I thought it was just going to be a catch-up dinner between The Four Scholars (四大才子). The four of us have only met once since the start of the pandemic so when Mr. I suggested having hotpot dinner, everyone was a willing participant. As always, we are picking a place near our childhood homes in Prince Edward for nostalgia's sake and after exchanging a few ideas, we finally decided on Pak Lee Hotpot and Seafood Restaurant (百利火鍋海鮮酒家), a local hotpot place on Portland Street.
They have so many soup base around here. I, for one, didn't really care as long as it's tasty and not too spicy for my palate. At the end, everyone thought that the chicken broth would be a good idea.
And what would a chicken broth be without a whole chicken!
I was told one of the signature items at Pak Lee is this hand-cut beef fillet. At $300, it wasn't the cheapest in town but it's known to be less fatty and much more meaty. Now that I've tried it, I can confirm that it's definitely much better than those paper-thin ones cut by machines.
All along, I thought marbling was good for hotpot beef but this (sort of) lean piece of beef turned out to be more delish than any Japanese wagyu we've had from our previous hotpot experience. Wow!
Just when we were enjoying the rest of the meal, Nik announced to us that he's going to take off for Manchester in August. This really didn't catch me by surprise as he's been talking about it for a while and it seems like a pattern these days that whenever we have a dinner gathering with our friends, someone will pop the news that they are skipping town soon. But regardless of how prepared we were mentally, it was still disappointing to see a good friend leave. Like I always said, friends who we gotta know for 30 years, don't grow on trees.
Like all of our gatherings, we shared some good laughs talking about the past. High school does sound like a long long time ago but everyone seems to remember the little things well. Let's hope we can do another round of this before N leaves us in August.
Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: G/F, 396-398 Portland Street, Prince Edward, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Prince Edward
Tel: +852 2398-0566
Opening Hours: 5:00pm - 12:00am daily
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