Peking comfort food specialist Sun Moon Place has opened on Ship Street. But does it live up to the hype as Hong Kong's new American Restaurant? Carolynne Dear caught a tram to Wan Chai to find out
Retro lighting welcomes diners to Sun Moon Place
When Wan Chai’s American Restaurant shut up shop in 2018, it left a hole in Hong Kong’s dining scene.
For 68 years, it was the go-to place for large groups of noisy diners - many of them expats - keen to tuck into the restaurant’s northern Chinese fare (the name came about due to the American naval presence near to where it opened on the Wan Chai Road in 1950). Think tried-and-tested favourites like Peking duck with steaming pancakes, sizzling Sichuan prawns and spicy shredded Mongolian beef pockets.
It was bright, brash and the menu never changed. And since its closure, nothing has quite replaced it.
However, a plucky contender is the recently opened Sun Moon Place on Ship Street. An Epicurean hospitality group restaurant, Sun Moon Place channels the nostalgia for twentieth century Hong Kong dining targeting locals, expats and tourists with what it describes as ‘affordable Chinese comfort food’.
Classic northern Chinese cuisine, also known as Peking or Beijing cuisine, reached a peak of popularity in Hong Kong in the 1980s with a surge in Peking-style restaurants opening in the city.
Sadly, since then most of Hong Kong’s iconic Peking dining institutions have vanished, notes Epicuriean Group’s Candice Cheung. “These historic venues not only celebrated the authentic flavours of Peking cuisine but also represented Hong Kong’s rich culinary heritage.”
According to Cheung, the group is committed to reviving northern Chinese dining traditions at Sun Moon Place and has worked to bring together Peking cuisine experts with more than 40 years of experience working in Hong Kong’s most storied Peking restaurants. Staff resume credits include the infamous American Restaurant, as well as Pine & Bamboo Peking Restaurant and Sun Hung Cheung Hing Peking Restaurant, all go-to destinations for Hong Kongers back in the day looking for a fun and satisfying dining experience.
Locating such a restaurant on Wan Chai’s bustling Ship Street is a good start and Sun Moon Place stands out from the crowd with a bright, retro-style frontage, a nod to the city’s now mostly disappeared neon sign heritage. The restaurant is located on the first floor and it’s a good start to the evening to find that even early on a slow Tuesday, most tables are occupied by chattering groups of diners.
The menu, designed to reflect Hong Kong’s Peking dining heyday, offers almost 200 classic dishes. Most come as small, medium or large plates, depending on the size of the dining group.
I am tucking in at the invitation of Epicurean’s press relations department. I've brought my teenage son along but unfortunately my husband, rather selfishly, doesn’t have a job that allows him to swan along to restaurants at five o'clock on a weekday afternoon. Harry, on the other hand, is more than keen to escape his GCSE revision.
We start with sliced pig knuckle and preserved smoked chicken. Both are served as cold dishes and Harry rapidly hoovers up the moreish chicken. Also known as Shangdong roasted chicken, this is a classic recipe using a yellow chicken marinated in spices and soy sauce for several hours and then steamed. Other starters on the menu include mock goose, sizzling mutton with spring onion and fried egg rolls.
Our meat starters are followed by a steaming hot, nurturing bowl of won ton chicken soup.
The harried duck chef has been taunting us all evening with roasted birds being rolled out of the kitchen but never quite in the direction of our table. Eventually our Barbecued Peking Duck ($308 for half, $468 for a whole bird, allow 40 minutes for preparation when ordering) is wheeled over and ceremoniously carved. The crispy skin and juicy meat slices are served with piles of warm pancakes along with shredded Beijing leek, sliced cucumber, fermented bean sauce and a traditional dipping bowl of fine sugar. We are also served with fried shredded beef which we stuff into fresh-baked sesame pockets. Harry quickly declares this as the best item on the menu (even better than the duck? I ask. Maybe, he ponders).
Next comes a mixed vegetable chopped suey with egg in Peking style which is a riff off a traditional Beijing dish and consists of a delicious parcel of hot shredded vegetables and meat encased in omelette-style cooked eggs.
We finish with mashed red bean souffle balls and banana and caramelised apple covered in spun sugar.
Replete and clutching various doggy bags, we grab a 'ding ding' home. Things move fast in Hong Kong, but then again, la plus ca change…
Sun Moon Place, Shop 1, G/F & 1/F, Pao Yip Building, 1-7 Ship Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong; call 2893 9686 or WhatsApp 6491 6792.
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