Lok Yuen King of Beef Balls restaurant in Hong Kong

I found some forgotten picture of my previous trip to Hong Kong and realised I’d forgotten to review this restaurant I stumbled across in Fa Yuen St. Mongkok, Hong Kong.

It was approaching evening and I was tired of roast meats and wanted something different. I can only read minimal Chinese so the only word I recognized on the sign was “beef”. But the crowds of people entering and leaving the shop told me this had to be something special so I had to see what all the fuss was about.

Lok Yuen turns out to be a pretty famous little restaurant in Hong Kong specializing in beef balls filled with fish maw and soup. Well, I did not know that when I was there so I failed to order the house speciality. But I did order something else quite interesting.

I didn’t know what to order, so I had beef noodles or “ngau lam fun”. It was just ok to me – the soup was tasty but it lacked the oomph! of others I have tried in Hong Kong. Of course I now know its not their specialty but I didn’t know then!

We also had a noodle with mixed beef and fish balls. I reckon I must have been served with the regular beef balls because these beef balls were solid. They were nice, not as strong smelling as beef balls usually are, and quite large. The fish balls were so-so.

After our order came, we noticed on the table, a recommended specialty of beef balls with sharks fin (HKD36 = RM18 for 4) so of course we had to try it. No lectures please, we all have our own views on this.

Now these might be what this restaurant is famous for – beef balls with filling. The beef ball is hollow in the middle, and there is a piece of fish maw in it with some shreds of what is supposed to be sharks fin, and a clear broth.

The sharks fin is barely noticable and you must be very careful not to burn your tongue biting into the beef ball. My dining partner wasn’t so careful and I had broth squirted all over my face – not funny I assure you!

The beef balls were springy but not all that special to my mind. It is something different to try in Hong Kong though. One does get tired of eating roast meats and dim sum all the time. I’d recommend this place if you’ve never tried it before, for the novelty factor. However, I’m not sure if I’ll return because it is very expensive.

Bit of trivia: Apparently Lok Yuen’s springy beef balls inspired the Steven Chow movie God of Cookery – but I haven’t seen that one either LOL…

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