Lai Yuen Restaurant 荔園流金歲月 Cuisine 1949 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

We are back at Lai Yuen Restaurant Cuisine 1949 (荔園流金歲月) for a quick meal before our visit to Lai Chi Kok Park this afternoon. Located on the second floor of D2 Place Two, Lai Yuen Restaurant Cuisine 1949 is a nostalgic restaurant serving up the authentic taste of Old Hong Kong. It's going to be our second visit since its opening back in early 2019.



Food wasn't particularly great last time we were here but little nugget seemed to enjoy the vibe.



Steamed rice rolls with mixed sauces (路邊混醬腸) ($22) - My favorite dish when we were here last time. But it was all wrong this time around.

They did it right last time when they put all the sauces on top of the steamed rice rolls along with a heavy dose of sesame, the same way the street vendors did it back in the old days. Sadly, they didn't follow through on this occasion. I tried to "replicate" it by pouring the sauces onto the rice rolls myself but it just didn't taste the same (in fact very bland). Not a good start.



Shrimp dumpling with asparagus (鮮蘆筍蝦餃) ($24) - The size was pretty good but tasted a bit like the frozen dumplings served at the convenience stores.



Caviar Siu mai (黑魚子燒賣) ($30) - Not sure if it's really caviar on top of the pork dumpling (I highly doubt it though). Didn't get the chance to try it myself. From what I've heard from my team, the wrapper flavored with coriander (or parsley, I forgot to jot down) made this slightly more interesting. 



Steamed beef ball With Zha cai (脆脆牛肉球) ($26) - Another dish for my little one. Interestingly, they made it with a bit of zha cai (榨菜) so there's a fair amount of acidity from the pickle. Also some additional texture which little nugget found fairly "interesting".



Deep-fried garlic shrimp spring roll (蒜香蝦春卷) ($28) - Very nice and crispy with lovely garlic flavors.



Braised e-fu noodles with mushrooms and abalone sauce (鮑汁野菌炆伊麵) ($78) - The braised e-fu noodles were decent but like the steamed rice rolls, a little bland. 



After this outing, I'm sure if I will ever come back for another visit. Food was pretty bad (except for the spring roll) to begin with but service was even worse (as we had a couple of run-ins with the staff). With the way the economy has been going especially for the food and beverage sector, the combination of awful food and poor service is just going to drive their business to the ground. 



Anyways, we had our planned visit to Lai Chi Kok Park afterwards. Not surprisingly, not a lot of people out there this afternoon and everyone was wearing mask including us.

Food Rating: 3/10
Price: $$
Address: Shops 211-216, 2/F D2 Place Two, 15 Cheung Shun Street, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok
Tel: +852 3619-1128
Website: www.laiyuenrestaurants.com
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:00pm daily