The Chairman Restaurant — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

The Chairman is a 1-Michelin-star Chinese restaurant in Central, Hong Kong. Reservation is known to be one of the most difficult ones to make in town. The main dining room looks like a warm living room. There is no private room. Corkage is set reasonably at HK$250/bottle. Guests are required to pre-set their menus in advance. The basic default menu which costs HK$1,380/person + 10% service charge includes 3 appetizers, 3 main dishes (HK$1,380/person with 1 seafood + 2 meat dishes; HK$1,530/person with 2 seafood + 1 meat dishes; HK$1,680/person with 3 seafood dishes), soup of the day, 1 vegetable dish, 1 rice/noodle dish, and dessert of the day. Guests can choose the appetizers, main dishes, vegetable dish, and rice/noodle dish from a selected list.

Servers might not be impolite, but they are not the friendliest bunch either. To put it nicely, servers have their own way of doing their job. For example, the server responsible for cutting the Camphor Wood Smoked Black Foot Goose dish decides to pack the entire goose breast into a box without even asking if the guests want to try it first. A bigger concern though, is how the kitchen could serve Peanut Papaya Chicken Feet Soup as soup of the day, when the restaurant is informed that a guest has peanut allergy (in advance!!!)! Honestly, will the restaurant be granted a Michelin star if this guest happens to be the anonymous Michelin judge?!

Based on the fine dining cost level, food is not at all impressive and definitely does not live up to the restaurant’s reputation! While the lukewarm Geoduck Poached in Rice Broth tastes fishy, no one could tell that there is abalone in the Barbecued Lamb Belly and Abalone Roll. Although the Steamed Fresh Flowery Crab with Aged ShaoXing Wine, Fragrant Chicken Oil & Flat Rice Noodles dish is sweet and aromatic, it is expected that the fine dining restaurant would serve one bigger crab instead of 2 small crabs. The best dish is the flavorful and fresh Fried Rice with Crab Meat, Fresh Prawns, Sun-dried Prawns & Shrimp Paste. For exquisite Cantonese cuisine, there are definitely better choices in Hong Kong, at a much cheaper price, and easier to make...

Considered the best restaurant in Hong Kong, and a w50b mainstay, The Chairman opened in 2009 and has since come to define Cantonese cooking under a modern lense through the collaboration between Chefs Danny Yip and Kwok Keung Tung.

Located on The Wellington’s 3rd floor since 2022, elevator doors unveiling a narrow room decorated for Christmas amidst foliage, servers in black vests orchestrate a meal spanning several courses selected a few days prior and created from local Ingredients.

Utilizing Produce from a farm in Sheung Shui, plus Proteins from local Butchers and Fishermen, it is with Tea plus Champagne poured that early bites come in a flurry and whether one opts for Offal in Aspic or Stuffed Baby Squid the labor-intense nature of each bite is evident.

Served without pretense, everything from Trotters to Abalone receiving equal attention, crisp Taro filled with Duck eats surprisingly light before moving onward to thinly sliced Geoduck and signature Steamed Fresh Flowery Crab with Aged ShaoXing Wine Sauce.

Classic by every standard, but the rare Restaurant doing traditional Cantonese Cuisine in such a setting, there’s a reason almost every table requests “Thick Cut” Chairman Style Char Siu and the Abalone Roll with Lamb Belly as well as Pork Belly Claypot Rice are each equally exceptional.

Not forgetting Soup, first a Double Boiled version with Shrimp and then Rice with Mussels, Desserts follow the theme with seasonal Melon Cake, Red Bean Pudding and silken Almond Soup derived from an...

Hands down the best cantonese food that ive ever had in my whole life. Was sooooo lucky to manage to get the reservation three days prior to my reservation date. Have to be diligent in checking their websites to see whether there are any cancellations. Very worth the HKD1,080 per person. Simply the best roasted baby pigeon, no restaurant in the entire world can beat. The baby pigeon was well marinated and cooked in perfection. Surprised to see the tripe in the beef quartet but it wasn’t smelly at all. Thought the beef quartet would be super spicy given the pieces of chili but it was the spiciness level that any Asian could handle. The plum sauce on the pig tail dish left me speechless. The lobsters poached in rice broth was a bit bland at first but as you went into your second and third scoops, the sweetness from the rice broth would give you the flavours you wouldnt expect. The fried rice at the end was a bit dry but probably I was already too full at that point. You could feel the natural sweetness (but not sweet at all) in the layered cake in the desserts trio, a flavour which i hadnt tasted before, probably they used some kind of tea to make the layered cake. Definitely a 10/10 for me and I will definitely come back if I will ever be lucky again...