Review: Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant - great desserts

Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant
Shop 1002, 10/F Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2577 1163
Open: 11am-11pm.

Cuisine: Chiu Chow

Price: about HK$350 without drinks or the service charge.

Ambience: the decor tries to give the impression of vaulted ceilings, but the ceiling height is actually quite low. Our table was comfortably large.

Recommended dishes: lo sui (master sauce) soyed French goose liver (HK$128 for a small portion) featured substantial slices that were very soft and flavourful. Sliced pomfret pan-fried in soya bean sauce (HK$228) came as thick pieces of well-seasoned, tender fish. Fried noodles with sugar and vinegar (HK$78 for small) was excellent: the thin cake of fine, golden noodles was crisp on one side (it costs HK$20 extra to have it cooked on both sides), a contrast with the soft interior. We loved the desserts: the sweet mashed taro with gingko (HK$48) had one guest — who said she disliked taro — cleaning her bowl of the creamy mixture.

Pros: a nice selection of teas.

Cons: the peanuts and chicken feet braised in abalone sauce (HK$108) and deep-fried chicken with chinjew sauce (HK$198 for half), while good, tasted more Cantonese than Chiu Chow. The soyed goose meat with bean curd (HK$128) had tough breast meat, and the leg, while tender, hadn't soaked up the sauce (and we had the same complaint about the crunchy goose intestines, HK$98). The best part of the soyed goose was the bean curd underneath the meat.

What else? There are other branches of Pak Loh, including two in Tsim Sha Tsui, and one in Mong Kok.