January 19, 2019:

For our very last dinner in Hong Kong before flying off, we went to Kam Shan Seafood Restaurant in Mong Kok.  This was lauded as a well-known seafood restaurant.  Similar to the restaurants in Sai Kung and in fact many other seafood restaurants in Hong Kong, you can choose the live seafood that you want from the fish tanks and then have it prepared in the restaurant’s kitchen right away to your table.

When we walked in at 5 ish p.m., we were directed to their second level dining area as a party of two since their first floor was occupied already.  Kam Shan has three floors of dining space in one building in total.  Funnily enough, we were one of three parties of two’s that were seated on the second floor at the same time.  It made for a bit of an awkward dining time since we were all so quiet.  I was looking forward to when the other larger tables would fill up with people.

We ordered a few dai pai dong classic dishes that night even though we were in a more formalized restaurant.  My favourite salt and pepper fried “bombay duck” was nicely fried with a very light batter.  There weren’t a lot of pieces on the small plate, but each piece was freshly fried and not oily.  The fish was very light and fluffy and I savoured each and every bite.  This is one of my favourite dishes to eat when in Hong Kong.

We ordered steamed razor clams.  I love these, especially when they’re made fresh in Hong Kong.  It wasn’t rubbery or chewy.  The thicker pieces were even soft.

After this, we ordered a round two of food.  We had honey stir fried eel and a plate of spinach with thousand year old egg and salted egg.  The eel was wrapped into aluminium foil and served on the table.  The eel was pretty good although I ideally wanted to have the salt and pepper fried version too.

The spinach was a bigger portion than we expected.  It was a good veggie dish to go with the other dishes we had had.

There was complimentary dessert too.  This was a dessert called “Cha Cha” made of beans.  It was a good finish to the meal.

When more guests arrived, it was more exciting to watch the dynamics between the patrons and our server.  Our server had top notch service.  It was clear he had worked for many years and showed compassion and understanding towards guests from years of experience.  He made the dining experience feel so warm and welcoming.  When he noticed we were almost done the food and about ready for dessert, he told us to take our time.  It wasn’t until we left however that we found out that there was actually a line-up outside the restaurant!  Most Hong Kong restaurant staff would have tried to shoo us out prematurely by providing us the bill.  I appreciated the warm service so much.