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2015-02-03
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Sometime in early December 2014, I had located the email of Tak Lung and contacted them for a reservation, as I was overseas at the time. To my surprise, they promptly responded and answered all my questions regarding pre-order dishes, and even suggested a few that I did not think of. They even gave excellent directions from the Diamond Hill MTR station, which exit, and when to turn. I forwarded them to my friends and none of them got lost on the way! So kudos to Tak Lung and Mr Tsang for that :
For a restaurant that does not have a Michelin star, yet is recommended and loved by locals, I must say the level of service is well above average to very good. The food? Let's just say that everyone in my party kept wanting more!
We were pleasantly surprised that there was no corkage fee if eating in the main dining room, but they do charge it if you book a VIP/private room upstairs. Very glad that I brought along a bottle of Beaujolais Cru 2013 Jean Paul Thevenet Morgon "Vieilles Vignes", which went very well with dinner, particularly the roasties!
梅子粉冰鎭涼瓜 - this was one of their small cold eats plates, blanched chilled bitter melon with sour plum powder. Really refreshing, and the bitterness in the melon was very faint, yet with a well rounded brief sweetness. Very appetizing and helped to kickstart our meal.
The double boiled soupis 桃姿黑蒜燉螺頭 (with black garlic and conch head double boiled soup) which was recommended by the restaurant when I inquired via email. 桃姿 is some plant based material used to make the gelatin, and is organic. The soup served 8 to 9 people and ran about HK$480 which was worth it. The dark color and tone of the soup was reinforced by its naturally sweet and comforting deliciousness. There was ample material in the soup, and while my individual portioned bowl didn't have the conch slices, I enjoyed every sip of this. Mr Tsang/Tak Lung recommended this soup based on the pre-order dishes which they felt would cut down on some of the grease and heavy flavors.
Gold coin chicken 金錢雞 (liver, fat, chashu), duck feet wrap 鴨腳包 and BBQ pork 叉燒. First time ever having the classic "coins" and "buns". A well roasted piece of chicken liver, a nicely shaped piece of cut pork fat marinated in rose wine and sugar for a week, with a piece of BBQ pork, is just too good for words. What's even more amazing is the taste of the marinated pork fat....does not taste fatty at all. The duck feet wrap is even more interesting, as it is a whole duck web with the bones removed. There is also a small piece of taro and two small pieces of the duck web soft bone inside. The BBQ pork 叉燒 in the center is a very lean yet ridiculous tender and flavorful (with a nice chew) portion that I have never been able to experience overseas. This dish absolutely would benefit from an advanced order, so you don't show up last minute with disappointment. The Beaujolais Cru shined with these items!
魚湯浸豆苗 - large pea sprout in fish broth. Very good, although this was more to make us feel less guilty!
茶燻太爺雞 signature tea smoked chicken. After living in California USA for god knows how long, it is so refreshing to travel to Hong Kong and have chicken in this quality and execution. Some of us were not quite able to taste the tea flavor, but the smokiness was intense as it was delicious. The kind of chicken they use, I can't describe it, but there was an incredible amount of flavor in the flesh, and the yellow fat under the skin was even more delicious. Had a piece of the kidney and liver, and even those had ample delicious smokey flavor (along with some chicken fat). One of the crowd pleasers of the evening!
雞蛋焗魚腸 - baked fish intestines with egg. This was actually not on the preorder list, and gave it to us by mistake. However I didn't worry about it because we didn't quite have enough food, and this was a very welcome addition. Having never had this item before, thus did not know what to expect. The most interesting part is that the egg had a firmer texture that I had expected, yet had the delicate layered characteristic of a quiche! The dried orange peel flavors were quite prominent, though in a good way.
山楂咕嚕肉 - hawthorn sweet and sour pork. Such a simple dish but executed at a high level. 3 kinds of hawthorns (flakes, sticks, fruit) and just enough sauce to coat the pork belly (and the belly itself does not taste fattening which is a skill in itself). Most other places use pork shoulder, but they stuck with tradition. One of the highlights of the night蒸蟹糥米飯 (not pictured) - steamed crab glutinous rice. Appearance wise this is a winner. The rice trumped the crab (skinny, not fatty, and not meaty). Our party pretty much mostly from San Francisco Bay Area are used to fatty meaty local crabs. Perhaps this is not the right kind to use.
焗西米蓮容布甸 - baked sago (lotus seed paste) pudding. Finally a rendition that reminds me of HK in the 1980s! One of my all time favorites and the rendition here is incredible.
Despite preordering a dessert, the restaurant still gave us two additional house desserts
Osmanthus goji berry jello. 桂花杞子糕
and
Buckwheat dessert soup 麥米糖水
Incredible food and company, plus friendly and extremely effective service. Best of all, responsive and very polite communication by management and the owner. We were so pleased with this meal, and with this being the first ever dinner for the most recent trip to HK, we could not wait to go back again, even to try non preorder dishes! So glad to have finally knocked this one off the list after 6 years of drooling over pictures...
張貼
