Our morning meeting in Wanchai overran for more than an hour so the three of us ended up having a late start to lunch. I was the one picking our lunch venue this afternoon and I decided to go with a slightly peculiar choice, Hong Kong Lao Shang Hai Restaurant (香港老上海飯店) at Emperor Group Centre.
Formerly called Lo Ching Hing Restaurant (老正興飯店), Hong Kong Lao Shang Hai Restaurant is one of the few old-school Shanghainese restaurant left in the city serving authentic Shanghainese dishes.
Formerly called Lo Ching Hing Restaurant (老正興飯店), Hong Kong Lao Shang Hai Restaurant is one of the few old-school Shanghainese restaurant left in the city serving authentic Shanghainese dishes.
Pork terrine (餚肉) – Classic Shanghainese dish of shredded cured pork, pork skin and next to no aspic. Not bad.
Shanghainese gluten (烤麩) – I like the fact that the Shanghainese gluten was hand-shredded giving this seemingly more bite. There were again the usual suspect of mushrooms, black fungus and bamboo shoot.
Xiao Long Bao (小籠包) – The thin wrapper enveloping a lightly seasoned pork filling and flavorful soup was pretty nicely done.
Shanghainese-style fried noodles (上海粗炒) – Another comforting dish from Shanghainese cuisine. This was pretty decent.
The four dishes we ordered were all reasonably good but why still a subpar experience rating? Well, from the moment we stepped through the doors, we were regrettably met with just cold and unwelcoming service. While the servers were not rude to us, all of them seemed to put on a poker (emotionless) face delivering a level of service which could only be described as "robotic" without any passion. When we tried to order dessert, we were told that we missed their "last order" time, which none of the servers was kind enough to inform us about. All in all, it felt very clearly that they didn't want our business in the first place and whether we make a return trip or not, they had absolutely no interest what so ever.
Food Rating: 5.9/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 101-104, 1/F, Emperor Group Centre, 288 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wanchai
Tel: +852 2827-9339
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm daily
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