We were guided to this restaurant by my son, and I’m sure we’d have passed it by without his help. The restaurant sign is easily missed and we were heading for the ground-floor restaurant before noticing it was not the Spring Deer. Our destination was on the first floor, and you could question why the proprietors haven’t signed the way better. I guess they don’t need to, because this eatery was fairly busy despite its "secret location."
An extravagant sign is evident at the entrance, and the inside was also a bit of a surprise. It’s a fairly massive open dining area (capable, I reckon, of seating 300-plus diners) that is broken up with square, substantive pillars and surrounded by mirrors. The whole effect is bright and airy, although somewhat intimidating, as you’re led to the table.
The specialty of the house is Peking duck with hoi sin sauce, and we ordered egg fried rice with vegetables, chilli prawns, and fried pork dumplings to accompany it. As was becoming our tradition, we had a pot of Chinese tea to sip before the meal and aid our digestion and Tsing Tau beers to help the food slip down better.
If you’re in a hurry, don’t even consider eating here, because the pace is slow and the duck takes about 20 minutes to be prepared. We got through a couple of pots of tea as we considered higher matters (i.e. which night market to visit after the meal!) and mostly managed to avoid chewing on the numerous tea leaves that fought their way through the spout and into our cups.
Watching the preparation of the cooked duck was a pleasure, and the waiter rapidly removed all meat from the carcass and placed it before us. I have to confess that we didn’t manage to roll the pancakes with our chopsticks, but the end product was so tasty. I can well believe the restaurant’s claim that they cook the very best Peking duck in Hong Kong. There was plenty for the four of us, and we managed to devour it all whilst it was still warm – a feat I’m sure you’ll be envious of!
To my surprise, I actually quite enjoyed the dumplings, although they weren’t as crisp I’d thought, and the chilli prawns… well, I love prawns and chilli and these hit the spot. There was plenty of rice that was nicely cooked, not cloying like some restaurants we’d eaten in. The vegetables were in large bite-size units and crunchy on the taste – a great contrast for the rice.
This restaurant offers you a choice of small, medium, and large (two, three, and four persons), so you have great flexibility in your ordering. The waiters (I’m not sure I saw a waitress in this establishment) were there when required but not fawning around the table.
This is a no-nonsense restaurant worth visiting.