desmondleewc's Profile

Went on a weekday 9pm just to drink soup since it was a cold day.Restaurant was crowded, but the waiter managed find a place for my party of 3 to squeeze into. Ordered the following double boiled soups ("dun tong"): 1. Winter melon pork rib (HKD 26) -- 4 of 5 stars. Nice clear soup that warmed my belly on this cold night. Good taste, not oily.2. Jade bamboo fish soup ("Yuk zhok sang yu tong") (HKD 26) -- 4 of 5 stars. Even tastier than the winter melon soup. Would have given it 4.5 stars, but I am not a fan of fish soup, and had they used chicken or pork bones to boil the soup, I'll liked it even better. Anyway, it wasn't fishy. Finished the soup in 10 minutes. Service was quick, and patron turnover was quick too.Tables are small, so be prepared for cramped eating. It's not a place to sit around to chat anyway. …Read More

Went at 7pm on a weekday, and it wasn't crowded yet.Inquired about steamed fish and was told that it'll cost around HKD 480 for a steamed sea bass. Decided to forgo the fish option as I wasn't in the extravagant mood that night.Ordered the following dishes:1. Scallop with garlic and vermicelli (HKD 68, 4 scallops) -- 4 of 5 stars. The fried garlic on the vermicelli was very tasty. Scallop was fresh too. Be warned though, some people may not like the strong taste of garlic.2. Ginger and scallion fish belly pot ("kiong cong yu lam po") (HKD 58)--4 of 5 stars. Fish was fresh. It was freshwater fish, I think it's "Wan" fish. Lots of ginger and scallion which contributed to the tastiness.3. Brinjal with minced meat and fish/prawn paste (HKD 58) --3.5 of stars. Oily. So-so. I've had better. But it wasn't a bad dish.4. Omelete with oyster (HKD 58) - 3 of 5 stars. So-so. I've seen in Yau Ma Tei street food where the egg was fried at high temperature that the sides are very thin and crispy. This one is not. The food didn't taste bad anyway. But it just didn't meet my expectations. I recommend the oyster omelette in Singapore ("Or Luat") for those who have the chance to head there. Service was ok. Don't expect maitre d service standards at a street side food stall. I didn't like it that the restaurant allowed a table of PRC tourist to smoke in the table next to mine when I was clearly in the non-smoking side of the restaurant. They have two shops -- one for smokers and one for non-smokers. For not doing anything to remove the health hazard, I'll not return to this stall again. There are two others along the street anyway.Total spending was HKD 242 (4 dishes, including 1 bowl of rice). …Read More

This is probably my 5th visit to this restaurant this year. Decided to contribute an English review, since I notice the other English reviews are very dated.Went on a weekday evening at 7pm. Just to be safe, I made a booking for a table several hours prior to arriving. When I arrived, I could see from the booking schedule that the restaurant was close to fully booked already.Ordered the following dishes:1. Lotus root soup (soup of the day) -- 4 of 5 stars. Tasty soup, and the lotus root was crunchy to bite into. 2. Suckling plate platter -- 5 of 5 stars. Yum yum yummy. Very crispy skin. So good that describing it will not do the taste justice. You just have to eat this.3. Preserved vegetables with 3 layered pork ("mui choy kao yok) - 4 of 5 stars. I like it that the preserved vegetables are not too salty. I would have given it 4.5 stars if not for the fact that the pork was too fatty for my liking. To be fair, the dish is a 3 layered pork (one layer skin, one layer fat, one layer meat) dish. 4. Red hot bean curd ("hong siew yong tau foo") - 4 of 5 stars. The bean curd is stuffed with a minced meat stuffing. And there's some green vegetable that is placed below the bean curd. Not bad.5. Sweet potato and snow fungus soup desert - 3.5 of 5 stars. This one is on the house. Sweet and warm clear soup desert. I like this. But it's standard fare that I could boil on my own.Some reviewers commented on the lack of choice on the menu, which I was baffled. Even for the 4 person set menu where you choose any 3 dishes, there are between 50 to 60 dishes to choose from. I've tried the house chicken on my previous visits (will give it 3.5 out of 5 stars), but I'd say the Singapore Hainan Chicken is much tastier.In terms of service, I have no complaints. I was there when the house was not too full. The waitress wasn't grumpy as some other reviewers commented. However, I did notice an hour into my dinner when the restaurant was almost full, the service staff was overwhelmed. The problem is that each waitress is assigned to a section of over 10 tables, so you may not get prompt attention during crowded hours.Spent around HKD 450 for 3 persons (ordered a 4 person set meal, plus the tea and rice charges)…Read More

