Lei Garden Restaurant     利苑酒家  

The food is OK, but the service is really bad. The waitress forgot to put down one of the dishes we ordered. When we checked with her an hour later, she first lied to us by saying that the dish takes 18 min more to prepare. Then after questioned if it's because she forgot to put down order, she just ignored us and left our table, didn't even cared to say sorry. The restaurant is not living up to its fame and the Michelin star in terms of its service.

CRS REVIEW SERVICES:

FSAP Grade: 81/100 A-

Food: 47/50
The food was very good, well worth the two michelin stars. Char siu was tender, juicy and succulent, whilst other assorted dim sums such as cheung fan har gau siu mai and others were tasty and fresh, one could not detect any msg. The restaurant also offers other food such as rice, spring rolls, and mostly traditionally chinese fare such as chicken feet.

Service: 10/20
For a michelin star restaurant the service was very bad. They got out name wrong in the reservation and even forgot to bring us some food. The food however came quick, and this experience is slightly odd as it is different to the previous times we went to lei garden, so it is possible just a one off. Still we expected a lot more, as the waitress was also rude and stroppy.

Ambience: 17/20 The ambience was very nice. We got out own private room in 'Hong Kong Room' as we were a large party, and the whole place was nice and secluded, a relaxing place dim sum and talking.

Price: 7/10: Although the food is worth it, the price did not merit such a bad service. The reason i have still given a relatively good 7 points is in hope that it was just a one off.

We booked Sunday lunch here. There are two seatings; 11.30 and 1pm. We chose 11.30.
We were seated immediately and the menu was the usual list of dim sum plus you can choose a la carte if you prefer. Service very swift and efficient. They also seemed to discreetly keep an eye on you so if you did think "oh we need to order something" they were straight away at your side. Food arrived promptly and was delicious. Shrimp dumplings (crystal kind?) were stuffed with juicy shrimp - our 6 year old son immediately commandeered the first basket and wolfed down the second one we ordered! He also insisted on an extra basket of the soup-filled dumplings. He's hard to please and that is high praise indeed! Their signature Roast Pork was yum, maybe a small portion by some standards but juicy meat, wafer thin crisp skin, daintily served in a square cut into 9 portions. Char siu bao; sui mai; turnip cakes also delicious.
We have had Sunday lunch several times here. It is always very busy (need to pre-book) but the service always excellent. One warning would be that if you have the earlier lunch seating they warn you that they will need the table back by 12.45 and they are, understandably, rigid about this.
I'm looking forward to having dinner here.

Love this place because you can count on every dish being tasty. It's relatively expensive but you get what you pay for.

We usually have their daily soup and dim sum. My favs are suckling pig, bbq pork and all their dim sum. Their fried rice and soup noodles are yum too.

My other fav dim sum places would be maxim's cityhall and fook lam moon and che's cantonese resturant.

Been reading bad reviews re: service of the restaurant, think service was normal for me, especially during lunch when they are super efficient. Went once for dinner and every dish they recommended was $$$$ which I guess is "normal" too.

Need to reserve ahead at least a week, maybe two.

I met up with a couple of friends for dinner tonight. One of them is in town from Taipei, and wanted some Cantonese food, so my other friend booked a table at Lei Garden (利苑) in IFC for us. It's been more than half a year since I was last here, and things have gone downhill sooooo badly that I was livid and ready to leave the restaurant, even before we started eating! I totally understand why they lost the Michelin macaron in the latest edition.

We were given 2 menus: the regular a la carte menu, as well as a plastic tube on the table seemingly listing the "greatest hits". We looked both over and started to place our order with one of the captains.

"Can we have a roast barbeque combination with roast suckling pig (烤乳豬) and another item?" "Sorry, no more suckling pig, but we can offer you roast pork belly (燒肉)." "OK, can we have that with roast duck (燒鴨)?" "Sorry, we don't have roast duck, either. You have a choice of roast pork belly, char siu (叉燒) or chicken." What?! Awwww...forget it!

I was in serious disbelief that at 8pm on a Friday night, standard menu items that every Cantonese restaurant will stock in full were unavailable. The captain proceeded to tell us that they are in the middle of a menu change, so we shouldn't order off the a la carte menu but look at the plastic tube instead. WTF?! I asked the captain why we were given the a la carte menu at all if it's basically useless, and was told that it was necessary to show the a la carte menu to customers since it has the English and Japanese translations, while the plastic tube only listed dishes in Chinese...

OK, so we look at the tube and try to order something listed on it. The table next door ordered a pan-fried giant grouper fillet (香煎龍躉扒), which one of my friends found interested. "Can we have that, please?" "Sorry, the only giant grouper dish we have left (out of three preparations listed on the tube) is the braised fin (炆翅). You should order that one." What?!

