The Square     翠玉軒  

The Square is a Michelin one-starred Chinese restaurant run by Maxim's. The food is consistently good, its location in Exchange Square is convenient, and I find the prices quite reasonable.

翠玉軒has been one of the most consistent Cantonese restaurants in town. It has been awarded with Michelin star for 4 years in a row since 2008 for its elegant comfortable environment and gastronomic experience.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Food rating: 6/10*
Service: 6/10
Ambiance: 6/10
Price: HK$230pax

* Food Rating: 6/10 is equivalent to 1 Michelin star, 8/10 to two Michelin stars, and 9/10 or above to three Michelin stars

Dim Sum assortments (6/10)
Charming presentation. The dumplings were delicate, very traditional. The best dim sum has to be the roast pork pastry bun, the pasty was crispy with layers, slightly salty and the roast pork was tender and sweet. It was a great combination. Bird’s nest broth with diced seafood and shredded bamboo pith (7/10)
I really liked the soup, it didn’t not come with a heavy flavour and wasn’t watery or too thick. The diced seafood gave the broth a sweet delicate taste. The shredded bamboo pith gave the soup some texture/body. Sauteed prawn, water clam and green vegetable (6/10)
It was a very light and healthy dish, perfect for light. Prawns were crunchy and fairly seasoned, were not overcooked at all. Poached green sprout with wolfberry in superior fish broth (5/10)
It was a very standard poached green sprout.Steamed fired rice served in wood steamer

Sister was back from UK on her routine fly, she really likes Chinese food so we visited the Square again.

We haven’t been here since it was refurbished, the area is now more open and tables are put closer to each other. Surprisingly it was almost full on a Monday nite, lucky that we have made a reservation earlier on.

We ordered the usual dishes.

Soup – I am not a soup person but do like their soup which served individually - you could tell it has been cooked or boiled for at least few hours from the deep taste of the soup.

Steamed fish – always right in steaming times, the fish was just cooked, soy sauce tasty, can always have more rice with this fish soy sauce

Char Siu/Duck – we asked for fatty Char Si, it was soft, juicy

Crispy vinegar pork – pork crispy and the sauce taste good

Garlic veggie - not too cooked, still a bit crunchyThe Square is always a decent place for Cantonese food, wouldn't be disappointed with their food.

Went here for an early lunch. We didn't have a reservation, but they said we could dine in if we left by 12:30.

The food was decent, but overpriced. We ordered shrimp dumplings, deep fried duck with taro, fried rice wrapped in lotus, mushroom wrapped in pith. Everything tasted OK, but it was on the expensive side. Also, be wary that what's pictured on the menu isn't necessarily what's going to arrive on your table!

The most disappointing thing about this restaurant was the service. Although we attempted to solicit their help, the waitstaff did not offer any advice on what to order. When we first asked for the bill, they brought over the dessert menu. We obliged and ordered the 3 mini custard tarts. 20 minutes later, we were still waiting. During that time, we attempted multiple times to tell them to just forget the dessert and send us the bill, but they continued to assure us it was coming. After a while, they visibly attempted to ignore us. When the dessert finally came, it was hot and fresh, but the waiting and being ignored was very unpleasant.

It seemed as if others in the restaurant didn't receive such bad service, so maybe it was because we couldn't speak Cantonese (language barrier?). Overall, I probably wouldn't go back.

Came here with my mum for dim sum as it was conveniently located. We were seated in a little function room way out at the back with 5 other tables of customers, which meant it was sometimes hard to summon someone to attention, but otherwise the service was attentive when you got some.

The cheung fun skin was thin but held the prawns together well without falling apart, with just the right amount of chewiness and stickiness without feeling doughy and heavy. The same applies for the 3 other kinds of dumplings we had - har gao, vegetarian fun gwo, and spinach with scallops dumpling. The prawns were fresh and firm in texture. Then there was a vegetarian stuffed bamboo fungus 竹笙 which came in a very light and mild glaze and was well executed including presentation. The roast duck and scallop rice in casserole had a little bit of burnt rice at the bottom which was delicious, and mum appreciated the perfect amount of sauce in it, not too heavy and just enough to coat the rice. We had a dish of choi sum and also a sesame roll for dessert.We liked that the sauces all came separately so we could spoon the amount to our liking.

