Friday, October 14, 2011

Star of Canton Restaurant - Hong Kong

Whilst we were in HK, we were just in time to catch my cousin's wedding. To my hubby and I, it was quite a weird wedding. Weird - not cos my cousin was weird, but weird because of the attitudes of the people who attended and the waiters who served.

First off, his wedding landed on the National Day of China (1st of Oct) meaning that halfway through his reception, fireworks would be present - and having chosen a restaurant which looks directly out onto Victoria Harbour - it meant that our reception observed a 1/2 hr pause to admire the fireworks.

In that context, we had guests at the receptions rocking t-shirts, 3-quarter pants, high socks and sneakers, and like half the guests were in jeans ... Yes. And the bride had like 4 elaborate dress changes to match them. On that night, they were also possibly short staffed and they simply dumped the food on the table and provided ZERO service except when they wanted to clear the plate.

First dish was suckling pig with these pita bread things. A whole plate of these were just dunked on the middle of the table without explanation and the waitress scurried off (AND keep in mind, we were relatives of the people paying for this... so we were the worst of plebs). Atleast the suckling pig was crispy and crunchy.

suckling pig

Large scallops with fungi and celery were next dunked on our table. The scallops weren't cooked the best, but were none-the-less scallops. And I love scallops - so they were forgiven.

scallops

Next up was a nicely arranged plate of prawns, broccoli and deep fried crab balls. I like fish balls, crab balls, lobster balls, all these artificial stuff - so I was OK with this dish too :)

crab balls with prawns

Next dish was well and truly dunked on our table in the dark - in the dark cos the fireworks were on and the whole place came to a standstill of observe the spectacle for half an hour. I don't really like dried scallops and they can accompanied with random bok choi everywhere... so... no. Didn't really appreciate this one.

dried scallop with veges

The "sharks fin" you normally get was substituted with this random soup thing with tiny bits of chicken throughout. I thought it was just really badly cooked chicken soup. My hubby said to me after that there might have been some random tidbits of birds nest throughout. It was a pretty tasteless undelicious soup LOL.

chicken and birds nest soup

Abalone, goose feet and veges came out next. There was quite a lot of abalone on the plate. I think what happens is that the service you get affects the taste of the food greatly. And since the service here is sub-par, it makes you feel that the food is sub-par too (regardless of whether it really is or not).

abalone and goose feet

Next up, our waiter bought out the steamed garoupa fish and subsequently massacred it. My hubby witnessed the whole thing - she first tried to take the head off and failed, she then swapped tactics and tried to take all the meat off. Couldn't, gave up and zoomed off, leaving us with an ugly looking carcass of a fish.

massacred fish

"Crispy" skinned chicken was umm... just normal chicken?

crispy skinned chicken

Everyone was pretty stuffed by now. But then wonton noodle soup came out. Amazingly, although the previous dishes were at times, neglected, the wonton noodle soup was smashed by everyone. Slightly overly soggy noodles with not too tasty wontons... but seemed slightly yummier than some of the other dishes LOL.

wonton noodle soup

Dessert-wise, super diluted red bean soup with glutinous rice balls were average. The biscuits were sooooo hard that you possibly broke your teeth trying to bite into it. What amazed me more was that they bought out platefuls of whole oranges (uncut) with plastic bags on top of it (ie. they expect you to "take away" lots of oranges). ZOMG. What kind of fruit service is that?

dessert

Restaurant in a super nice location. Decor was nice. Music was HORRIBLE.... like... they were blaring the most inappropriate songs the whole night. Fail.

Ratings:
Food - 5/10
Service - 3/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - ?
Overall - 16+ ?/40

Star of Canton Restaurant
Level 17, The One
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: (852) 2870 1488

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