Back at the end of December, I noticed the signage for the restaurant taking the place of the long standing Golden City. It was going to be Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum. A few weeks back, I noticed the Grand Opening sign was up and I drove over to check the hours. The place opens at 10am!
So, I tried to talk the Missus into visiting; but She wanted me to check the place out first. Sigh…so of course, I headed on over.
The place was empty when I arrived and was seated. Soon after a couple of larger parties drifted in.
The interior looks basically the same; though they’ve tried to spiff it up a bit. Still, the tell-tale signs of Golden City were quite obvious to me….
The woman running the place was very nice and told me they had just been open for a couple of days. She gave me two menus. Since I was here during “lunch”, I also got the dim sum menu. Dim Sum is served between 10am and 3pm daily.
So, I decided to try a couple of dim sum dishes; which run from $7.50 to $11….such are prices these days as well as two regular menu items.
I started with some Har Gow and Siu Mai, both priced at $9.50.
Some tea arrived soon after.
Of the two sets of dim sum; the Har Gow was the weaker one.
The shrimp filling was decent; a bit on the chewy side; but the shrimpiness came thru quite nicely. These were quite large.
I didn’t care for the wrappers which were too thick, chewy, and rubbery.
I did enjoy the Siu Mai.
While the filling was still on the chewier side; both the flavor of the pork and the shrimp came thru nicely…a good savory-mildly sweet flavor and also quite fragrant.
The wrapper was fine; at least it wasn’t as bad as what I’d last had at the reopened China Max…..this actually had the taste and texture of dim sum!
Both the Har Gow and Siu Mai were quite large and I only had two of each and took the rest home. I reheated using the Microwave “steam” technique which works fairly well. The Missus ate both of the siu mai and had half of a har gow….’nuff said!
As for the menu dishes….well, I wanted to see how the Sauteed Intestines with Chinese Pickles ($22) here fared against my current favorite.
Well, not bad at all; though a bit on the sweeter side in terms of flavor. The pork intestine was definitely not as good as it was really chewy. Good amount of suan cai, adding a nice sour tone to things. Still, I probably won’t be getting this again.
And I just needed to get a half roast duck; which priced at $20, is even cheaper than Eastern Dynasty!
The subcutaneous fat had been nicely rendered and the skin decently caramelized and crisp. However, the meat was on the drier side and the flavor was lacking in anise-five spice tones and was pretty bland. The jus was good in a dry pot that the Missus made the next day.
But this was definitely not as good as Noble Chef or Eastern Dynasty to us.
Still, it was a promising visit. So, I tried to talk the Missus into visiting, but She told me to check things out one more time first. And then gave me some items She wanted me to order???? Say what????
Anyway, I arrived at a quarter after 10 and on this weekend morning the place was already packed!
I guess word had gotten out?
I decided not to order dim sum this time around and tried to order several items from the menu. Unfortunately, they were out of two of them.
So, instead of the West Lake Beed Soup, I got the Crab and Fish Maw Soup (small – $24). Man, even the small portion of this was quite sizeable.
There was some real crab in the soup, which was nice and thick. There was quite bit of fish maw (the air sac) which was fairly spongy in texture as well as egg white.
There’s a bit of oceany-savory “funk”. I thought it was fine; but the Missus really didn’t care for the slight fishiness in flavor.
They did have the Mei Cai Ko Rou ($26).
Some of the slices of pork belly were so melt-in-your-mouth tender. This version was a bit more salty than other versions, which the Missus enjoyed. She also strangely enjoyed the chunks of sauteed lettuce…..which was quite crunchy. A bit less preserved vegetable than other versions. Overall, not a bad dish. If you prefer your MCKR more on the savory side, with less sour-sweet tones, this one is for you. I do think we’ll have this again.
They didn’t have the Minced Pork with Salted Fish on this day either. So I got the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant Claypot ($21).
And while the Eggplant was a bit more mushy than we prefer, the chicken was pleasantly tender. I know you can’t really see it in the photo, but there was an abundance of small diced pieces off salted fish, which was a nice surprise as most versions of this dish in SD lacks the strong, savory-salty flavor in this dish. The Missus now really wants to try the Minced Pork with Salted Fish.
So, overall not too bad. Perhaps a level down from Eastern Dynasty and Noble Chef, though Hong Kong Kitchen does have dim sum during lunch service. It was also much better than what we’d had during our last visits to Golden City.
I was looking forward to returning and actually trying some of my favorites on my next visit….
So stay tuned for part 2!
Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123