[Hong Kong] Yee Tung Heen 怡東軒 - award winning dim sum (Closed)

naf · January 9, 2017, 6:28pm

Situated in Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay, Yee Tung Heen is a Cantonese restaurant with good reputation on its Dim Sum menu, served from the early morning till afternoon. It has won several awards including Gourmet Master chefs and HK tourism board Best Culinary Awards. They shows their trophies at the entrance. Personally, I’m not familiar with these local awards.

I especially like their XO sauce, I kept eating it on its own

Steamed twin gold fish dumplings, steam pork and abalone dumpling (in the centre)

Baked organic eggplant puff with cod fish - I like this dish, especially the puff pastry

Twin Mushroom Platter: Mushroom buns with assorted mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms stuffed with Matsutake and shrimp paste - An award winning plate, it tried to captured the mushrooms natural tastes than masking with sauces.

Supreme soup dumpling with assorted seafood in traditional style

Soup dumpling bursted with all the juice - one of my favourite

Assorted steamed rice rolls: with shrimps, with assorted fungus and spring onion, and last one with barbecued pork - I like this dish

Steamed beef balls with fresh bean curd sheet - I like the dish of Ming Court (Beef balls with bean curds in chicken consomme) more

Suckling pig with roasted pork belly - favourite of DH, meat very tender

Menu

On the whole, they tried to offer innovative dishes than the more traditional dim sum, it was an interesting meal and service was efficient. I think personally I like my dim sum meal at Ming Court slightly more, even the dishes were more classic, there were more subtleties in taste. DH preferred this meal than Ming Court, I suspected it was because of the roasted meat.

Yee Tung Heen
2/F, The Excelsior Hotel
281 Gloucester Road,
Causeway Bay,
Hong Kong

Tel: 2837 6790
Mon-Sat 12-14:30, 18:00-22:30
Sun 10:30-15:00, 18:00-22:30

Presunto · January 9, 2017, 8:25pm

Fancy! I did try several different places for a change from Ling Heung (spelling?) and also to compare. Only to learn Ling Heung was my kind of place.

However, Ling Heung doesn’t have Matsutake! Must have been delicious!

naf · January 9, 2017, 10:57pm

I heard about Lin Heung Tea House in Wellington Street, it’s quite famous, but never have the time to try it. They still have authentic old style dim sum cart, I believe.

(Note: there is another restaurant called Lin Heung Kui, Des Voeux Road West, Sheung Wan)

PhilD · January 9, 2017, 11:24pm

Nice to see a write up - it used to be one of the ones on our regular rotation but seemed to fly a little below the foodie blog scene (maybe because its owned by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel group).

Seems to have upped its game and gone a bit more upmarket since my last visit.

Another that I really liked is “Heichinrou” in Central which is very high quality - and again ignored by the dom sum cognisanti. Their Dim Sum menu changes from mid-week to the weekend (as do a lot). Not as innovative as Yee Tung Heen but very solid, consistent and high quality.

sck · January 12, 2017, 8:24am

Same here. A couple of years ago I had the chance to eat at both Ming Court and Yee Tung Heen days apart. Everything at both places were good. What separated Ming Court and Yee Tung Heen was that the former had a couple of dishes that were outstanding and memorable (I still remember them today). Though I’d happily go back to Yee Tung Heen.

Yee Tung Heen has the advantage that you can get some Lord Stow natas in the hotel lobby for dessert after the dim sum meal.

sck · January 12, 2017, 8:24am

What’s in your regular rotation besides Yee Tung Heen and Heichinrou?

Why? the locals don’t like Mandarin Oriental?

sck · January 12, 2017, 8:43am

I am a bit embarrassed to say that for no particular reason, I had always thought that Heichinrou was Beijing cuisine and I lived in HK for years. Obviously I can’t speak for everyone else in the city. But the name always sounded not very Cantonese to me, hence the misconception. Perhaps similar confusion for others?

naf · January 12, 2017, 10:42am

Heichinrou was originally a Chinese restaurant in Japan and later developed into a chain. I think it’s owned by the Japanese.

PhilD · January 13, 2017, 2:27am

I think it is. But its very Cantonese and the seems to be locally managed with decent service.

PhilD · January 13, 2017, 2:31am

I think its the “Dim Sum” snobbery i.e. if its not cheap and slightly grungy it can’t be real. Dim Sum in international hotels “can’t” be good especially somewhere as posh as a MO (I saw the same bias against the Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Intercon and Shangri-La in Kowloon).

I wasn’t necessarily referring to the local’s (it always used to be full) but more to the blogging community the self appointed dim sum cognoscenti.

PhilD · January 13, 2017, 2:40am

Moved out of HK about 3 years ago so a bit dated.

Liked Fusing, The Square, a little Beijing place in Wellington Street, a place at the back of the old wet market on he escalator, Ritz Carlton (for a treat), Above & Beyond, the club house at Park View, the HK Bankers Club, occasionally DTF, and most recently Mott 32.

Tended to do take away from Tim Ho Wan on a regular basis as it was close to the office.

sck · January 13, 2017, 5:59am

Well. That’s some odd logic, from them. Dim sum always has a range of options from low to high end…In fact, I think low end probably is less common since most of the banquet restaurants that run dim sum service during lunch look somewhat decent.

PhilD · January 17, 2017, 3:11am

Odd logic indeed. But I think it comes from the perception that dim sum should be cheap and if it isn’t its not the real deal.

I agree it coves a spectrum from the hole in the wall operation that does a limited range of steamed dumplings up to the Michelin starred palaces using all sorts of exotic ingredients.

However, I tend to think that for a restaurant to offer a good range, interesting choices and execute to a high quality then it can’t be cheap. Tim Ho Wan the “cheapest michelin starred” restaurant had a small menu, little variation from week to week, and to be honest a only one or two great dishes amongst some pretty ordinary ones. I often thought its fame was based on the quality/price ratio which was good because it was so cheap.

naf · January 17, 2017, 9:46am

I don’t understand this logic either. Especially the chef Mak Gui Pui from Tim Ho Wan came from Long King Heen, a Four Seasons Hotel.

I ate once and miss the original Mongkok shop of Tim Ho Wan, those were the days the chef Mak was still cooking in the restaurant. Ate twice in the Central branch, rather happy because it was alright for the price paid, quality was better in the Mongkok days though.

That say, if there were a THW in Paris with the same price/quality ratio as Central, I would be more than happy to consume regularly. Compared to the awful dim sum in most Chinese joints here, the dumpling skin were 3 times as thick and reheating from frozen store bought Dim Sum.

sck · January 26, 2017, 12:14am

But to be fair, Tim Ho Wan’s dim sum is pretty no frills standard stuff, despite the chef’s background.

naf · June 15, 2019, 11:23pm

Defitively closed end of March , in fact hotel is knocked down already.

sck · June 21, 2019, 5:27pm

Any idea where the chef is heading next?

I am surprised the redevelopment will take 6 years, and the new tower is only 26 stories high!

naf · June 22, 2019, 8:27am

2 chefs used to work in Yee Tung Heen, Chef Wong Wing Keung 黃永強 has already left Yee Tung Heen for Man Wah a year earlier, reorganisation by the mother group Mandarin Oriental. Chef Yiu Bik Sun 饒璧臣 and some of his troops has been organised to work in Man Wah as well.

Note that Man Wah has another price tag than the more “economical” Yee Tung Heen.

Source:

sck · June 24, 2019, 5:49pm

I guess they didn’t jump ship after all. But yeah, Man Wah is a totally different price league.