Hong Kong Eat: Hing Kee Restaurant Claypot Rice (兴记菜馆煲仔饭) @ Yau Ma Tei

Hing Kee Restaurant (兴记菜馆) is a well-known restaurant in Hong Kong and is also recommended in Hong Kong Michelin Guide for claypot rice. It is located along Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei and spans 4 shop units in a row with many tables.

Hing Kee has an extensive menu of over 60 claypot rice dishes with different toppings, including classic options, like chicken, beef, spare ribs, Chinese sausage, etc, and innovative flavours like mala. There is also a wide range of cooked dishes, including roasted pigeon and seafood. The deep-fried oysters cake is another hot-seller.

Going for the classic Beef & Chicken with Rice Pot (牛肉滑鸡煲仔饭) is the best way to try two dishes at one go without having to eat two claypots of rice. The claypot rice is served with beef and chicken meat laid on top with fresh spring onions and some cut chillies. Add in appropriate amount of pre-mixed dark oil-sauce and the claypot rice will have a nice aroma and savoury flavour. The chicken meat is very well-cooked, smooth and tender with bouncy texture. The beef is also smooth, soft and very tender. Wow, this is too delicious to forget!

The "right" way to eat claypot rice is as follows: open the lid, added the thick dark sauce on top of the rice without stirring it and put the lid back. After allowing it to simmer for another minute, remove the lid again to stir the rice and break up the crispy lightly-scorched rice (锅巴) to prevent it from overcooking — when well-timed and well-executed, there will not be any burnt rice sticking to the bottom of the claypot and the fragrance of the dark sauce will fill the whole claypot. The scorched rice adds crispy texture to the flavoured rice, which is the desired way to have claypot rice.

The hotly-served small-size Deep Fried Oysters Cake (兴记煎蚝饼) is fresh out of the pan and still oily but its crispy batter with fat oysters, spring onions, etc, and tastiness made the oiliness a worthwhile trade-off — we have to admit that "tasty" and "healthy" cannot be hand-in-hand all the time, but once a long while is acceptable. This highly-recommended dish is great to try.

After the first visit to Hing Kee Restaurant, it will be hard not to want to go back for more delicious claypot rice.

Address:

15 Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong

Opening Hours:

1:30pm to 3:30pm; 5:30pm to 12am | Daily

Nearby: Hong Kong Eat: Snake King Dee (蛇王弟) Snake Stew @ Yau Ma Tei