Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Fu Rong 映水芙蓉

This Sichuan restaurant has two outlets, and today we visited the one in Times Square, Causeway Bay. The area is spacious, with good distance between tables, and the chairs, lighting, and overall ambience provided one with a cozy, comfortable feeling.

Its design is contemporary with elements seeping with tradition, like coppery framed partitions reminiscent of traditional wooden carved doors and windows, as well as tiled floor with the flower pattern. The wavy ceiling, with a matching island in the middle of the room, together with the bar at the back, integrated some modern Western touches but did not feel awkward or out of place.

After a complimentary welcome drink and snack, the first dish was Bon Bon Chicken ($188). This is one of the signatures of the restaurant, the chef first putting the chili oil inside a hand-made transparent sugar mould, with the staff breaking it open on serving to mix the chili oil with chicken and zucchini. Very tasty and appetizing, the spiciness was just perfect with the sweetness of the sugary pieces balancing the chili a bit, hooking you up wanting more. The finely shredded zucchini, absorbing the flavours, was also fantastic. A must-try.

We ordered our own soup, me going for Hot & Sour Soup ($68) while my wife had Chengdu Chicken Consomme ($88). On appearance my soup might not look spicy because there was no layer of red-colored chili oil, it had in fact good strength and flavours. Quite nice in my opinion and more delicate than the Shanghainese version. The thinly sliced cuttlefish roe was frankly not providing much in terms of taste or texture to the soup however. My wife also had good feedback on the consommé.

The Kung Bao Shrimps ($318) was another of the favorites in the evening. The shrimps were deep-fried briefly before stir-frying with the dried chili, cashew nuts and leeks, avoiding the flesh from drying out in the cooking process. On the seasoning, again, the spiciness was spot-on, sufficient to appease but not making you sweaty. As a testimony on how good the dish was, we ended up finishing all the individual pieces of nuts and leeks too.

The last dish we had was Ma Po Tofu ($188). An up-level version, the restaurant had used A4 wagyu beef and Pixian douban paste as ingredient. Served on a sizzling pan, the beancurd was silky soft and the taste was highly appealing. The only issue I had was that it was too oily, and after a few spoons of the tofu together with rice I felt a bit overwhelming, so ended up having to trim off the oil. But other than that, it was wonderful.

For dessert I had Sichuan Ice Jelly ($58) while my wife opted for Jasmine Tea Pudding ($58). The raw sugar provided a delicate sweetness to the jelly, which did not have any flavour on its own. There were some red beans and lotus seeds providing a contrast on the bite. A nice dessert. The tea pudding had a refined taste and was also beautifully presented, but I would rate the ice jelly higher.

There was also a complimentary puff in the end, and I liked its sour passionfruit fillings. Service was very good, with the staff responsive and courteous, and with the restaurant not full on the night perhaps also helped. It would be good that the staff can do some introduction of the dishes though. The bill on the night, after a 20% discount, was $948 and was good value for money. A good spot I recommend if you like spicy food in a nice environment.