Showing posts with label - Carrot Cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label - Carrot Cake. Show all posts

Thursday 9 February 2012

Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant 竹園海鮮飯店 (Hong Kong)

This is our last lunch in Hong Kong. We did not have dim sum during this trip and were searching for a dim sum restaurant near our hotel. In the end, we found this restaurant called 'Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant' located 10 minutes walk away from Tsim Sha Tsui MTR.

Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant is a local seafood restaurant that has been around a long time. It is known for its fresh seafood at reasonable price and generous portions. As you enter the restaurant, you will notice many fish tanks filled with a variety of seafood such as lobsters, crabs, fishes, crayfish, calms, frogs and prawns.
Entrance of Chuk Yuen Seafood (Tsim Sha Tsui)
The entrance to Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant is easy to miss as it has just a small entrance. The restaurant is located at the basement and has a huge sitting capacity!
Dim Sum Menu (a)
Dim Sum Menu (b)
They have an English menu for customers which is not a common practise as most restaurants only have Chinese menu. All you would need to do is tick and indicate the number of plates of dim sum you wish to order. 
Hairy Crab Menu
As it is the hairy crab season, we were actively looking for hairy crab when we were in Hong Kong. Hence, when we saw that this restaurant serves hairy crab, we decided to order 3, half for each of us. We did not order 6 as we had already ordered too much food. (eating hairy crab in Singapore can burn a hole in your pocket. The best place to eat hairy crab is in China, where it is cheap and good!) 
Chicken Feet in Chinese Herbal Soup HK$30 (S$5)
I like eating chicken feet / claws. But I must admit this is the first time I had such a dish/dim sum; Chicken Feet in Chinese Herbal Soup. Surprisingly, this dish is a cold dish. I am a fan of herbal stuff and also chicken feet. Hence, of course, I would strongly recommend this dish! 
Look at the amount of herbals being used in the Chicken Feet in Chinese Herbal Soup. There was just a little amount of soup in the bowl (as shown in above picture). Nevertheless, I drank up almost all the soup. The soup was very strong in herbal taste. If you are not a fan of herbs, this is a dish to avoid. 
Steamed Rice Flour Roll with Barbecued Pork HK$19 (S$3.16)
The rice flour roll was thin and smooth, was an average dish. 
Steamed Rice Flour Roll Up Crispy Stick HK$19 (S$3.16)
The Steamed Rice Flour Roll Up Crispy Stick was delicious. Outside was soft and smooth. Inside was crispy and rough. 
Baked Barbecued Pork Pastry HK$22 (S$3.66)
Crispy pastry on the outside, inside filled with fragrant barbecued pork. 
Steamed Creamy Yolky Bun HK$16 (S$2.67)

The Steamed Creamy Yolky Bun was average. the custard inside was more solid than liquid (should be molten) and not aromatic. I prefer the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun at Victor's Kitchen in Singapore.
Pan Fried Turnip Cake with XO Sauce HK$19 (S$3.16)
The Pan Fried Turnip Cake with XO Sauce was on the oily end. Despite that, this dish was delicious! Slices of chilli was added to give it a slightly spicy taste. By the time this dish arrived, we were already quite full. 
Steamed Mini Meat Bun HK$19 (S$3.16)
The Steamed Mini Meat Bun or Xiao Long Bao (commonly called in China and Singapore) was disappointing. Not much soup in the bun. The skin was too thick. 
Steamed 'Siu Mai' Topped with Crab's Seed HK$22 (S$3.67)
The Steamed 'Siu Mai' Topped with Crab's Seed was also disappointing. In addition, the meat had a weird after-taste. 
Deluxe Shanghai's Crab HK$198 (S$33)
The Deluxe Shanghai's Crab is what we commonly call Hairy Crab (steamed). If you noticed, the picture above only shows half a crab. Well, the reason was because we ordered 3 hairy crabs, but there were 6 of us. When the waiter arrived with the crab he noticed this and immediately asked if we were sharing. We replied yes and the waiter took the dish back. When he came back, we noticed that there was 6 plates. In each plate, there was half a crab each. Each plate had the same number of legs (4), same number of pincer (1) and half the body! What a service! Everything has been cut up nicely. 

The roe of the hairy crab was good! Delicious and sinful! I am a fan of hairy crab! Although, I have tasted better ones from Shanghai, this was my first and only hairy crab in 2011. Hence, I was satisfied!
Moreover, each of us were given a set of 'tools' to assist us with eating the hairy crab.
Hot Face Towels
When we went into the toilet, we saw this (above photo) next to the sink. When we opened it, we saw that there were hot face towels in it! I am won over by the service in this restaurant, when the staff cut and spilt the hairy crab equally. With this hot towels, it blew me over! I am amazed over the little things the restaurant pay attention to give customers a good overall experience.

To conclude, Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant provides very good service and good food! The must order if you visit are Chicken Feet in Chinese Herbal Soup, Steamed Rice Flour Roll Up Crispy Stick, Pan Fried Turnip Cake with XO Sauce and  Deluxe Shanghai's Crab (if hairy crab is in the season). 

