Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Lei Garden (Mongkok) 利苑

This Chinese restaurant has ten outlets in Hong Kong, and we visited the one in Mongkok. Recently having its Michelin one-star status taken, I believe they would make a lot of effort to earn it back next year so I had some expectation for the dinner. 

The décor has a traditional Chinese restaurant ambience, with red carpet and walls with red background to highlight the festive and celebration atmosphere. Even though classic, the place is comfortable and the tables were not too packed to offer nice space. 

We ordered Doubled-Boiled Soup with Giant Garoupa Bone and Gastrodia 天麻燉龍躉骨 ($268). The soup was steaming hot, with intense umami and tasty flavours. Seeing the amount of ingredients taken out from the bowl it was clear the reason why, with lots of the bones, pork lean meat, and Gastrodia, which is a type of Chinese herbs good for liver and hypertension. This restaurant is renown for its soup and this one certainly delivered that promise. 

Then we had the Deep-Fried Chicken with Spring Onion 鹽香蔥油雞 ($165). The chicken had been well marinated with spring onion to infuse with the fragrance. Although not having the crispy skin like the traditional crispy chicken, it had more flavours and also felt less oily in comparison. 

Next, we had Pan-Fried Giant Garoupa Fillet with Asparagus 鮮露筍煎魚球 ($318). The fillet was beautifully seared, seasoned well, with the meat firm and having a nice fatty and thick skin offering a different bite. The asparagus was very good as well, young and tender, with some shimeji mushroom added to give further complementary texture. 

Finally, we had Sweet and Sour Pork 菠蘿咕嚕肉 ($125). While this is a very common dish you will find in all Cantonese restaurants, doing it right and well is a true test. I found the sauce of the right balance in the sweet and sourness, in fact a bit more on the latter, which was good as that helped to reduce the fat from the deep-fried pork pieces. The pork had a great texture, not the usual tenderloin but a firmer cut having good bite, which I suspect was the portion near the silver skin.

Overall, the food was good in taste, and the service was also nice. In visits to other branches previously, I sometimes feel the staff were too eager to sell, but on this occasion they did not. The bill was $992 (for 2 persons) and if you like to have good Cantonese food, in a decent place, this restaurant is a good option.