Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Tin Lung Heen @ Ritz Carlton - (天龍軒)

  Tin Lung Heen  天龍軒 takes around a Century to confirm a table booking,  so if you must visit this newly built 102th floor Chinese restaurant -  it is imperative to book from at least a month or two ahead!    Our group of diners coming by here had high anticipation of course.   Being one of the tallest Chinese restaurants in the World and with the pedigree of a head chef whom once headed the kitchen of  the famous Peninsula hotel’s Spring Moon restaurant,  yet, our expectations became dashed as one dish after another began being tabled out which was either on the average or sub-par standards side.   This culminated with a Steamed Crab Craw dish which finally arrived at a ruefully wrong time and looking like it’d experienced a self-destructive explosion of sort.   This would never have been let out of a carefully QC’ed kitchen.   And to make matters worst a waiter continually dripped food onto my arm and kept insisting it is probably okay to take away obviously yet unfinished dishes.   Very amateurish.     I believe my fellow diners walked away more anguished than I was, having been emptied out of our pockets  – yet for some reason I did catch glimpses of hope.    Right now it is anything less than stellar.    If it finally improves over time however,  I can probably foresee this as being worthy of a Michelin 1 Star or 2 one day  ~   but here’s really just hoping,  and that’s if they care to improve and may be listen to their customers!


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Nice but Narrow Interior Space -
Most restaurants within the new Ritz Carlton look similar ..




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Chinese Tea, Chili Sauce and Honeyed Cashew Nuts  $20 -
Quite well priced for a Chinese restaurant on the 102th floor! 
I find that some dishes here are reasonably priced,
whereas others are grossly inflated and over-priced..





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桂花蜜椒鱔球 Osmanthus Honey Fried Eel  $58  -
Not bad but had too much curry powder added.  ~  6.5/10




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脆皮燒三層肉  Roast 3 Layered Crackling Pork   $58 -
We thought this didn’t have much aroma or pork taste. 
Missing some charred meat taste too!  ~  6.9/10




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雪影叉燒餐包  Baked Char Siu Bun  $58-
Made famous by Tim Ho Wan and Fu Sing, everyone is doing this right now.   The char siu inside was slimey and had little taste.  Lard/Sugar coating on top looked neat, but lacked the right ‘Bo Lo Bau or Mexican Bun’ like crunchy texture.   Disappointing indeed!  ~   4/10





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川式紅油抄手 Sichuan Style Wontons  $68 -
The vinegar over-powered everything, the sauce was so NOT right and not balanced.  It doesn’t have much heat either, even for someone who doesn’t eat much chili food,  I thought this tasted just so wrong…   Wonton were by themselves ok though  ~   4/10




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金蝦春卷滑腸粉  Steamed Rice Roll and Deep Fried Spring Roll,
with Shrimps, Carrot, Black Fungus and Mushroom  $78 -
Others dining with me all thought the rice skin was quite thick but not elastic.  For me, this was otherwise ok-good but could have been more refined?    7/10





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賽螃蟹帶子餃  Scrambled Egg White Scallop Dumpling  $68 -
For me this was the best dish for the day.  Although there isn’t much egg whites taste, the scallop although frozen quality at least had some taste!  This was well balanced, the skin steamed nicely   ~   9/10






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黑椒和牛煎窩貼  Wagyu Beef Pot Sticker with Black Pepper  $78 -
Not much traceable wagyu beef taste.  Skin was a little too elastic to my liking.  Placed on top of a lotus bread, which happened to dry yet absorbed in all the oil from the very oily dumpling.
For $78 can I expect a little higher quality?  The NOBU version is much better in comparison   4/10





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至尊專鮮蝦餃  Golden Shrimp Dumplings with Asparagus  $68 -
At the time of eating, we commented on WHY the bamboo shoots were diced so thickly?  In hind sight, these are actually very large pieces of under-cooked asparagus!  The skin was folded well and steamed well too but just a tad too thick.  Others commented that the river shrimps had little taste.  For me, I thought this was passable quality ~  7/10





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蒜香妙醬皇排骨  Pork Ribs with Garlic and Spicy Chili Sauce  $58 -
I thought this was cooked well, except, the garlic was quite strong and the chili sauce turned out to be ultra oily.  Getting there!  Yet… so much more improvements to be made ~  6.5/10






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百花炸鮮蟹鉗  Fried Crab Claw filled with Shrimp Mousse  $108 -
We already knew this wasn’t to be any good when someone volunteered to cut it for sharing – it was taking a lot of effort!   The shrimp mousse was way way too dense!  Personally, the external bread crumb coating outside wasn’t crunchy either..   ~   5/10







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炸釀鮮蟹蓋  Deep Fried Crab Shell filled with Crab Meat & Onion  $108 -
This was one of the worst versions I’ve remembered having.  Fried Crab Meat Shells are such a Western-Chinese dish that everyone orders overseas, but I could not simply believe how bad this tasted!   The crab meat was unfresh and mushy, with way too much cream as a filler.  Worst still, the onions were thickly sliced (yes, not diced) and were still raw and pungent!   Even the batter coating on top was very uneven.  Everyone left this unfinished on the table ~    2/10






