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2009-08-27
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Che's bills itself as a Cantonese cuisine restaurant, with the afternoons dedicated towards serving dim sum and tea-house favourites. Upon entering the apartment sized restaurant, you really get a flavour of a local dim sum haunt. Service is curt, at times even bad, and there is a low-level of chaos that envelopes the room, and spare chairs are used to compensate the extra tables added during lunch hour. Disclosure: the last two times I've been, they mixed up our reservations - we were, however,
After adapting to the frenzy of movement, we placed our order for an orgy of food. We've frequented this joint before a few times, and we each have our favourites. Instead of compromising, we each decide to order what we want, which leads to about 12 sets of dim sum, and 2 cooked dishes, and 1 order of noodles... for 4 people.
Instead of going through everything, I'll just note the good and the bad. As everyone who has been here will exclaim, the Crispy Pork Buns (酥皮叉烧包) are absolutely divine. The light, crispy skin is balanced again the tender rich inside of chinese barbeque sauce and pork. I would go as far to admit this is the best I've had in HK. The only downside is that sometimes they go a little overboard with the sauce inside, which makes the bun a little too rich. But aside from that minor hiccup, it is really as good as everyone is making it out to be.
Another dish widely known is the Chicken Feet Braised in Abalone Sauce (鮑汁炆雞腳), which again, I can say is my absolute favourite in Dim Sum. Diverging from what you find in other restaurants, instead of using a spicy XO sauce, they use a rich and thickened abalone broth. This dish too, lives up to its reputation. The chicken feet are tender and really bring out the wonderful savoury taste of the broth. If you want to scare your foreign friends with chicken feet, do them a favour and bring them here. At least you'll be certain that if they find it disgusting, they're just narrow minded =)
Other highlights were the Glutinous Chicken in Lotus Leaf (荷叶珍珠鸡), Lotus Leaf Fried Rice (荷叶饭), Spare Ribs with Rice Noodles (鼓汁排骨陈村粉) and their Fish Cheek Noodles (鲜鱼米粉汤). The broth of the noodles were exceptional, it was flavourful, and they even used extra bits of pickled veggies to add an extra zing.
However, there were also certain dishes that did not impress - the staples of Shrimp Dumplings (蝦餃), Springs Rolls (春卷) and Siu Mai (燒賣) can be considered average or even below average. Also, their Fried Turnip Cake (香煎蘿蔔糕) was not tender, and their Rice Noodle Roll (炸两) had a horrible texture (the fried doughnut inside was stale!).
In short, it really felt like the entire meal consisted of dishes that were simply a hit or miss. My advice would be to stick to the recommendations of fellow foodies - in this case it doesn't pay to stray off the beaten path. But all in all, while the service wasn't great, it was a satisfying meal - come here if you're looking to impress some foreign friends, or are looking for those specific dishes to take your mind off the internationalization of Hong Kong's cuisine.
PS: It's my first time using photos, I'll try and get the placement better in the future.
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