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| - The other day, as I was buying groceries, the cashier asked me why I was buying the premium olive oil (he insisted it tasted the same as the PC olive oil). I couldn't convince him that there was a genuinely different taste during our 30 second exchange, so went on my merry business. That's what Lai Wah Heen is about. For those that don't "get it", they'll never get it, but for those that do,they'll really appreciate this place.
To start off - I've been coming here since they opened (about 17/18 years?): between dim sum, weddings, birthdays, and other celebratory banquets, we must have enough of those black box takeaway containers to fill 100 trucks, so I've seen it at its best and its worse. This is not the place to go if you want sweet and sour pork, fried rice, and some tea - it's high end Cantonese cooking mixed with some Imperial influence, and a Hong Kong flair.
Let's start off with the dim sum. If your idea of dim sum is $2 steamers and old ladies yelling from carts, then go back to Richmond Hill. Dim sum here is done the Hong Kong way - classy, dignified, and ever so tasty. The "usual" dim sum dishes are done amazingly well: their shrimp dumpling / "har gow" has a delicate yet tasty casing, and perfectly cooked shrimp. The rice rolls are similarly delicate. Oppositely, they'll change it up every once and a while and bring out something crazy, like truffled Chinese BBQ chicken (amazing too!). My only qualm is that sometimes they go a little too crazy and introduce 10-20 items, which push the "standard" fare to next season... but I guess the chef needs to challenge himself someway.
Banquet dinners are always done to perfection at Lai Wah Heen. Whether for a small group of 4, or a big group of 20, they never skimp on the details. Pre-ordering special dishes: whether it's shark fin, winter melon soup, some crazy exotic fish, or 'Buddha-jumping-over-the-wall' soup (something is definitely lost in translation there) - they can always meet the challenge. If you're not sure what to order, their banquet prix fixe menus are always a solid bet. Each dish looks immaculate, and is served by experienced / highly trained / perfectly bilingual/tri-lingual waiters/waitresses, most of whom have been there for more than 10 years. Ingredients are not skimped on, and if you really break down their food prep, you'll understand the careful work that needs to go into it: their broth alone probably takes 12 hours to create, and alot of their braised cuisine stews for days.
Chinese food is pretty diverse and complex, and largely mimics the culture it's taken from. It can be serious business, and LWH is one of those places that takes it seriously.
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