Restaurant: Ho Kee Cafe
Location: 558 Las Tunas Dr, Arcadia, CA 91007. (626) 822-3399
Date: December 29, 2019
Cuisine: Hong Kong Chinese
Rating: Quite good
The last Sunday of 2019, the last trip to the SGV, the last (restaurant) Chinese meal of the year…
Skylar arranged this banquet at Ho Kee Cafe in Arcadia, ordering a bunch of off menu dishes.
The decor is fairly modern.
Our menu was all in Chinese.
And we had this cute private room all to ourselves.
Salty peanuts on the table.
Pork belly with tangy jellyfish — first rate jellyfish, snappy with a great marinated flavor.
Hoisin and sugar to use on the pork.
Causeway style crab — salty and garlicky. Had to crunch thru shells but they were soft enough.
The house collected the garlic afterward so we could snack on it.
House special lobster — excellent — on tasty garlic noodles.
Succulent shrimp with celery — very delicate and nice with good textural contrast.
Vegetables featuring lily roots, mushrooms, greens, and oyster mushrooms — very nice actually.
Lily Snails — but I think was actually conch — crunchy. Attractive plating.
Ginger steamed turbot — very delicate.
Sesame 100 flower chicken — layered with shrimp paste — nice.
Sliced Peking duck — served with buns.
Duck meat and sweet sauce — nice meat, not as boney as some and very moist.
French Style Beef — one of the most succulent and tender I’ve had.
A-choy with garlic — good.
Typhoon Fried rice — a touch dry. Used the same seasonings as the lobster (in theory).
I was winding down gelato production for the year and so the freezers were already off but I did have this large bowl of fresh Sweet Milk Gelato Chocolate Mousse that Jerome and I made a day or so before. This is serious chocolate mousse made with classic French technique and Valrhona chocolate.
The gang.
Overall, Ho Kee Cafe was very good. Pretty similar to Cantonese. Plating was very attractive, service great, and kitchen execution excellent. A fitting way to finish out a year filled with lots of great Chinese food!
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