Peking Garden in Star House, Tsimshatsui,
Hong Kong, is
celebrating its 40th
anniversary with a complete revamp. Opened in 1978, Peking Garden is Maxim Chinese Cuisine’s longest-standing and most
acclaimed
provincial cuisine restaurant.
“We are offering a new dining experience that caters to the evolving need of our customers, while remainining true to our heritage. Peking Garden is about showcasing traditional recipes and craftsmanship, but now with refined, modern presentations,” says Martin Lee, COO, Maxim’s Chinese Restaurants and m.a.x. Concepts.
Peking Garden in Star House is one of the only restaurants in Hong Kong to offer dishes inspired by Beijing’s Imperial cuisine, characterised by its elaborate detail and craftsmanship. Many dishes are exclusive to the Star House outlet. A signature dish is sautéed prawn with scallop and sea whelk in chilli sauce, served on a hand-carved dragon, the symbol of power and strength in imperial China. Each dragon takes up to five hours to carve by hand.
Another delicacy is cucumber in lime, pomelo and chilli sauce (揚州龍青瓜), which showcases the knife skills of Peking Garden’s chefs. The dish is created from over 100 slices taken from a single cucumber.
Not-to-be-missed is Peking Garden’s signature barbecued Peking duck. To cater to customer demand for less oily food, the chefs choose the finest of leaner young ducks and roast them in a way that ensures there is less oil. Each duck comes with thin, crispy skin and tender meat, accompanied by seafood sauce, cucumber, scallions and pancakes. Guests who would like to have the duck two ways can choose from boiled duck bone soup with vegetables or sautéed minced duck meat with lettuce cups. Peking Garden also has a card with a backgrounder on Peking duck, including instructions on how enjoy eat it.
The Instagram generation will love the modern presentations of some of Beijing’s most loved dishes. Peking Garden’s beggar’s chicken (富貴雞) is presented inside an elaborately carved chicken filled with abalone, whelk and mushroom. A guest is invited to crack open the chicken with a large golden hammer before serving. Each chicken comes with a special mini golden hammer and diners can take away a Polaroid photo as a souvenir. The deep-fried Mandarin fish in sweet and vinegar sauce is just as Instagrammable. Crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside, it is crafted to resemble a fish jumping out of the water.
The contemporary chic interiors are one of the highlights of the new Peking Garden. Featuring elements from Beijing culture and inspired by the city’s iconic hutongs (胡同), the modern new design blends heritage with sophisticated chic. The restaurant comes together like a traditional Beijing courtyard house, with different areas each with their own distinctive character and furniture.
The main dining room features sweeping panaromas of Victoria Harbour and the Symphony of Lights and an open kitchen so guests can see firsthand how the ducks are carved. For more intimate affairs, the new Peking Garden also features a new collection of private rooms catering to groups of eight to 36 guests. Each of the five rooms features a different theme to cater for different types of celebration.
On entering Peking Garden, guests will see The Return of Spring, a famous artwork resulting from the collaboration of over 10 renowned contemporary Chinese painters and calligraphers such as Zhu Qizhan, Li Kuchan, Chen Dayu, Huang Zhou, Zhang Xinjia and Shufang Xiao. The piece, celebrating the end of winter and the glories of the coming spring, took over a year to create. It was finished by 20 Suzhou embroidery artists who used more than 1,000 different coloured silk threads. Su style embroidery is characterised by delicate work that splits one silk strand into thinner threads, in this case up to 48 strands.
The famous la mian (拉面, hand-pulled noodles) gets its own show too. Every evening at 8.30pm, one of Peking Garden’s master chefs will demonstrate the art of making Beijing la mian, transforming dough into hundreds of long thin strands of noodles within minutes through repeated stretching, twisting and folding. Noodles are a symbol of longevity – the longer the noodles, the better the luck – so the art of hand-pulling noodles is highly coveted.
Peking Garden is also dedicated to promoting Chinese tea culture and will be launching nightly performances that incorporate the use of a long-spout teapot and elements of dance and martial art to pour water at exactly the right temperature into teacups, often from a distance. The show will be performed by a Sichuan tea master certified as a tea-art specialist, and will commence by the end of the year.
Details:
Peking Garden Star House is located at 3/F, Star House,
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Call +852 2735 8211 for reservations.
