Yung Kee (Hong Kong) 05/2011

In the heart of central Hong Kong there's no need to give the address to taxi drivers, the name will do. Unable, at the last minute, to get into several two and three Michelin starred, and Restaurant magazine rated French style HK places I took the recommendation of a local Chinese girl.
The place is surprising in many ways. It occupies four floors and was still fairly full at 9.00pm when I arrived.
My third floor table was under an efficient air conditioner which cooled the food quite quickly and my waitress offered me another table without prompting. The room is very Chinese
but some of the decor is getting a little tired. Patrons were extremely casually dressed. Except for the waiters there was not a suit or tie to be seen. No one was wearing thongs but they might have had they wished. There were several well behaved young children there too.
Being alone I advised with Joyce, my waitress about what to eat. The menu arrived with wine list. the first six or seven pages were devoted to prizes and awards over the last 20 years including 12th best restaurant in Asia (Miele) one Michelin star, year after year, high praise from WoM (Word of Mouth) and a few dozen other awards. About eight pages of dishes followed. I knew they were renowned for roast goose and to accompany that I ordered a dish of seasonal vegetables, a bowl of rice and Oolong tea.
A small dish with slices of ginger and an initially unrecognizable thing in the middle was placed before me with the advice that I should eat it!
Turned out to be half a duck egg. The white was a semi transparent green and the yolk a very dark green. It tasted like an egg but the albumen was like jelly and the whole thing tasted delicious.
I was fortunate to get the last of thee goose for the night.
It looked not unlike a half a crispy skin roast duck served with a plum sauce. The meat was denser and tougher than duck with less fat and and not as rich as duck. Under it was a bed of beans which Joyce called Hoi beans and a light gravy. It was served cool and the skin had lost most of it's crispness. The greens came with a garlic sauce which added a little bitterness occasionally.
The menu for dessert was a small laminated sheet of colour photo's, complete with prices.
I choose the black sesame tart with seaweed which was very good.

I enjoyed the meal but it was a long way from my idea of a super restaurant. The thing that really shocked me was the bill. HK311 which included a 10% service charge. That translates to just under A$39!
Score: 13.75/20