Address: 42 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Honk Kong

Telephone number: +(852) 23664012

Website: none

Date of visit: March 2010

Approximate cost per head for 10 courses: £20

Comments on wine list/beer: Very basic wine list  (around $140 a bottle for house red or white), San Miguel and Carlsberg etc. Best bring your own as corkage is very reasonable

Summary:

I was taken here by my grandparents nearly 50 years ago. I have since recommened this place to friends visiting Hong Kong. I am very please to report that noboby has a bad word about this place. They have maintained their standards throughout all these years.

The restaurant is on the first floor. The entrance is shared with a block of apartments – it is not easy to find.

This is a big and noisy restaurant that has over 400 covers per sitting. The night we went, they fitted in 3 sittings on certain tables. However, they will not rush you. There is no bar so if you have not booked, you simply have to que on the stairs.

There were 9 of us and the bill came to just over $2200 incl service ($11.30 = £1). We had over 10 courses, a bottle of house chardonnay and 4 litres of San Miguel. One of  our group brought 2 bottles of good quality Australian red wine – we were only charged corkage on one bottle.

For starters, we had drunken chicken (cooked chicken marinated in shao shing wine) and cold braised beef (thinly sliced slow cooked brisket cooked in a 5 spice soya broth).

Next came the dumplings – pot stickers and soup or shanghai dumplings (the minced pork is mixed with stock jelly. So when you bite into it, you get a mouth of stock and meat). We also ordered a portion of onion cake – deep fried pastry filled with leeks.

Peking Duck was next to arrive. This place is probably the best restaurant for Peking Duck in HK. The skin was crispy and the meat melted in your mouth. It was served with home made hoi sin sauce (not as sweet as the ones you get in jars), pancakes, spring onions and cucumber.

The other courses were: whole carp cooked in a sweet and sour sauce, broccoli and pak choi in a garlic dressing, chicken and walnuts in a yellow bean sauce, lamb with spring onions and leeks, sauté prawns in garlic and mixed fried rice. We finished off with chinese toffee apples.

Most dishes are available in small, medium and large size. We ordered medium size for everything and each dish was adequate for 10 people.

Everyone enjoyed the meal. The waiter who looked after us got top marks, he cleared everything immediately, moved left over portions onto smaller plates in order to make room on the lazy suzy. In between, he was either topping up our drinks or handling out hot towels.

The fish, lamb and chicken were also fantastic. In fact, it is as good as it gets for £20 a head. You can pay 3x as much and still not get a better meal than this.

Now the downside. First of all, this is not a restaurant for a romantic meal for 2. Go with a crowd – I suggest a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 10. Secondly, it is not easy to book. You will need to book about 2 weeks in advance for dinner. Thirdly, their English is not that good. But, if you are in Hong Kong you must put a visit to this place on your agenda.

I will let you have the recipe of some of the above dishes next week.

E

PS Spring Deer remains one of my trop 10 restaurant in the world!