Majestic Restaurant (大华) @ New Majestic Hotel

I had a family dinner at Majestic Restaurant yesterday, at New Majestic Hotel. While the restaurant claims to serve Cantonese cuisine, some research showed that the chef Yong Bing Ngen infuses a lot of his Hakka background and other regional influences into his cooking in order to be more flexible and creative.

Left to right: Peking duck skin, pan-fried foie gras, and wasabi prawn. $18 per pax

This was really a pleasant surprise, since I didn't expect it to be foie gras (my uncle did all the ordering) and it's my favourite delicacy. The foie gras simply melted in the mouth and tasted superb. The peking duck skin was not bad, but the wasabi prawn was just average.

Majestic shark's fin with crab meat. $30 per bowl

This was definitely the highlight of the night. I have never tasted such delicious and rich shark's fin before. I don't know exactly what soup base they used (other than chicken soup), but it was certainly something which was brewed for a long time, or the rich flavour would not have been possible. Damn, I am craving for this as I am writing this!

Lamb cutlet with carrot cake

This was one of those examples where the accompaniment trumped the main dish. The carrot cake was excellent, but the lamb cutlet was disappointing. While it was tender, there was little lamb flavour and the sauce was simply too overpowering. I ate it after scraping most of the sauce away.

Ironically, what stood out from this dish was the vegetables! While the sliced fish was fresh and delicious, it was the vegetables - something so common and simple - that was done so well. The deep fried fish bones were also crispy and succulent.

Fried noodles with lobster, $88 for 7 such servings

While the noodle texture was smooth and silky, that wasn't its main attraction - it was the way the noodles absorbed the flavour of the lobster that won me over. 

Verdict - The chef, Yong Bing Ngen, is an award-winning chef who has won many awards since 2004, and his creations were really impressive. However, the menu is rather pricey - I think our group of 7 spent more than $800 in total. It's definitely out of reach for most people (including me).