HKUAA Chinese Restaurant @ Lan Kwai Fong
I have wanted to come here for some time ever since a friend told me their Cantonese food was quite good. Since we had a tourist friend in town it was the perfect excuse to try it out! We came here on a Tuesday night to find the restaurant relatively full, but luckily reservations were made.
I had the honour of deciding what to order that night, and so I went with their signatures, as well as a couple of dishes that were suggested by others.
First was the pigs lung with almond soup ($100 for a tureen), which was a first for most people on the table. The pigs lung soup here is slightly oilier than Luk Yu’s and lacked the strong taste and aroma of almonds which I really liked. It was also less creamy than Luk Yu’s in my opinion. However, for those who don’t like almond tea because of its strong scent, this would’ve been acceptable to the palate.
Pan-fried pomfret fillets was a suggestion of the waiter. There was about 9 small pcs of fish max, and it wasn’t bad but nothing exciting or memorable. The choy-sum sitting beneath was way too undercooked too.
The sweet and sour pork was my favourite dish this night. They used young ginger (zi-geung) instead of pineapple like Luk Yu, and although the ginger wasn’t half as good (lacked the real punch and crunchiness), the pork and its sauce was so wonderful. The pork was still crispy and crunchy after sitting at our table for some time, and the sauce was really balanced – right levels and sweet and sour which everyone enjoyed.
Next a few of the dishes came together… a lotus leaf rice (i.e. fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf) which was reserved when reservations were made. The rice had some diced chicken, mushrooms etc and was quite flavourful and not as oily as some Chinese restaurants prepare it, but was nothing special.
“Zai” (vegetarian claypot dish of assorted vegetables with vermicelli) was also one of the favourites on our table. There wasn’t a lot of sauce, but each piece of ingredient was coated with enough flavour from the fair amount of fermented beancurd (‘fu yu’) used, that spoons of sauce just wasn’t necessary. I particularly liked the big Chinese mushrooms and cabbage, whilst ma loved the vermicelli!
Spinach with century and salted eggs was not even close to Luk Yu’s. The small dish only had a little spinach, and most were salted eggs, rather than a half-half of each kind. The broth was not sweet and lightly salted as I had hoped, but the fried garlic was good (and good for one’s health too!).
Deep Fried whole Chicken ($290) (‘Za Ji Gai’) was not our first choice, but since we didn’t pre-order their signature salt-baked Chicken we opted for this Chinese restaurant staple instead. Whilst the prawn chips on top were really bad and without flavour at all, the chicken fared a lot better. I loved the crispy thin piece of skin, clearly only possible because they had rendered the fat layer in between the meat and the skin properly. The chicken meat was also really tender, if not slightly bland, but a little Worcestershire sauce helped brighten it up.
left - almond and eggwhite soup, sesame soup
front - red bean soup, back - walnut soup
To end, we had some sweet soups ($28 per bowl). Here they have three choices only on the menu (almond-egg white, walnut and sesame soup), but were told they also had red bean soup (dessert of the day I’m guessing), so we ordered two almonds, two sesames, one walnut and one red bean soup. I had a try of the sesame soup and almond-egg white. Whilst my almond-egg white soup was way too thick and sweet, the sesame soup was acceptable – right sweetness and right consistency. Nonetheless I don’t think the $28 a bowl sweet soups were worthy at all… desserts are clearly not their forte, and you can find better versions at local dessert joints/stores!
With four beers our bill came to just under $1,400. Not cheap, though they do have set dinners which have better deals ($888 for 8 diners?!). Wouldn't mind coming back - esp for the sweet and sour pork!
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$
Hong Kong University Alumni Association
Room 101, Yip Fung Building, 2 D'Aguilar Street,
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2522 7968
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