yung kee

‘I want roasted goose’, the chant we couldn’t stop hearing from our friend Birth who joined us in Hong Kong from Thailand. So on our last day we went to the prestigious Yung Kee Restaurant near Central Station. Yung Lee’s roasted goose is so famous that they offer a packaging service for their goose should you wish to take it on a flight home. Of course, our friend Birth had to take advantage of this service as soon as we arrived and got them to prepare two whole gooses to take back to Thailand. He paid a whooping 1200 HKD for two roasted gooses so you can imagine how pricy the rest of the menu is going to be.

The decor is very stereotypical of what we would class as a ‘Chinese’ restaurant with the rich and royal colours of gold and red, Ming vases and gold Chinese dragons. It really is a treat for the eyes. The restaurant has been running since the 1940s and it has that air of class and elegance from this period. The restaurant are so proud of their accomplishments over the years that the first five pages of their menu are dedicated to the awards that they have one.

Naturally we ordered the roast goose for ourselves but only a quarter for 200 HKD. Honestly, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about and it was the first time I have eat goose and I won’t be rushing to eat this meat again. The glaze which was used to make the skin so crispy was nice and sweet but after two slices I couldn’t eat anymore.

Another recommendation from reviews we read was the shredded jelly fish. The idea of eating the jelly fish was not the most appetising thought but when in Rome……
It’s a cold dish with translucent jelly strips and sprinklings of sesame seeds. Looking at the dish you would never think it’s jelly fish. Taste and texture reminds me of seaweed. However, we could only must a bite or two before the idea of it being a jelly fish we were consuming became to haunt the tummy.

We also ordered prawn fried rice, BBQ pork vermicelli noodles, beef flat noodles and egg plant with crab meat.

Now, I’ve mentioned this before, if you avoid pork and try and follow a halal diet you need to be careful in Hong Kong, they love putting pork into the most strangest dishes without even stating so in the menu for example putting it on top of a seasonal vegetable dish or in this case cutting it into chunks and putting it into a dish called prawn fried rice. Best advise I can offer is to speak to the waiters that can communicate in English and make it very clear that you can’t eat pork. However, I’m sorry to say that some lie so it’s best to have a friend who speaks the lingo. Anyway, rant over.

The food here is good but out of everything we have eaten it is nothing to rave about. It is a good tourist attraction to just say you have been here. For what we were eating the total cost was ridiculous and the bill came to 1,298 HKD between four people. It was the only place that has charged for green tea for our entire stay not sure how that can be justified.