Which restaurant should I pick to celebrate my wife’s birthday? As she prefers Chinese cuisine, this year I have chosen Forum, as we have not come here for quite a while. In a very cold Wednesday evening, we arrived at the Michelin 3-star restaurant located at Sino Plaza in Causeway Bay.
Seated comfortably in the main dining room, the décor and setting had not changed since the last visit, with beautiful Chinese paintings and calligraphy, and the numerous recognitions founder chef Yeung Koon Yat had received throughout the years displayed on the wall.
We started with Braised Ah Yat Abalone with Goose Web in Hot Pot 阿一迷你鮑魚鵝掌煲 ($1,380). The staff has helpfully split this dish to two portions, served to us individually in claypot. The Yoshihama dried abalone had been braised to perfection, easily cut through by the knife, ‘sugary’ in the core, and the abalone sauce having amazing flavours. The goose web is delicious, its texture testimony to the impeccable mastery of cooking time and temperature by the chef, with also the thick meaty shiitake mushroom and broccoli complementing well. Excellent and a must order in my opinion.
Next, we had Deep-fried Pork with Dried Mandarin Peel in Sweet & Sour Sauce 陳皮咕嚕肉 ($300). The batter on the pork was very thin, with each piece fully coated with sauce of wonderful balance in sweet and sourness. We found that the shredded dried mandarin peel also did wonders by adding an extra layer of fragrance to the pork, without any weird or bitter aftertaste. It was so good we ended up finishing all the bell peppers, pineapple, and spring onion in the dish as well. Excellent.
Then we had Baked Conpoy with Crab Meat in Crab Shell 瑤柱焗釀蟹蓋 ($300 each). Beautifully golden in colour, with an appealing smell of conpoy, the large crab shell was stuffed with abundant crab meat that was cooked with onion and dried scallops, with spot-on seasoning to highlight the delicate sweetness of the crab meat while supplementing with savoury flavours of conpoy. Excellent.
The last dish was Sea Cucumber with Pork Floss in Hot Pot 魚香肉鬆遼參煲 ($980). Unlike the other restaurants where the minced pork tends to be quite salty, for this one we did not feel over-salty even without having rice to go along. The crunchy sea cucumber provided a contrast in texture, and up levelled the premium of the dish, also making the dish less oily compared with using eggplant. Very good.
For dessert, we had Traditional Black Sesame Roll 懷舊芝麻卷 ($90). Bringing back memories, I recalled having this dim sum regularly when young, but it was not offered in most restaurants nowadays. The taste was good, with a nice sesame note, but I hope it was thicker in size. Good.
We each had our own dessert too, with my wife picking Sweetened Red Bean Soup with Dried Mandarin Peel 新會陳皮紅豆沙 (free), while I had Hot Ginger Sweet Soup with Black Sesame Dumpling 薑汁芝麻湯圓 ($90). The sweet soup had an intense ginger note, a bit spicy but did warm the stomach comfortably. The dumplings were soft and chewy, with the sesame fillings appropriate on sweetness. Very good.
The bill on the night was $3,960. Many people might feel daunted when they heard about Forum and worried that it would cost a fortune to dine here. Certainly, it was not cheap, but there were many choices so you could order according to your budget. Most importantly, the dishes were all great, and service was also good. No wonder it was a full house on this weekday evening so advance booking was definitely required.
