得龍大飯店 Tak Lung Restaurant

新蒲崗康強街 25-29 號地下
25-29 Hong Keung St. G/F
San Po Kong, Kowloon
KMB Bus 5C
Get on at TST Star Ferry Pier, or Hung Hom Station
Get off at Ng Wah Catholic School


If you want good ol' country-style Cantonese cooking, without the expensive decor of banquet style restaurants (酒樓 jau lau), this is where you want to go: Tak Lung Restaurant. With a down-to-earth cha chaan teng atmosphere, its quality cooking is bound to please anybody. Plus they've even got a neat rating system on their menu telling you which dishes are ordered the most.

My visit started off with this freebie appetizer, nice to munch on to pass the time.

咖喱焗牛尾 Curry Baked Oxtail

This curry oxtail was delicious. The sauce was spiced just right, the potatoes gave it hearty texture, and the oxtails were simply succulent. Slices of carrot gave a sweetness to it all, and while the little clay pot that holds it might be the secret to its perfect fusion of flavors, it does definitely give it a nice cozy appearance. On top of that, the Curry Baked Oxtail actually came with slices of garlic bread.

While curry oxtail with garlic bread isn't quite country-style Cantonese cooking, they do it up so amazing here that you'd be a fool to pass it up. But the draw to Tak Lung is, after all, country-style Cantonese, and so this next dish is an exemplar of it.

家鄉炆鵝缽 Country-Style Goose

This dish had such a unique flavor, a kind of sweetness boosted by a bit of spice and salt that kicks your tastebuds into ecstacy. The taro in the dish took on the juicy flavor of the goose, making it the best taro I've ever tasted before, and I normally don't even like taro. The pieces of goose meat were tasty, and had a filling feeling biting into them, but not too heavy, a perfect balance of tenderness and heartiness. And the interesting bowl it's served in keeps it nice, hot and tasty. This is a signature dish of the restaurant, making it known throughout Hong Kong for the place to go for goose-meat.

And of course, what would a traditional Cantonese meal be without sweet soup? The green bean soup was another freebie.

The only drawback I can think of for this restaurant is that it's not the most conveniently located. I went to San Po Kong, the district it's located in, mostly because I wanted to see the area my mom got her first job as a teenager, and moved out to live on her own for the first time. But while family history was what drew me to Tak Lung Restaurant, it was the knock-your-socks-off food that'll have me recommending this place to anybody. It's well worth the trip, which is a 30 minute bus ride from Hung Hom station. I'm certainly not the only one impressed, considering that they had to buy more space just to keep up with the business. Check them out. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

公和荳品廠 - Kung Wo Tofu Company

Take a walk around Sham Shui Po district and you'll get a sense of a financially poor, but bustling and lively side of Hong Kong that's managed to keep a vintage feel to some of its spaces. Hong Kong's obsession with the new and the ultra-modern are relatively ignored here, as tons of small businesses selling anything old from big bulky cell phones from the nineties to record turntables and other now-ancient electronics all open up shop on Ap Liu Street (鴨寮街) and surrounding area.


And here in Sham Shui Po you can find some famous old food spots, like this one: the Kung Wo Tofu Company (公和荳品廠 Guhngwoh DauhBan Chong). Founded more than a century ago in 1893, it's one of the oldest companies in Hong Kong, so the experience here is a slice of retro Hong Kong - a hole in the wall where they make their famous tofu treats at the front of the shop, from flour to finish, convenient especially to those who don't have great Chinese, you can just point to whatever you fancy.


And that's what I did, trying this one first:

These blocks of tofu are topped with a flavorful layer of minced fish, pan-fried to a tasty gold. There's no fishy taste since fish is always fresh in Hong Kong; and because they fry it, the most prominent taste you'll savor in your mouth is nothing but plain and golden juicy meat, paired with a complimentary base of the smoothness of tofu.

After you've tried out these deep-fried pops of tofu, enjoy this wonderful 豆腐花 dauhfuh fa:


Literally translated Tofu Flower, Kung Wo's version might just be the best in Hong Kong. Silky smooth, sweetened to subtle perfection, it seems to simply melt in warm goodness in your mouth, and slide satisfyingly into your stomach. A nice sweet way to top your Kung Wo experience.

While you won't get much variety and fan-fare here at Kung Wo, it does give you a very pleasant vintage Hong Kong experience, and maybe the best tofu concoctions in all of Hong Kong - a great place to stop by for travelers who want to get a sense of old delights, or anyone looking simply to satisfy a tofu craving.

深水埗北河街 118號
118 Pei Ho St, Sham Shui Po
MTR station: Sham Shui Po