Month: December 2025

There was one more Cantonese style restaurant we wanted to check out for “FOY” Kenneth, to help plan his holiday night out. Naturally our initial recommendation was for Noble Chef; but we had revisited Taste of Hong Kong and were pleasantly surprised. And based on that meal; the Missus was all for me doing some “due diligence” and revisiting Eastern Dynasty since it had been almost two years since our last visit.

Man, the place was buzzing, soon after being seated; the place was full; so I only took a photo of the ducks hanging…..

What was also interesting was of the three places; Eastern Dynasty was the least expensive.

For instance; the half roast duck was $21.

This was also pretty darn good as well. The skin wasn’t as thin and crisp as Taste of Hong Kong; but it definitely had more of that five spice – duck flavor. The fat had been rendered decently; and those drippings…man; we’re talking major left over fried rice material. Very moist and tender…a pleasant surprise!

I was craving some of those Soy Sauce noodles ($17.95) and we’d never tried that here.

The texture was almost like pan fried noodles; which I liked as it took me back to the first time I had this dish. My cousin got married many moons ago to a guy who owned a business and was pretty successful. The reception was held on the Oceania Floating Restaurant, which at the time was world’s largest floating restaurant. You can read about it here. Being a poor kid, raised by a single mom; I’d never had any food like that before! And when these noodles arrived……I had always preferred noodles to rice when I was young…my mom attributed that to craving saimin all the time when she was pregnant with me…anyway; I’ve always loved this simple dish since then. This version had nicely coated noodles; it could have used more sprouts and scallion though. Word of warning, I don’t think this would heat up well….so you ‘betta finish ’em all up at the table.

The one clunker was the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant ($19.95).

This smelled nice and stinky; but the sauce was watery and lacking in flavor. The eggplant was mushy; not fairly firm on the exterior and molten-buttery inside. It was on the bland side in spite of the “fragrance”.

Our last dish was our favorite from our previous visit; the Mei Cai Kou Rou (Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetable – $20.95). I gotta say; this was a bargain with regards to current pricing.

The tender, buttery nicely flavored pork. The slightly bitter-sour-edging on too salty preserved vegetable. The slices of napa hidden under everything actually helps balance out the strong flavors. As an FYI; this is not a sweet version of this dish as it leans more towards soy-salty-savory. It’s the Missus’s favorite version here in SD.

The service was good considering that every table was taken in this rather small restaurant. It was the most inexpensive of the three meals. Kenneth, I’m not sure if my posts have been helpful or have caused more of a quandary with regards to your choice. Either way, I’m hoping that the place you select provides a wonderful meal and experience for the both of you! Of course; you could always go to all three……

Eastern Dynasty
4690 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 830pm

Recently, “FOY” Kenneth contacted me regarding a recommendation for a sit down Cantonese style dinner. Of course, our “usual” immediately came to mind. But that got me wondering how some of other Cantonese style restaurants along Convoy were doing. And then, having returned from one of our road trips with JJ, was wanting some Chinese food. Yes, can’t you hear it? It’s Opportunity knocking.

We thought we’d check out Taste of Hong Kong since we hadn’t visited in quite a while. Since our last visit, the owners of ToHK had taken over China Max, though I don’t think for the better. And I understand the chef has left as well…so I thought it would be “interesting”.

Now this parking lot, like many along the Convoy corridor can be a total mess during busy hours…and lets not get into the lack of street parking. On this day, the lot was empty. Leave it to our dining during an “off hour”.

As always, the folks working here were “all business”. One thing I quickly noticed is that the prices seemed lower than that of our last visit to Noble Chef. Oh, and one more condition for the visit. The Missus told me I couldn’t order my favorite dish from here; the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings, sigh…..

They were hanging up some roast duck when we were seated, so of course we needed to get some.

We started with the Marinated Pork Intestines ($19.99). Which looked good when it arrived.

The sauce had a nice balance of soy-sweet-sour. As for the intestines; well, it was super chewy….like s-u-p-e-r chewy. In the end, it was better to give those dentures a break, swallow it, and hope for the best.

Of course we had to order a Salt Fish dish for the Missus. She went with the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant ($21.99). Now the last time had this dish, it was lacking in salted fish, not this time though.

Decent amount of salted fish, very savory, but not overly salty. The eggplant was cooked perfectly, molten and buttery in texture. Good amount of chicken as well. I think this is the Missus’s current local version of the dish.

Instead of going with some salt and pepper pork chops or chicken wings; we went with the HK Style Fried Prawns with Chili and Garlic ($26.99).

Nice and crunchy, the you could make out the sweetness of the shrimp, even with the salty-peppery garlic seasoning. The shrimp was a bit tougher then I prefer, but I enjoyed the flavors.

And of course we had a half Roast Duck ($23), last time we ate at Noble Chef it was $28 for a half roast duck, so we were interested to see how this would turn out. Well, it turned out to be pretty positive.

While not as strong in the five spice department, the skin was light and crisp; the fat had been wonderfully rendered, and the meat tender. As an added bonus; all that fat and juice from the duck……guess who was making duck fried rice with that? The size of the duck was on the larger side as well. Decent savory-salty-sweet balance as well.

So, it looks like we’ll need to return to get those Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings, right? And try out some other dishes. But before that; I think we’ll need to give Eastern Dynasty a revisit. Sometimes, it’s good to get out of your routine and try some different items. I need to thank “FOY” Kenneth for doing that for us!

Taste of Hong Kong
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Sun – Thurs 11am – 230pm, 430pm – 9pm
Fri – Sat 11am – 230pm, 430pm – 930pm