Sha Tin 18 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Little nugget has another outing in Wu Kai Sha early this morning and I got the memo late last night to escort him over to the venue. That wasn't fun. Dragging myself out of bed and then drag him out of bed.

Looking on the bright side, I do have something to look forward to after this outing. Sha Tin 18 at the Hyatt Regency has been on my to-go list for a while, and since it’s fairly close to our Wu Kai Sha venue, I figured it was the perfect time to finally give it the green light, especially with mom joining us as our partner in crime.

I made the booking fairly late so we were seated next to the open kitchen rather than in the main dining area.

Steamed shrimp dumpling (傳統筍尖蝦餃皇) ($88) – This was pretty good partially thanks to the diced bamboo shoot. 

A little smaller than the one at Tao Tao Ju but I could live with that.

Steamed shrimp and pork dumpling with crab roes (蟹籽鮮蝦燒賣) ($88) – Not bad.

Steamed vegetable dumpling with porcini mushroom and black truffle (黑松露牛肝菌素粿) ($78) – Mom and little one are both suckers with anything with black truffle so this was a no-brainer. These came with lovely crunch with the assorted vegetables.

Steamed rice rolls with conpoy, fried dough and spring onion (蔥花瑤柱炸兩) ($98) – The culprit here was the youtiao (油条) which wasn't nearly crispy and fluffy enough. Instead it tasted more like it's been sitting there overnight.

Barbecued pork (明爐烤蜜汁叉燒) ($298) – This was why I came here in the first place! 

Sha Tin 18 has always been touted for their barbecued pork so I had pretty high expectation coming in but sadly, I found these to be a bit too lean. It simply lacked the perfect balance of juicy fat and tender meat.

Baked black sesame dumpling pie (焗黑芝麻湯圓酥皮批) ($88) – When it comes to desserts, we have some great options here with their Chinese preserved bean curd cheesecake (腐乳芝士蛋糕) and preserved plum with Hua Diao sherbet (花雕話梅雪葩) standing out as the top picks. But somehow we decided to go with these baked black sesame dumpling pies.

These were essentially black sesame tong yuan (湯圓) wrapped inside a pineapple bun-like pastry. Very interesting texture and flavor profile all around. I am glad we have this rather than the cheesecake or sherbet.

Our trip to Sha Tin 18 was motivated by the promise of their delicious barbecued pork, touted as one of the best in town. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to expectations, at least not for me.

Food Rating: 6.1/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 4/F Hyatt Regency Shatin, 18 Chak Cheung Street, Ma Liu Shui, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: University

Tel: +852 3723-7932

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 3:00pm (Mon - Fri), 10:30am - 3:00pm (Sat - Sun), 5:30pm - 10:00pm daily