I went to a friend's birthday dinner celebration this week. She chose to have the dinner at the Chairman, a Cantonese restaurant in Sheung Wan.
It is located at the very far end of Kau U Fong street (No. 18), which is just one street below Gough Street and off of Aberdeen Street.
If I had to pick one word for the vibe of the place, it would be understated. It is the last stop on a dead end street, with a very small downstairs, a quaint bar, and an upstairs with only a few tables. The atmosphere is very intimate and quiet. The walls, tables, tablecloths, are all white. The Chairman is an aptly named restaurant. Very much like an individual presiding over a hearing or a meeting, this restaurant allows you to focus on the food as it comes out.
Even though it is not a private kitchen, the whole atmosphere was reminiscent of one. I felt like I was eating in someone's house. The house of someone who cooks superbly.
I had heard great things about the Chairman for a long time now - it has earned and then subsequently lost its Michelin star. It was very expensive. It was quite reasonable for lunch. It had fantastic Shaoxing wine crab. It was a rip off for the quantity of crab….Well, I am glad that despite all the rumors swirling about Hong Kong's almost maniacal foodie blogging environment, I finally got to try out the Chairman for myself.
Only gripes were that the temperature of some dishes were served a bit too cold for my liking (namely the crab), and the waiters are not that great at timing the pouring of wines/drinks/tea (by the way, this place is BYOB).
I could not bear to be THAT person at the dinner table so I only snuck a few pictures in and did not take beautiful, detailed pictures of every dish that graced our fortunate table. I did however take a quick picture of the menu. We chose dinner set menu A. This is only one half of the dinner set! The menu ran on to the next page. I actually think that, given all of this food, the dinner set menu is a fantastic deal. The quality and quantity of the food makes me think that the Chairman is, while not cheap, certainly not as unreasonable as I had been led to believe.
After the first four starter dishes were served, I started to get quite excited. The quality of the food and the taste was much better than I had expected. Incredible flavor seemed to infuse every bit of every dish, but flavors balanced each other very well and nothing was overwhelming - certainly not an easy feat.
You all should know by know that I could live on soup. This soup was amazing. I deemed it a Chinese lobster bisque. It had the smell and feel of a light lobster bisque, but there was something quintessentially Chinese about it - maybe in the consommé quality of the broth. I could have easily slurped down two or three more pots of this seafood soup.
This next dish also made me very excited. I love crab. These flowery crabs are aptly named - their shells are speckled with the prettiest patterns, made all the prettier once they are cooked (and become a blushing light pink). And they just looked so damn delicious. The meat was incredibly sweet and tender, but with the firm consistency indicating freshness, and the legs were full of meat.
My only criticism is that this dish really should have been served hotter. The flat rice noodles, which had such promise because they were cut incredibly thin, instead just stuck together in thick hard pieces. And the Shaoxing wine sauce, which was so, so so good, was already kind of cool and congealed by the time I started sucking down my crab. As crab lovers know, you are already at a disadvantage with crab because it takes so long to eat!
The next dish was an impressive chicken smothered in scallion and ginger, of which I have no picture. I am usually not that big of a fan of chicken, but this dish took me by surprise. It was incredibly well done. The chicken was tender, juicy and flavorful. Not easy to do.
Next up were the tiger prawns dish cooked two ways - the bodies flash fried with the crispiest, sweetest and most tender green beans, and the heads deep fried. I was surprised by how much I liked both renditions, particularly the shrimp heads. They don't look very appetizing here, after all...
These honey glazed spare ribs came near the end and, my word, I thought I was done eating but I immediately regained my appetite. These ribs were very well done.
And then finally, it was time for dessert. It does not look like much, but it made me really, really happy. Freshly made (homemade I would bet) wolfberry (or goji berry) ice cream with a cup of warm almond milk. Some friends left before dessert and I shamelessly wolfed down both of their scoops of ice cream and another cup of almond milk. I was full to bursting but somehow managed to find (a lot more) room for dessert. Funny how that works.
My friend and I mused about the dinner afterwards - I think the Chairman is a really interesting restaurant because, despite its decor and its clientele, at its heart, the food is unabashedly Chinese (or Guangdong/Cantonese, if you wish to put a region to it).
The flavors in the dishes are strong and uncompromising. Despite the fact that nearly every person in the restaurant was a gweilo (this is the kind of restaurant that caters to foreigners - by its location, price, atmosphere, etc. so I was not the least bit surprised), the restaurant has not skimped on the traditional taste or mouth feel of its dishes.
