Refined Cantonese cuisine
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| Steamed Fresh Flowery Crab with Aged ShaoXing Wine, Fragrant Chicken Oil & Flat Rice Noodles |
Listed in the 50 best Asian restaurants for 3 years running, The Chairman is one of the few Hong Kong restaurants specializing in Cantonese cuisine featured in the list. It has not been a must visit list for me, as funny enough, I have yet to find a very solid high end Cantonese restaurants. I couldn't agree anymore with the motto of The Chairman regarding "as long as the ingredients are fresh, the sauces are outstanding, simple cooking will rule". Cantonese cooking doesn't need to be complex or fancy plating to make it exquisite and special. In the usual fine dining fashion, the restaurant offer a numbers of tasting menu, as well as a standard a la carte.
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| Baked Chicken with Ginger Oil, Spring Oinion and Galangal |
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| Slow Cooked Pork Shoulder with Dry Tangerine Peel |
I got nothing but love for the Oxtail stew, using the port and dried Mandarin peel, it has a mellow tone of sweet and fruity essence that blended in nicely with the moist meat. The restaurant's signature dish: The steamed flowery crab was not as special as I was hoping for, while the crab was fresh and sweet, the alcohol content of the aged ShaoXing wine was overpowering and dominated everything else. I have eaten plenty of fried Rice but The Chairman's version of prawns trio fried rice was perhaps the finest I have come across, it tasted clean on the palate but yet blessed with so much powerful flavours from the robust note of the shrimp paste and the dedicated taste of the dried shrimp.
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| Tea Smoked Duck with Tamarind and Dark Sugar |
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| Oxtail Stew with Port and Dried Mandarin Peel |
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| Fried Rice with Prawns Trio -Fresh Prawns, Sun-dried Prawns & Shrimp Paste |
My meal at The Chairman was very enjoyable, while the signature crab dish didn't deliver, every other dishes on the night were excellent, and it is hard to think of another Cantonese restaurant can rival the quality of the dishes. Comparing to many other Michelin starred Cantonese restaurants I have tried, it is hard to understand why The Chairman gets overlooked by the inspectors. However, a meal at this place comes with a rather heavy cost, the crab dish alone costed £150 which made this place is best for a special occasion, unless money isn't an issue for you...
Food 4/5
What I paid:
£55 per head
Average cost without drinks and services:
£50
18 Kau U Fong, Central, Hong Kong
http://www.thechairmangroup.com/index.php?lang=enus
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