Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Yung Kee

This famous Chinese restaurant is located in Central, at the self-owned Yung Kee Building. Started in 1942, Yung Kee is renown for the roasted goose and charcoal-grilled BBQ pork, as well as other Cantonese traditional dishes. With advanced booking, the four of us were seated on the third floor, with the decors offering a sense of luxury with authentic Chinese elements, and we had a comfortable dining experience.

First we had the Preserved Egg and Pickled Ginger ($15). This is one of the favorites of the foodie, and the dish was used to contribute to the tips for the staff. I am not sure whether this is still true today but the staff did recommend it to us. The preserved egg is decent but I would not say it was the best I had tasted. The pickled ginger has the right balance of sweet and sour, and the crunchy ginger certainly is a great appetizer to start the meal.

Like most people we ordered the Signature Charcoal Roasted Goose ($375 for half). I could not help myself in comparing with Kam's Roasted Goose I tried a few weeks ago. This one is also good in taste, with the goose marinated well but not as juicy. And I would prefer the goose to be hotter, as the lukewarm meat quickly cooled down and making it more fatty. However, there are more attention in the cutting of the goose, with the breast cut separately to boneless pieces.

Next we had the Deep-Fried Sea Cucumber Meat with Spicy Salt ($330). Those are in fact the intestines of the sea cucumber, and often served in hotpot. This is the first time I had it deep-fried with spicy salt, and it retained the crunchy texture. While it did not have much flavor on its own, the spicy salt did compensate for that. An interesting idea, though not something particularly tasty in my opinion.

Then we had the Braised Garoupa's Head and Belly with Bean Curd in Casserole ($300). My favorite on the evening, the starch powder coated on the fish was not too thick, and i detected a bit of Chinese yellow wine used in marinating, bringing in a nice flavor, before deep-frying to nice golden brown before braising. The bean curd was also nice, absorbing the sauce, which had some mushroom, pork, ginger and other seasonings. The shredded spring onion gave an extra fragrance to the dish too.

We had Poached Fresh Bean Curd Sheet and Assorted Vegetables in Fish Broth ($160). Quite nicely done, the bean curd sheet was soft and silky, and got a nice bean note. The vegetables were properly poached to the right softness, and considering that there were different vegetables requiring different times to cook, a test of the chef to do it correctly which was delivered well. The fish broth imparted delicate flavors to the vegetable without making it too salty. Another nice dish for the evening.

I ordered the Fried Glutinous Rice ($250) to wrap up, but unfortunately the staff forgot my order and we waited for quite a while and only upon checking did we found out to re-order. The portion was good for four persons, with plenty of preserved sausages and meat. Fairly good in taste but I would prefer they could add more chopped spring onion to further enhance the flavors.

For dessert we had the Red Bean Sweet Soup with Aged Tangerine Peel ($42). The soup was of appropriate sweetness and the red beans were boiled sufficiently to create the 'sandy' texture. However, the note was barely discernible for the tangerine peel, and given that it was specifically mentioned it was a bit disappointing. The dumplings were another disappointment as it was a bit under-cooked, leaving some raw flour taste.

The services were quite good, as one would expect. The food was a bit over-rated in my opinion, and maybe it is more for the tourists now and VIP. The bill on the night was $1840.