I can see how some might find the tastes a bit too strange or strong. Pickled cabbage, Shaoxing wine, pigeon smoked with chrysanthemum… these are all flavors that the Western palate does not often encounter.
I of course relished every bit of it. I think I will be back.
It is located at the very far end of Kau U Fong street (No. 18), which is just one street below Gough Street and off of Aberdeen Street.
If I had to pick one word for the vibe of the place, it would be understated. It is the last stop on a dead end street, with a very small downstairs, a quaint bar, and an upstairs with only a few tables. The atmosphere is very intimate and quiet. The walls, tables, tablecloths, are all white. The Chairman is an aptly named restaurant. Very much like an individual presiding over a hearing or a meeting, this restaurant allows you to focus on the food as it comes out.
Even though it is not a private kitchen, the whole atmosphere was reminiscent of one. I felt like I was eating in someone's house. The house of someone who cooks superbly.
I had heard great things about the Chairman for a long time now - it has earned and then subsequently lost its Michelin star. It was very expensive. It was quite reasonable for lunch. It had fantastic Shaoxing wine crab. It was a rip off for the quantity of crab….Well, I am glad that despite all the rumors swirling about Hong Kong's almost maniacal foodie blogging environment, I finally got to try out the Chairman for myself.
Only gripes were that the temperature of some dishes were served a bit too cold for my liking (namely the crab), and the waiters are not that great at timing the pouring of wines/drinks/tea (by the way, this place is BYOB).
I could not bear to be THAT person at the dinner table so I only snuck a few pictures in and did not take beautiful, detailed pictures of every dish that graced our fortunate table. I did however take a quick picture of the menu. We chose dinner set menu A. This is only one half of the dinner set! The menu ran on to the next page. I actually think that, given all of this food, the dinner set menu is a fantastic deal. The quality and quantity of the food makes me think that the Chairman is, while not cheap, certainly not as unreasonable as I had been led to believe.
Here you can see from left to right the beginning of our meal:
Tomatoes that looked like nothing special, but which were actually little bombs packed full of basil and balsamic vinaigrette flavor.
The eggplant cooked with a pickled Chinese vegetable (mustard greens, I believe) which I had never before had paired with eggplant, and which brought out the eggplant's smokey textures remarkably.
The squid with green beans, tossed in an eye popping French Dijon grain mustard and, in case that was not enough, coated in the lightest, most deceptive film of wasabi - wow!
And the pigeon smoked in two kinds of tea, for which the restaurant is rightly famous (though I recognize that pigeon is not everyone's cup of tea; case in point, the heads plopped down front and center may have made this dish a bit too realistic for some of our friends…)
After the first four starter dishes were served, I started to get quite excited. The quality of the food and the taste was much better than I had expected. Incredible flavor seemed to infuse every bit of every dish, but flavors balanced each other very well and nothing was overwhelming - certainly not an easy feat.
You all should know by know that I could live on soup. This soup was amazing. I deemed it a Chinese lobster bisque. It had the smell and feel of a light lobster bisque, but there was something quintessentially Chinese about it - maybe in the consommé quality of the broth. I could have easily slurped down two or three more pots of this seafood soup.
The next dish was an impressive chicken smothered in scallion and ginger, of which I have no picture. I am usually not that big of a fan of chicken, but this dish took me by surprise. It was incredibly well done. The chicken was tender, juicy and flavorful. Not easy to do.
Next up were the tiger prawns dish cooked two ways - the bodies flash fried with the crispiest, sweetest and most tender green beans, and the heads deep fried. I was surprised by how much I liked both renditions, particularly the shrimp heads. They don't look very appetizing here, after all...
Not shown are the Chinese kale stir fried with ginger and the stir fried rice. By this time my stomach was practically groaning.
And then finally, it was time for dessert. It does not look like much, but it made me really, really happy. Freshly made (homemade I would bet) wolfberry (or goji berry) ice cream with a cup of warm almond milk. Some friends left before dessert and I shamelessly wolfed down both of their scoops of ice cream and another cup of almond milk. I was full to bursting but somehow managed to find (a lot more) room for dessert. Funny how that works.
The flavors in the dishes are strong and uncompromising. Despite the fact that nearly every person in the restaurant was a gweilo (this is the kind of restaurant that caters to foreigners - by its location, price, atmosphere, etc. so I was not the least bit surprised), the restaurant has not skimped on the traditional taste or mouth feel of its dishes.
I can see how some might find the tastes a bit too strange or strong. Pickled cabbage, Shaoxing wine, pigeon smoked with chrysanthemum… these are all flavors that the Western palate does not often encounter.
I of course relished every bit of it. I think I will be back.
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