked
-Fish and Dried Shrimp version rather bland, make sure you have plenty of sauce.

Avg Spending: Below HKD100 per person

Original Post with more pictures: http://www.jasonbonvivant.com/2010/06/tong-kee.html

There are a number of other english reviews that do a much better job than i will, but i wanted to add my 2 cents anyway.

I've been here a few times now. I've ordered, bbq pork 腸粉, duck and fish 腸粉, the wrapped "donut" one, and the fish/peanut pork bone congee.

The congee is a different style here. is it chiu chou? not sure. but it is thinner, and the rice is still whole sometimes. There is something strange about the flavor. 2 of 3 times it clearly tasted like luk dou green bean soup. I don't know why. they must add sugar. It is unique, and i think it is better to share this, as a whole bowl, though not a large bowl in comparison to other shops, is still too much of that one flavor, for me.
The bbq pork 腸粉 really aren't that special... to me. the donut wrapped ones are ok. still crispy inside... but there was something stale about it anyway, i think that is only natural, as i'm sure by 11pm that donuts been sitting there for a while.
NOW: the duck and fish 腸粉. ... this is something special. for one thing, i don't think that combination is very common... the locals i've taken had never had that mixture before.
The sauce for this one is a lot less sweet, more of a vinegar taste, but in a really good way. Also, they add cilantro to this one which i think is the secret to its success. (or if you are one of those people who think cilantro tastes like soap, you might want to ask for it to be taken off if you can). I will/would keep coming back for this one item alone.

When i'm in this neighborhood, my favorite thing is to get a vietnamese sandwich from around the corner, and then the duck and fish 腸粉.

just don't get the tong yuen at the place next door. it is pretty nasty. (unless you like hard peanut butter).

i really like the "open" air quality to the place. no doors.
it is very cramped though, and if you are big, in height or girth than this causes some awkward seating.

give that duck and fish one a try.

i really appreciate that these 腸粉 haven't been sitting in a steamer for hours. there is definitely a difference in flavor/texture as a result.

因為'添好運點心'呢排好像變差了, 咁priority當然又換變嚟 'VERO' 食腸粉.
當然... 知道佢叫'堂記'la, 但地址真係好似九龍版Vero咁'偏劈'. 激死.
仲要上次來到. 先記得星期三唔開的, 白做exercise 添!
Ordered 4 types Rice Paper Roll (or Vermicelli Roll) and 1 congee:
蝦米蝦腸 - This was a rip-off in a way. In each 1 out of 3 rolls, there was only 1 prawn each at the 'tail end', plus some rehydrated 蝦米. To tell you the truth, I only ate 1 prawn from 1.5 shared rolls - and I can't even remember nor review the prawn taste! However, I thought it was definitely above-average. Roughly 7/10.
叉燒燒鴨腸 - This was quite good I suppose. In the sections that had 叉燒, it over-powered the 燒鴨, since the Char Siu had quite a strong 'smoky taste', this wasn't expected but at least it shows they did extra work to improve the experience for the customer. The 燒鴨, when eaten with only the 腸粉, was also great as expected, due to Duck's gamey taste from both meat and skin. I would probably recommend not to order this particular combination like I did, as they're probably better off as separate! 7.5/10.
豬潤腸 - On the 1st bite, I thought the 豬潤 taste was more natural, slightly more smelly and perceivably fresher than the ones in 添好運點心, I liked it here better initially on that 1st impression... However upon eating more of this 豬潤腸 I found that the 豬潤 texture was slightly over-cooked in some slices, plus it wasn't as sophisticated in taste and crunchiness as 添好運's. I guess some people would prefer the version here. For me - I don't mind both, so I rate them equal. The DIFFERENCE? Obviously, the 腸粉 part. To be explained below. 8.0/10.
鴨腎菜乾豬骨粥 - This had a lot of the pork bones and dried pickled vegetables, with very little 鴨腎. In reality, this Congee was slightly too 'sour' and salty from the 菜乾, and the 豬骨 taste wasn't too apparent. The Congee was deliberately aiming to be made well I think, because naturally it had the 綿綿地 potential without artificial add-ons and the rice was cooked to be slightly 爆花 like. In this respect, it was better than Congee from 添好運. However, due to the 菜乾 & 豬骨's released moisture, it made the Congee a bit thinned out again as the end result. Also the flavours tasted a bit unbalanced and strange, and not enough Pork Bones depth taste. Personally I don't like it, but I think it deserves some credit for the effort especially when this particular Congee is difficult to made well. 6 to 7/10.
炸兩 - The 油炸鬼 part was quite crunchy but hard. I suspect that the 油條 was re-fried too much, to keep its crunchiness. I thought this was bearly ok - although their 甜醬 seemd home made somewhat. It kind of tasted like in between 酸莓醬 and commercial 甜醬 somewhat - I initially wasn't sure if I should use this with 炸兩 or the 燒鴨腸 haha! But I think it was good in a special way. 炸兩 = 4.5/10.

