I visited Man Wah in HK last week for their Lunch Set A (roughly $100 USD) and was thoroughly disappointed. For reference, I was a solo traveler on a weekday, made reservations in advance on their website. I’m no fine dining expert, just a (semi) broke girl who likes treating myself once or twice a year to a nice tasting menu.
The good: stunning interior with a beautiful view of the harbour. Friendly, knowledgeable, and approachable service as well; the sommelier was great and my server went out of his way to print off directions for me to a tourist destination we discussed during the meal. No weirdness about me being alone.
The bad: the food was utterly disappointing. I’m convinced what I got was not the menu items in the set, too?? It’s definitely not what’s on their online menu. Looking back I should have asked for clarification or to see the menu again, but during the meal I was just wanting to finish things up and move along. Server did take my wine glass away before i finished it too, which seems like a rookie error. I’ll review the individual dishes from what I remember.
1. Set of three dim sum; delicious, but two were almost too hot to eat. Came with three dipping sauces that were arguably the best part of the meal.
2. Corn vegetable soup (?); I cannot stress enough how much this just tasted like boiled corn water.
3. Braised chicken and oyster; came in a mini brazier that was pretty cool. Otherwise, was a pretty unmentionable sauced meat dish.
4. Tiger prawns with fried noodles; by this point I was pretty annoyed. Shrimp were a little rubbery and the sauce tasted like a basic sweet and sour sauce. The noodles came in a large, hard cake that was so fused together it was difficult to eat.
5. Fruit soup; a basic sweet soup, not bad but nothing worth noting.
6. Cookie and marzipan-ish sweet, on the house; just run of the mill sesame cookie and light sweet.
Overall I was pretty disappointed; this was by far my worst meal in HK. The impression I came away with was very “impressive business luncheon with inoffensive Cantonese food”. I am baffled as to how it has a Michelin star. Save your money and go to Yat Lok down the street instead, which was one of the best meals of my life.
by TwoHungryBlackbirdss