Maxim's Palace @ City Hall (大會堂美心皇宮)

Maxim's Palace @ City Hall is widely featured in local and overseas magazine; it is said to be one of the best dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong and whenever I dine there, I will notice that at least more than 50% of the diners are non-locals. But is it really that good? Yes, somewhat. I enjoyed the setting of the restaurant. It is one of the few restaurants remaining in Hong Kong where we can order directly from the dim sum trolley. In most restuarants nowadays, you order by using a pencil and tick at a dim sum menu. Ordering from dim sum trolley reminds you of the good old halcyon days of yum cha (yum cha means drinking tea literally; it is another way of saying a meal of dim sum). In addition, you get a pretty good harbour view (not so now as it is now filled with cranes doing reclamation work).

There are actually eight branches of Maxim's Palace, with a ninth one opening at Cityplaza in August. The rest of the seven branches are located in Mong Kok (Grand Century Plaza), Sha Tin (New Town Plaza One), Tuen Mun (Tuen Mun Town Hall), Kowloon Bay (Telford Plaza Phase One), Kwai Fong (Metroplaza), Ma On Shan (Ma On Shan Plaza) and Tsuen Wan (Luk Yeung Galleria). Maxim's Palace belong to the Maxim's Catering Limited (http://www.maxims.com.hk/html/opening.htm).

Maxim's Catering Limited is the largest restaurant chain in Hong Kong and offers not only Cantonese cuisine but also other Chinese cuisine, Japanese, Southeast Asian and Western cuisines. It started out in 1956 by S.T. and James T. Wu, with its flagship restaurant located in the basement of the former Lane Crawford Building in Central. However, it did not offer any Cantonese cuisine at that time. Instead, it serves French cuisine and was a nightclub. Lol. It decided to enter the market for Cantonese food in 1971 because of its success in the Osaka Expo '70 in providing excellent dim sum. It opens its flagship store (called Jade Garden 翠園) at Star House in Tsim Sha Tsui. It became an instance success and more restaurants sprung up, taking various names such as Maxim's Palace (美心皇宮), Maxim's Chinese Restaurant (美心閣/美心大酒樓), Maxim's Golden Court Restaurant (美心金閣) and Seranade Chinese Restaurant (映月樓).

Following that, it ventures into Chao Zhou cuisine and later on, other types of Chinese cuisine such as Beijing, Hunan and Sichuan. It expanded into other regional cuisines such as Japanese and Thai in the later years. It was also one of the first Catering group that offers the concept of "Chinese fast food". The numerous branches of Maxim's MX around Hong Kong offer reasonably priced Chinese style fast food; Maxim's cakes can also be found everywhere in Hong Kong and in every MTR stations! In 2000, Starbucks Coffee gave Maxim the rights to operate its coffee outlets in Hong Kong. In addition, 2006 saw Maxim collaborated with Genki Sushi (元気寿司) and Sen-ryo (千両) and it was given the special rights to run their restaurants in Hong Kong.

Let's have glimpse of its price.

City Hall branch:

小-HK$25; 中-HK$32; 大-HK$37; 特-HK$40; 頂-HK$44; congee-HK$37; cheong fan-HK$37; har gow-HK$37; tea-HK$12 per pax.

Kowloon Bay branch:

小-HK$16; 中-HK$20; 大-HK$24; 特-HK$30; 頂-HK$33; congee-HK$21; cheong fan-HK$24; har gow-HK$26; tea-HK$9 per pax.

Morning tea hours: 0730-1130, tea-HK$6 per pax (Mon-Fri except for public holidays)
Afternoon tea hours: 1400-1630, 小-HK$12; 中-HK$14; 大-HK$16 (Mon-Fri except for public holidays)

Mong Kok branch:

小-HK$15; 中-HK$20; 大-HK$24; 特-HK$28; 頂-HK$32; congee-HK$20; cheong fan-HK$23; har gow-HK$26; tea-HK$9 per pax.

Morning tea hours: 0730-1100, tea-HK$6 per pax (Mon-Fri except for public holidays)
Afternoon tea hours: 1400-1630, 小-HK$10; 中-HK$12; 大-HK$14 (Mon-Fri except for public holidays)

You will realize that the price is different for different branchs, with the one in City Hall being the most expensive (for obvious reasons). The dim sum there is also the best, especially the 鮮竹卷. Oh yah, the siu mai in the City Hall and Kowloon Bay banches are very good as well; may be even better than the one in Ming Court.

When you reach City's Hall's Maxim's Palace, you will be greeted by this rather impressive gold sign.


The tradition push-cart dim sum is retained in Maxim, a reminder of good old days in Hong Kong when you can see the dim sum before deciding on which one to pick on.


The usual fare - siu mai, har gow and char siew puff.




This is a special dim sum that is found in Maxim's Palace (not sure whether it's available in other dim sum restaurants though). It is a combination of the common pastry in Hong Kong known as po luo bun (菠羅包, literally translates to pineapple bun) and char siew and it is given the name as char siew po luo bun (叉燒菠羅包). It is a perfect combination and taste splendid. A must-try!


This is the 鮮竹卷 that I mentioned earlier on. There are 2 versions - oyster sauce based (shown below, known as 蠔油鮮竹卷) and soup based (known as 上湯鮮竹卷). The soup based one usually use fish to brew the soup over a couple of hours. Personally, I prefer the oyster sauce based one and the best I have tried in Hong Kong is in this branch of Maxim's Palace. Interestingly, Mong court doesn't serve this dish.


This is also the best glutinous rice dumpling that I have tried thus far. It is very fragrant and not as salty as the one in Ming Court. In addition, take note that the leave used her is in a brighter shade of green as compared to the one in Ming Court and other branches of Maxim's Palace (as well as most other dim sum restaurants). Does this explains why it tastes so well?


This dish is called 鮮蝦腐皮卷. It is basically prawn wrapped in special kind of skin known as 府皮. This is also the same skin that is used ot make wu xiang (五香卷) in Singapore. I read that this dish originates from a local delights in Shanghai.


Oh well, for once, I forgot what this is called. :(


The usual fare - char siew bun and ham sui gok. I still prefer the bun in 蓮香樓.



Taro puff is its name and it's a traditional dim sum. It is well made and literally melt in your mouth when you bite it.


Dim sum style egg tart. I read that together with spring roll, it is one of the dishes found in the menu of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast (滿漢全席).


The following dim sun is only found in Maxim's Palace. It is called 粟米炸蝦筒, literally mean prawn wrapped in the shape of a roll. It tastes better without dipping into the mayonaise provided.


Maxim will roll out a trolley consisting of a bucket of beancurb at times. If you see it, grab it for it tastes superior compared to many in Singapore. Choose from orange sugar (黃糖豆腐花), syrup (山水豆腐花) or ginger syrup (薑汁豆腐花).

RATINGS:
1. Taste - 8.5
2. Ambience - 7.5
3. Service - 8.0
4. Average spending - HK$120 to HK$200 (based on 3-4 dim sum dish per pax). 10% service charge.

Address: 2/F, City Hall Low Block, Hong Kong (中環大會堂低座3樓)
Tel: 2521 1303

Directions: Alight at Central MTR Station and exit at Exit K. Upon exit, walk towards your 6 o' clock position and cross Charter Road, after which you will see a subway. Go through it and follow the signpost to City Hall.

Other informations:

1. Commentaries on New York Times

2. Commentaries on Openrice