Food & Dining: Lan Fong Yuen

Image from allabouthongkong

The lengthy queue outside Lan Fong Yuen is one thing, the taste of the food is another thing. Some say that if a restaurant is popular enough, there is surely something great about it. As for this Lan Fong Yuen, I don't see how this statement makes any sense.

Packed with people
Image from Locky's English Playground

Maybe that rule only applies to restaurants and not Bing Sutt, or maybe it is just the price that attracts people, for less than $50, you can have a meal that is enough for an average office lady, but other than that, I really cannot find another explanation why there are so many people in this place.

Owner is an Alan Tam die-hard fan
Image from Locky's English Playground

Are they all serious fans of Alan Tam? Well, I'm not for sure.

Iced milk tea
Image from Locky's English Playground

For about $50 dollars, you can order a lunch set with iced milk tea, which is literally ice + milk + tea. How was the taste? I can't even remember it, this is how good it tasted. I have seen the milk-tea-ice cube that is provided at the branch in Tsim Sha Tsui when I tasted their Kaya Hong Kong-style French toast, but that didn't show up in my cup.

Spicy pork cubes (from can food), 3 chicken wings, a fried egg and noodles
Image from Locky's English Playground

I ordered spicy pork cubes (from can food), 3 chicken wings, a fried egg with noodles while my wife ordered chicken chop with noodles.

Image from Locky's English Playground

The look, looks like a world of mismatch has fallen upon the plates, it doesn't take a genius to see that they don't go well with each other. The taste, plain as water. The texture, well, I do know I was eating meat, so that's not bad, the spicy pork cubes freshly out from the can earned back a star, but the rest are mediocre.

So really, unless you want to experience the unexperienced, or you are a person who prefer retro style and have the ability to ignore food quality, then Lan Fong Yuen will be fine for you.

Will I ever return? I guess not. I've already given it two chances, and I have earned nothing but disappointments and some photos of Alan Tam album covers.

PS: the price of the food has gone up by 3 to 4-folds, as indicated by the old magazines stuck on the wall.


Scores:

Look:            ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Taste:            ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Smell:            ☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5

Textures:       ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Temperature: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Overall:         ★★☆☆☆ 10/25

Vocabulary:
Bing Sutt -- (n)[U] provides a lighter and more limited selection of food than cha chaan teng
mismatch -- (n)[C] an occasion when people or things are put together that are not suitable for each other:
mediocre -- (adj) disapproving not very good
retro -- (adj) imilar to styles, fashions, etc. from the past:
four-folds -- (n) 4 times

Resources:
Hong Kong's best bing sutt: Guide to old-school diners @ CNN
http://travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/none/bing-sutt-588428

Lan Fong Yuen @ Openrice
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=1814&tc=bc

Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 2 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/01/food-search-for-great-hong-kong-style.html

Bing Sutt @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Sutt#Variations

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/mismatch_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/mediocre?q=mediocre
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/retro_1?q=retro