Small Eats @ Kwan Kee

Kwan Kee
Shop 1, Wo Yick Mansion,
263 Queen's Road West
(Kwai Heung Street), Sai Wan

Welcome to another HK series of Small Eats! After craving for some authentic Cantonese experience and Clay Pot Rice, I was excited to search for a piece of "real deal HK". Today, I'll be introducing an established small shop that is secretly tucked around the corner of Kwai Heung Street. The long lines and amount of chatters infront of Kwan Kee already shows the popularity of this establishment of 16 years. Even before 7pm, every table inside the restaurant is filled. While that will most likely happen, there's around five-seven extra tables situated outside of the restaurant (for those who are lucky!). Now, we are not talking about nice seatings and clean tables. Dining etiquette is unnecessary here! Similar to Taiwan's night market and Hong Kong's Temple Street, the shop is mainly focused on good and cheap food (without the frills of nice seats, ambiance, and a/c). The staff here is pretty local, which means they don't speak any English. Since dinner hours are especially busy, it is recommended that you know exactly what you want before you call the server over.

Their signature dish is their Clay Pot Rice, and is available everyday after 6pm. The toppings come with a choice of ingredients such as lean pork sausage, eel, pork rib, salty fish, duck and chicken. We chose to try the lean pork sausage but unfortunately, was accidentally given the chicken instead :( The chicken was tasty too, but I have a feeling the sausages might be tastier. The Clay Pot Rice is added with toppings and recooked on the coal stove until all the juices from the ingredients seep and blend into the flavor of the rice. Taste: 3.5/5

Another notable dish is their Steamed Fish sprinkled with black beans, scallions, and spices. So delicious looking that two other tables next to ours wanted to know the name of the dish! The meat of the fish is very tender and juicy; and although it looks very salty from the sauce, it wasn't salty at all! Taste: 4/5

We also asked for their Cold Steamed Chicken, which seems to be so popular that it was sold out! I would recommend going to Kwan Kee thirty minutes before their opening time (6:00 pm) just so you can sit inside the shop and be able to try all their signature dishes before they run out. Your wouldn't want to miss out on this very inexpensive and authentic Cantonese shop!