Chong Fat Chiu Chow Restaurant

Chiu Chow (Teochew) cuisine is one of the greats in Hong Kong that is pretty much impossible to find in the USA (somehow the folks in Vancouver/​Toronto managed to keep their Chiu Chow chefs within their borders?). Thus a visit to Hong Kong to me would be incomplete without indulging in this style of cooking.
It’s a bit further out of the way for those coming from Hong Kong Island. But if you have time it is nothing a leisurely 20 to 25 min walk from Lok Fu MTR station could not fix, plus it is also a visual pleasure exploring Kowloon City on foot en route to the restaurant, where you will pass by lots of grocery small mom & pop shops catering to the old neighborhood and locals. Apparently megastar Chow Yun Fat shops around this area too (and ditto for Chua Lam).
The restaurant is fairly easy to spot. Look for the styrofoam tanks of seafood outside! After taking obligatory seafood porn pictures, our party took a few more of the window displaying the interesting orange (cooked) cold seafood selections, including cold spiny lobsters, and of course the famous and expensive blue (flower) crabs!
Walked in without a reservation and the place was at least ¾ full. The owner/​manager (not the son) greeted us who I recognized from a youtube video of a Chua Lam TV show (deleted now due to copyright violations). As you enter, you can see the open kitchen to your right, essentially a smorgasboard of great classic Chiu Chow food, from soups, stews, appetizer/​side dishes galore. It was almost like walking into a tapas bar in Spain… canned seafood in olive oil, sardines… except this was a different reality of awesomeness. The pictures speak for themselves.
As we sat at the table, could not help but notice a few more side dishes. I am under the assumption that if we touch or eat these, they will charge us for it.
The manager then invited me to pick out the dishes by the smorgasboard. He was extremely helpful and very spot on with some recommendations, but it also helped that I had done some research prior to coming here.
There is definitely way more variety than allowable stomach space, so we had a mini variety of a few things.
— the soup of the day was 胡椒豬肚湯 pork stomach peppercorn soup with pickled mustard greens. Very lucky to have encountered this. It was certainly not frigid cold that day, but enough for one of us in the party to put on a jacket, so this was very welcoming, warm, and tasty, with a wicked peppercorn kick (but not overpowering). Super delicious soup, quality ingredients. It definitely surpassed the rendition I had at Chan Kan Kee in Wanchai/​CWB the year’s visit prior. I probably had 4 to 5 bowls!
— chestnut with pork knuckles栗子炆豬手. Pretty good, and I thought this was a cold dish, but they actually heated a refrigerated dish, and it was quite fragrant. The combination of chestnut and stewed pork knucklel, was appetizing. But I have a feeling this was the least well liked item in our party.
— Chiu Chow style cold fish (threadfin) 馬友魚飯. I thought this fish was going to be served cold, but it was actually reheated. First time ever having this fish, and also this particular style of preparation. The manager recommended this over «big eye chicken» or kapok, and I am so glad I did. The threadfin was oily/​fatty/​tender/​juicy with a well defined ocean salt flavor. In season too!
— Marinated trio platter of sliced goose breast, goose intestines, and goose liver. I actually thought the breast here was better in texture than Hung’s Delicacies in North Point (although Hung’s had a slightly more robust and complex marinade), and while the intestines were nice but not breath taking, the one that stole the show was clearly the marinated goose liver. I am not a big fan of foie gras, but I will gladly have another plate of just pure goose liver from here should the opportunity present itself again (but must exercise self control!).
— The manager pointed out a vegetable stew soup that he recommended and was actually a very traditional recipe (I wanted a vegetable dish and he pointed at this one, basically no fight went down, I went with it!) …I wanted to say it was something like «spring vegetable» but it was a slightly bitter with a tiny sweet flavor in a soupy stew with a little pork bits. Cooked till very very tender, no fibrous bits. We all clapped our hands with this selection.
— Forgot to take a picture, but the pan fried pomfret was damn good.
Ended the meal with multiple shots of «kung fu tea» (which are Ti Kuan Yin). Do not confuse this with the boba milk tea shop also called Kung Fu Tea (which I nickname Kung Poo Tea for obvious reasons).
While the food and décor are not as glamorous as say Pak Loh, this is definitely one of the old style greats of Chiu Chow in town. It’s also a place not too many appreciate, and it can get very expensive if you hit up the cold shellfish. But you can manage costs appropriately by hitting the smorgasboard area.
Absolutely brilliant, one of my favorites!