Tin Lung Heen & The Chocolate Library – Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

The final night of our (not so recent) stay in Hong Kong was at the newly opened Ritz Carlton. Tin Lung Heen was not full on the night we were there but I understand it is now exceptionally busy, especially for lunch. The view from Tin Lung Heen is very impressive, although it is out to the North-West of the building and not towards the city, the view from the Chocolate Library is to the East and there is more to look at.

The service was very mixed. It was obvious that they were trying hard but a number of requests were lost somewhere between the table and the recipient, so we had to ask for various items multiple times, a request to view the wine list was made twice and it failed to appear at all. A request at the start of the meal to have dessert at the Chocolate Library (we had emailed some months prior and were told that tables were on a “first come, first served” basis and to just ask on the night) seemed to cause some panic among the staff to work out how to handle it, this was sorted out in the end and we were personally guided and handed over but it just seemed like the level of service they are aiming for wasn’t quite in place yet.

The food on the other hand was top-notch. A sweet turnip appetiser was a perfect first bite. The Deep fried scallops with mango dip combines two of my favourite things, so I was very partial to it to begin with but the scallops were cooked just right and the mango dip gave the dish a lift with some sweetness providing a foil for the (light) deep fried coating. Pan fried lotus root stuffed with fresh crab meat was brilliant and the Crispy roasted pork belly pushed very hard for top spot of this dish among some extremely good competition.

Live crab with salt and chilli, wok fried in soy sauce was another wonderful dish. The quality of the crab shone and the other flavours played perfect support roles. This was an expensive dish but it was worth it.

Chilled shredded chicken with green onion and chilli oil was a good dish, the green onion gave the dish some texture, it just didn’t have as much of a kick from the chilli as expected so was a little bit one-dimensional. Deep fried crispy chicken was good as well but wasn’t quite up to the standard of Ming Court and Man Wah so suffered in direct comparison.

We then had dessert at the Chocolate Library, we were the only patrons there so we had our pick of tables.

Chocolate soufflé with raspberry coulis and chocolate petit fours was the better of the two dishes. This was a classic combination of flavours that was executed well and certainly passed the “deliciousness test”.

Chocolate fondue with marshmallow, brownie, brioche and chocolate pasta was straight forward except for the chocolate pasta which wasn’t that good anyway. The other items were fine and it’s hard to dislike something dipped in decent quality chocolate.

Overall the lacklustre service was made up for by outstanding food. The bill was HK$1000 at Tin Lung Heen with a large portion of that being the Live crab dish. The bill at the Chocolate Library was HK$330 including coffee and a hot chocolate.

Score: 16/20

Sweet turnip appetiser