The Chairman 大班樓

There were a lot of buzz about this restaurant named The Chairman 大班樓 since it opened late last year. Its name is pretty interesting especially how they translated it as The Chairman in English. To give this place a try, my friend and I opted to head over for lunch first. We arrived around noon and got a table on the upper floor. It felt like I was on top of the world!!! Just joking but I liked the setting especially that it was very spacious! There were only 4 tables in this little balcony area and it was not noisy at all like many Chinese restaurant during lunch time (or any time for that matter) Thumbs up on that part!



Being the lazy person that I am, I suggested to order the Executive Lunch sets. There were plenty of choices for Appetizers and Main Courses to my surprise. We were struggling between 3 or 4 courses or to be more exact, dessert or no dessert. Well, it wasn't much of a struggle to be honest, please welcome the desserts.



(1) Crisp Small Yellow Croaker serves with Balsamic Dressing 酥炸獅頭魚
Don't be fooled by the look of this dish, it was very well prepared! Very crisp, thin batter (or was there any batter at all??) and the meat was very tender and juicy for some odd reasons. I didn't dip into the dressing because it was good the way it was!



(2) Pan-fried Fresh Prawn Cake with Kaffier Lime Leaves 檸檬葉蝦餅
Flavors and textures were good, especially with the combination of bouncy texture of the cake and some crunchy diced up things in there. Only thing I wish it could have been different would be for the cakes to be more golden or brownish. Just a min more on the pan would be nice!



(3) Slow-cooked Vegetarian Assorted Beans Soup with Cordyceps root 十豆冬蟲草鬚湯 and Lodoicea Soup 海底椰湯

The Cordyceps root soup was rather light in flavors. Initially I was afraid I would bleed from my nose because of the Cordyceps and how it is a strong Chinese herb which supposedly help build a better body or something. Many people now get more than enough nutrition from their daily intake of food that these kinds of Chinese herbs might be that useful anymore IMHO. Anyhow, the Lodiucea Soup was way better because of the stronger and richer flavors which I liked very much.



(4) Wok-fried fresh Garoupa Fillet with Chinese Vegetables 時菜班球
The fillets were huge and very fresh indeed! Very tender as well! Many Chinese restaurants would either use frozen fillets or smaller pieces of fresh ones. I was surprised that they would give such many big pieces, for lunch sets and at this price range. Well done indeed!



(5) Steamed Pork Fillets with Shrimp Paste 蝦醬唐芹蘿蔔絲蒸豬上肉
The dish was more complicated than the English name suggested. The use of the shredded radish at the bottom balanced the naturally rich flavors of the shrimp paste to make every bite a delightful experience especially with rice. Another wonderful thing was the pork fillets themselves which contained a very thin layer of fat, not too much but just perfect to give you that ... mushy texture in a enjoyable way. You got to try it to truly understand what I mean. Thumbs up!



(6) Homemade Ginger ice cream
Whoa, even for someone who loves ginger, the gingery flavor was strong in this ice cream. Well done!



(7) Almond Soup with Egg White 蛋白杏仁茶
Rich in almond flavors but not enough egg white for my personal liking. A bit thicker would be nice too but it was a delightful way to end the meal with for sure.



Likes:

• Crisp Small Yellow Croaker serves with Balsamic Dressing 酥炸獅頭魚 - wonderfully deep fried with very tender and juicy meat.
• Steamed Pork Fillets with Shrimp Paste 蝦醬唐芹蘿蔔絲蒸豬上肉 - two thumbs up! the use of the radish balanced the flavors very well and the pork used was of high quality.

Dislikes:

• Slow-cooked Vegetarian Assorted Beans Soup with Cordyceps root 十豆冬蟲草鬚湯 - not strong enough in terms of flavors, perhaps it was the roots instead of the body of the Cordyceps

Avg Spending: HKD 150 - 200 per person

The Chairman 大班樓
G/F, 18 Kau U Fong, Central
Tel: +852 2555 2202
http://www.thechairmangroup.com/


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