Tai Chung Wah Restaurant

«The horror… the horror…»
That’s what I thought as soon as the roast chicken arrived. The chicken was on top of a metallic basin with a rod stand attached vertically in the middle. Said poor bird was forcefully put through the rod, so that the end of the rod protruded out of the breast area. It looked like something out of a bad scary movie… or Doom.
While there were some good aspects of the dinner I had here, plenty of it left much to be desired, and hence the lower grade. The theme of most of the food involved that night was this: tasteless. Everything surprisingly tasted bland. I expected spice. I expected umami tastes. I definitely expected «wok hei». I expected flavor.
The roasted pork was absolutely disappointing. There was barely any meat, barely any layer of fat, and the skin was rubbery, not crispy. Oh and I did mention it was tasteless?
Oh and back to the chicken. I ended up doing the carving and did a decent job, grace of God. They gave me one plastic glove to aid me in getting the job done. I could’ve moon-​walked after that. While the chicken was tender as all get-​out, it was, get this… BLAND. There was a flavored salt that accompanied the chicken and you needed to apply copious of that stuff to make seem somewhat tasty.
The clay pot rice with Chinese sausage was decent but not amazing. Again, it lacked flavor. The sizzling pork knuckle in black pepper sauce could have used more flavor as well but it was passable. At least it was warm. There were raw oysters ordered but… raw shellfish at a dai pai dong??? Ummm… hepatitis, much?
For me, the highlight of the entire dinner was the garlic shrimp, but because it was one of the only dishes that actually had flavor (albeit it was overwhelming garlic). The shrimp were cut symmetrically and cooked with a crapload of garlic. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to kiss anyone that night, so I just ate quite a few of those tender crustaceans.
We were given a variety of desserts and they were a mixed bag. The fried taro/​egg balls were amazing and almost single-​handedly brought this restaurant up from 2-​stars. Yeah, anything fried is good but these were brilliant. They came really hot and the outer fried section was crispy. Inside was half taro paste and half egg-​milk custard. Both flavors were excellent.
We also had a variety of herbal jellies and dessert rolls. The durian cream roll stood out the most, as you could imagine. I guess if you wanted to try durian, but were scary crapless to try the raw, unadulterated version of the sometimes reviled fruit, the roll would be a good idea.
My relatives had reserved a VIP room, which was creepy-​looking going up. I was concerned I would need to bring out my non-​existent «particular set of skills» to protect myself from the nefarious. Maybe because we were given a VIP section (table, real chairs, in a room, tablecloth), the price didn’t seem quite as impressive as I was led to believe. And I still needed to bring tissues too! (oh and bring hand sanitizer)

Tai Chung Wah is probably the most well-​known dai pai dong in Cheung Sha Wan. The restaurant occupies the whole «block» and is divided into sections. Come with a local or anyone who can write Chinese because you write your order here!
It’s great for large groups and you actually want to come with a large group because that’s they only way you can sample the different dishes. It’s loud, it’s fun, and it’s cheap! It may not be the cleanest but it is definitely a good representation of what a real dai pai dong should look like.

This is one of my favourite Dai Pai Dong of all time. Since it is a Dai Pai Dong, do not expect you will be sitting somewhere with nice façade or décor, however, be prepared to sweat a little in the middle of a dirty little alley. However, on the bright side, this is THE place to try good food with «wok hei» at a cheap price.
Tai Chung Wah Restaurant is located in Cheung Sha Wan. It is definitely a bit cramped and the overall cleanliness is not its strongest suit. Yet, its relaxing atmosphere and the fact that it can cater huge group of people definitely are one of its many advantages. I tried its signature dish, roasted chicken before but make sure you make reservation if you really want that because it is sold out pretty early. Other dish I really like is the century egg with shrimp paste. Some people might be taken aback by the name of century egg, but it is actually preserved duck egg, salty and funny texture. However, this dish the eggs are deep fried and it definitely blew my mind the first time I tried this. It also comes with sugar or chili depends on what you want. AWESOME!
Normally after going to Dai pai Dong, I have to go drink one of those bitter herbal tea as the food mostly are stir fried and stuff, to avoid pimples, that is the way to go. But I will say, even if it does happen, it is still worth it.