Hong Kong Lounge (Dinner)

Hong Kong Lounge

5322 Geary Boulevard

San Francisco, CA

94121

415-668-8836

I have been to this restaurant many times in the past. It has changed hands many times. Some of you may know this as Hong Kong Flower Lounge or Parc Hong Kong. Now this restaurant has be renovated and under new ownership. It is simply called Hong Kong Lounge. It is experiencing some rejuvenation with the local crowd lately and now as become a favorite of the locals. A pretty neat trick actually when you think of all the good chinese restaurants in San Francisco. I took my family there for my father's birthday, because they were raving about it. It is so popular now, that most days, they require a reservation or else you probably won't get a table. I had my sister to thank that we were able to get a table that night. The interior has be redone and I would say in a more modern chinese style. After looking over their menu, my father elected to pick one of their set dinner menu. This like you'll see in most chinese restaurants, the food is served in courses and family style.

The first course was the cold cut combo. I must say I was impressed with this dish. The jelly fish and octopus had nice flavor. It had that hint of sesame oil that makes it so flagrant. The two types of pork were some of the best I've eaten in this style. The roast pork had a very nice crispy skin while the BBQ pork was nice and tender.

Next came the shark fin soup. For those that don't know, shark fin really has no flavor. The soup's flavor comes the rich soup base. Hong Kong Lounge had a nice flavor and with a hint of chinese brandy. It added another dimension to the flavor.

The crab claws were next. They tasted like most crab claws you get at your typical chinese restaurant. I've never been a big fan of crab claws. You mainly only taste the shrimp paste surrounding the claws. The texture of these are more fluffy than the usual, so I was impressed nevertheless.

Next course was the scallop and sweet pea. There were appears some clams mixed in as well. The dish was okay. It had nice fresh flavor for the scallop and clams. The peas were sweet, but overall I wasn't too impressed. This dish is often served in every chinese family menu I've had. It just taste so familiar to me, that's all. The addition of yellow chives was a nice touch though.

Next course was the chinese greens with mushroom. Another stable of chinese family dinners. What the restaurant did different for this course was to add dried scallops to the sauce. It made the sauce more rich. Though to be honest, not my favorite dish of the night. I'm not much of a vegetable kinda of guy.

The next course is usually my favorite where ever I go. Peking duck is often found everywhere. I actually tried real Peking Duck in China. I found I like the San Francisco Variant much better. The real Peking Duck is served with thin flour sheets, I prefer the fluffy buns better.

You eat it by sandwiching the crispy duck skin in between the buns and adding scallion and hoisin sauce. Really a tasty dish if done right. Hong Kong Lounge did the wise thing of not changing a good dish. It was prepared well and the skin was thin and crispy.

Our server brought out our fish of the night. I don't remember or could recognized the type of fish. It was a bony white fish, but the sauce was very good. It was a sweetened royal soy sauce. Matched very well with the fresh fish. Some restaurants cannot do the sauce right, but Hong Kong Lounge was very well done.

The lobster dish of the night was pretty good. It was prepared with a lighter sauce than most restaurants. This let really let you taste the fresh lobster. The sauce did not overpower it at all. I thought this was a nice touch by the chef.

Usually at the end of a chinese meal, you'll be served with fried rice. The fried rice that came with our meal was very deeply flavored. This was the type of rice that had chinese bacon in it. It made the rice very rich in flavor. Though it probably wasn't good for my cholesterol.

My father really liked the rice, since it was done in his favorite style.

The service was adequate. Though some times we were left alone for quite sometime as the restaurant filled up. As the restaurant becomes completely pack, expect to see your servers only when the food comes. This is quite typical in chinese restaurants especially the popular ones.

Now all this good food does come with a price. But as they say, you get what you paid for.

Final Thoughts: Nice to see a restaurant turned things around so nicely

Food: 4 stars

Service: 3 stars

Price: High

Overall: 4 stars