Kam Shan Seafood Restaurant     金山海鮮酒家  

It was quite a dissappointment for the first restaurant shown on the list when we searched at Open Rice.
Our food turned out to be not as fantastic as we expected.

My friend and I were very excited when we saw the line, and it took us 30 minutes to wait and get our table, which was fine, considering it's on the top of the Open Rice list.

We ordered steamed prawns, black bean razor clam, and HK style steamed fish, plus chinese tea and a bottle of beer, cost us HKD 450.

1. Steamed Prawns were just fine, there is nothing special about it, just like the normal steamed prawns you do it at home and have it with soy sauce.

2. Black Ben Razor clam, was tasteful with lots of MSG

3. HK style steamed fish was a BIG dissappoinment, as it has lost its freshness and juice for being steamed for too long. Taste as it was seasoned only with MSG.

For the price of HKD 225 per person, I don't think the restaurant is worth trying. I have to admit if you are a big fans of prawns, Bubba Gump taste much much better than this restaurant.

This place is fairly well known for its seafood offerings at reasonable price. The last time I was here was ages ago and I cannot remember a thing about it and I guess there is a reason for that. Situated right in the middle of Jordan, the resto has three floors, two of which are located in the building next door with a separate "residential" staircase. We were one of those being assigned to the second floor. I would not say the setting was comfortable but at least there was strong air conditioning and it was all part of the dining experience.

Black Bean sauce Calms was seriously unexciting and not of the optimal temperature as well.

The deep fried cuttlefish cake was surprisingly good! We order extra after our first dish! It was firm to the bite with diced cuttlefish inside and very flavorful!

The Razor clams with black bean sauce was another boring item, a bit over cooked as well with the sauce a bit little too weak.

I think the official or scientific name is called the Mantis shrimps and in Chinese cuisine it is usually deep fried with salt and pepper to make it more flavorful.

I did not eat any because I am quite lazy to de-shell it. There is a proper way / steps to follow to de-shell such a shrimp with the help of scissor but again, too lazy for that night and let me cousin to have an extra one.

Goose Intestine with Soy Sauce wasn't a typical dish for everyone but I loved it! It was firm to the bite like the pig's windpipe I had previously at Spring Deer. A wonderful dish to go with beer!

Yet another dish not for everyone I suppose, the Salted Chicken Feet was surprisingly well prepared with full flavors and right texture as well. I love these kind of items ... or perhaps some might call it snacks! Yum!

The deep fried Frog's Leg (田雞) was alright but the batter was a bit too thick yet crunchy. Another good dish to go with beer.

On the menu this item was called Baked lancelets instead of the usual deep-fried lancelets with salt and pepper. Really made me wonder how it would taste like. It was very crisp and crunchy but I didn't get to taste the fish. This way of making the dish was interesting, making each piece very brittle, too brittle if you ask me. Again ... good with beer!

Likes:
-deep fried cuttlefish cake
-Goose Intestine with Soy Sauce
-Salted Chicken Feet

Dislikes:
-The Razor clams with black bean sauce - rather weak in flavor
-Black Bean sauce Calms - rather boring

Avg Spending: HKD 100 - 200 per person

Original Post with More Pictures: http://www.jasonbonvivant.com/2010/06/kam-shan-seafood-restaurant.html

My friends said that they would bring me to a good seafood restaurant. At first I thought we would need to go to Sai Kung or Lei Yu Moon, but it was actually 金山at Yau Ma Tei. While there was no al fresco dining or exotic concoction like starfish, 金山 won me over with the rustic décor, simple and non-pretentious food, the old-world yet genuine service from the tenured staff, and a surprised dish that wasn’t even from the sea.

I was late to the dinner so dishes were already ordered. As soon as I arrived, one of the older staff gave me a warm greeting and suggested to start the meal with 是日例湯: 霸王花琵琶葉煲豬肺湯. It wasn’t exactly 老火湯as the soup lacked the depth in flavor, but the real star was the 湯渣. I was very impressed by the piles of super tender pork lungs(豬肺), especially the ones with the soft tubes (軟管) which added another dimension to the spongy texture. Do you know that pork lungs are banned in the US so you can’t get pork lung anywhere (at least, not in the legal way)? Using deprivation of pork lung as an excuse, I happily chowed down half a plate.

Other dishes came out shortly as they were mostly quick stir-fried and steamed seafood. The stir-fried giant razor clams with black bean sauce (豉椒炒聖子王) was a very popular dish and understandably so as the meaty razor clams were cooked to perfect tenderness without losing its sweetness. The best part of the steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli (蒜蓉粉絲蒸扇貝)was the vermicelli which absorbed all the essence from the scallops and the garlic flavor. With the briny coral scallop roes I could simply forget about the actual scallop meat. The only disappointment among the seafood was the steamed tiny conches (白烚東風螺) as some of them were not fresh and had a nauseous smell.

My friends seemed to be having relatively healthy life as they ordered a bunch of vegetables for the meal. While many raved about the fried tofu(椒鹽豆腐),I thought it was just standard good fried tofu, not particularly outstanding. Perhaps no one ever ordered the vegetarian delight with fermented tofu(南乳齋煲) as it was poorly prepared and bland when compared to the stir-fried gai lan(清炒芥蘭) which was simple, crunchy, and extremely satisfying. Pomelo skin with shrimp roes(蝦籽柚皮) was normally my favorite, but this time the skin was a bit sour (though not bitter) and the unremarkable shrimp roe sauce couldn’t save the dish.

The highlight of the meal, surprisingly, wasn’t the seafood. It was their signature 雲英雞that seriously amazed me. The half chicken with gizzards and livers (雞潤和雞腎) was arguably the best chicken I had since I came back from New York. While not every piece passed my 雞啫喱spot test (see my 三巡 post for details), this chicken, upon tasting, was full of chicken flavor (雞味十足). Other than a few of the breast meat, all of the pieces were tender and juicy. Compared to 三巡, it might not be as silky and with less 雞啫喱. But the aromatic flavor from the chicken skin and fat, combined with the essence from the chicken meat(雞皮的油香和雞肉的鮮味), made this a far superior chicken to 三巡's. If the ginger and scallion dipping sauce on the side could be a little more pungent, this dish would have been perfect. My friends were hesitant to dig into the chicken livers and gizzards. Buddy, you know how hard it was to have fresh chicken offals? If they didn’t want them, more for me!

Upon asking the old server, he told us that it was indeed fresh chicken (新鮮雞) that they got and he started whining about how their chicken wasn’t as good earlier this year because they were forced to use frozen chicken, blah blah blah . No wonder it was full of chicken flavor (雞有雞味), the same kind that I used to enjoy when I was small. He also said that fresh chicken wasn’t always available, so we were lucky to get a fresh one. I loved to chat with old folks in these kinds of homey restaurants as they were full of food wisdom and the interactions always became informative and entertaining learning experiences in the end.

We were too full to finish all the dishes, but the staff insisted on giving us free dessert (紅豆沙) and even asked us if we wanted extra to bring back home. How nice!

Overall, the seafood at 金山was great and value for the money, but the 雲英雞 was the true exceptional dish and had become my must-order at 金山. I asked the old folk if I could come here and just order the chicken next time. He said, “Sure, and I will give you free soup and dessert!” There is nothing that you can beat the sincerity from these little old-schooled restaurants.