Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - FAM 囍公館

Since the opening of the West Kowloon Art Park, this is my first time visiting this huge space. After parking, we were fortunate to see a nice sunset view. The area is spacious and with not that many people it is comfortable walking around.

It took me a while to find this restaurant. After walking a bit without seeing it I ended up calling the restaurant, and in fact it is on the harbor front, on one end of a building where there are also a few bars and small eateries. I believe the park can have better signage and maps to direct visitors.

The restaurant has a contemporary décor, with the use of neon lights, colorful decorations, and paintings in a hip setting, with dim lighting allowing one to enjoy the harbor view looking out the windows. We got a nice spot on the window side, with comfortable sofa seating. 

We decided to order a la carte instead of the more value-for-money set menu. Starting with Barbecued USA Pork 香草蜜豆玫瑰露叉燒 ($168). The char siu is of appropriate fat and lean ratio, marinated and grilled nicely, with hints of thyme. I especially liked the good amount of yellow beans, which used to be commonly served together with char siu but now becomes a rarity. The beans had a sweetness in taste and a good bite, making one could not stop eating. 

Then we had the soups, with me going for Hot & Sour Soup 傳統酸辣湯 ($168), while my wife had Double-boiled Dendrobium Nobile with Shiitake Mushroom and Cabbage 石斛菜膽燉日本花菇 ($168). The hot & sour soup had the right balance and intensity between the two flavors, with assorted seafood, bean curd and bamboo shoot as ingredients. The white peppery notes however were a bit too strong, and I also believed the amount of chili oil was a bit too much, making the soup a bit oily on texture. 

Next came Rock Salt Baked Chicken 鹽焗雞 ($308 half chicken). Made with fresh local chicken, the skin was crisply baked and happy to see there was not a thick fatty layer underneath. The chicken was flavorful but unfortunately a bit too salty and dry. Frankly, I missed the traditional way of preparing this dish with the chef wrapping the chicken with paper and put inside a pile of salt to bake. Not sure where I could find that nowadays. 

Then it was Braised Bean Curd with Elm Fungus 如意紅燒豆腐 ($178). This dish was perhaps easy to do it right, but at the same time difficult to differentiate with dishes from other restaurants. The chef smartly used elm fungus to give a contrasting crunchy texture with the bean curd, and the oyster sauce was tasty too. 

For desserts I ordered Sweetened Almond Cream with Egg White 蛋白杏仁茶 ($68), while my wife had Stewed Pear with Peach Gum 桃膠燉雪梨 ($88). Again, a traditional dish which one could easily compare among different restaurants, while the sweetness was at right level, I found this one was lacking on the almond flavors. My wife also complained that there was virtually no peach gum in her dessert. 

The service overall was quite good, with the staff friendly but like almost all Chinese restaurants the interactions with customers were minimal. The bill on the night was $1,445 which considering the dishes we had I would say is a bit on the high-end. The view is certainly worth a lot of what you paid for, but hopefully the restaurant can also improve on some of those finer details on the food.