There were a few other things we wanted which weren't available, and by now I was fuming and ready to get up to leave the restaurant. But I didn't want to make it difficult for my friends, so I stayed and proceeded to order our food.

First to arrive was braised prawn in casserole (金榜題名生中蝦煲). The Chinese name was kinda elegant, and the English description sounded innocuous enough. What we actually got was prawns in laksa sauce. Yes, as in the Malaysian/Singaporean dish with that curry/coconut milk/chili broth. No wonder the waiter told us that it was a little spicy. And here I was thinking that they were just gonna sprinkle a little black pepper or chili powder on top... In all honestly the prawns were pretty tasty, and came with little steamed buns for us to dip into the sauce. But they probably should have described the dish to us when we ordered it...so we knew that it wasn't exactly Cantonese.

Next came the braised conpoy and assorted vegetables (瑤柱海味雑菜煲). This is a simple dish but one of my favorites at classic Cantonese restaurants. Lots of veggies mixed in with conpoy (瑤柱, dried scallops), dried shrimps, sea cucumbers and glass vermicelli (粉絲).

We did order fish in the end - a steamed green wrasse (蒸青衣). I have to admit that they did an excellent job of steaming the fish - the texture of the flesh was just right. Of course, the fish itself was very nice and fresh, too. Perfect with some steamed rice.

The final dish was steamed lotus leaf wrapped chicken and Chinese preserved sausage in small steamer (籠仔荷葉臘腸蒸雞). The combination of flavors is pretty classic - chicken, shiitake mushrooms, preserved sausage enhanced with the fragrance of lotus leaves.

I brought a bottle of 1995 Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonniers, which turned out not to match the food we ordered. But it drank reasonably well, considering how little I paid for the wine years ago. Classic Rhone nose and palate, with bacon fat, floral and Christmas potpourri notes. Medium body. Pretty enjoyable as a casual wine.

There was definitely enough food to feed the three of us, and I couldn't find fault with the quality of the food. But this would probably be my last visit to Lei Garden in a long, long time. Their attitude was just ridiculous. To not offer more than half the items on the menu, and have the gall to blame it on menu change (isn't this the first week of January?) and expect customers to just accept it as something normal is just too much. I'm not sure why the people at Michelin took away the star this year, but from where I'm sitting they definitely don't deserve any.

original blogpost with pictures: http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2010/01/why-restaurant-deserves-losing-its.html

The service at this Lei Garden is extremely poor, especially the two ladies at the door reception. These two ladies have very slow action and reaction to client queries. They don't have ability to organize the seat arrangements in an acceptable way.

We booked a table more than a week ago, stating our seat preference. We arrived at the exact time, but the ladies at door reception told us no seats were availble, which is ridiculous given that we booked the table more than a week ago. They kept us waiting for almost 40 min (way beyond our tolerance level), but at the same time, they let people with later bookings to have their tables. This is really disgusting behavior. I think the two ladies should be punished by upper management.

We have a feeling that the ladies deliberately did this, given an incident that there was one time we specifically requested a nice "Ka Wai" to celebrate my family member's birthday, and the ladies were not happy about this request.

This particular restaurant at IFC does not seem to treat customer well. We almost went to the restaurant every week. We are so frequent customer yet are treated in such a shitty way. This destroys the reputation of the restaurant chain who always claim customer satisfaction is highly regarded.

I think upper management at this restaurant chain should take this incident as a serious mis-behavior of its staff.

