Touted for its harbour view and hearty Shunde dishes, The Legacy House has been the talk of town since its soft opening in early April but I decided to wait a bit before their kitchen finished warming up.
Instead of admiring the harbour view, we decided to shift our attention to the other "attractions", including the open kitchen instead!
The Legacy House casts a pretty wide net with its food menu bringing together Cantonese dishes and Shunde specialties of the Pearl River Delta region. To fully experience what they have to offer, we decided to hand pick a number of Cantonese and Shunde delicacies to share among the six of us.
Steamed rice rolls with Barbecued pork (鮮梅頭叉燒腸粉) ($100) - This wasn't bad but I can name a dozen places with a much more delicious steamed rice rolls. Not the impressive start I was expecting here.
Deep-fried stuffed pastry, pork, crab meat, shrimp, yellow chives and water chestnut (金錢酥蟹盒) ($160) - Very crispy on the outside but slightly oily at the same time.
I think all of us would love to have a bit more crab meat in there but it's not going to happen. Instead, the filling came with more diced pork, shrimp, water chestnut and yellow chives.
Pork dumplings, shrimp, crab butter and mushroom (原蝦蟹黃香菇燒賣) ($90) - Pretty decent. Personally, I always think crab butter is one of the most overrated (and overpriced) thing in Chinese cuisine. Enough said.
Shrimp dumplings, asparagus (晶瑩蘆筍鮮蝦餃) ($90) - I love bite-sized har gow with bamboo shoots. This came with a bit of earthy flavors thanks to the asparagus. Pretty nice.
Turnip puffs, conpoy, Yunnan ham (雲腿瑤柱蘿蔔絲酥餅) ($80) - The best dish of the afternoon by quite a wide margin.
This was very very flaky and I think it came with some 300 layers (okay just kidding). The shredded turnip was really sweet and delicate.
Pan-fried Dace fishcake, preserves meat, minced pork, coriander and spring onion (均安煎魚餅) ($170) - I was really looking forward to this famous Shunde dish (probably one of the few ones I know) but sadly, it didn't blow me away like I thought it might. And we had to wait more than 50 minutes for this to arrive.
Wok-fried rice noodle, wagyu beef, satay sauce (沙茶和牛面炒河粉) ($320) - Surprisingly decent "wok hei" and everyone just loves the heat from the satay sauce. The wagyu beef was really tender too.
Pan-fried e-fu noodles, Chiu Chow style (潮州黃金煎伊麵) ($170) - Like the pan-fried fish cakes, it failed to wow us at all. Not much difference from the ones we were getting from Chao Inn (潮樓) or Chiu Chow Garden (潮庭).
Deep-fried prawns, orange sauce (香橙脆蝦球) ($300) - I was expecting some seriously big tiger prawns but I guess I'm having a really bad day today. This was again pretty decent but I really couldn't tell it's a dish coming from a 5-star hotel restaurant (and it's a restaurant that would eventually receive a Michelin star because of the view). Sad.
Bok choy, taro, sweet potato casserole (香芋紫薯白菜煲) ($180) - Something healthy for everyone.
Afterwards, I tried to convince everyone to take a flyer on Butterfly Room's afternoon tea set but no one seemed to be interested. So, we simply walked around the lobby and took a few photos with the sleeping elephant before slowly heading back home.
This was a pretty disappointing meal altogether. Service was very slow all afternoon highlighted by the really awful job of pacing. I was joking that our table must be too small to fit more than one dish at the same time which explained why they decided to come out with a dish every 15 minutes. Quite frankly, I hate having a Chinese lunch with this kind of pacing. It's like squeezing toothpaste (擠牙膏). Your stomach is never full this way.
Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 5/F, Rosewood Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 3891-8732
Website: www.rosewoodhotels.com/tc/hong-kong/dining/the-legacy-house
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