Tai Ping Koon Restaurant

Oh… TPK (Tai Ping Koon), just the mere mentioning of this restaurant makes me nostalgic of my mispent childhood as a young delinquent in Hong Kong. Our family used to visit the branch at Granville road for their famous Squab dinners, That was pretty much what everyone in our family ordered until I found out that they are also famous for their «Swiss Sauce» chicken wings, Beef Chow Fun (dry style), and the giant soufflé.
Since I didn’t grow up on their version of Beef Chow Fun and Soufflé, I wasn’t as enamored about these dishes as I am with the «Squab dinner». Which consists of the cream of bird’s nest soup, roasted squab, Portuguese Chicken rice (sometimes known as the Lisbon Rice) and a small cake (I seem to remember that it used to ice cream when I was a kid, but I could be wrong and misremembered a la Dubya Bush style).
TPK was started by a Chinese chef who used to cook for a western trading company before opening up shop in Tai Ping Sha of the Guangdong province way back in 1965 (this year will be their 150 anniversary!!). They are the ones who came up with the «Swiss» sauce which really is just sweet soy sauce (try saying «sweet sauce» with a racist Chinese accent very quickly, my dear AHmurikahn brethen). Yep, us Chinese were doing FUSION cuisine over 100 years before Wolfgang Puck and Nobu Matsuhisa started doing that in LA!!! lol
Here is a blow by blow if their more famous dishes: —
Cream of birds nest, one of the more curious fusion creation. Bird’s nest is really a nicer way of saying bird puke, a highly prized (and priced, at over $ 2,500 a kilo!!!) delicacy that is used most often in soups and dessert to provide a gelatinous texture and «exquisite flavour». I think the expensive bird puke is wasted in thick creamy concoction, I prefer it in light clear broth (I don’t like it in dessert either). However, a big part of consuming birds nest is being ostentatious. You can’t get more so other than using it to wipe your shoes.
Oxtail soup, very rich in flavour, I like it.
Green salad, sucks. The typical HK salad problem, no choice for salad dressing.
Chicken wings in Swiss sauce, the first wing is great, but it goes down hill from there as the sauce settles in your mouth, by the time you get through the third wing it becomes quite an ordeal to finish. Great if you have a couple of other people to share it with, otherwise avoid. Not really worth the price.
Squab in Swiss sauce, much better than the wings in my opinion. The squab has a gamier taste and it balances with the fairly strong Swiss sauce. It also is not quite as fatty as the wings. Well worth getting, I even prefer it to Cantonese style roast squab.
Pork slices in Swiss sauce, same problem as the chicken wings, but I like this because there is no bones to deal with. Unlike the wings or squab.
Chicken in Lisbon sauce with rice, my favourite dish here at TPK, nice creamy sauce with tender chicken over rice. I can eat this shit all day. A winner.
Beef chow fun done dry style. Another classic that is done well, not overly greasy like most other dum sum parlours or «tea restaurants» (茶餐廳). The Swiss sauce actually adds to the depths of the flavours of the chow fun. Beef slices very tender. Not as good as Laurel restaurant’s version (丹桂軒）in Shenzhen, which I consider the absolute BEST version on the ENTIRE earth. To bad I can’t write reviews for mainland china restaurants on Unilocal.That is a true pity.
Soufflé, while many other people rave about their monstrous sized soufflé, I was NOT impressed. The taste of egg is overpowering, to the point where it makes me want to gag, though the price tag forced me to continue wolfing it down. Not good. I prefer my soufflé in normal size and flavoured in chocolate or fruit with enough sugar to reduce the eggy taste. Yuck.
The wait staff are mostly older folks who have been with TPK for millenniums, not particular attentive but not overly surly either. The place is overpriced, but I will still go once or twice a year for the incomparable «squab dinner» just for nostalgia sake.
清倉令郎聽湯

I had heard about this place for ages before coming and had no idea what to think of it. Western-​style Chinese food? Lobster with cheese? What kind of crazy alchemist was behind such shenanigans?
A few weeks ago we arrived in Hong Honk… tired, jet-​lagged, and hungry and my husband’s family suggested we go to Tai Ping Koon as it was really close to our hotel and would be hearty comfort food. Finally! I get to see what this place is all about!
I must say the menu was vast and conjured up all kinds of ideas. Macoroni with ham, pasta with cheese, and there was plenty of seemingly traditional Chinese dishes mixed throughout including my husband’s favorite chicken fried rice of all time. We got several dishes to share, my choice was the baked rice with prawns au gratin. I had no idea what to expect and I was very pleasantly surprised by what arrived. It was, in fact, baked rice with giant juicy prawns topped with a béchamel sauce. Not quite sure what I expected but this was quite lovely. Oh, and the chicken fried rice WAS incredible!
The restaurant itself is like a time capsule. It’s been there forever and it shows, in a charming, lived in, full-​of-​character way.

Tai Ping Koon in Jordan has been here for a few decades and it’s probably one of the oldest restaurants in the neighborhood. I still remember coming here with my dad for the first time about 25 years ago. We ordered their signature fried flat rice noodles with beef to share. The dish was about $ 60ish back then, which was considered to be the most expensive fried noodles in Hong Kong back then. Today, the dish is sold for $ 112.
Tai Ping Koon is known for the colonialized Western food, like the Borsch soup, baked pork chop rice, Swiss sauce chicken wings and baked giant soufflé. For many Westerners, they might not even understand how this is even Western food. That’s why locals call it «Hong Kong-​style» food or «Chinese Western style» food. Ever wondered what is Swiss sauce? Some cheese sauce? Nope, it has no cheese in it. In Hong Kong, Swiss sauce actually means sweet soy sauce! Try repeating «sweet soy sauce» quickly a few times and you’ll know why! Hah!
I’m sure Tai Ping Koon is a very nostalgic place for many locals. It may be a place where your parents used to go when they were dating. It’s also a very nostalgic place for me as I used to go to school nearby when I was young. My grandmother or my dad would sometimes bring me here for lunch as a treat. Although I don’t come to Jordan as much these days, every now and then I would bring my parents here to reminisce the old times. The food still taste the same. The old staff are still as friendly as and polite as usual. It definitely makes you feel like home every time you come back.