Hei Yin, this week’s subject of review which humbly opened at Gaysorn Village a few weeks ago, is an absolute new face to Bangkok’s restaurant scene.
Very impressively, the 102-seater has added an eventful dynamic to the plaza as it provided to connoisseurs of Cantonese fare a brilliant new sensation.
I don’t usually get excited by the discovery of new Chinese eatery. But stepping into the sophisticatedly decked out Hei Yin for the first time, I can’t deny I was thrilled.
The restaurant, on the Monday that I visited, looked like an expensively and thoughtfully invested project that all of a sudden emerged on the shopping centre’s dreary 3rd floor.
I later learned that the venture had been polished up over the past two years with its launching delay due to the Covid-19 situation.
So as soon as its door opened to welcome diners, the fine dining Chinese restaurant was favourably received.
Authentic Cantonese cuisine prepared with prime ingredients, mostly imported from Hong Kong, is the speciality here.
The kitchen is run by executive chef Jackie Chan, together with sous chef and dim sum master Chan Pui Kwan and Chinese chef Tang Liyan — all are Hong Kong natives.
Hence all menu offerings are uncompromisingly Cantonese.
The presentation of some dishes might have a modern-day touch but the taste promises no-nonsense authenticity.
You cannot miss the restaurant’s super popular lunchtime dim sum, of which I found the pricing incredibly affordable considering its prime quality ingredients and upmarket location.
Among the best-selling options are steamed deluxe har gow shrimp dumplings (160 baht), fried jiaozi pork dumplings (150 baht), crispy bean curd skin roll with lobster bisque dip (150 baht) and Hong Kong egg tart (120 baht). All of them proved worth having.
One of my personal favourites was listed on the menu as rice noodle rolls with spring roll minced shrimp (220 baht). It features emerald green rice noodle coloured with spinach juice wrapped around a crispy deep-fried lacy spring roll with shrimp filling. This double-decker treat offered palate pleasure that cannot be missed.
All rice noodles for the roll are made fresh to the diner’s order and always warm, clingy and super soft.
And if you eat beef, I guarantee the rice noodle roll with the flavourful and highly-marbled Wagyu beef filling (250 baht) will make you purr with tastebud ecstasy.
I also liked was the scrumptious xiao long boa pork dumplings with crab roe (180 baht). The golden broth released into your mouth upon biting into the dumpling also added a soothing complement.
I also plan to return for the haam sui gok, or deep-fried glutenous dumplings with dried shrimp and pork (130 baht), and a bite-sized version of seafood with creamy fruit salad in crispy golden cup (150 baht).
Hei Yin’s kitchen also masters in barbecuing, another culinary signature of Cantonese cuisine.
Lychee wood-roasted Hong Kong style suckling pig (3,200 baht) and Peking duck (1,800 baht) are popular and should be ordered in advance.
Missing the chance to sample them that day, we thus settled on a minor option — the crispy roasted pork belly (550 baht).
It was a very good decision for the pork, cut into bite-sized cubes, possessed a paper-thin crusty skin while the meat offered a delicate chew that’s not overly fatty.
In the kitchen of a fine Cantonese restaurant, premium seafood is always an indispensable part.
Here, the inventory includes abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw and king crab as well as live crustaceans, fish and shellfish.
Our order of steamed red grouper in soy sauce proved to be truly order-worthy. The fish, fresh from the aquarium before being steamed with scallions and gingers in fine soy sauce, exhibited a supple and springy, glossy white flesh that almost bounced in my mouth.
Complementing the naturally sweet fish was a savoury sweet brown broth that tasted so delicate and subtle it was mopped up shortly after the fish was gone. The dish was offered upon market price, and the sizeable 800g fish that we had cost 3,360 baht.
Connoiseurs of shark’s fin are guaranteed with utmost satisfaction from chef Jackie’s mastery expertise.
An order of superior whole shark’s fin in supreme chicken broth (2,500 baht), a sharing pleasure among our party of four, was superb thanks to the soft fin that came bathed in a super soothing and flavoursome chicken broth thickened with the cartilage.
Another thing so lovely about the cuisine here is that a whole page in its dim sum lunch menu is dedicated to Hong Kong style noodle soup — quite uncommon for a fine dining Chinese restaurant, particularly in Bangkok.
The noodles are made fresh to authentic Cantonese recipes to showcase fine, pale-yellow strands with a characteristic resilient texture.
You can have the noodles in the piping hot broth with your choice of meat including char-siew Kurobuta pork, roast duck, soy chicken, shrimp dumplings and grouper fillet. Prices range between 300 baht and 350 baht per dish.
My kind of indulging noodle dish, however, was an offering from the a la carte menu.
Listed as braised goose web with egg noodles and abalone sauce in claypot (480 baht), the dish is a perfect marriage of the impressively springy — almost al dente — noodles and the soft and flavourful goose web.
The collagen-rich rubbery skin of the web was so soft it fell off the bone easily. This was a result of a laborious, several hours-long cooking that included deep-frying, braising and baking. To help add more flavour to the noodles was a savoury sweet abalone sauce.
Hei Yin’s selection of desserts, just like that of a typical refined Cantonese restaurant, is modest in size but complete with both soothing hot and refreshing options.
There are the likes of double-boiled fresh milk with egg white and black sesame (250 baht), chilled mango pudding (180 baht), guilinggao herbal jelly (180 baht) and black sesame dumplings in hot ginger soup (160 baht). I had the latter, and it was among the best-tasting I’ve come across.
The restaurant has four exquisitely decorated private rooms, to cater to groups of four to 20 persons.
During this soft opening period, the restaurant is opened only for lunch. A 20% discount on food is offered until Sunday.
- Hei Yin
- Gaysorn Village, 3rd floor
- 999 Phloenchit Road
- Call 02-253-8855/6
- Open daily, 11am-3pm
- Park at Gaysorn’s car park
- Most credit cards accepted
