Completely THL'ed

It was not my first time to go to Tin Heung Lau (天香樓) but I was excited. Instead of going with friends, I took my in-laws there to celebrate the birthday of my sister-in-law and we invited couple friends to join us.

Changunnie had a rough day (see the previous post) and she fell asleep right before we got to the restaurant. Grandma, Gomo (my sister-in-law) and our niece from Seoul were late because they took the long route to the restaurant from TST. My friend was also stuck in the traffic and so we started our three appetizers without them. I don't know about other people but I love my Malantou (馬蘭頭 Indian aster with tofu). The taste is an acquired taste but I love it. It is different from ordinary vegetables and somehow recalls good memory from childhood. We also ordered the drunken pigeon (not the most popular dish of the night) and the country pate (肴肉). Changunnie ate ALL of the gelatine but not the meat. I suppose that tells you which part is the good part.





The one thing that I cannot vote for THL is the service, we told them to hold off but they decided to rush the dishes onto the table. First came the deep fried frog legs which was very juicy and yummy. Grandpa finished his frog leg before we told him it was frog and he said he wouldn't have eaten it if he knew but he said it was yummy, thinking it was very small spring chicken!



Then came the Shanghainese vegetable with salted pork (鹹肉塌窩菜). The vegetables has a bitter taste and again not something that average people love right away. I was happy that no one competed with me for the Winter specialty and I finished half of the veg all by myself. The salted bacon gave the bitterness of the veg a very nice tweak.



When I was still munching on the veg, the double fried bacon came. It's a dish that I loved as a kid. It's greasy but also very hearty. Some people wouldl probably say I shouldn't pay the price at THL for it but where else uses quality pork the way THL does? So often I get pieces of poorly executed fried fat.



Changunnie loves stir fried river shrimp and so I ordered the one without Longjing tea leaves. Whilst the tea leaves version is a famous dish at THL, I never really like it as the flavour of the THL version doesn't come out and I don't see why I should pay for it. To my disappointment, they put a dish of tea leaves version on our table. My face changed and the waiter said "Oh! It's famous at our restaurant. Try it!" Looking at Changunnie's hungry face, I didn't ask to exchange but was definitely unhappy as I stressed three times in different ways, "No tea leaves please"



More food came out, first the smoked yellow croaker. We ordered enough for each person to have more than a quarter of a fish and still all we saw within 10 minutes was the bone. When it comes to quality yellow croaker, we are like piranha. The yellow croaker at THL lived up to its reputation. Changunnie happily chowed down a quarter of a fish with skin!



I was quite full at that point despite the fact that I was busy feeding Changunnie. The fried mushroom and bamboo shoots arrived. It is another favourite of mine. The beggar's chicken arrived soon afterwards. Whilst everyone was impressed by the chicken. I thought it was a little on the dry side. My favourite has always been the stuffing though. I can eat that with a bowl of rice.




Finally, the highlight of the night arrived. The crab roe on a big plate was impressive. The waiter wanted to put the roe into our noodle but I insisted to let the guests to have the satisfaction of mixing their own noodle. To my surprise, Changunnie liked it and she ate half of my bowl.




At that point, we were done with the red wine and the Shaoxing wine. I asked for the fermented rice soup with rice dumplings but they told me that it was out of stock!?! I was so disappointed. We finished our dinner at a record 1.25 hours. When we were done, it wasn't 8:45 yet.

Will I go back to THL? Yes for the food. Will I say it's a great place? No because of the service.

By the way, I checked out their kitchen. It's a small place but the staff manage to install a TV for canto soap. No wonder they rushed everyone to finish the dinner as quickly as possible. They don't want to miss the prime time show! Four heads stove with the ring and you could hear the fire roaring. No wonder they can cook the bacon so nicely!