Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant     全記海鮮菜館  

Just 3 of us and we made the Giant record of dinner ... 9 dishes , well done !!

1) Sea Urchin Sashimi -- MUST order !!
2) Broccoli fried with sliced squid

3) Steamed Tiger Prawns with Crushed Gralic
4) Steamed Fish ( basically I forgot the name, but its delicious)
5) Steamed Queen's Shell with crushed garlic
6) Chilli Spicy Wine with seashell snails
7) Black Beans Sauce fried with Seashells Meat
8) Fresh Geoduck Sashimi --MUST Order ! (shell can make the congee)--taste is
sooo good !

i ate here quite alot on my recent trip to hong kong, as i stayed with relatives in sai kung.
dim sum, we chose to dine upstairs as there was always more than 10 of us, the waitress are very friendly...probably cos my uncle and dad virtually lives in there?
the chueng fan's has to be one of the highlights of the entire dim sum menu...as they're so light and full of flavour, siu mai's are very big, tasty and the meat are roughly chopped so you get a bit on them... har gau, ok la...they stuck to the paper when you tried to pick them up, beef ho fun...yummy!!!! chicken feet/ sparerib claypot / steamed bamboo mega portion... so nice!! and full of flavour...i couln't get enough of it... the one in the bamboo steamer wrapped in leaf was one of the best i had
then i wanted custard bun...but my uncle told me to get this other one...its similar, got ducks egg in it...and the filling is running and mega hot and please bite carefully!! these was sooooooooooo nice!!!
other dim sum that was standard... steamed beef balls, fishballs, spring rolls, seafood spring rolls, ham shui kok (these was actually good!!!)

ok... night time menu.... i didn't think it was worth the money!!! 20 of us and it was $6000 it was a sunday and busy and service wasn't too good!!!
we had pak churk prawns, slightly small but very tasty, cheese lobster yee mein...ok la, wasn't keen on the cheese sauce, steamed scallops with fan C, tasted good however,,, the fan c wasn't cut up so some of us ended up without!!!, abalone... WHAT A WASTE!!!! it was cooked with a few veg in like a soup.... very very disappointed
fillet steak cantonese sauce... not good enough...they marinaded the beef so soft it didn't have that steak chew to it
in all, very good for dim sum, but evening meal...give it a miss

it is not easy for a novice to walk through the seafood row in sai kung and able to decide which restaurant to go in. putting the aggressive front door peddling aside, we picked chuen kee mainly because of less markup price and a food critic's citation.

the set dinner menu for 8 people costs hk$1390, around hk$174 per person. one can pick 7 dishes out of 12, with a free veggie dish, free dessert/fruit and no service fee.

surprisingly the serving size per dish is big enough for 8 and more. here's my rundown of the tastes:

hokkaido scallops on shell with garlic & clear noodles (more than 2 per person), A.
steamed fish (2 @ 1 lb), A.
steamed abalone on shell (1 per person), A- (could use some special sauce to bring out the natural flavor)
fried jumbo ly lil prawns 瀨尿蝦 in salt & pepper, A- (a bit overdone, i am picky)
lobsters & yi noodles in cheese sauce A- (too gooey, but lobster was fresh)
blanched small shrimps, A- (surprisingly tasty & sweet)
stir-fried squids in chili sauce, B+ (a bit overdone)
small romaine lettuce cooked in preserved bean curd, B+.

all the seafood tasted fresh, although not the premium grade that one can pick from the live tank outside (which would have cost 3X the price).

we dined indoor in a well-lit and comfy room. service was better than expected for the suburban location. overall we had a very satisfactory meal and wonderful experience.

as the blazing summer heat reaches its peakin hong kong, many people seize the chance to go on boat trips and acquire a fashionable sun-tan that speaks, “hey dude, i’m cool enough to go on a boat trip instead of singing karaoke with a bunch of albino nerdy locals. how about you?”

then after the boat trip many would disembark at sai kung to have seafood dinner, which is the reason why when we arrived at the sai kung pier last night in front of 全記海鮮菜館 Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant with advanced reservation, we found ourselves waiting idly with a group of angry customers while dodging chinese waiters racing in-and-out of the restaurant with politeness and customer satisfaction amongst their least concerns. without much else to do, we made our seafood selection at the aquarium, obtained a number tag, and prayed that our names would be called before one of us goes down on a heatstroke. after 45 minutes, we finally were seated on the 2/f of the restaurant, unscathed. we immediately placed our order specifying cooking method. after yet another 30 minutes, the first dish finally arrived…

pork ribs: fried pork ribs seasoned with red chili and garlic. you can never go wrong with this dish. not too dry and flavorful, it was however a bit fatter than what i have at other restaurants, but still good.
fried soft-shell mantis shrimp: best dish of the night. it’s the standard fare fried mantis shrimp with chili and pepper, but not so deep fried so that the shell was soft enough to eat. yummy!
steamed spiral shell: just like L said, it tasted what spiral shells should taste like, with hoisin sauce. tasted utterly bland, which could only have ourselves to blame because we really should have ordered the dish to be cooked with chili oil.
tiger grouper: i have a bias against eating fish in sai kung. period. i think the place is a ripoff, and fish quality is subpar (sai kung is for foreigners). secondly – and also this is not fair, my family always orders humphead wrasse or miniatus grouper at restaurants, so any other steamed fish would be comparatively inferior.
lobster with stock and braised noodles: worst dish of the night. we ordered local lobster which is supposed to be sweet and crisp, but the cook had completely messed up such great ingredient; the lobster was overcooked and meat had turned mushy and tasteless; the cook also put too much cornflour in the stock and resulted in a gooey, tasteless “sauce”. the braised noodles were like microwave reheat, soggy and shredded. i could basically eat the noodles with a spoon. it was so disappointing, and i was even a bit angry they had wasted a good lobster.
steamed razor clam: standard fare. a bit overcooked. the sauce was bland – they should have fried the garlic, and there was not enough soy sauce. too much condensed water had recycled back to the plate.
steamed squid: another wrong order on our behalf. squid should not have been steamed.
steamed chinese cabbage: boiled cabbage. obviously they didn’t even bother to make new stock.

overall this place was a complete disaster. besides the pork ribs and fried mantis shrimp, everything else was bland and waste of good materials. portion was small and overpriced. they cut corners here and there, season with second-rated sauce/stock and spoil the entire dish. lau fau shan has MUCH better quality and ~20% cheaper. and if you want to stick to downtown, i would recommend another seafood restaurant called kam shan “金山海鮮酒家” between jordan & TST. NEVER AGAIN.

for original post with pictures: http://randomnomad.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/chuen-kee-seafood-restaurant/

Although this restaurant is recommend by Mr Choi, Eat and Travel Weekly and award the Michilin Star restaurant. She make me very disappointing. She has changed so much....

She has been one of my favourite restaurant for lunch tea for years and i have been recommend it to friends repeatedly. Although she is still one of the most busy restaurant in Sai Kung in any hour the quality of service and food is degrading rapidly now. Especially during the busy hours...

I am ashamed to bring my friends to this restaurant to make them feel unhappy and being ill treat by the waiter and waitress there. If they still not improving and keep on trying to trick the customer i am sure our foot would vote another restaurant. Beautiful enviornment and antique cannot make a good restaurant!!!!!!

BTW, any recommendation of good restaurant for lunch tea in Sai Kung??

It was so crowded, I can't even find a way to walk in. The seafood was fresh and yum but the service was poor..I think they should hire more people to provide quality service to their customers.