Tin Lung 天龍 @ Hong Kong

Most Singaporeans would go to the famous ones around Wanchai, but this restaurant is opened by Michelin 2 star Chinese BBQ department head chef, and their roasted goose is exceptional too.

Wanchai area on Hong Kong island is the most concentrated region in terms of siewmei shops/restaurants per sq.km in Hong Kong, if not, the world. Opened in Apr 2023, Tin Lung Goose 天龍燒鵝 is the new kid on the block, right smacked in the middle of ground zero. But the chef/owner has a pedigree credentials; he was previously the siewmei department head of Tin Lung Heen.

The set lunches all came with vegetable, side dish, rice and daily boiled soup. And like the chachaanteng, you can make variations on the combinations of the meats with the rice.

The most complicated one was the Five Treasures Rice 五寶飯, which let you have a taste of everything.

And they took their double-boiled soup very seriously. It was a Wednesday we went to eat here, and we were served 南北杏木瓜豬骨湯 almond papaya pork bone soup. And it was not just a bowl of water, every bowl had a piece of corn and some of the soup base.

The most recommended things in the restaurant are its freshly roasted goose and BBQ suckling pig. Firstly, the roasted goose; the skin is crispy and meat is juicy, and the overall taste is not overwhelmingly salty, unlike the famous ones. I upgraded the goose to a goose drumstick and it was well worth the extra.

I paired it with fatty BBQ pork belly (which we called feicharnam 肥叉腩), those with a cardio problem be warned. The fats on the belly were all rendered and simply melted in the mouth like wagyu; a poor man’s wagyu no doubt.

Besides charsiew, you can pair the set menu with almost all the possible combinations of siewmei 燒味: BBQ suckling pig 乳豬, roast pork belly 燒腩仔, roast pork ribs 燒排骨, standard BBQ pork charsiew 叉燒, marinated chicken 貴妃雞, soy sauce chicken 油雞, Chinese-style red sausage 紅腸, pig intestines 豬生腸, jelly fish 海蜇, and smoked hock 燻蹄.

Let’s talk about their BBQ suckling pig, which is their other specialty. The texture of the skin is crispy, which is the ultimate test of a good suckling pig. The meat is juicy and tender. Unlike Philippine-style lechon or Spanish style cochinillo, which the meat was all hand pulled and disintegrated, the Cantonese-style’s skin fat and meat are clearly defined. The fat dissolves in the mouth and yet it is not overwhelming.

We also ordered two items that we wouldn’t get in Singapore. Smoked hock 燻蹄 is made from the deboned pig’s hock and instead of braising, the brined hock is smoked together with the rest of the siewmei. The skin and fats around the belly was crunchy to bite, and the flesh was flavourful and not too dried out.

Pig “intestines” 豬生腸 is not actually the intestine; it’s the fallopian tubes and womb of the swine. Enough of biology lesson, this is actually a very good eat and something already etched into the culinary DNA of Hong Kongers. The texture was crunchy, and it was dyed into the traditionally orange.

It used to be served with 7-Up instead of Sprite, hence the Cantonese name 咸柠七 which literally means “salted lime seven“. Fizzy, sweet, salty, sour, very satisfying but full of sugar from the soft drink and the salted lime.

All the Chinese BBQ siewmei of this restaurant is very highly quality yet affordable price. The queue is reasonably long with office workers coming for lunch and its gaining popularity given the word-of-mouth publicity. Hopefully they kept at this quality and price point.

Tin Lung Goose 天龍燒鵝
Shop D, G/F, Sun Hey Mansion , 68-76 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai
灣仔軒尼詩道68-76號新禧大樓地下D號舖
Tel : +852 2702 1388

Visited Dec 2023