I've been to several great restaurants in Hong Kong and have finally decided to start reviewing them here. Since there isn't one popular restaurant review site here in HK (like Yelp), I'll be blogging my reviews here.
I just had dinner at Yun Fu Restaurant which is on Wyndham St. by Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). I had passed by it many times while heading down to LKF and have also wondered what it was. From the street, you only see an ancient Chinese door with stairs leading down to the basement lined with buddhas on both sides.
When I finally descended down the stairs, it opens up to their bar area. The entire place is dungeon-like darkness with red highlights from red lanterns. On the wall in the bar, there's a large film projection showing old Chinese films. The cocktail list is very unique and I got to try one of their very refreshing concoctions, Ben Zhi Lan, with Chinese rose wine, rum, fresh chili, lime juice, sugar syrup and lime. The drink came blended on a martini class and was just what I needed at the end of the work day after walking (and sweating) up the slopes and steps to this place.
This was a business meeting for me so I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures but will definitely update when I come back again. Once past the bar, we walked through a darkened curved corridor with sliding old Chinese doors on both sides which hide private dining areas. We were escorted to the end of the restaurant to a more open space. We sat by these large hanging lanterns (see pic on the right). The menu is extensive so we decided to just have the waiter choose for us. Every dish selected was delicious.
We started with "clams steeped in Chinese rose wine & chili padi". The blending of flavours were exquisite on the little clam. It was the perfect opening dish with a little bit of a kick to open our appetites. It was then followed by steamed pork cheek fillet wrapped in lotus leaves. This dish was slightly lighter in flavor but which balanced well with the first dish. For main courses, we were offered their famous marinated roasted rack of lamb with assorted herbs and tea leaves, the braised veal shank wrapped in lotus leaves in a dark soy sauce, and wok fried prawns in Szechuan red pepper. The lamb was beautifully executed and presented with the waiter opening the tea leaves and preparing the lamb for us. It came with this sauce that provided a great mixture of flavors over the perfectly roasted tender lamb. The braised veal again was another unveiling of lotus leaves this time to expose the richly braised veal that was falling off the bone. I took advantage that my food partner was not into the bone marrow and had the juicy goodness myself. The main course wrapped up with the spicy prawns dish covered in red peppers. It was definitely spicy but the prawns were light a crispy and very full of flavor. My mouth wasn't so numb from the spice that I couldn't taste the prawn which was a great thing!
To clean our palate, the meal wrapped up with a slightly sweet flowery gelatin dessert.
It was truly a culinary adventure and I'll definitely be back again to take better picture of the place and the food and try more dishes!
蠔餅 - oyster and seafood pancake
