Archive
Social Place, Central, Hong Kong
Newish restaurant located in the L Place in Central. It’s a new dim sum place, contemporary Chinese cuisine with a modern, healthy (no added MSG) and unique twist. I caught up with the lovely J for lunch, the restaurant offers dim sum and other dishes, but we were here for one thing, dim sum and wanted to try lots of it.
I love the plates – at first I thought there was something on my plate, a fly perhaps? I also love the décor, it’s a beautiful, open space, there’s a ping pong table that has been converted to a dining table which dominated the floor.
We started with duck salad – so much color on a plate and it was beautifully done.
Our favourite was the truffle shitake buns – I literary thought they were mushrooms but they were steamed buns in the shape of mushrooms and they were surprisingly good, and the truffle really gave it a nice kick.
Next the turnip cake, pan-fried, it really gave it a nice crispy exterior and soft-pillow-y on the inside.
I definitely couldn’t go past these pork belly slider babies. The pork belly were soft and tender, which was perfect with the soft bun, the preserved vegetables were a wonderful complement. We devoured these fatty pork belly babies within seconds and wanted more!
The seared Chinese pancakes were a little disappointing I thought. It was pretty much roti and shallots, which I could probably have done at home.
Another disappointing dish was the steamed glutinous rice ‘siu mai’. It lacked flavor and was bland.
For desserts, we thought we would get the steamed custard buns and boy oh boy it did not disappoint! Flowing lava of custard and egg yolk, my goodness, I wanted more. It was the perfect way to end a delicious meal.
Majority of the dishes I thought was good. This was my second visit (didn’t take photos during the first one) and thought it was pretty decent. I love the open space, there are no trolleys here at this dim sum place, but most places in Hong Kong don’t have trolleys anyways. Will be back to try their other dishes, even maybe for dinner.
GA’s ratings: 7 / 10
2/F, The L. Place, No.139 Queen’s Road Central (next to The Center),
Central, Hong Kong
Ph: +852 3568 9666
Mott 32, Central, Hong Kong
Mott 32, part of the Maximal Concepts Group which can be located in the basement of Standard Chartered Bank. The restaurant is quite spacious and the name is after New York’s first Chinese convenience store, which is on 32 Mott Street opened in 1851. I was rather impressed by the bold spiral staircase and the semi-open kitchen inside and the space! I haven’t really seen such a spacious restaurant in Hong Kong, well not as spacious as this anyways.
The menu includes traditional Cantonese, Sichuan, and Beijing dishes. We were here for lunch, which meant dim sum but you can also order from the dinner menu which looked absolutely fantastic and will bring ‘The Mother’ for dinner! It’s always hard having dim sum with just two people, you can never order that many food. However, what we had was tasty and definitely keen to come back for more!
We started with wild mushroom, water chestnut dumplings. These babies were fantastic, the pastry was silky smooth and you can’t go wrong with wild mushroom and water chestnut
I couldn’t go past the kurobuta pork, soft quail egg, black truffle siu mai. These babies were incredible! Inside was a soft quail egg, and it was just amazing!
I really wanted the signature crispy bbq pork bun but considering we were ordering the bbq pork cheung fun, we thought we would go for the Australian Wagyu beef puff. These were good but I think the crispy bbq pork would have been a winner for me!
The honey glazed bq spanish teruel pork cheung fun was good. The bbq pork delicious and the cheung fun itself was so silky smooth.
Last but not least, the pan fried turnip cake, dried scallops, prawns, dong guan sausage (which I forgot to take a photo off). Probably one of the best turnip cakes I have eaten (and at a price higher than norm!).
Service was excellent, and food was good I thought. I was rather disappointed that I didn’t get the char siu but this is definitely a reason to come back and try the dinner menu, hopefully with more people so that we can eat more food.
*apologies for the dark photos, forgot my camera and only had my iphone. The place was rather dark unfortunately :(*
GA’s ratings: 7.5 / 10
4-4a Des Voeux Road,
Central, Hong Kong.
Ph: +852 2885 8688
Sun Tung Lok, Central, Hong Kong
Sun Tung Lok was founded in 1969 by the Yuen family and opened it’s first branch in Tsim Sha Tsui. It recently opened a branch in Central, on Stanley Street just near work. We came here for lunch to try their dim sum menu and left all the ordering to one of our friends and I have to say, he definitely ordered well!
We started with these delicious babies – crispy pig skin with prawns underneath it. oh my my… the skin was incredibly crispy and the prawn was a wonderful addition. Who would have thought that combo would work?
The liver, mushroom, turnip pastry was good but felt it lacked a little umph! Maybe more liver, it was a little weak I thought.
The pork and chives dumplings I loved. Silky smooth pastry and I loved the generous filling.
The pork bone soup with intestines was especially tasty, soup was extremely flavourful and again they were very generous with the pork meat.
The wagyu beef dumpling was definitely my favourite – great flavours and the dumpling was slightly panfried which gives it that extra crunch.
