Hoi King Heen
InterContinental Grand Stanford, Hong Kong
Hoi King Heen is the award winning Cantonese restaurant at InterContinental Grand Stanford in Hong Kong, if you enjoy Cantonese food and you’re vegan, then you’ll love it here, the food is light and healthy and they’ve won awards for their tofu!
We visited to sample a special 6 course tasting menu created by Celebrity Master Chef Leung Fai Hung who has been cooking Chinese food in this restaurant since 1995.
Celebrity Master Chef Leung Fai Hung brings over 30 years experience to the kitchen
The restaurant is decorated in a traditional Chinese style, with a red and gold colour theme and classical place settings. There’s no background music playing but the sounds of fine china, sizzling woks and chatting customers fill the air along with delicious smells of spice. The atmosphere was lively with families celebrating special occasions, couples, friends, business colleagues all coming together to eat the food in this popular, long standing Hong Kong dining destination.
The classical dining room at Hoi King Heen
As an alternative to a specially prepared menu, there is also a standard vegetarian menu available with many vegan dishes to try; therefore, Hoi King Heen is a great vegan friendly option even if you don’t have time to call ahead.
The Vegan Food
Our first course, ‘Hoi King Heen Appetisers’, was a selection of small bites with each gave a different flavour to the dish. The rolled vegetable with bean curd skin had a sublime combination of textures with the firm, meaty beancurd skin rolls balancing out beautifully with the spinach-like veg filling. The asparagus was fresh with sesame flavours; the aubergine was succulent and the spring roll was a crispy, flaky, vegetable filled delight.
It was good to start with a selection like this as it gave us an idea of the kind of food that Chef Leung Fai Hung likes to prepare; food that is delicate, healthy and delicious.
Selection of vegan appetisers at Hoi King Heen
Next we were served a double-boiled soup, a traditional cooking method that seals in flavour and nutrients by cooking in a special pot. The look of these soups always leads to underestimating the flavours and this mushroom based concoction was no exception. The soup base was rich, earthy and warming and the mushrooms floating in the liquor gave a variety of different textures. Some mushrooms were meaty and others, like the bamboo pith, were spongy and almost crunchy.
Delicious double-boiled soup with bamboo piths and mushroom
Our next course was the award winning ‘Three Tastes of Tofu and Fortune Bag’ and having never eaten award winning tofu, our expectations were high. We weren’t disappointed, it was a gratifying ‘bag’ made from tofu stuffed with a delectable mushroom, water chestnut and ginger filling. Sitting in a pool of delicious smooth gravy, topped with shredded fried carrot, our only complaint is that we could have easily eaten another one.
The award winning tofu dish at Hoi King Heen
Braised Winter Melon Balls stuffed with Black Olives Mustard, such a pretty and clean looking dish with incredibly delicate flavours. The winter melon balls were scooped out and and stuffed with a tasty filling before having a smooth light gravy poured on top. It was a light dish that also acted as a good palate cleanser.
Light and clean tasty winter melon balls
The next course, ‘Poached Young Cabbage’ is hard to explain without sounding slightly loopy. It was after all, centred around a baby cabbage, perhaps nothing to get excited about? Not so. We’ve never talked about such a simple ingredient so much in our lives. It had the softest of leaves that we peeled back to eat, like layers of an exquisite present. Each soft, poached leaf was sweet and almost creamy in taste. Add the glossy light gravy, the earthy nutty and soft ginkgo nuts and a tasty piece of carrot and you have yourself a masterpiece of a dish.
The most delicious poached young cabbage
Our last dish was ‘Fried Rice with Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Vegetable’. We loved the rainbow of colours and the texture that the pumpkin and purple sweet potato brought. The scattering of salted, fried greens finished it perfectly.
Eating the rainbow with this purple sweet potato and pumpkin fried rice
The Vegan Food Quest Verdict
Make a reservation at Hoi King Heen to enjoy a Cantonese vegan meal which is light, healthy and delicious all at the same time. Try the award winning tofu dish and soak up the atmosphere of the dining room which is full of customers enjoying Chef Leung Fai Hung’s creations.
Call ahead to ask for a special vegan menu or order from the regular vegetarian menu, which has has several vegan choices.
Here you can read all of the details from our stay at InterContinental Grand Stanford.
We were guests of Hoi King Heen but please rest assured that their generosity in hosting us didn’t influence our views
Hoi King Heen
InterContinental Grand Stanford
70 Mody Road
Tsimshatsui East
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Telephone: +852 2731 2883
Email: grandstanford@ihg.com
Opening Hours: 11:30am – 2:30pm for lunch and 6:30pm – 10:30pm for dinner