Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - The Golden Leaf

This Cantonese restaurant is located in Conrad Hotel, Pacific Place. There are not a lot of tables but the setting presents a premium, high-end atmosphere. Seated comfortably, we started to see a lot of politicians, including our new CE Carrie Lam, arriving and realized that there was a dinner event in the private room beside us.

As there were only three of us, we didn't order the tasting menu (which need minimum four persons) and went for a la carte. To start I had the Hot and Sour Piquant Soup with Seafood. The soup was good with plenty of seafood, including shrimp, scallops, fish maw and crab meat. It had the proper sour level though I would prefer more spiciness to balance. But overall it was still a very nice soup. My wife had the Double-Boiled Clear Broth with Bamboo Piths, Black Mushroom and Brassica which was equally tasty.

Then we had the Barbecued Pork Glazed with Queen's Honey. The glistening look of the dish was appetizing, with a good mix of fat and lean meat. However, I would not say it was anything impressive when we ate them. Given that it was supposed to be freshly roasted, it was only lukewarm and the texture of the meat was a bit too soft as well. It was a bit disappointing.

Then came the Sauteed Fresh King Prawns with Chili and BBQ Sauce. Contrary to the BBQ Pork, the look of this dish was rather unappealing. The sauce was very thick, dull in color and looked like it had been cooked for a while and the sauce had already thickened and solidified. The prawns were also small in size. Even though there were a number of them it was not what one would expect. The taste was fairly good but it could not compensate for the letdown in appearance.

Hope that the rest of the dishes would perform better, the Assorted Dried Seafood with Mixed Vegetables and Essence in Casserole was fortunately decently good. The broccoli and Shanghai pakchoi was boiled to a soft bite but not over-cooked. The cured ham, dried shrimp and squid provided enhanced flavors, and the bamboo pith plus glass noodle giving a contrasting texture. The broth was nice too and in the end we finished the whole casserole including the broth to show how good it was.

The last dish we had was the Poached Chicken with Chicken Essence. This was a signature of the restaurant, and I would say it delivered my expectation. The chicken was tender, with the skin melting while the flesh soft and smooth. All the bones were removed as well and I could not stop to admire the skills of the chef for that. By poaching the chicken in the essence it enhanced the flavors of the chicken, by the chicken flavor itself, so we could taste the original taste of the chicken. Maybe for some people it would be a bit light on taste but I still like it very much.

Overall I would say it was a bit below my expectation, but it might be due to the event I mentioned, as I saw all the staff quite anxious and tense attending to that, and likewise maybe the kitchen staff also were focusing too much there and could not properly attend to the other customers. It is of course not an excuse but I could understand.

One highlight was that there was a credit card discount of 15%, and with all the above the bill was $1,628 which was honestly a good price. Considering that, maybe I would try this restaurant another time to see if it did better.

My score: 63/100.