went on a weekday evening after dinner around 9pm. The establishment was about half empty/full, depending on how you want to see it. Anyhow, it meant that I didn't have to wait for a table.Ordered the following:1. Steam milk with ginger ("Ginger pour milk") - 4 of 5 stars. Good for a cold day. Yesterday was around 15 degrees celcius, and drinking this warmed up my tummy. Strong milk and ginger taste, as you'd expect. Already sweetened desert. HKD 332. Redbean with steam milk - 4 of 5 stars. Good tasty stuff too. Strong milk taste with ample redbeans on top. Already sweetened desert. HKD 393. Raw egg with hot milk - 2 of 5 stars. Weird to have raw egg in the milk. This one is not sweetened. It must be quite healthy. You know what people say about the taste of healthy food... HKD 36These steam-milk deserts are rather quintessential HK, and I recommend visitors to try at least once for the taste.By the way, there's a Yee Shun branch in Causeway Bay. No difference in the taste of the deserts there. Just that being in Causeway Bay, you'll probably have to queue to get a seat. In fact, there's a yellow line marked out on the floor outside the shop for queuing.…Read More

went for weekday lunch at around 1215pm.Already a queue was forming, but my party had only 3 persons, so I could get a seat pretty quickly. Ordered the following dishes:1) Xiaolong bao (the classic little dragon dumplings) - 5 out of 5 stars. I like the soup that oozes out of the filling. This won't disappoint.2) Crabmeat xiaolong bao - 3.5 out of 5 stars. More expensive than the classic version, but I didn't really like the crabmeat taste in this. A bit too fishy for my liking.3) vegetables and meat dumpling - 3.5 out of 5 stars. so-so.4) Spinach with garlic - 4.5 out of 5 stars. Nice garlic taste in the dish. Vegetables were nicely cooked.5) Stewed beef with noodles (Hong Siew Ngow Yok Mien) - 3.5 out of 5 stars. Ok. Good for a cold day, since it is slightly spicy and is piping hot.Total bill was HKD 420 for 3 persons and 5 dishes.…Read More

Went for morning dimsum at 8am on a saturday. Didn't have to wait long for a table.This is the 3rd time I've been here and each time, the spending per head comes up to less than HKD 100 per person despite the massive amounts that I order. Really value for money.This time, I ordered the following dishes for 3 persons: 1. Rice roll stuffed with charsiew - 3.5 out of 5 stars2. Rice roll stuffed with beef - 3 out of 5 stars3. Charsiew so (BBQ meat pastry) - 4 out of 5 stars. Yummy4. Siew mai - 4 out of 5 stars. The prawn was quite big for a siew mai. 5. Har gao - 4 out of 5 stars. Prawn was fresh.6. Congee with preserved egg and pork - 2.5 out of 5 stars. Didn't really get much pork. Lots of preserved egg though.7. Goose feet - 3.5 out of 5 stars. This is the variation of the classic chicken feet. The chicken feet dish, which I had tried on previous visits, was worth 4 stars.8. Fried noodles with soy sauce - 3.5 out of 5 stars. Ok dish. Noodles wasn't too dry or oily. Not much ingredients though.It's a place that I'll come back again, primarily due to its value for money. At this price, you don't really get much service though. Most of the time, I had to self-help to top up my own pot of tea. …Read More

