16/07/2013
御膳 Imperial
觀塘敬業街65-67號敬運工業大廈12樓F室
Flat F, 12/F, King Win Factory Building, 65-67 King Yip Street, Kwun Tong
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/fine-seafood-and-huge-mantis-shrimps-e2308235
Thanks to Imperial for inviting me to this tasting.
When I first heard the name, it reminded me of Imperial College.
Imperial is located in an industrial building in Kwun Tong.
This was my first experience dining in one and it is becoming a trend for restaurants to move to industrial areas because of the spacious kitchens and lower rents.
When I got there, it was no different to other restaurants but it was more spacious.
They even have their own fish tanks.
Apart from dinners they also do lunches which you can see on OpenRice for their menu.
Here was what we tried, it was for 7 people (approximately $300 per head):
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Spicy platter:
It was a platter of apetizers and the spicyness can be adjusted to your requirements.
There were beef stomachs, julienne cucumber and chicken, eggs and pork intestines.
I do not normally eat the beef stomachs but the spices they used were really nice and the beef stomachs were very clean and it had a nice meaty texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Spare ribs in strawberry sauce:
The spare ribs were really good because they were meaty and had a lot of meat attached to the bone.
The pork was fresh and supple and the strawberry sauce was not too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Typhoon shelter style crab:
This was my first time trying the Typhoon shelter style crab because I do not normally order crab or even eat it because it takes too much effort.
The crispy pieces were delicious and it was deep fried garlic and other goodies which is their secret recipe.
The delicious crispy pieces were wonderful with rice.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salt and Pepper Mantis Shrimp:
These were the biggest mantis shrimps I have ever tried in my life, they were the size of my lower arm!
I could see the resemblance of a preying mantis claws hence the name Mantis shrimp.
The taste of this was interesting, it was similar to lobster but the texture of it was not so springy.
The shell is nice and crispy which makes it easier to remove the shell than a lobster.
These mantis shrimps cost $2XX each, so getting the set meal is a good deal, as there were three.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Stir fried noodles and beanshoots in crab oil:
The portion of this was huge and each strand of noodle was uniformly coloured.
It would be great of the crab oil taste was stronger.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Vegetables with crabmeat:
The vegetables were covered in lovely crabmeat gravy and the vegetables were naturally sweet.
The crabmeat gravy was also delicious with the noodles.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steam rice with 龍躉 Giant grouper fish:
The size of this was huge!!
This was steamed fried rice with big fish slices, fried garlic and spring onions on top.
The rice at the bottom was really nice because it has absorbed all the fish essence on top.
The fish slices were chunky and soft.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dessert:
Not a fan of Chinese dessert but I actually had more than I usually do because it was not too sweet.
It was loaded with all sorts of pulses from chickpeas, black eye peas, kidney beans to peanuts.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★