I especially love these silky smooth tofu.
As if that wasn’t enough food, we also got two servings of clay pot rice. My stomach was about to burst but this was pretty decent, especially the rice at the bottom of the clay pot – crunchy and slightly burnt.
We came back about a month later and tried other dishes which we also enjoyed. The pineapple bun with char siu was good, but a little rich for my liking.
The rice noodle with pork we really enjoyed – the noodles silky smooth and the pork incredibly tender. One of my favourites which I didn’t take a photo is the steamed rice flour rolls, reminds me of fried dough sticks wrapped in cheong fun.
We’ve been twice and have never ever tried dessert, as we have been so full. Thought food and service was very good. Will definitely be back to try their other dim sum dishes!
GA’s ratings: 7.5 / 10
Sun Tung Lok
G/F, 13 Stanley Street,
Central, Hong Kong
Ph: +852 2807 2290
West Villa Restaurant, Causeway Bay
I am slowly making the rounds of dim sum places in Hong Kong. A friend was visiting from Singapore, originally from Sydney, and we have known each other for a while now. I suggested the West Villa Restaurant which is located in Causeway Bay – apparently it is a new location, Lee Gardens. Reservations are still highly recommended as the place was buzzing and busy.
There were about 6 of us – the more people the better, which means we can eat more! We started with the soy chicken which was served in a clay pot and steaming hot! The chicken incredibly tender, and Dragon enjoyed it very much.
The individual xiao long bau were also fantastic! The skin was a little thicker than those you get from Din Tai Fung but it was still good. Lots of juice so make sure you wait until it has cooled down before putting the whole thing in your mouth!
Dim sum is really incomplete for me without chicken feet – I know it is not everyone’s cup of tea but it is a must order for me.
These vegetarian dumplings were great – translucent pastry with lots of fillings.
I didn’t have any of the pork and thousand year old egg congee but everyone seemed to have enjoyed it. I only eat congee when I am sick, otherwise no thank you.
The bbq pork bun was indeed very fluffy. My favourite would still have to be from Man Wah – the bun and filling are the best I have eaten thus far.
The bbq pork rice rolls were good – we also ordered the beef and the prawns.
The fried bbq pork bun was definitely a favourite of mine. Was it as good as Tim Ho Wan? Possibly and we didn’t have to wait 45 minutes for it.
For dessert, we ordered a couple of egg tarts, mango and pomelo dessert and doufuhua which is dessert made with very soft tofu. The egg tarts were ok, I still prefer the one from teo cheong bakery but the doufuhua had lots of ginger which was good.
The food was definitely good, the service unfortunately was a bit of a hit and miss. It was so lovely catching up with my old friend, A – can’t wait to see you again in Hong Kong or Singapore. You can never go wrong with Dim Sum right?
Have a great weekend and happy eating!
GA’s ratings: 7.5 / 10
West Villa Restaurant
Room 101-102, 1/F
Lee Garden Phase 2
28 Yan Ping Road
Causeway Bay
Ph: +852 2882 2110
Heichinrou, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
I have been to this restaurant a couple of times now, once for dim sum and another for dinner. I have to say, both times, food was really good. Heichinrou can be found in Times Square in Causeway Bay on the 11th Floor. Can you believe that I don’t go to dim sum very often in Hong Kong? Maybe once every quarter, not even that! I used to go once a month in Sydney but got very sick of it very quickly. Having dim sum with just ‘The Mother’ sometimes is hard, as you can’t eat as much… well he can’t anyways.
We started with some soy chicken which believe it or not, was eaten by Dragon herself! My friend, M, only had like 2 pieces – Sorry! It was deliciously tender and the skin silky smooth!
I absolutely love yu tau wrapped in Cheung fun.
The hundred thousand year old egg was also delicious – a favourite of mine.
Chicken feet which was delicious.
M ordered the shrimp dumpling – it was huge and she absolutely enjoyed it.
Dragon was still hungry and insisted that we order more chicken wings (she was doing the chicken wings movement!) We ordered these wings which were slightly sweet.
For dessert, I couldn’t go past the custard with yolk – OH MY! This was deliciously sinful – love the oozy egg yolk! NICE!
For dinner, there were 3.5 of us – two of my high school friends and Dragon of course! She wouldn’t want to miss out on char siu and soy chicken! We started with char siu and this was good. Had the right amount of fat and meat ratio. Yum!
Dinner with M is never complete if there are no vegetables – beans with minced pork – one of my favourites, but a tad on the oily side.
Soy chicken – this was as good as lunch!
M and S wanted the claypot rice which came with blood sausage, Chinese sausage, some pig trotters and chicken. I love blood and Chinese sausage which were delicious.
Service I thought was good and efficient. Will definitely go back to try their other dishes!
GA’s ratings: 7.5 / 10
Heichinrou
Shop 1102, 11/F, Food Forum
Times Square, 1 Matheson Street
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Ph: +852 2506 2333