Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Lei Garden

This Cantonese restaurant has a number of branches in different parts of HK and this time we went to the one in IFC. I booked my table through their online portal but seems that was missed as the receptionist could not find my booking. Fortunately the restaurant is not full and we were able to have a table (but need to return the table in one hour!). In the future I recommend you to just call them and don't rely on the website to avoid any unhappy incident.

Since there are only two of us, we decided to go for the special set so we can have a variety of dishes of small portion. The starter is Crispy Roasted Pork and Fungus with Vinegar. The pork is roasted perfectly with the skin very crispy, pairing well with mustard. The fungus is crunchy as well. A good starter for sure.

Then we have the Double Boiled Sea Whelk Soup with Shark's Fin. The soup is always Lei Garden's signature, with the clear broth very tasty, with pronounced flavours and no oil at all. However, the shark's fin has no taste and apparently are not braised sufficiently beforehand. It is also not heated up before putting in the soup so making the whole soup just barely warm. The soup would be much bigger serving without the shark's fin overall.

The third dish is Braised 4 Heads Fresh Abalone in Oyster Sauce. The abalone was braised perfectly with the softness texture to allow you to cut it easily with the knife, yet also having a good chewiness.  The oyster sauce is also seasoned perfectly to bring out the intense flavours of the abalone. The mini pakchoi has absorbed the sauce and is equally tasty.

The fourth dish is Steamed Garoupa Fillets with Tofu and XO Sauce. An interesting pairing, the traditional thoughts would be for the Garoupa to pair with just light soy sauce to bring out the delicate taste. But having the XO sauce which is intense and spicy, the combination is quite surprisingly nice in fact. The tofu is smooth and give a contrast to the texture as well.

The fifth dish is Roasted Crispy Duck, which got some salad on the side. The duck is roasted very well with the thin layer of skin crispy and there is no thick fatty layer underneath, and the meat texture is very tender also, essentially like melting when chewing. Maybe there is a bit more sauce to pair with the duck would make this even better.

The sixth dish is Poached Sliced Green with Wild Mushroom. The seasonal vegetable of spinach and mushroom is poached in a nice stock to give flavours. There are also some bean curd sheet which got soaked in the stock and likewise nice.

Then comes the Hand Pulled Noodles in Lobster Soup. The noodle texture is very good, with the bouncy and chewy texture, silky in the mouth. The lobster soup is not particularly tasty and frankly without telling me I won't be able to tell it is a lobster soup, being quite bland in flavour. The accompanying onion, mushroom and Chinese celery helped to bring some small bites to the noodle however to make it still enjoyable.

Finally the dessert is Sweetened Bird's Nest Pumpkin Cream. It is of the proper sweetness level for me, not overly so, with the nice pumpkin taste and some purée, paired with the bird's nest it enhances the premium offering of the dish with good taste.

Overall the restaurant is decently decorated though the tables are just too clamped to each other which make it very crowded and noisy. Service is fair, though again I don't like the way they keep telling customers we need to finish the meal in a hour (for dinner!). That in fact happened also during lunch with dim sum.

The price is expensive at $2208 for two, with only the set for two and nothing more, and considering the quality of the food and the ingredients that is quite over-priced. My overall rating is 53/100.