Exquisite Chaozhou Cuisine

Chao Yat Koon on the 6th floor of iSquare in Tsim Sha Tsui offers modern Chaozhou cuisine. The entire floor-to-ceiling glass windows and white sheer curtains create a large soft light box, making both people and food look stunning in photos (all photos are unedited, straight from the phone camera). For lunch, they offer dim sum priced around HKD 50-60; set meals are about HKD 90, with an additional HKD 18 per person for tea and HKD 38 for a plate of Chaozhou pickled vegetables (I usually order Chaozhou pickled vegetables when I go for cold dishes, so I find it reasonable. The pickled vegetables here are sweet and sour and quite tasty). We ordered the Chao Yat Five Delicacies for HKD 328, which includes drunken abalone, peppercorn scallops, marinated goose liver, fried meat dumplings, and tomato walnut salad. The best dish was the peppercorn scallops, which were pan-seared on both sides, giving them a smoky flavor and a fresh, bouncy texture. The green sauce had a fragrant peppercorn aroma, adding layers of flavor. The steamed dim sum was quite average. The crab roe spinach shrimp dumplings (HKD 68) had no discernible crab roe or shrimp, and the filling tasted like a vegetable meat bun. The Chaozhou dumplings (HKD 38) were also quite ordinary. On the other hand, the fried radish pastry (HKD 68) had a thin crust and a generous filling, making it very crispy. The Chaozhou-style fried noodles (HKD 108) had shrimp and squid and was a large, well-portioned dish. The rose-shaped osmanthus cake (HKD 58) tasted as expected but looked genuinely beautiful.