The Chairman Review

Daban Lou is a must-try for Chinese food lovers, and with the blessing of Michelin, it really lived up to expectations. ⁡I recommend the steamed flower crab with chicken oil and Huadiao sauce and Chencun vermicelli. The flower crab is super big, taking up the whole plate, and the meat is very fresh and sweet. Chencun vermicelli is combined with the fragrant and slightly wine-flavored chicken oil and Huadiao sauce, which is fragrant and delicious and worthy of being a must-order. ⁡

Selected as the World's 50 Best Restaurants, it won the 10th place, compared to the 41st place last year. This is the first time that a Hong Kong restaurant has been ranked in the top ten of the World's 50 Best Restaurants! In the last Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, Tai Pan Lou won the first place. This time, it has such a good performance in the World's 50 Best, which can be said to be the icing on the cake.

This evening, I went to the famous Daban Building with a few friends for dinner. When we entered, we found that the area was not large, but the seating layout was spacious and quiet. This might be because the floor was high enough. Moreover, the staff were cordial and attentive in their hospitality, and the atmosphere was great for dining and chatting with friends. We shared more than ten dishes for this dinner. The overall feeling was that the ingredients used were very fresh and rare, such as fresh mantis shrimp, salty lemons pickled for 20 years, crisp kale, etc. What I appreciate most is the smoked Australian green-lip abalone. The smoking method gives the abalone a salty and fragrant taste, which enhances the flavor to a higher level. In addition, the recommended ten-bean cordyceps soup is a vegetarian soup. I liked it very much after taking a sip. The mouth felt sweet at first, and after a few sips, I felt the sweetness and moisturizing aftertaste. It is worth a try. There is also fish and rice porridge with slow-cooked shrimp roe and mantis shrimp. I haven’t eaten fresh mantis shrimp for a long time. It’s more chewy and sweet than lobster. The last dish is the spicy and scallion fried chicken. The chicken is cooked properly and not only is it flavorful but also tender. After finishing the meal, we had a small dessert, almond tea and date paste cake to end the dinner perfectly, which was super satisfying.

The "Kai Lan Mei Cai" is the best seasonal vegetable I have ever eaten in my life. The apples in the "Pickled Tomatoes" are very good, probably because of the ingredients. The beef is better than Jiuji Beef Brisket, and you don't have to wait, but it is only available at lunch. Special thanks to the handsome fellow Di Toushe who took good care of us along the way and helped me peel the crab claws. I was so happy!

The appetizer is basil candied cherry tomatoes with white flour sauce sweet pears. The cherry tomatoes are a surprise. At first glance, they look ordinary, and you can't even taste the skin... but you can feel the smooth texture of the cherry tomatoes themselves, and the sweet pears are also interesting - not bad! Golden Coin Seafood Mushroom Box - fried in an interesting way, but there was nothing special in the box, it felt rather ordinary. Next up was the smoked Australian greenlip abalone with extra large mushrooms. I don’t eat abalone very often, so the quality of the meat was fine. However, the special feature of this sauce lies in the word “smoked”… I haven’t gotten over it yet. (I feel more accepting of it with traditional sauce, haha~) The crab meat glutinous rice is particularly worthy of praise. The fried glutinous rice that we usually eat outside will inevitably add a lot of oil during the cooking process, so it will taste a little bit wetter. But at first glance, this glutinous rice doesn't have much oily luster. Moreover, it is relatively dry, so you won't feel sick of it even if you eat more. The steamed razor clams with 20-year-old salted lemon and garlic, and the mantis shrimp in fish and rice soup are also quite good! I can taste the freshness of the steamed razor clams ~ probably due to the 20-year-old salted lemons they use. The mantis shrimp in fish and rice soup is crispy, chewy and sweet. Finally, I have to mention the signature dish here; steamed giant flower crab with chicken oil and Huadiao wine, served with Chencun vermicelli. The freshness of the crab seemed to be taken away by the rich Huadiao wine ~ which is a bit of a pity... When I ate the Chencun vermicelli, I immediately thought: did the chef add a little more Huadiao wine? The taste is a bit sour ~ but it may also be that I, who never drink, don’t know how to appreciate the special features of this dish. How can a satisfying dinner be complete without dessert? We ordered raw ground almond tea and southern jujube cake. The almond tea tasted normal, unlike the insincere ones sold outside that use ready-made almond powder. The Nanzao cake is also very chewy, which is my favorite flavor. Ilikeit!

We booked the restaurant a month in advance using WhatsApp. I recommend this method. The restaurant responded very quickly. It's in a small alley near the mountain, but not too difficult to find. The waiter was quite friendly and the environment was very ordinary. Two people went there at noon and ordered two executive set meals plus a crab box. The fried crab box was added with leeks, which was not greasy and delicious. The Longjing chrysanthemum pigeon is highly recommended. The meat is tender and has a very fragrant smoky flavor. The soup is the pig lung soup, which is rich and delicious without any strange offal taste. The fried clams with basil are a must. It is spicy with a little sweetness, a combination of Chinese and Western, and the clams are very fresh. The main course was Chencun pink Huadiao crab (additional money is required), which was indeed delicious. The wine taste was very strong. People who can't drink may feel slightly smoked. The crab meat is super thick and tasty. The Chencun pink is chewy but the quantity is too much for two people to finish. The other main course is the stir-fried soft plum, which is similar to sweet and sour pork, which is quite ordinary. The famous wolfberry ice cream for dessert is unique and not sweet, and it is a good ending.

The famous Taipan Lou in Hong Kong, I was lucky enough to easily book Sunday lunch even though I called on Friday. Whether it was pickled cherry tomatoes with sweet pears in basil, smoked pigeon with chrysanthemum, fish maw soup, steamed crab with chicken oil and Huadiao wine soaked in Chencun vermicelli, stir-fried pork ribs, or almond tea and wolfberry ice cream for dessert, every dish was delicious and accompanied by a light aftertaste, a warm feeling. The service was also very considerate, and they would help adjust the plating for customers like me who held cameras, haha