04/09/2012
蓮香樓 (已易手) 新餐廳
Lin Heung Tea House
中環威靈頓街160-164號
160-164 Wellington Street, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/food-at-the-historic-lin-heung-tea-house-e2255885
With history as far back as Yung Kee, Lin Heung Tea House is on the other side of Central close to Sheung Wan.
I was so surprised to see that there are so many reviews on this place so here is my review too.
I just expected it to be an ordinary Chinese restaurant so I never intended to go.
Although there was one time I was standing at the entrance thinking to go in or not but I ended up trying something else.
The restaurant is slightly different in the daytime and evening, in the daytime they serve dimsums and in the night time they serve Chinese dishes.
The Chinese tea however seems fun in the daytime because from the photos on OpenRice, it shows two cups, one full of tea leaves with a lid and another cup for you to pour the tea in similar to the ones you see on old Chinese Television programmes.
I did not read the reviews on OpenRice so I was not sure about the food prices, but it turned out quite economical around $100 per person, however some foods which expats and tourists are bound to pick were quite expensive such as the Lemon chicken which costs $100.
But since there were so many reviews and expats eating there, the food seemed assuring.
Although I looked at the menu, I did not know what to order so I left it to a local and luckily they knew exactly what to order.
Personally Lemon chicken would be my pick, but it was slightly over priced so I thought it would be better off trying new and more traditional items which I would not know to order.
The tea was White Peony, which was quite nice because usually the common choices are Jasmine, Iron Buddha and Oolong.
It seems that this place specialises in Lotus paste too and part of the name for this restaurant means Fragrance of Lotus.
At the entrance they seem to have a stall possible selling mooncakes/Lotus related pastries which I did not pay attention to at the time.
Edging away from the food topic, they also had these tin pots which I am guessing they used for Phelgm???
So either the air pollution must be bad years ago or the locals here have over productive glands for phelgm LOL !!
I can imagine this quote being posted on the DLopenricer blog.
Anyway back to food!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fried prawn rolls wrapped in beancurd sheets:
This was really nice, the oil had been drained off after deep frying and the bean curd was really flaky and delicate.
When you eat them they make a noise.
Inside the beancurd rolls were fresh whole prawns that had taste and didnt need extra MSG. Overall the prawn rolls were full of flavour they tasted nice with or without the worcester sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Shark lips with lettuce
When it came, I thought they were fish maw but they were shark lips, when I knew they were lips I was expecting them to be soft like gelatin, but the texture was interesting, it was similar to cartilage, but apparently they contain alot of collagen.
The lettuce beneath it soaked up the gravy so it was delicious.
But since sharks are so much bigger than fish, it probably explains why the texture is like cartilage.
I would definitely order this again.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
