Tin Lung Heen 天龍軒 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★★

After many sleepless nights filled with endless feedings and diaper changes, we finally managed to get through the toughest part of parenthood. Yes, my little nugget is finally 100 days old this week! I decided to throw him a small party inviting all our close friends and relatives along but first up, we needed to come up with a venue.  

There's obviously no such thing as a perfect venue but we wanted something closer to home so the nugget doesn't need to travel very far for the party. It ended up being a two-horse race between Tin Lung Heen (天龍軒) and Sing Yin (星宴).




After checking out this view on our site visit, I pretty much had my mind made up. WOW!



Thanks to the help of the team here at Tin Lung Heen, we had a wonderful time. The never-ending parade of delicious dim sum started with this baked crab meat tart with onion and cheese (洋蔥芝士蟹肉撻). The combination of crab meat, onion and cheese was sweet and flavorful, perfectly complementing the crisp, flaky pastry.


     (Photo credit: Fishie)

Pan-fried bean curd sheet with garoupa, shrimp and fine herbs (香草星斑蝦肉腐皮卷) was another beautiful bite-size dim sum with garoupa and shrimp harmonizing each other perfectly under that crispy sheet of bean curd.


     (Photo credit: Fishie)

And who can resist the house specialty - barbecued Iberian pork with honey (蜜燒西班牙黑豚肉叉燒)? I have always got a soft spot for fatty char siu (肥叉) in my heart and this is brilliantly executed. Tender and succulent. I certainly won't mind having an extra piece.


     (Photo credit: Fishie)

But the star of the afternoon belonged to this soup dumpling with conpoy and fish maw in supreme stock (龍軒瑤柱花膠灌湯餃).

We are all accustomed to seeing the dumpling(s) as the focal point of this famed Cantonese dish but not this afternoon though, as the supreme stock and fish maw have totally stolen the spotlight. The soup really blew me away with its richness, sweetness and volume. I thought the dumpling, working well in a supporting role this time, also delivered. Like I said, it's the best dish of the afternoon without a question.


     (Photo credit: Fishie)

At this point, we have switched back to dim sum and it's another trio which has come to impress us. I wasted no time checking out the steamed golden shrimp dumpling with bamboo shoot (龍軒筍尖蝦餃) in the middle and it was again perfect. Perfect in its bite size the way it should be.



But that was just the beginning. I thought the steamed pork and scallop dumpling with fragrant coriander (香茜帶子燒賣皇) was even better with the delicately sweet scallop leading the charge in this one. I tampered with the seasoning a bit by adding some XO chilli sauce on top and the result was heavenly!


     (Photo credit: Fishie)

Equally enjoyable was the baked barbecued pork bun with almond flake (西杏酥皮焗叉燒餐包), a dish that I thought Mott32 does a marvelous job with but this one managed to top it with the almond flake topping. Another masterpiece.


     (Photo credit: Fishie)

Finally, we are ready for our main dish and it's a pair of sautéed prawns skewed with chopped Jin Hua ham and vegetable (金腿碧玉簪蝦球) taking centerstage. The bouncy texture of the prawns was very nice and the savory flavors were wonderfully enhanced by the bits of finely diced Jin Hua ham.



The prawns were served with a bowl of fried rice with egg white, conpoy and diced ginger (瑤柱薑米蛋白炒飯).



If there's one area that needs a bit of reinforcement, it's probably the dessert department. This trio of sweetened red bean cream with vintage tangerine peel and lotus seed (陳皮蓮子紅豆沙), chilled hawthorn and preserved plum jelly (山楂話梅一品糕) and coconut red bean pudding were drawing mixed reviews from the crowd. Personally, I'm giving thumbs up to the coconut red bean pudding (left) and thumbs down to both the red bean soup and hawthorn plum jelly.



It was an afternoon to remember. The incredible view from 102nd floor, impressive parade of dim sum, impeccable service and of course, the company of our beloved ones. I hope to do this all over again for the nugget's first birthday.

Special Thanks to my foodie friend Fishie who is kind enough to lend me some of her food pictures. Most of mine looked awful but I do have the perfect excuse as I was too busy flying around the place entertaining our guests.





Food Rating: 8/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 102/F, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon
Tel: +852 2263-2263
Website: www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/china/hong-kong/dining/tin-lung-heen