A disappointing star in the City

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Senpai was back in town for another visit, and a few of us joined him for dinner tonight.  I was tasked with choosing a venue that was NOT Fook Lam Moon (福臨門), and I decided to drag the gang out to North Point so we can check out Yuè (粵) in the City Garden Hotel.  I had dinner here a few years ago and it piqued my interest for a return visit, and I finally decided to come back tonight.

Once again, I was disappointed by the restaurant not having some of the dishes I wanted.  When it's one of the signature dishes you put on the first page of your menu, why are there so few portions of it around?!

Crispy bean curd with spicy salt (七味脆豆腐) - this was very, very bland.  I thought they'd at least use a little more shichimi (七味) powder, but they seemed to be pretty stingy on this...

The batter was nice and crispy, and not too thick.  The tofu was nice and soft.  Texture was great, but too bad these were just tasteless.

Seared star garoupa fillet with fish maw on egg white with truffle sauce (雪嶺紅梅映松露) - this was the replacement signature dish I ordered, and the one they keep showing on the menu.

The pan-seared garoupa fillet rests on top of 3 layers of steamed custard: the egg custard at the bottom, then a layer of vegetable custard, and finally the carrot custard on top.

This was definitely a very refined dish... with the black truffle paste adding some wonderful fragrance, and both the garoupa fillet and the custard delivered smooth textures.  Yum.

Sautéed string beans with minced pork and preserved vegetables (欖菜肉崧干扁四季豆) - this is comfort food for me, and something that no ordinary restaurant will execute as well as my mom.  I didn't expect the string beans to be dried (乾煸) but neither did I expect it to be so incredibly salty.  FAIL.

Deep-fried crab meat fritters with sautéed prawns and carb cream (金錢蟹盒拼紅梅蝦球) - I should have realized when the menu doesn't say "market price", then the seafood isn't brought in fresh daily.  I wanted to try their prawns, and somehow ended up choosing this prawn and crab combination.  The prawns weren't bad.  They were simply ordinary and nothing to write home about.  Same with their coral.

The crab fritters, however, were very tasty.  Should have just gotten these by themselves...

Stewed e-fu noodles with assorted mushrooms in X.O. sauce (X.O.醬什菌炆伊麵) - not bad, but there simply wasn't enough X.O. sauce to make this different from the plain e-fu noodles with mushrooms.

1997 von Schubert Maximin Grünhäuser Abstberg Spätlese-trocken - big nose of petrol, polyurethane, with a little lemon, light honey nose.  Very acidic on the palate at first, and softened up later.

Honestly, I was more than a little disappointed.  There was a clear "FAIL" here and a couple of other dishes were ho-hum at best.  I have much higher expectations for a restaurant with a macaron from the Rubberman... but then again, maybe that just goes to show AGAIN that those guys have no clue when it comes to Chinese restaurants...