Hong Kong Lounge, San Francisco

Been to Hong Kong Lounge a few times for both dinners and weekend dimsum brunches. Dinner was good but not great. Dimsum was okay. The best dimsum I've ever had was still in, umm, New Jersey LOL! Anyway, the times we went to have dimsum were with friends and I couldn't take pictures. So there are only pictures of dinner dishes in this post.

Ordered a cold appetizer plate that came with cold jellyfish and cow tongue, and room temperature BBQ pork. The pork and the jellyfish was good. Cow tongue's not really my thing, but it wasn't horrible, heavily seasoned with five spice though.

I did like their crabmeat soup. It was very flavorful and does have chunks of crabmeat in it! The dry fried string beans were decent. I wish it had a little more flavor and pickled radish in it - that's my favorite part of this dish after all!

Their Peking duck was yummy, as long as you keep in mind that duck is just greasy in general ^.^ It's like that everywhere you go, and the restaurants differentiate themselves with the seasoning, the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of the meat, and the crunchiness of the skin. I LOVE duck, so unless a restaurant really knows how to screw up, ducks never go wrong with me. 

Had 2 styles of lobster here. The ginger and scallion lobster was tender and juicy, but overall a bit bland. If you're gonna douse my lobster with bland starchy sauce, might as well serve it to me plain and steamed because the lobster has a natural salty briny taste that doesn't need any flavoring. I especially hate the butter dipping served at seafood restaurants. Nope. All I need is some salt and pepper mix on the side, and slice of lemon or lime. 

Hubby and I didn't like the salt and pepper lobster at all. Too much batter, we thought, and apparently that's how salt and pepper crabs and lobsters are done here in SF, battered, deep fried, then tossed in wok with seasoning. I grew up with the non-battered and pan-fried version with lots of chopped onions, scallions, garlic, and jalapenos. This way, both the meat and the shell are well flavored, and spicy(!), and it's not unusual for people to smack their lips on the emptied shells afterwards *wipes drools off keyboard* ^.^'

Anyway, hubby and I probably won't go back to Hong Kong Lounge. We found a place we liked better, at least I do :P Will definitely post on this new favorite soon. While hubby likes Chinese food, he doesn't like it enough to express a preference for a specific restaurant, so I get to pick because I'm picky ^.^