HONG KONG: Dumpling Yuan 餃子園 : Traditional Pekingnese Restaurant

You'd be quite surprised to be able to find such a restaurant in the middle of Central; where all men wear Prada shoes, all women are carrying Hermes Bags. It's a small dinky restaurant, dimly lit, not the cleanest place, a large table in the middle of the restaurant where you have to share with 8 other strangers.

Small but nonetheless busy always. THey serve very traditional Pekingnese dishes, nothing like the renowned Peking duck, more like simple vegetarian noodles, marinated cucumbers and simple food you would actually find in an average Beijing home. The portions are small but the prices relate to the portions as it IS located in the ultra-expensive Central district in Hong Kong with one of the highest rentals in the world!

As the name of the restaurant suggests, their specialty are their dumplings. They have a whole page on their menu dedicated to the different dumplings, veggie, pork and veggie, lamb, beef. If you're not kissing anyone that evening, I'd suggest the chives and pork dumpling. Always fresh, and always flavourful. The dough on the dumplings are not too pasty like most places, it doesn't fall apart when bitten into. The lamb dumplings are also worth a try.

Another dish that you'd wan to avoid kissing afterwards is their Pork with Garlic. It's delicious. Chilled pork with a dark sauce and lots of garlic on top. My only comment is that it would taste better if they chopped the garlic up a little more so there aren't chunks of garlic.

Zhen Jiang Ribs were extremely flavorful, must say, the presentation of this dish was not really appetizing but very flavourful. The ribs however were not tender enough. Good enough for a couple bucks.