Some relatives were passing through Hong Kong and were scheduled to leave this afternoon, so I rushed to have an early lunch with them before they boarded their flight. I was looking for a location around the Airport Express station when I suddenly came upon The Square (翠玉軒). I've never had much high regard for this place, being one of those generic venues in the Maxim's Group. But somehow these people have gotten themselves a macaron, so I figured I'd see if the tire people once again got things wrong.

Steamed rice flour roll with shrimp (鮮蝦蒸腸粉) - there is some salty egg yolk inside along with the shrimps. Normally the combination works - in other forms - but somehow this just felt a little weird today... I wasn't quite liking the powdery texture of the yolk along with the smooth textures of the roll and the shrimp.

Marinated yamaimo with tofu skin (腐竹伴淮山) - this was OK. Not really digging the sauce.

Steamed shrimp dumplings (蝦餃) - methinks the skin was a little too thick... and I wasn't the only one.

Baked pastries with ham and spring onions (黃橋燒餅) - tasted pretty good, although they still can't top the ones from Victoria Seafood (海都) made with lots of lard.

Deep-fried shrimp spring rolls (鮮蝦春卷) - pretty good actually.

Deep-fried spring rolls with mixed seafood (炸海鮮卷) - favorite dish of my Favorite Cousin. I'm starting to think that this place does better with items that are not steamed...

Deep-fried salt water dumplings (咸水角) - didn't get to have one of these...

Stir-fried kale with preserved mustard green (梅菜芥蘭) - my relatives were surprised by the sweet taste of the preserved mustard green (梅菜), which is more salty and dry.

Pan-fried turnip cake with XO sauce (XO醬煎蘿蔔糕) - this was not bad.

We were a little full and decided to pass on dessert. Judging from the dim sum we had today, my long-held view of the restaurant remains unchanged... maybe they do better with regular dishes. Another wise selection from the Michelin "experts"...

It’s my first visit. Generally, the food is okay, but I think not that worth the money.

The dish I like the most: 當紅脆皮雞. The skin’s oil has been fried out and it’s not that fatty. Taste good.
The dish I dislike the most: 炒年糕. The 年糕 is terribly soft. The quality is worse than a normal Shanghai restaurant.

Higher the price, higher the expectation. I feel no surprise on the food quality.

Spacious and relaxing atmosphere. Light live guitar music in the background.

Menu is slightly limited. Not too many choices.

We ordered:
草莓汁撈脆肉排 (good)
Some sort of 炒飯 (good)
鮮菌扒翡翠 (nice and light)
Scrambled eggs with prawns (基圍蝦炒滑蛋) (very fresh prawns and the eggs are cooked just right - very "smooth" and not overcooked. Not easy to do! With some scallions on top)
春卷 (surprisingly good. usually don't like spring rolls but the fillings of this spring roll is very fresh and don't taste too oily or heavy)
和牛沙律 definitely fusion dish. Not bad. It's mainly about the beef.
蘆薈百頁 very good! Tofu nice and light but well flavored. The vegggies in the middle include carrots, asparagus, wood ear, aloe vera, mushrooms.

We also ordered a couple of desserts and they were all of good quality and the best part is they are all not overly sweet like other places that make you feel heavy after your meal.

Would definitely come back again!

I picked this restaurant for a family occasion due to its recent press. The Square has a good location and a relatively nice set-up, but I particularly like maxim's grp restaurants because they swear off MSG and always surprise (in a good way), by mixing traditional with new thereby creating unique appealing dishes.

Deciding that we did not want their sets, we studied both their original menu + hakka menu, and ordered the following:
Steamed prawn w/ egg white & Pumpkin puree $48/ea
Tasty as it looked, the pumpkin smelt like the pumpkin pie dessert, but didn't taste as sweet (thank god) and paired very well with the egg white layer and broth on top.

deep-fried gambusia marshi fish
I was sceptical about this at first... but the vinegar sauce went so well with its sweet taste and chewy fried texture! All parts was edible, except I chose not to eat the head of the poor little fish....

Springs rolls ('lung fung guen')
Huge deep fried rolls without oil no where to be seen. Loved the use of shrimps, but could've used more and less..noodle?

Braised Pork Brisket with preserved veg $32
Fatty goodness, but the sauce was surprisingly not oily and is good for mixing with plain rice.

