Yung Kee roast goose 鏞記燒鵝, Central HK

Visited this restaurant probably only a few times. Didn't mean I didn't like it but just I wasn't much into roast goose. My past impression was that there had been already too many restaurants which can make the roast goose right. Unlike the old time, there were only a few.

1. The first 12 pages of the menu listed those xxx awards they have obtained over the past including some like xxx白雲大獎. If anyone who doesn't know Yung Kee, would he spend time on reading all those? If someone already knew Yung Kee, what's for repeating such clumsy pages of award listings which some might not even be necessary to be brought up as a remark.

2. If my memory is correct, the guests waiting area should be on the ground floor, but this time they changed it to 2nd floor. When I entered the restaurant, I was asked to go to 2nd floor. Then I further asked if seats were available, no clear reply was given. So I went up anyway and there I was put on the wait-list and sat on the 2nd floor. The house manager might think this is a good trap to keep customers. Very stupid indeed. Those who decided to visit Yung Kee, wouldn't just go away because it's crowded or long line. Yung Kee is not a "2 dozen 6" nobody restaurant. They should check Crystal Jade still has long lines and see what the reason is behind. After all, I was asked to walk down again to ground floor for the table. :)

3. Their acclaimed "thousand year preserved duck egg and pickled baby ginger", HK$6 per person. I recall this one is pretty good, but this time. The baby ginger gave a much too strong "acid hitting throat" 嗆喉. My friends and I coughed at the same time. First they didn't use enough raw salt to slightly marinate the baby ginger. This step is important. If too much salt, the ginger would lose the "hot" flavour and it would be too soft. If too little salt, the "hot" flavour would be too strong. Second, the ginger wasn't sliced in a correct thickness. It's much too thick. Third, some cheap white sugar was used. Many restaurants often neglect using better sugar. After all, HK$6 is pretty cheap. I wish they could increase the price a bit by using some better vinegar and sugar. When customers come a long way for the name of Yung Kee, they wouldn't pay much more. Even HK$30 for this one is justified if they pay more attention to it.

4. Luckily the roast goose gave me some much delight. Nice roasting though the skin wasn't crispy. If they slight grill it in the oven a little bit, that would be perfect. The quarter portion is at HK$140. A whole one at HK$440.

5. Glad that they kept the classic soy beans beneath the goose.

6. Steamed rice, at average.

7. Doubled boiled "northern" mushroom, HK$88 (for 4 person portion). This one gave me a nice surprise. Some nice mushroom was used and the golden ham/chicken broth is pretty nice.

8. Celery stir fried with chicken slices HK$108. When I ordered it, the waiter looked at me with a question mark. Actually I did it on purpose. This kind of dish which looks simple but it's good to check how good the chef is. First, if they slice the celery well. Second, if the chicken is marinated well. Anyway, this dish is in a good stir frying, but the chicken and celery weren't sliced well. Furthermore, some frozen chicken thigh was used. This is exactly what I wanna test. If they charge this dish at HK$108, at least some fresh chicken should be used.

9. Sweet and sour pork, HK$108. I wanna ask the chef who made this one to go bed earlier. Oil control for deep frying wasn't done right, resulting in too much oil in the pork. Pork sticky to each other. Only one pineapple chunk and lots of green bell pepper. The scallion is a bit too old. They should use some shallot to "start" the wok first. So many wrong steps indeed. The chef had better check with the junior who helped for preparing the ingredients 執料頭. How can only one pineapple chunk was there? Over the years, Yung Kee has one shop without expanding into other branches. So it's the easiest way to control. If they are only good at goose and some dishes, then simplify the menu with only 5-6 dishes for pork, 5-6 for beef...etc.

10. Red bean sweet with their acclaimed "thousand year" dried tangerine peel, HK$22. When I first tasted it, shit! The tangerine peel wasn't wiped out the white inner part! That totally destroyed this sweet and gave an unpleasant "bitter wet" 嗡味.

11. Black sesame pudding, HK$22. This one is pretty good though. Smooth texture and pretty aromatic.

12. I noticed the shop has over 70% tourists from Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines and other Western countries.

13. It's at 10pm and still 3 gooses left.

14. The shop. *In general, next time I will treat this restaurant as a BBQ restaurant. Simply go in for a roast goose plus some plain veggie and a soup of the day.