Even before the French Tire company has awarded 2 of the Lei Garden restaurants 1 'Michelin Macarons' each, I've always been of the view that this restaurant surely deserved some praise. Does it deserve any 'Macarons'? Yes in a relative way even though nothing here is outrightly outstanding.
This review is infact based on several recent visits to Lei Garden's various outlets, lunch and dinner - this time, its a summary of visits to the Wanchai, IFC as well as Mongkok branch (I've also been to the TST and North Point Lei Garden in the past). I actually believe the Wanchai and TST outlets are slightly better than the IFC's restaurant, in fact some dishes were better executed in Mongkok than the IFC, but all in all they're pretty much more of the same, within a 15% range! Perhaps this consistency and good management and quality assurance is a reason why 2 separate branches of this chained Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong received Michelin stars as well as 2 other branches getting Bib Gourmand recommendations.
If anyone has noticed - most of restaurants in the world which have received coveted Michelin Stars, have all been owned or headed by a famous chef and kitchen team that oversees the food production. I certainly cannot remember any awarded restaurants off the top of my head which ARE run purely by a 'restauranteur', and with so many branches in the same city. As far as I know, probably none of the same local branch with the same trading name and same menus restaurants within the same city has been awarded repetitive stars. Of course, this case is no longer true if the restaurant has outlets in more than 1 city, but this feat by Lei is still impressive. The reason for this abnormality is simple - the restauranteur is a bit of a perfectionist who has a great filtering system and quality management skills to ensure all dishes in each branch are prepared to a minimum, certain standard. Whether it be in China or in Hong Kong or in Singapore.
This kind of consistency and achievement is indeed a rarity in the culinary world.... e Especially considering that some star chefs/kitchens can't even manage their 1 singular kitchen well, let alone depend on a team of relatively unknown kitchen hands and unnamed chefs usch at Lei Garden. (Even McDonald's has inconsistencies between branches in my opinion!)
The strong point of Lei Garden is that none of the dishes here are off-dishes - everything is prepared to a minimum of an acceptable standard without flaws. Great attention has been paid to the small details.
The weak point of Lei Garden meanwhile, is that so far, none of the dishes I've tried in my experience were really outstanding in a way, also, the menu here is rather uncreative and not so appealing. Its mostly run-of-the-mill Cantonese food that is done pretty well, but not exciting by any measures. In other words, boring food, but cooked well.

FOOD:
BBQ Items -
- The now famous Roast pork that are miniature and bite sized. Usually with a crispy exterior skin and fat rendered multiple layer meat beneath. On the good days, it can really be very satisfying, and on the bad days, still acceptable but nothing extraordinary - the one I had at IFC lately wasn't as tender and fatty as I've liked, trying to much to be elegant, but it was still ok-good. In my experience, the Roast pork at IFC is not as good as the ones at Wanchai for some reason. All in all, this is NOT the best roast pork in Hong Kong, I've had better occasionally elsewhere, but at least its consistently tempting enough. Consistently in the 75-90% range.
- BBQ Pork Char Shiu. This is also done pretty well and consistent at Lei Gardens, definitely better than the Fook Lam Moon version, and better than Yung Kee, even at its worst. Certain outlets seems to be much sweeter than the latest one I had at IFC branch, which had a nice charred taste and texture, not overly sweet honey glazing. Meat was relatively tender but could have done with a bit more fat. Consistently in the 75-90% score wise. Look how tempting the photo looks!

Dim Sims for Lunch -
Deep Fried Taro dumpling with Prawn. This dish is beautifully fried without a lot of oil and a nice crispy texture. Even better than the Fook Lam Moon version, especially the better fillings here, which are bitey and not overly chopped up, and not gooey like as in every other restaurant in HK. Very good always. 85-99% range.
Spring Rolls. Again, very satisfying on most occasions, comparable to Fook Lam Moons one except here, the fillings are even better again. 90%-95% ish.
Prawn Dumpling. The skin here isn't very transparent, but the taste and texture of most prawn and skin is usually excellent, although a bit bland. Around 75-90%.
Steamed Vegetable Sprouts Dumplings - barely seasoned, a bit bland at first but in fact, very fresh tasting, with a great textured, transparent skin. Could have done with more flavour though. 70-75%.
Light Deep Fried 'Fun Gor' like Dumpling (can't remember the name). This isn't the normal version, so it doesn't come with any chives soup. Very tasty indeed and must admit the texture of the skin is quite different from anything else I've had, almost like a Samosa skin yet quite appealing. Different from the Fook Lam Moon version, which is awesome and perfect as well. 90-95%.
Other dishes:
Fried Chicken - This is probably my favourite dish in Lei Gardens. Consistently moist, tender and flavoursome inside, with a perfectly crispy exterior skin. The worst one I've had was still better than the best ones I've had in other HK or overseas Cantonese restaurants. 80%-100%.
Mixed stir fried Vegetables - Consisting of Thailand asparagus, lily bulbs (?), some mushrooms, capsicums and ginkos. Topped with a crispy flour based nest. The execution is pretty but its rather bland, perhaps deliberately? The Thai asparagus had virtually no asparagus taste (despite it being in season). However, the wok fire 'wok chi' was well balanced - not too much and not too little. Personally, 60-70%. Could be better.
Oyster with Port sauce. Served in a lettuce wrap not unlike Sang Choy Bao, the American oysters are big and fatty. The batter was a bit oily but still acceptable and the port sauce reduction was more like a sweet and sour sauce. It has room for improvement. 75%.
Strawberry pork ribs. The version at Wanchai seemed slightly better for me, less acidic. Better than the Pang's jammy version in Happy Valley, although still not outstanding. 70-85%.
'Wa Wa Choy' vegetables in Fermented beans. Very nicely done, vegies are cooked just right without being over-fried and chewy like at Ding Tai Fung. Beans with a miso like taste made a wonderful compliment to the vegies taste. Very loved by a Japanese dining companion. 95%.
Steamed Fishes. Quality can vary a bit depending on the type of dish but generally it is quite good, albeit on the softer side in terms of sauce and seasoning. Probably deliberately trying to be elegant? Around 70-90% depending on luck.
Had many other dishes as well, but cannot remember off hand.

