I revisited Vbest recently having much fond memories of the genuine taste, fresh ingredients and I am still a fan after more than 10 times. This is a great Chinese restaurant if you are hoping for a peaceful, quiet, delicious and low caloric meal. Great place for ladies' Chinese lunch. Generally the food here is lower in oil content compared to most Chinese restaurants and they dont' use any MSG. Usually, with less oil and no msg, you would need really good ingredients to make the food taste just as good. This place is exactly that. However, please be forewarned that this is NOT the place for birdnests, sharksfin, abalone and the like. It does not have glitzy decorations nor a swanky "impress your client" menu. It's a good place to take your best friends for a hearty homecooked meal plumped with great ingredients and good tea.
The lunch deal is pretty attractive at HK$69 which comes with a main dish, vegetables and option of rice or noodles. However, this can be sometimes boring as one main dish per person is really not that interesting for Chinese food. I do wish they can offer a two/three main dish option with smaller portions of each.
For dinner (these dishes also available for lunch)
My favorite dishes are
（1）Spring onion frogs legs (姜葱田鸡）. One of the most succulent, freshest, fattest frogs legs. Mildly flavored sauce lets you really taste the tender fleshy thighs and the sauce is incredible with white rice. For those who haven't tried frogs' legs, it tastes like a miniature chicken drumstick but more plump, tender, juicy and yet muscular.
(2) Vermicelli with shrimps (粉丝虾）：As quoted by previous reviewer, this is one of the best dishes. Fresh crunchy shrimps, smooth transparent glass noodles with finely diced spring onions sprinkled on top. Light and seafoody flavor all infused into the glass noodles. Yumm!
(3) Fish dumplings with spinach (破菜鱼水饺）: No fishy taste but you can tell there's quite a lot of fish and fresh green spinach minced in the filling. Healthy and tasty. The skin is "al dente" and not too soft, it has a northen dumpling chewy texture.
(4) Spicy dumplings: 红油抄手: The dumpings have smooth slippery skin with a meaty pork/vegetable filling and it's tossed in this fragrant dark chilly oil with spring onions. Once you have one, you would want to eat all of them.
(4) Omelette with onions and potatos: (can't remember the chinese translation) This is a homely dish and something my mum would make at home for me.. The thick firm omelette is fried with lots soft potatoes and onions, it's slightly salty but really substantial and will fill you up really quickly. If you are looking to fill up quickly with one dish, this is it.
(5) Fish Cakes (鱼饼）： Many of my friends love this and think it is one of the better fish cakes but I have never been a fish cake fan and I shan't comment.
(6) Smoked duck breast (熏鸭胸）：Smokey, slightly sweet slices of duck breasts. Some friends do find this a little sweet but I love this dish with the balance of smokiness and sweetness all presented in each bite of the thinly sliced duck breasts.
(7) Ma po To Fu (麻婆豆腐）: This is a not too spicy version and comes in a small bowl. For friends who can eat a lot of spice find this a little too mild though I still like it as the tofu is not that overly smooth type but has some airpockets and steeped in flavor of the sauce and the minced meat in the sauce is the perfect complement to white rice.
(8) You can also pre-order the chicken a day ahead. It's steamed chicken with fragrant chinese wine. Very delicious. but i don't plan ahead enough to eat this often. I've only had it once and it was great.
(9) Five spiced beef (cold cut): 五香牛辗。 The cuts have a good balance of the fat parts and the lean parts. Some places have the beef completely soft and melty (which i don't like) but this one has bite and has a strong beefy flavor.
So what is the downside? It's a little bit expensive for some dishes (like the small vermicelli with prawns HK$ 168). Other dishes like dumpings are about 55 which is quite reasonable. I am always willing to pay more for a quiet nice ambience so you can have a good conversation without feeling like you have to yell (as in some chinese restaurants).
Service is decent and polite. The owner is a polite, well-presented man and his sons occasionally help out at the restaurant. Basically a family run place with lots of soul and great simple food. Let me know if you like it!