Made a reservation for a table a week in advance.Went on a Friday evening at 8pm, but still had to wait around half hour for a table. The reason was that I insisted on being seated on the 1st floor, when there were seats on the 3rd floor. It is a small place, maybe less than 30 tables on the 1st floor. The restaurant has a 3rd floor as well, but my friends warned me that the food quality on the 3rd floor is not comparable to the 1st floor. I admit that I have no wish to spend money to verify that piece of advice.Ordered the following:1. Charsiew and roasted meat platter -- 4.5 out of 5 stars. I like the roasted meat better. Skin was crispy, and not that much fats. The charsiew was juicy because it had more fats. What made the dish more tasty was that the meat was heated up, unlike the meat that you buy in the street markets.2. Claypot vegetables (sang choi) with prawn paste -- 4 out of 5 stars. I ordered this dish because I looked around the floor and see that this is one of the more common dishes. The smell of prawn paste was very strong. The cooking is quite unique because all the kitchen had to do was to superheat the claypot for a while, and thereafter the uncooked vegetables and prawn paste is poured into the claypot to be cooked at your table. 3. Salted egg yolk prawns -- 4 out of 5 stars. Each prawn costs HKD 48. They were quite big. Can't really go wrong with this dish. I must say that if you go to Singapore, the variation of this dish is the Salted egg yolk crab, which I would give 5 out of 5 stars, a must try if you go to any seafood restaurant in Singapore.4. Carrot and radish and corn soup -- 3.5 out of 5 stars. One bowl of soup per person. Soup was quite sweet and tasty. I tried the same soup at Tung Po at Java Municipality cooked food centre (North Point). The Tung Po one was much better, and had a lot lot more soup.Total spending for 3 persons and 4 dishes, around HKD 700.…Read More

Went on a monday evening at 7pm.Decided to play it safe and made a booking for the table a week in advance. Do note that you have to call between 2pm to 5pm for table reservations.The restaurant did set a side a table with a handwritten placard of my name and the time. We were promptly ushered to the table after the waiters spoke to each other on their walkie-talkies -- do remember that this is a food centre one level above a wet market, so I was pleasantly surprised at their use of such equipment in this setting.At the waitress' recommendations, which she seemed to memorise and blurt out without much emotions, we ordered:1. Wind-sand chicken ("Fung Sha Gai") -- This was the best dish I tried. Give it 5 stars out of 5, The skin was very crispy, and meat was tender. Some people may find that the chicken could be slightly undercooked, but I find that it makes it more juicy.2. Deep fried pork trotters -- 4 out of 5 stars. Crispy skin and collagen. Not much meat, but you shouldn't expect meat from this dish anyway. The problem is that there was too much for us to finish, and after eating 5-6 pieces of this per person, the marginal satisfaction does plummet very quickly.3. Fried kailan with garlic - 3 out of 5 stars. I must confess that I'm not a veggie person, so I can't really appreciate vegetables. This is but an obligatory dish for a psychological health boost.4. Carrot, radish, and corn soup. Soup of the day. - 4.5 out of 5 stars. I actually drank the same soup at FuSing Shark's Fin restaurant (a Michelin star restaurant) at Wan Chai a few days ago. This one at Tung Po is much tastier and had a richer taste of ingredients. There was one big pot, and I easily drank 5 bowls of this soup. At FuSing, it was one bowl per person...Didn't order beer, but I did notice that the other patrons drank from bowls. Also saw other patrons ordering lotus leaf duck rick, which I shall try on my next visit.Total cost of the meal was around HKD 450. We had 3 persons, and 4 dishes as listed above.Two thumbs up.…Read More

my second visit here as it is only a stone's throw from my office.visted at 1900h today. place was 1/4 full. could get a seat easily.ordered the roast meat claypot, and it only took 3 min to arrive.gourd soup -- this was good. tasted like it had been boiled a whole day for the full flavour.claypot -- braised with a few slices of mushroom, roast meat, fried bean curd, spring onions, ginger, and garlic. It's quite nice, although it's a bit on the salty side. service was prompt, and service staff was responsive.total cost = HKD55…Read More

Booked a table for 2 for lunch on weekday. surprisingly, the place was only 1/2 full. yet the food was definitely worth eating.ordered appetisers -- dumplings and salad. You can't skip that. Nothing fantastic there. the dumplings were soaked in a kind of soy sauce. and salad is, well... salad. plain old vegetables --- rawthe highlight of the meal was the ramen. I ordered the pork soup ramen (tonkotsu). apparently only available during the winter season.the soup was yummy, and noodles were nicely cooked with good texture. two slices of pork, which was tastefully braised.other peripheral niceties: the cutlery was neatly arranged in the drawer beneath the table. as you pull open the drawer, you'll be impressed with the neat set (or at least i was). very typical japanese to pay attention to such details. ichiban!spent HKD 369 for 2 pax. orders - 2 x salad, 2 x set lunchesworth several repeat visits if this place is within your budget.…Read More