Desserts:
No comments. Haven't had it in recent visits due to being overfilled before the end of the meal! From memory, not overly impressive but usually light and healthy in taste.

Generally speaking - the reason why I like this 'chain' of restaurants is because it is rather consistent. I could dine there 100 times and it will still be reliably within my expected taste. One could argue that other Chinese or Cantonese restaurants might serve better certain food dishes, quality and creativity wise, but most of them can have off days or off dishes, unlike the case here. Expectations are nearly always satisfied albeit without surpassing them, plus, the prices here aren't as high as most of the other Michelin 1 Star restaurants. Not bad for a Chain Restaurant!
A high 4. But still not near a 5.

Tonight I met up wth a couple of friends for a long-overdue dinner. One of the friends is leaving for the holidays, and we decided that we would go to Lei Garden (利苑) for her last Chinese meal of the year. I have never been to this particular restaurant at IFC, and in fact I haven't been to a Lei Garden in quite a few years. Now that the place has been given a Michelin star, it's time for me to take another look.

We started with the simple soup of the day (例湯), which was sweet with a slightly bitter after taste - perhaps from some American ginseng (花旗蔘). A good way to start any Cantonese meal.

We were then served a plate of crispy roast pork (脆皮燒肉), which the waitress said was an "appetizer" portion. She wasn't kidding. The plate was tiny and only had about 9 or so small cubes of the pork. The layer of crispy skin was pretty thin, and the way the meat was cut made this dish seem delicate and refined. Initially I complained that the pork was too lean - I like these fatty - but soon found the layers of fat on other pieces. This was pretty good, but I prefer my roast pork chunky, fatty and with a thick layer of crunchy skin...

There was the usual serving of blanched pea shoots (清湯豆苗), and this was pretty delicious given that the veggy is in season.

The pièce de résistance arrives - a half serving of roast Peking duck (北京烤鴨). We asked the waiter to make thin slices of the crispy skin. The pancakes and condiments are laid out on the table, and we started to make our own pockets. What surprised me were the pancakes, as they were the thinnest I have ever seen for Peking duck. Another sign of how refined the restaurant is trying to be. But after giving it some thought, I realized that these were too thin for handling. I was too afraid that these would tear, and had to handle them very carefully while eating.

The second part of the dish was stir-fried diced duck wrapped in lettuce (炒鴨菘), which was pretty yummy. In addition to using the lettuce, I used up the leftover pancakes, being very careful not to tear the paper-thin skin.

For dessert we shared an order of deep-fried glutinous rice ball with seasame (芝麻擂臺) and deep-fried egg cuillers (蛋散). The cuillers were very nice, but still can't beat the ones from Kimberly Restaurant.

So does the restaurant deserve its coveted Michelin star? While we weren't able to sample many dishes, the ones were did have were certainly delicious. And I can see that the delicate and refined touches - like the roast pork and the pancakes for the duck - would make an impression on the Michelin reviewers. But is it worthy? Perhaps, but I'll need to sample a few more dishes to be sure.

original blogpost with notes on wine: http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2008/12/last-chinese-supper.html

I made reservation for lunch at 12 p.m. on a Sunday about 3 days in advance. The reservationist said that it's O.K. except we have to return the table at 1 o'clock. When we went there on Sunday at 12, they said there's no table until 1 o'clock. For a restaurant in this price range, this attitude is not acceptable.

1. Dim Sim portion too small, BBQ Pork Bun just like Siu Long Bao.
2. The portion of rice and noodles are bigger, but very oily.
3. Their dessert and fried stuff is excellent.
4. Service ok, their take away box is nice, can be re-used and put in microwave.
5. $2160 for 14 ppl.

My family & I used to go to Wan chai Lei Garden and we are their old customers, as the IFC one is the new shop, so we came here last Saturday to have lunch... the environment is too crowded and no air conditioning, very hot! The dim sum size is smaller than those serve in Wanchai Lei Garden, may be it is Central, so the cost is higher and the food size is smaller... the taste of the food is more or less the same, always with good quality food... although i am a big fan of Lei Garden, i rather go to Wanchai Lei Garden and won't come to IFC again... The IFC one is more for business people and not for family gathering !