[Hong Kong] Seventh Son 家全七福

Sometimes during vacation one doesn’t quite have enough time to properly research where to eat and what to order. This meal is an example of that. On a whim, we decided to have lunch at Seventh Son in Wanchai. Seventh Son is the restaurant chain found by Chui Wai Kwan, the youngest of seven sons in the Chui family that founded Fook Lam Moon, the celebrity canteen in Hong Kong.

We were the first lunch party to arrive. I gave Chui, who’s sitting near the entrance, an acknowledgement. He stared at me a bit. The first warning sign- we got directed to a table in a dark little nook with low ceiling next to the kitchen entrance with the utensil cabinet right next to it (circled). Location and status is not normally a big deal to me since I can eat in the worst looking restaurant/ table comfortably. In this case, I believe that Seventh Son has their big spending business people regulars. A family of 4 with 2 little kids isn’t their targeted clientele. If the whole room was reserved and eventually occupied, I could understand the table choice since we made the reservation half an hour ahead, but it was half full only when we left. The good thing is that the manager still offered good service despite this perceived slight.

With not much research into what to order, we instead relied on our server’s recommendations. We went half dim sum half dishes. In hindsight, probably should just order all dimsum and sampled more variety of them instead.

The octopus rice. I thought it would be drier but its actually rather moist. The problem with the dish was that the shitake mushroom overpowered whatever flavour the octopus pieces imparted on the dish.

Hargau, good ingredient, classic done well.

Egg yolk chicken bao. Flavorful. My favorite.

The braised pomelo skin in shrimp roe sauce. It may not be the problem of the dish, but I have to say, despite the high praises of this dish from the manager, I didn’t find it to measure up to his praises.

Fried fish cake- its ok, don’t remember much about it.

Recommendation? Go with someone with connections. Or maybe dress better instead of polo and shorts (though the same attire hasn’t been a problem for me anywhere else in town). Or order better to better utilize the capability of the kitchen. Or go to nearby Fu Sing for dim sum. Or, go to Wing Wah a block away for a jook sing noodle lunch, which was what we did after our Seventh Son meal, and arguably more enjoyable for us relative to at least this specific meal, at a much lower cost.

What are people’s more successful meals there?

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To clarify, this is the abalone sauce octopus chicken fried rice.

Absolutely love braised pomelo skin in shrimp roe sauce. It’s a must-have for me in whichever restaurant that has that on their menu :smiley:

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We went to Wing Wah right after Seventh Son, and we saw the same dish on the menu. Didn’t order the same thing back-to-back :slight_smile:

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I read a few others online reviews, generally people complain about the high price tag with average food, the better reviews were from 2013 or the vegetarian banquets.

@sck Why do you think that connections or status will make the meal better? The privilege can pre order more rare and expensive ingredients. But it is always ordinary dishes you can tell if the chefs are good, when they can make the humble ingredients shine.

Maybe not. But I know I won’t go back. There are too many other fantastic Cantonese restaurants in HK.