Fung Shing Restaurant 鳳城酒家 @ North Point

There’s a saying,「食在廣州、廚出鳳城」”Culinary capital is Guangzhou, but its chefs are from Fung Shing”. Fung Shing 鳳城 (lit. Phoenix City) refers to Shunde 順德, where many Cantonese chefs originate. There are many Fung Shing Restaurant 鳳城酒家 in Hong Kong, but this one in North Point is the best among them.

Fung Shing North Point originates from Irving Street’s Fung Shing in Causeway Bay, which was opened by more than 20 Shunde chefs led by Mr. Fung Man 馮滿 in 1954. It serves traditional Shunde cuisine 順德菜, modern Cantonese cuisine and dim sum. Since then, the original store has closed and the disciples of Mr Fung have gone and opened their own Fung Shing Restaurants. This store (and the now defunct Mongkok Prince store) was opened by two brothers, Tam Kok Jin 譚國景 and Tam Kok Har 譚國俠, both disciples of Mr Fung.

How to tell if it’s the original these days? Just look for the hand carved flying dragon and phoenix pillars in the dining hall. The decor is so old school, and this is one of the remaining places in Hong Kong to find these pillars. By lunchtime, it was so packed with diners that we had to share a table, aka daap toy 搭台. They were here for their lunch specials as well as the dim sums steamed a la minute upon ordering.

This trip to Hong Kong, I was on a war path to try as many roast goose as I can. So I ordered the combination of roast suckling pig 乳豬 and roast goose 燒鵝, instead of the popular pig fallopian tubes 生腸. The suckling did not disappoint, the skin was crispy and the meat was still tender and moist. The goose was not as good as the specialist eateries like Tin Lung. I should have stuck to the fallopian tubes.

I love steamed rice rolls, aka cheong fun 腸粉, since I was kid. Shrimp and yellow chives rice roll is my favourite fillings for these delectable breakfast rolls. Their rolls were quick thick and there wasn’t much yellow chives. Saving grace? The sauce was spot on, very old school with a nice balance between sweet and savoury.

Deep fried shrimp roll 炸蝦捲 came with Worcestershire sauce, aka “gipp zaap” 喼汁, the quintessential sauce for fried stuff in Cantonese cuisine. It all started with the British colonists putting the sauce on their pork chops. The name 喼汁 is used by the manufacturer Lea & Perrins as the official name of the product.

Chiuchow steamed dumpling aka “fun guo” 潮州粉粿 looks very similar to hargow (shrimp dumplings) in Cantonese-style dim sum. It is filled with savoury ingredients like jicama, chopped chives, shiitake mushroom, minced pork and dried shrimps. This one has additional ingredient of chopped prawns.

They used to put real shark’s fins into the dumpling when the economy was booming. These days, shark fin soup dumpling 魚翅湯餃 use mung bean vermicelli, aka tunghoon. The tunghoon has absorbed all the soup, leaving the dumpling rather dry.

The next dim sum I ordered was a classic 豬潤燒賣 pig liver siew mai. The first time I had this was in Lin Heung and it was love at first bite. The thick slice of pig liver covered the pork siewmai underneath it and was cooked to right doneness. However the siewmai disintegrated when you picked it up, sign of an amateur at work.

四寶鮮雞扎 Chicken wrapped in beancurd skin is an old school dim sum. 四寶 “four treasures” refer to chicken thigh, pork loin, fish maw and pig stomach. They are wrapped with beancurd skin, poured over with chicken oil and steamed. The result is delicious bite of umami with the delicious chicken oil.

Next up, the lormaigai 糯米雞 or steamed glutinous rice with savoury filling. It used to be made with spare ingredients from other dim sums, but these days it is a special item on its own. I call it an open face bakchang 肉粽 with all the ingredients only on one side of the rice. The lotus leaves used to wrap the rice gives it a nice fragrance.

生炒臘味飯 Fried glutinous rice with smoked sausages is a kungfu cuisine that requires a lot of wok work. The rice is not steamed prior to sautéing with the sausages. The raw glutinous rice is sautéed with the ingredients and then water or moisture is added slowing to get the desired texture. My favourite street food from Hong Kong.

Lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk bun 鹹蛋蓮蓉包 is a rare filling for a steamed bun. Sweet lotus red paste is combined with the savoury salted egg yolk, a match in heaven.

And we finished the lunch with an egg tart. Yummy, not too sweet and the right size.

A kakinang and gourmand Mr Chua Lam has commented that this is the only Fung Shing worth going to for Shunde cuisine in Hong Kong. Any better, you need to go to Shunde. I only tried their dim sum this time round. Next round, I will come back for their Shunde cuisine.

Fung Shing Restaurant 鳳城酒家
G/F & 1/F, Goldfield Mansion, 62-68 Java Road, North Point
北角渣華道62-68號高發大廈地舖及1樓
Tel : +852 25784898

Visited Nov 2024. Jan 2025

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