I think overall, the 腸粉 exterior here is a bit thick despite being quite smooth for this size. It wasn't translucent like the ones at 添好運, also, the rice taste was much weaker here by far despite being thicker. It was slightly elastic however, which was a great texture in a way. I guess I liked the fact that this was 即拉 and was of a high standard.
However, so far, the best 腸粉 I've had seemed to be at 添好運 and actually 美心皇宮's extra long 腸粉 is really good too, then obviously here, Fook Lam Moon and Lung King Heen - obviously haven't tried all of them in Hong Kong yet to judge accurately. But 添好運 seemed like the clear winner to me, except for its presentation, which is all over the place! but that's because its too thin for rolling, its called 'Compromise'!
However, I love 腸粉 and if anyone has other recommendations, feel free to share with me so I can eat good food! Thanks

Very High '3' to low '4'. Overall I liked this shop's ethical approach and respect of food! Not dissimilar to how I felt about VERO, strangely enough Whether they've mastered the 'cooking', is subject to debate. But its much better than most shops, that's for certain!

Seeing members on the forum wanting to join dinners make me realize that I, coming rather late to these dinners, have become the rather "experienced" bunch to some. OR event diners often take pictures before they eat, and you can easily spot them at a restaurant -- When you see a group of people excited holding their cameras up and "snap-snap" before they excitedly hold up their chopsticks and devour any dish descended upon them, those are the OR aficionados. Just a few weeks ago I was at one organized event, when we made a few stops throughout the night -- walking across town to find good eats. The weather wasn't so chilly to begin with, and heading from one stop to another, conversations flowed and anticipation grew on my part. Along the darkest boulevards in a quiet part of Jordan where alleys were dark and streets suffered from the lack of traffic, I wondered where we might be going, until a faraway glimpse of light offered me the clue.

Rice-rolls(腸粉) here at 堂記 have been famous, so famous that the news clips (Chinese and English...newspapers and guidebooks alike) were stuck all over the wall area if it wasn't already spread out by the menu. No fancy lighting or decor, tables were laid on a platform against the store. There was an unwritten rule here though, if you were here only to get rice rolls, you'll wait 30 minutes or more. But if you get a bowl of congee, they rice rolls will be delivered soon enough. Now that's smart enough marketing strategy. Knowing that their congee wasn't as perfect at the standard on par with the rice noodles, the store managed to make you order them if you want to have the better product. I wondered why McDonald's haven't thought of that earlier? Event Organizer decided that we'd try every rice roll on the menu. There were 10 of us, that should be enough. And so we ordered, you should've seen that waitress' face. Her face turned pale as I could imagine she secretly gasped in half horror and half disbelief, thinking, "What are these people made of?"

