The Chairman is one of the hardest reservations to score in Hong Kong, ostensibly due to their spectacular ranking on the Sparkling Water List and their intense social media presence pushed through certain personalities. I must admit curiosity got the better of me to try my luck with the difficult but fair booking and when I ‘won’ my lunch booking I immediately planned a whole eating getaway to Hong Kong around it. Verdict: a very solid and ‘correct’ Cantonese meal with greater-than-usual attention paid to ingredient quality, subtle and natural seasonings (no chicken powder, which IMO has crippled a whole generation of Chinese chefs), and generally cooking things as they should without resorting to shortcuts. Enjoyable but by no means a life-changing meal contrary to whatever the rankings might suggest. The dishes:
* Soy and Sichuan pepper marinated squid stuffed with scallions and dried squid. Pretty good. * Thick cut Char Siu made with local pork – I think it is from the shoulder. * Longjing and Chrysanthemum tea-smoked baby pigeon. Very tasty and rich though I didn’t pick up the tea. * Stir fried local baby peas and slipper lobster with river crab roe. Nice combination of local ingredients. Not bad if you don’t compare it with European produce. * Carp head steamed with 20-year aged lemon. Very gelatinous obviously. A tad disappointed that it was carp and not a sea fish. * (Re-ordered as 1st pic) Flowery crab (花蟹, or blue crab) and cheong fun steamed with aged Shaoxing wine and chicken fat. Their supposed house signature and featured on many ‘best dish’ lists. We liked the fresh and sweet crab enhanced with the fragrance of artisanal rice wine. The cheong fun itself was good and obviously freshly made with quality rice flour but there wasn’t any symbiosis with the rest of the dish – it didn’t absorb the sweetness of the crab nor clung onto the sauce so we weren’t sure of its role here. * (No pic) Pork belly braised with preserved vegetables (梅菜扣肉) with bao. Good rendition of a classic. * (No pic) Gourd julienne cooked in fish broth. * Smoked threadfin and baby sardines rice. Don’t see what’s the fuss about. The fish bits were stringy and they get stuck in the teeth.
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The Chairman is one of the hardest reservations to score in Hong Kong, ostensibly due to their spectacular ranking on the Sparkling Water List and their intense social media presence pushed through certain personalities. I must admit curiosity got the better of me to try my luck with the difficult but fair booking and when I ‘won’ my lunch booking I immediately planned a whole eating getaway to Hong Kong around it. Verdict: a very solid and ‘correct’ Cantonese meal with greater-than-usual attention paid to ingredient quality, subtle and natural seasonings (no chicken powder, which IMO has crippled a whole generation of Chinese chefs), and generally cooking things as they should without resorting to shortcuts. Enjoyable but by no means a life-changing meal contrary to whatever the rankings might suggest. The dishes:
* Soy and Sichuan pepper marinated squid stuffed with scallions and dried squid. Pretty good.
* Thick cut Char Siu made with local pork – I think it is from the shoulder.
* Longjing and Chrysanthemum tea-smoked baby pigeon. Very tasty and rich though I didn’t pick up the tea.
* Stir fried local baby peas and slipper lobster with river crab roe. Nice combination of local ingredients. Not bad if you don’t compare it with European produce.
* Carp head steamed with 20-year aged lemon. Very gelatinous obviously. A tad disappointed that it was carp and not a sea fish.
* (Re-ordered as 1st pic) Flowery crab (花蟹, or blue crab) and cheong fun steamed with aged Shaoxing wine and chicken fat. Their supposed house signature and featured on many ‘best dish’ lists. We liked the fresh and sweet crab enhanced with the fragrance of artisanal rice wine. The cheong fun itself was good and obviously freshly made with quality rice flour but there wasn’t any symbiosis with the rest of the dish – it didn’t absorb the sweetness of the crab nor clung onto the sauce so we weren’t sure of its role here.
* (No pic) Pork belly braised with preserved vegetables (梅菜扣肉) with bao. Good rendition of a classic.
* (No pic) Gourd julienne cooked in fish broth.
* Smoked threadfin and baby sardines rice. Don’t see what’s the fuss about. The fish bits were stringy and they get stuck in the teeth.