Eating in Hong Kong 1 - Stumbling into Michelin

I am a little leery of talking about eating in Hong Kong because it is almost impossible to do justice to the topic in a few lines or even a few posts.  But I would just approach it from my own limited experience in the two weeks we were there.  There were restaurants at every corner and they could go from very cheap to very expensive within that block, with not necessarily corresponding quality.  In general though, the food was good but not cheap. This was particularly noticeable after we've spent the previous two weeks eating in Vietnam, one of the most incredibly inexpensive travel destinations we've ever been to apart from Cambodia.

According to Open Rice, the 2014 Michelin Guide to Hong Kong restaurants listed 62 starred restaurants, including five 3 stars and thirteen 2 starred restaurants.  In addition, there are 69 "Bib Gourmand" restaurants listed and explained as "good value" restaurants.  We were quite surprised when without looking for any, we stumbled into three of these on our last weekend in Hong Kong when we stayed in Sheung Wan, just west of the Central district.  Since we only had three meals that weekend, we could say we dined Michelin at every meal.  What a scoop!

The Sun Yuen BBQ Restaurant (新園燒臘店) - hardly a restaurant, rather a takeout place with a few tables.  I had scouted out the place in a walkabout earlier in the afternoon and tempted by the BBQ goose in the window had thought we'd come back for dinner.   Unfortunately by the time we showed up for dinner, they were sold out of both geese and ducks.  It seemed that you have to book ahead if you really wanted one - that's how busy they were.  We had to settle instead for soy sauce chicken (done just right) and booked half a goose for the following evening.  

It would have been interesting to compare it to the one we tried at Yung Kee Restaurant which we visited the day we arrived.  The Yung Kee goose did not disappoint - it was very juicy and tasty with crispy skin (you can see the evidence below).  But the price was exorbitant and that may be one reason why the restaurant had been dropped from the Michelin list - no longer a "good value".  It had also reportedly fallen out of favour with the locals.  

Yung Kee goose (half) served on a white plate...

Brunch the following day was at nearby Lin Heung Tea House (蓮香居). I remembered this restaurant from my childhood and thought I'd just visit to see what is was like.  I was surprised to see it on the Michelin list.  While it was a bit of a novelty for me to see how they have maintained the old style restaurant with communal tables, a separate big bowl at the table for customers to rinse their cups in hot water, waiters walking around with a large kettle of hot water - the food was not particularly good.

Be prepared to share a table, no questions asked

Interesting table with shelf underneath for the cup rinsing bowl and newspapers.  The man we shared the table with was a regular who came for brunch every day.  It was an interesting cultural lesson to hear his social commentary, but I wouldn't do that every day...

A short block from Sun Yuen, we came across Chan Kan Kee Chiu Chow Restaurant (陳勤記) famous for its brine-cooked goose and yet another Michelin recommendation.  Since it was slightly more comfortable than Sun Yuen, we cancelled our BBQ goose reservation at Sun Yuen and ate here instead.  The goose was very good as was the fried oyster pancake, the latter a little on the greasy side.  It was a good enough meal for our last day in Hong Kong.

Earlier on our trip, we were wandering around Mong Kok district in Kowloon at lunch time and found ourselves looking into the window of this one specialty restaurant, likely a gentrified former street food stall - Superior Rice Roll Pro Shop (第一腸粉專賣店) - another Michelin recommendation although that was in 2012.  

The steamed turnip pudding, one of maybe ten items on the menu, was very "turnipy" and tasty

The rice rolls, their specialty, were perfect - just the right thickness and texture.  They came with different kinds of stuffings, some of them quite unusual.  Their house specialty, preserved vegetables and pork stuffing was a little too salty.  But the greens and mushroom stuffing was very good. 

And here's the chef!   

Each roll individually steamed, rolled and stuffed.

We didn't try the Three Stars L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon but checked out their café.  The almond croissant was marginally better than the one at the Mandarin café but still not as good as the one at the Patisserie la Cigogne in Toronto.  The Patisserie has the distinct advantage of being only a 20 minute drive from my house and I could time my arrival with the almond croissant's emergence from the oven - you've guessed it, I made a special trip this morning to get mine, and was it ever the best!

Pastries at the Café Robuchon

Next post:  Eating in Hong Kong 2