Braised chicken with yellow wine (half) $88
Very well done. The chicken meat (even the breast) was very soft, and i loved the taste of the chinese wine in the sauce - although, i think they shouldn't have cubed their ginger...but shredded it or something.. because at first glance it looks like diced potato (deceptive....).

scrambled egg with shrimps $98
my favourite dish, the scrambled eggs were cooked perfectly and very creamy! If i come again I will order this again but with crab meat.

steamed cod fillets with mini-fish $138
This dish was rather small, but what disappointed was its texture. I didn't expect cod to taste like this - it was rather 'hard'? The mini-fish ('bak-fan yu') on top gave it nice flavour though.

Flavoured rice in mini wooden buckets
Nothing surprising..quite forgettable like soy-sauce rice.

Fried rice cakes with cabbage, pork and squid
This was extremely tasty, I would also recommend this for people who like shanghai fried rice cakes, cos it resembled that except the little ones here were more chewy and rounder.

poached spinach with salted and preserved duck egg $85
Tastes very good without being salty and i noticed an absence of the after-taste which spinach usually has? However it did lack in my favourite fried whole garlic pieces....

Desserts - we decided to go with the fail-proof chinese desserts:-
mango pudding x1 $28
Best of the lot, very creamy texture doesn't remind me of the cheap gelatin-like versions at all! Could use more mango pieces though.

Almond tea x 2 $20
Honestly I think I could've done a better job . Its bitterness was not bad, but the taste is an acquired one so I think people should like bitter almonds before they decide to order this dish.

ginger milk x 3 $20
Ginger milk was good but not as creamy/tasty as ones I've had in dessert shops.

total bill came to about $970 for all the above dishes after 25% off. Very good value indeed!

Some Update 1stly - I have just relocated my Photo's Blog to [foodofhongkong.blogspot.com] from the older [babedolphin.blogspot.com], in case anyone needing some guidance when visiting our City or for those already residing here but need to have some English references on where to go or what to eat, decided to Google on keywords involving Hong Kong and Food. However, unfortunately I can't afford enough spare time or energy to maintain and upload to a Blog full time, as updating Openrice and also that site takes double the effort. So please treat my site as amateurish and a compromised approach at best. Don't expect much at all.

Came to THE SQUARE around 2 months back for dinner for some unknown reason after work, totally a random idea. The food in general is very Maxim's like with their thick corn-starched sauces and down to earth flavourings rather than bold! The recommended stand-out dishes are the Whelk Slices with Jelly Fish, 雲影翠玉, 脆脆龍鳳卷 & the 蟹肉炒蛋, which was easily the BEST fried egg dishes around in HK. I feel that the dishes served in this restaurant are probably more suitable for Overseas Visitors than local visitors, as it reminds me of some China Town offerings ! Nevertheless, the quality and executions here are good enough. For Full Photos more than the 8 allowed and my personal Scores, you can visit the Photos Only Blog @ :

http://foodofhongkong.blogspot.com/2010/03/square.html

Our manager will be transfered to another dinner. So we had dinner with him last night. seven people ordered a set dinner for six ($1,480). there are three kinds delicacies (BBQ pork, roasted duck and jelly fish head), shark fin soup, steamed garoupa, vegetables with conpoy, sticky rice with air dried pork and chinese sausage, crispy chicken, sauteed scallops and clam with podded pea, and fruit platter. we ordered a sea cucumber with spring onion $128 and used HSBC credit card to have a Sauteed Chicken and Cuttlefish Slices with vegetable. all food taste quite good. the fish is fresh. the portion is enough.
we ordered seven glasses of sweet bamboo juice. It is really very sweet. we also added one dumpling in ginger sweet soup ($28) and two plates of 擂沙湯丸($28/each). not very good. the one in Lei Garden is much better.
tea $10 each, prickle $15 each.
it is quite crowded last night because there is wedding party. we sat near the exit. one side is cold and another side of the table is hot.
it is quite expensive for me .

A weekday lunch for 2 cost $350, without any expensive dishes. Undeniably, the environment and the food are both good but sometimes the waiter/waitress is too busy to serve you. You may have to wait long for a dish. Luckily, they still service customers in good manner. With this price, I think either Summer Palace or Man Ho Restaurant at Admirlty is better, at least you won't need to sit so close to others.
If cheaper at weekend, it can be a good choice for lunch.

it's cheap at weekend. they offer their food at cheap price during weekend. i think it's just 1/3 of original price of weekdays. their target during weekdays is those for business lunch. so it's very expensive. the service is very good. the environment is quiet.