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金沙海皇長春卷  Shrimp, Bamboo Pith and Salted Egg Yolk Spring Rolls  $58 -
Sounds promising, but tasted nothing like its description.  Even the skin was limpy…
The garnishing asparagus on the side weren’t even cooked, which brings in a food safety
and hygiene issue… Hope they’ve been washed !   ~   3/10




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X.O. 醬煎蘿蔔糕  Fried Turnip Cake in Supreme XO Sauce  $58 -
Too mushy and wet, yet dense.  No signs of turnip strips or taste either, but nicely infused with some shrimp roes.  And for its advertised intent, not much Seafood XO Sauce either?  Mediocre.  I simply didn’t think the texture was right  ~  5/10






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香蘭淮陽素菜包  Vegetarian Bun with Superior Mushroom and Black Fungus  $58 -
Not sure what is superior about this.  The translation in English is a bit wrong, first of all. No signs of mushrooms.  But this had such a weird taste inside – I was jokingly saying to other diner that this tasted like Shanghai Crab 大閘蟹 inside for some unknown reason?  Bread itself was good to be fair!  ~ 4/10






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帶子煎米粉  Scallops with Fried Rice Vermicelli Noodles  $238 -
The scallops itself were cooked nicely, despite of being frozen quality.  The rice noodles stuck together like Siamese twins, despite not even being browned enough.   The gooey starchy sauce reeks of low-quality chinese restaurants who think it’s impressive to give u a MSG spiked sauce made by a Runny Nose……  absolutely appalling quality for the price ~  4/10







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龍軒東坡肉  Braised Pork Belly with Supreme Black Vinegar  $68 -
Very good value for money.  When we cut this open, we thought it was a little dry inside and the sauce not braised enough to infiltrate the interior.  Everyone thought this was too lean.  Since I like leaner meat I thought this was done well enough (well, leaner meat is harder to cook right?).  The sauce was also quite good albeit a little thin for its purpose  ~  7.5/10






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花雕蛋白蒸蟹鉗  Steamed Crab Claw with Egg White in Hua Diao Wine  $158 -
This came onto the table already separated into 3 broken pieces, like it’d self imploded.  The egg-whites were spiked with a correct amount of Chinese rice wine, but the eggs were way too watery.   The Crab Claw itself tastes fine, but don’t believe this PHOTO!   It was tiny as and came on a really tiny plate!    Even this photo is slightly bigger than it’s real size hmm..  ~   6.9/10





Price:  $260 Per Person + 10%
Score:  ♕♕♕ 3/4

Opening Hours:
Mon to Fri -  12:00am - 14:30pm,  18:00pm - 22:30pm
Sat to Sun -  11:30am - 15:00pm,  18:00pm - 22:30pm

Address: 尖沙咀柯士甸道西1號環球貿易廣場香港麗思卡爾頓酒店102樓
102/F, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong side of International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui
Ph: 2263 2270

5 comments:

  1. 無辦法啦, 佢每樣嘢都係有 weakness.
    我都唔想! 個個食完都媽話無理由咁都唔知有問題...

    3.75 / 6, 我已經俾得最高個位 haha!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe I should not eat here after reading your review..

    What restaurant which recommend in the Central area that shows off what Hong Kong is all about?
    Something not high-profile, we've been to many of you Michelin starred places.

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Foodnut!

    Wow you've been to some pretty amazing restaurants in the world. Think it'll be hard to please your palate! : ) Yeh actually I've been to almost all Michelin Chinese resto's too in Hong Kong numerous times over (just haven't had time to post them). So I AM starting to think that real Cantonese food can sometimes be found outside these venues.

    I personally really love Luk Yu Tea House for dinner only (their dim sum is not good). You need to reserve their Glutinous Rice stuffed in Crispy Chicken, also their pigeon dishes are good, and their Sweet and Sour Pork probably the best in the world! I think Fu Sing is pretty decently priced and they make one of the better Char Siu's in town but also very decently priced dim sum.

    If you want hole in the wall dim sum, 新興食家 in Sai Wan is pretty decent. Watch out for the odd wee hours operating hours though and don't go there after 2:30pm when its all sold out! Just to put a twist to it, if you want to try Ramen, Butao Ramen is very good but there's a small line outside. Near Lan Kwai Fong! Hope that helps, also we can talk on Facebook as well! Liked your page already :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Foodnut,

    Sorry I forgot to mention about The Chairman completely (and Celebrity Cuisine on the same street 2**). For me my meal there was exciting but lacking in execution, but it is the latest hottest fad in HK right now. I highly recommend you to give it a try but hopefully with 4 ppl or more. My group of Openrice friends are organising a group dinner around late 2Xth July I think? If you're in town let me know and I can hook you up with them! : ) I will be in Australia by then, unfortunately :S

    ReplyDelete

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