Dim Sum Lunch for 4

Late April marked the first time in 3 months that we could finally dine with 4 persons at the same table, and we decided to “celebrate” that with a weekend dim sum lunch at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants in town. We love the culinary transformation Chef Jayson and his team has done at Man Ho for the past few years, and they never failed to impress us even with a simple lunch get-together such as this. 

The New Man Wah

Other than the new Mandarin Club on the 23rd Floor, February also marked the opening month for two restaurants at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. One of which was Man Wah, the Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant which went through the renovation and now with an expanded space and totally different décor, and that’s where we dropped by for lunch right after we checked in for our staycation weekend.  

Yum Cha Omakase

It’s great to have run into Chef Jayson at his restaurant Man Ho at JW Marriott during our visit on the last day of January, especially on the heel of double good news for him personally and professionally this month. And that also meant we didn’t have to decide what to eat and just asked him to help sort out the menu for us.

Post Party Dim Sum

We were sorting out where to eat the day after the Michelin Gala dinner and at the end "settled with" Jade Dragon under the same roof. Well I suppose "settled with" may not be an appropriate description, given the restaurant just kept the highest 3-star rating at the Michelin Guide for 2 years in a row.

Grand Family Yum Cha

It’s been forever since we went on a family trip, so when my brother and sis-in-law returned for a short vacation with our nephew and niece, we were off to a weekend getaway to Macau. And after checking in to our rooms at Grand Lisboa, we went for yum-cha at The 8 Restaurant right downstairs.

First Dimsum in Guangzhou

We swung by Foshan/Guangzhou for a quick overnight trip to meet up with our friend J who’s meeting the chef and owner of a private kitchen there (more on that later). But before the dinner, we had a great dimsum lunch at Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou, opened only in the last few years joining a long list of high-end hotels making its presence in this capital city in Guangdong Province, only 2 hours away via train from Hong Kong (commute time will be further cut in half once the direct high speed rail began service some time late this year or next).

Comforting Dimsum Lunch

It must been passing down from family, but I always found dimsum dishes to be my ultimate comfort food. Many times there’s nothing more satisfying than a steamed basket of simple har gau (shrimp dumplings) or siu mai (pork dumplings) appearing at the table. A couple weeks ago I was at Golden Leaf of Conrad Hong Kong and had just that and a few more for a casual lunch there.

Yumcha at Ritz Carlton Shenzhen

We spent the maximum amount of time in our hotel (up until when we were required to check out) chilling in our room and at the library before heading out for lunch during our staycation weekend in Shenzhen. It’s been a while since I last spent significant amount of time in Shenzhen and I am amazed at all the new hotel and restaurant openings in town for the last decade or so – still not at the same rate in the neighboring Macau but now they have all the global hotel brands you could think of making a presence here with different ranges from the most luxurious to the simple boutique hotels.

Saturday Morning Dimsum

I have been to Tin Lung Heen at The Ritz Carlton Hong Kong a few times previously but this was only my first time going there for a weekend brunch with dimsum dishes when I visited a couple of weeks ago. Just like other hotel Chinese restaurants in town, during the day they offer a combination of dimsum items and other a la carte choices on their menu, and with even more variety during weekends. After all, having dimsum is one of the local favorite past-time.

Saturday Yumcha: Lai Heen

With us staying right next door under the same roof (at the JW Marriott), it made sense that we went to check out Lai Heen, the Chinese restaurant at Ritz-Carlton, which was just awarded the first Michelin star recently. We even dragged along our friend E, who relocated to Macau a couple months ago for her new job, to join us after going on a quick morning food crawl together in Coloane.