“We are offering a new dining experience that caters to the evolving need of our customers, while remainining true to our heritage. Peking Garden is about showcasing traditional recipes and craftsmanship, but now with refined, modern presentations,” says Martin Lee, COO, Maxim’s Chinese Restaurants and m.a.x. Concepts.
 |
| Source: Peking Garden. sautéed prawn with scallop and sea whelk in chilli sauce. |
Peking Garden in Star House is one of the only restaurants in Hong Kong to offer dishes inspired by Beijing’s Imperial cuisine, characterised by its elaborate detail and craftsmanship. Many dishes are exclusive to the Star House outlet. A signature dish is sautéed prawn with scallop and sea whelk in chilli sauce, served on a hand-carved dragon, the symbol of power and strength in imperial China. Each dragon takes up to five hours to carve by hand.
 |
| Source: Peking Garden. Cucumber in lime, pomelo and chilli sauce. |
Another delicacy is cucumber in lime, pomelo and chilli sauce (揚州龍青瓜), which showcases the knife skills of Peking Garden’s chefs. The dish is created from over 100 slices taken from a single cucumber.
Not-to-be-missed is Peking Garden’s signature barbecued Peking duck. To cater to customer demand for less oily food, the chefs choose the finest of leaner young ducks and roast them in a way that ensures there is less oil. Each duck comes with thin, crispy skin and tender meat, accompanied by seafood sauce, cucumber, scallions and pancakes. Guests who would like to have the duck two ways can choose from boiled duck bone soup with vegetables or sautéed minced duck meat with lettuce cups. Peking Garden also has a card with a backgrounder on Peking duck, including instructions on how enjoy eat it.
The Instagram generation will love the modern presentations of some of Beijing’s most loved dishes. Peking Garden’s beggar’s chicken (富貴雞) is presented inside an elaborately carved chicken filled with abalone, whelk and mushroom. A guest is invited to crack open the chicken with a large golden hammer before serving. Each chicken comes with a special mini golden hammer and diners can take away a Polaroid photo as a souvenir. The deep-fried Mandarin fish in sweet and vinegar sauce is just as Instagrammable. Crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside, it is crafted to resemble a fish jumping out of the water.
The contemporary chic interiors are one of the highlights of the new Peking Garden. Featuring elements from Beijing culture and inspired by the city’s iconic hutongs (胡同), the modern new design blends heritage with sophisticated chic. The restaurant comes together like a traditional Beijing courtyard house, with different areas each with their own distinctive character and furniture.
 |
| Source: Peking Garden. A private room. |
The main dining room features sweeping panaromas of Victoria Harbour and the Symphony of Lights and an open kitchen so guests can see firsthand how the ducks are carved. For more intimate affairs, the new Peking Garden also features a new collection of private rooms catering to groups of eight to 36 guests. Each of the five rooms features a different theme to cater for different types of celebration.
On entering Peking Garden, guests will see The Return of Spring, a famous artwork resulting from the collaboration of over 10 renowned contemporary Chinese painters and calligraphers such as Zhu Qizhan, Li Kuchan, Chen Dayu, Huang Zhou, Zhang Xinjia and Shufang Xiao. The piece, celebrating the end of winter and the glories of the coming spring, took over a year to create. It was finished by 20 Suzhou embroidery artists who used more than 1,000 different coloured silk threads. Su style embroidery is characterised by delicate work that splits one silk strand into thinner threads, in this case up to 48 strands.
The famous la mian (拉面, hand-pulled noodles) gets its own show too. Every evening at 8.30pm, one of Peking Garden’s master chefs will demonstrate the art of making Beijing la mian, transforming dough into hundreds of long thin strands of noodles within minutes through repeated stretching, twisting and folding. Noodles are a symbol of longevity – the longer the noodles, the better the luck – so the art of hand-pulling noodles is highly coveted.
Peking Garden is also dedicated to promoting Chinese tea culture and will be launching nightly performances that incorporate the use of a long-spout teapot and elements of dance and martial art to pour water at exactly the right temperature into teacups, often from a distance. The show will be performed by a Sichuan tea master certified as a tea-art specialist, and will commence by the end of the year.
Details:
Peking Garden Star House is located at 3/F, Star House,
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Call +852 2735 8211 for reservations.