The Dried Bokchoy and Pork Bone Congee (菜乾豬骨粥)was a bowl of chunky filling with a surprise ingredient -- Duck Gizzard. The gizzard was rather tough with a bite to it. The dried bok-choy, rehydrated, offered a rather unconventional vegetable element to the congee, while the pork was meaty enough not to gnaw on, despite eating with a crowd while everyone else was watching. Then the rice rolls arrived, despite they all looked alike, in the easiest of classification, they were presented in different colour plates. Barbecued Pork ($13) arrived first, as chopped bits of Barbecued pork encased in a translucent white rice roll. It was steamed fast in a standing steamer and quickly rolled, cut, and served. The rice noodle itself was white as snow, steaming with the clean aroma of rice. The slippery texture was due to a few dribbles of oil added to improve the look of it. Even the soy sauce tasted slightly sweeter in this one. The dried shrimp ones ($13) were more cylindrical in shape and the shrimps, dried at first, were soaked long enough to taste like fresh ones. The beef roll ($13) had a complex flavour meat base and on top of that I could taste strong notes of coriander leaves and dried tangerine peel laced through the otherwise soft meaty filling. Pig Livers ($13) were a favorite of mine, and in here the cooks didn't fail to impress us with chunky meaty slices of pig's liver, with a slight starchy texture as in just about any good liver, the texture combination between the soft rice roll and the liver made a strong mark in this experience here.

I found myself making an expression with a "Mmm....." oozing out. No sounds were made, and clearly I missed the part when everyone's snapping pictures, yet again. Fresh shrimp rice rolls ($14) featured generous amount of shrimps used here. They were of larger size and tasted fresh, not one of those dead ones you know have seen better days in their refrigerator. The Chinese sausage rice roll ($14) and "Roasted Duck rice roll" ($17) were the main stars here in the whole trip. The Roasted duck rice rolls had torn pieces of roasted duck, crispy skin and meat and all, stuffed and enrobed in the pale rice noodles. You can literally see the filling inside. Chinese sausage rice roll was a surprise, as I realized both the Chinese sausage and the liver sausage were used in this one. You will experience the fabulousness of this rice roll as you see flavorful juices oozed out from the inside of the roll towards the end of each roll, moistening the bottom ones on the same dish. The taste was not as heavy as I thought it'd be. Creative and different indeed.

Last but not least we had the crispy dough roll (炸兩, $10). It did not disappoint us either. Half a piece of crispy fried dough, quickly wrapped around skin-soft rice noodles and served. The dough filling was still crispy when served, and the accompanying soy sauce was sweeter than most, and only lightly flavouring the roll, not drowning it at all.
The "Fish rice roll' was a major disappointment though. The fish filling was turned into mush and the coriander leaves weren't quite leaves, nor chopped. They were entire stalks of coriander, with stems. The flavour was of course overpowered by the herb. By the time you bit into it it's all coriander with a grassy aftertaste. By the time the pictures were taken, we were so drawn to trying all types we found ourselves taking each roll apart and try the fillings. The rice rolls itself were slippery and soft, with a pleasant flavour even eaten plain. The filling may be creative as I'd kill to have Chinese sausages or roasted duck any time of the day, I may just have a plain one next time, with plain congee... I wondered if I'll have as dandy a time as my first time here.

Note: Those who have never been to 堂記 should note that It opened Wednesday to Sunday each week, and they don't open until 3 pm. You fellas can forget about having lunch here. Anytime after lunch would be just fine. Expect long lines and extended waiting time.

I am a 腸粉 lover. Once I know this shop, I must try. The 腸粉 and 菜乾鴨腎豬骨粥 are excellent. The 腸粉 and soy sauce are good match. Nothing I can say for any bad comments.

I arrived at 7:45pm on Friday evening, expecting need some time for waiting. Luckily I am alone, so no need to wait for seat. Then,

10 minutes waiting for order
35 minutes waiting for food
5 minutes for eating
5 minutes for payment

Total time is 55 minutes. At the time I left, the 腸粉 waiting time is 50 minutes. I have no comments because I think they want to keep the quality.

Today I eat the Shrimp Rice Roll.
I wait for 15 mins and eat all around 2 min, same as other restaurant rice roll

Expensive ! Small portion !
Wait my time and money

Please don't come here to eat rice roll if you think here can make good rice roll same as Guangzhou!