Food for thought: it has been a long time since I entered a restaurant in Singapore that provides good food and good service (to the extend of this restaurant). When was the last time hot towel was given to you in a restaurant? Hmmm, I can't recall.  

Chuk Yuen Seafood Restaurant 竹園海鮮飯店 (Hong Kong)
Basement, HK Pacific Centre
28 Hankow Road
Tsim Sha Tsui (Near Tsim Sha Tsui MTR, Exit C1)
Tel: (852) 2722 0633
Opening Hours: Mon to Sat 11am - 12mn
                          Sun 10am - 12mn
Website (for the rest of the outlets)
Location

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Wednesday 23 November 2011

Victor's Kitchen (Sunshine Plaza)

Victor's Kitchen located at level one of Sunshine Plaza specialises in serving authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum. I am sure that when Dim Sum is mentioned most of you would be thinking of the likes of Peach Garden, Peony Jade, Lei Garden, Red Star or East Ocean. What's the difference you may ask? Well, to me the Dim Sum at Victor's Kitchen is cheap and good!
Victor's Kitchen 
Arrived at 1pm on a Saturday. Victor's Kitchen was packed! Luckily, the turnover is quite fast, found a table within 5minutes. Do expect to be seated next to strangers with narrow passage ways.
Drinks Menu 
Dim Sum Menu (a)
Dim Sum Menu (b)
To order, you will need to get the order slip(menu) from the counter along with a pencil and tick the items along with the quantity you want. After you are done, pass it to one of the helpers and then wait. Can't help but comment, look at the disclaimer 'we serve the best foods, but not fast food'. Well, for good food, you have got to wait.
H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang (Mix CoffeeW/Tea) $3.00
The H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang comes with ice surrounding the cup of ying yang (also known as yuanyang; coffee with tea) . This way, the drink is kept chilled without diluting the the taste of the drink.
Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice $4.00
I am not a fan of glutinous rice and in most places, most of the glutinous rice was hard. But we had to order it as we were starving and needed carbohydrate. When the Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice arrived, my first (negative) thought was 'Wa, so plain'. But well, this is amazing sticky, soft and fragrant. I was totally won over by this dish. The best glutinous rice I have ate! What a great start to my meal.
Char Siew Cheong Fun $4.00
The Char Siew Cheong Fun was smooth and thin with pieces of char siew in it of course. It was average.
Phoenix Porridge $3.50
I was not fast enough in taking a photo of the Phoneix Porridge. This is what is left after the 3 of us too our portions. Phoneix Porridge consist of century eggs and chicken. It was quite plain tasting. For those who want a strongly flavour, can add pepper and light soy sauce. I quite like the fact that it was plain tasting as it complement the other dishes. Moreover, thought that it was cooked well as it was not watery. Remind me of Teochew style porridge.
Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai $3.50
My first time trying such a Siew Mai; Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai.It consist of egg quail on top and  vegetable at the bottom. This is one dish that I dislike. Weird combination of taste that did not appeal to me. Moreover, thought that the meat had a weird after taste.
Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws $3.50
I am the only one among us who knows how to eat this dish; Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws. Lucky me, because it was yummy. A must order!
Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun $4.00
The Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun (liu sha bao / custard bun) is another must order! Be careful when eating it. As inside, it is full of buttery runny custard that is sweet, salty and sinful! Shiok!
Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun $3.50
There was just 2 pieces of Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun which was filled with sweet and tender meat. After having the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, this was really just average.
Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce $4.00 (+$0.50 for adding XO Sauce)
The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce was fantastic! I have never eaten something like this before. The carrot cake was soft and mashy (like mashed potato) soaked in their home-made XO sauce. Somehow, we could not detect any XO taste in it, it was more like soy sauce. Nevertheless, this dish wow us so much that we had to order an addition serving of this.
$0.50 for adding XO Sauce
This time we were determined to find out the exact taste of the XO Sauce. Hence, we added 50cents for the above. And well, we were truely shocked. I really have no idea what this is. Its like preserved vegetable soaked in oil? Anyone knows?
Yutiao Cheong Fun $3.50
The Yutiao Cheong Fun was soaked in thick black sauce. Personally thought that it would taste better if it was soaked in soy sauce. Most online reviews have raved about how good this dish was. Well, I beg to defer, this dish did not appeal to me at all.
Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine $3.00
Well, the Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine was our last dish. The chicken was tender and fragrant having been soaked and steam in the chinese wine. Quite a normal and common dim sum dish.

Overall, the dim sum served here is really good and value for money. It was so good that we ordered 3 times in total, adding some dishes and ordering some dishes twice! In the end we over-ordered. I will definitely be back for more. If you have never been here, time to give it a try. Or you will never know what you are missing!

Victor's Kitchen (Sunshine Plaza)
91 Bencoolen Street
#01-21 Sunshine Plaza
Tel: 9838 2851
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 1030am to 8pm
                         Closed on Mon

Location


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