Unauthorized

This restaurant is located on the penthouse level of a building in which every floor is packed with restaurants. We enjoyed a sensational, classic Cantonese meal with my favorite dishes being the grouper in soy sauce, roasted chicken and noodles with shredded pork. I also liked the winter melon soup with crab meat, a delicacy of both Hong Kong and this restaurant. I could not get used to the combination of flavors in the fish bladder with pigeon egg. I am not a big abalone fan and the dried abalone with broccoli was just plain weird for my palate.

The wines were largely disappointing, from a corked 1995 l’Eglise Clinet to a so-so 1982 Pontet Canet (produced long before they started making first-growth quality wines). However, a South African Cabernet Sauvignon from Boekenhoutskloof saved the day. It is a complex, elegant red offering notes of cedarwood, black currants, forest floor and herbs. We finished with the sweet 2000 Tokai Oremus Five Putooynos from Hungary.

Guo Fu Lou’s impressive wine list is deep in many areas, primarily French wines, but they also have a nice selection from South Africa, Australia, Italy and other countries. The food was of very high quality, and though we got a little adventurous with the fish bladder and dried abalone, the rest of the dishes were superb.