Ordered the "Fatty beef small pot". It technically wasn't served in a pot as you can see in the picture. It was more like a bowl of fatty beef noodles in sour spicy soup.The sour spicy soup is made from salted vegatable base. For those familiar with Yunnan noodles soup, it's something like that. An acquired taste, I must say. A couple of initial slurps will "open your stomach" as the cantonese would say it, meaning that it will whet your appetite. The beef is quite tasty, with slivers of fat along with the meat. Added to the soup were some beancurd skin and salted vegetables. I chose "mi xian" (in chinese) or "mai xin" (in cantonese). It's thick white vermicelli made from rice flour. Unlike the yellow noodles, it doesn't have the ammonia taste of wheat flour.Cost: HKD 29 fatty beef small pot, HKD 6 for soya bean.…Read More

Went at 9pm for dinner. Seating capacity has reached 90% utilisation. ordered this fried beef and vegetables dish with rice. Cost was around HKD 50.Beef was tender, presumably from soda bicarbonate, but was not marinated sufficiently. The dish was lightly fried with oyster sauce. Not a screaming buy, but sufficient to fill the stomach. Soup was boiled barley and meat soup. Decent, nothing to shout about.Was sharing table with another guy from mainland china. he keep complaining that he waited a long time for his food. Perhaps he had, as he was already there before I came in. My food came within 10 minutes, just shortly after his dish came.…Read More

Bought a cup of meat balls for HKD9, and a cup of kiwi drink of HKD5.Meatballs were tender and tasty. Not dry like some of the meatballs you'll get in the noodle shops in town. The meatballs are served in a paper cup and are partially submerged in sauce. For HKD9, I'm not paying for fine dining. The taste is all that counts. On that count, Ikea scores top for their meatballs.The Kiwi drink was good too. It is freshly squeezed. Can actually grind my teeth against the small seeds of the kiwi pulp. So I know it's fresh, and not kiwi fruit concentrate from a factory somewhere. It was a small cup though, around 250 to 300ml size. For HKD 5, it was worth it. Good thirst quencher after hours of shopping in Causeway Bay.…Read More

Ate the sharing set for 2 pax for lunch. price is HKD 348 / pax.first dish was the sushi cum sashimi plate. for sashimi, there were tuna, yellow fin, and salmon. it was fresh and juicy. only grouse was that the wasabi wasn't enough. it was only a small bit on the plate for two persons to share. there was too much soya sauce as the saucer was large, and too little wasabi. 6 pieces of sushi - standard stuff for that.soup came shortly. there was red or white miso. i tried the red miso. standard stuff.next dish was the grilled cod fish. this one was good. juicy. but not sure if it was oil or thick gravy. there was a vegetable dish which was forgettable. in fact it was so forgettable that i can't remember what vegetable i ate. and the portion was miniscule.then came the mini lamb steak. awesome! we ordered medium for this. it was tender and juicy. no rough lamb odour at all. the best dish of the day.desert was creme brulee with vanilla icecream. it was refreshing. but i'm not the best judge of desert.On service level, it was so-so. In fact, considering the price level here, I would say it was below expectations. Unresponsive service staff, and my pot of tea took over 10 min to arrive. My guess is that most of the service staff were filipinos or similar. Atmosphere was good. Spacious seating arrangement. Clean and comfy. and well-ventilated environment. My suit didn't smell of oil after the meal despite grilling activities about 20m away. And it's not noisy, so it's conducive for conversations.…Read More

ordered pork burger and the fish burger as takeaway for breakfast. boss-man had to deepfry the fillets on the spot as the previous customer bought the last one available. it took around 3 min and i had my burgers. it cost me 26 HKD for both.tucked into the burgers while at work. The fillets were very crispy. This is because they were deep-fried in very hot oil. I ate the pork burger first, then proceeded to the fish burger. The burger is actually quick big for an Asian stomach. So halfway through the burger, i decided to only eat the fillet and dump the bread.I found the burgers to be very oily. Even now, 10 min after eating them, the oily taste still lingers, despite having drunk a cup of lipton black tea. i have to pass by this stall every day, and as the stall is strategically located at the traffic light junction, sometimes i have to wait by the stall for the lights to turn green. i resent having to wait there, as the smell of oil will stick to my clothes. so i try to wait around 15m before the light and hope that the boss-man isn't deep-frying anything then.on hygiene, the stall is really old. I can't comment on what goes on in the stall since i don't work there. however, in the evenings (around 7 to 8pm) as i'm going home, i can see big rats running around the area. maybe that's because it is located near a small food centre and market.…Read More