Review | New Hong Kong restaurant review: Best Chiu Chow in Wan Chai – excellent double-boiled soups, but steamed sticky rice cake a disappointment

We quickly found out they couldn’t. Many of the items we wanted were not available, although perhaps they had all been ordered by diners who had eaten earlier (we arrived at 1pm), and there’s the very good possibility that they were having supply problems, with ingredients being shipped from mainland China being held up at the border.

Poached clams in fish sauce (HK$188) was a delicious start to the meal. The clams – served cool – had a light, refreshing marinade that was not too pungent or salty, with the distinctive taste of Thai basil leaves.

They didn’t have our first choices of cuts of the famous Chiu Chow marinated goose, so we could only have the goose slices (HK$168). The goose meat – from the breast – was disappointing – it was hard and coarse, but the bean curd slices underneath were silky and soft.

The friendly manager recommended the double-boiled soups, so we tried two. They were excellent – pork tripe with dried turnip (HK$68 for a small portion) was a slight variation on the more usual version made with salted mustard, and had a nice peppery flavour. Double-boiled duck with salted lemon (HK$68) was not at all fatty, as you’d expect from something with duck, and the meatiness of the broth was tempered by the citrus zing.

The manager also recommended steamed sticky rice cake with dried turnip (HK$78). This was the most disappointing dish of the meal – the rice cake lacked a stretchy chewiness, and the filling was scant.