One of my favorite restaurants to take out-of-towners is The Chinese Library in Tai Kwun. Housed in an old colonial building that was the previous Central police station, the restaurant is luxurious and expensive. More importantly, the food is delicious and exquisite - some of the best dim sum I have had in Hong Kong. I have been there about 4 times now and each time, I find more dishes to enjoy on the menu.
One of the stand-out dishes is the Peking duck. Although many places in Hong Kong do a good version, The Chinese Library provides 6 different unique sauces to go with the duck. This includes a black truffle sauce and a ginger cream. The duck has to be ordered in advance so we usually only get this for large groups.
The dim sum is equally delicious. I like to get the black truffle shrimp dumpling (har gau) - with a skin gently perfumed with black truffle.
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| Black truffle shrimp dumpling |
Other good dishes are the garoupa and scallion rice roll noodles. It's quite rare to use such an expensive fish in rice roll noodles (cheung fun) and it's a treat. Mushroom bao are shaped like shitake mushrooms on the outside and have a delicate filing of chopped mushrooms in the centre.
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| Mushroom bao |
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| Fried beef puffs and spring rolls |
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| Squid ink & pea dumplings in lobster broth |
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| Fried eggplant chips |
The steamed pork dumpling (siu mai) is elegantly presented - 2 with orange skins and 2 with green skins. What elevates this dish is the clove of black garlic in the middle.
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| Pork dumpling with black garlic |
Aside from dim sum, The Chinese Library also offer a selection of a la carte dishes including stir-fried noodles and rice at the lunch service. The wagyu beef stone pot fried rice topped with bonito flakes is a favorite.
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Wagyu beef stone pot rice
 I haven't tried much on the dessert menu but we did wait for 20 minutes once for the baked mini egg tarts (baked to order). These were good but not astounding. Finally, since one of the visits to The Chinese Library was for Mum's birthday, the staff suggested a Longevity Bun to end the meal. The charge for "cake-cutting" was fairly hefty so I appreciated the suggestion - cost-effective and meaningful for Mum!
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I haven't tried much on the dessert menu but we did wait for 20 minutes once for the baked mini egg tarts (baked to order). These were good but not astounding. Finally, since one of the visits to The Chinese Library was for Mum's birthday, the staff suggested a Longevity Bun to end the meal. The charge for "cake-cutting" was fairly hefty so I appreciated the suggestion - cost-effective and meaningful for Mum!
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