2016年9月29日 星期四

Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Hoi King Heen

This Cantonese restaurant is located in InterContinental Grand Stanford in TST East, which was awarded Michelin 1-star in 2011. Chef Leung Fai Hung had won many prizes and is one of the celebrity Chinese chef in town. The decoration is contemporary, with a warm earth tone, islands of red and gold, creating a fine dining experience.

On the night we ordered the 'Best of the Best Degustation Menu', with the first course being Double-Boiled Fish Maw Soup with Chinese Mushrooms and White Cabbage. The soup is tasty, full of flavor, light and elegant. The mushroom is thick and meaty, and the fish maw is also fairly big in size. The cabbage provides the freshness and finesse to kick-start the dinner with a high expectation.

Second course is Steamed Crab Claw with Egg White in Far Dew Chinese Wine. Even if we are blindfolded the signature Chinese wine aromas would not be mistaking this dish. The egg white is very smooth and silky, with the right amount of wine so not overpowering the delicate flavors. My only comment on the crab claw is that it tasted a bit tougher than I would prefer (only a tiny bit) but nevertheless prompted me to second-guess whether it is a fresh crab claw or not.

Third dish is Braised Winter Melon Balls Stuffed with Black Olives Mustard. The presentation is very pretty, with some asparagus as the stem, two winter melon skins cut to resemble the leaves, and the winter melon balls looking like the grapes in the bunch. There are also some finely chopped red bell pepper sprinkled on them. The winter melon is light and balanced perfectly with the black olive mustard stuffed inside. A real treat on both look and taste indeed.

Fourth course is Steamed Garoupa Roll with Yunnan Ham. This is another signature dish of the restaurant, with the top being a fish fillet rolled with a thin strip of ham to allow a combination of savory when enjoying the fish. On the second layer it is a minced shrimp cake on shiitake mushroom, mixing the nice texture and tasty shrimp cake with the aromas of the mushroom. The bottom layer is a broccoli blended with egg white and steamed in a pudding texture, paired with a crab yolk sauce. In terms of sophistication this is the most impressive dish on the night and also my favorite.


Fifth is the Sauteed Diced Beef Tenderloin with Lingzhi Mushroom and Osmanthus Flavored Raisins. Since I did not eat beef I asked to change to a Fried Spare Ribs in Honey Sauce. According to Ivy the beef was very good with a tender texture and full of flavors. The raisins were also interesting in taste. For the spare ribs it is crunchy on the surface, but not hard inside which I can easily bite off the meat from the bone.

Sixth is the Pan Fried Glutinous Rice with Chicken, Mushroom top with Taro Ball. When served I was quite surprised by the presentation as it was totally out of my expectation, being served on a black bean sauce. It was another western-style plating with the glutinous rice basically similar to the 'Pearl Chicken' we have in dim sum, though it was pan fried on both sides to bring in some crispiness. The taro ball is nice, with some black glutinous rice in it as well. However I would hope the taro ball is having the same warmth as the rice. It was a bit too cool down making the overall feeling is a bit weird for my liking.

Dessert is Chilled Mango Pudding, molded to look like a fish. It was tasty and with many pieces of fresh mango, and also got the right sweetness as well. Adding a bit of evaporated milk made it extra smooth and further enhanced the enjoyment. It was one of the best Chinese style mango pudding that I have tasted in a long while.

My biggest suggestion to the restaurant is to improve the service by being more attentive to the customers, not only in filling our cups with tea by more importantly to explain more the dishes. There are couple of times I have to ask them what we are having, and considering that some of those dishes really had a lot of different ingredients and special preparation it would be a waste if these are not communicated to the diners.

The bill on the night was $1912 for two, not cheap but I don't think it is greatly over-priced. If you have more people coming together I guess trying other of Chef Leung's signature dishes would be a better option than this tasting menu.

My overall score for this restaurant is 65/100.

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