Chinese Herbal Soup @ Hung Fook Tong 鸿福堂

Today I had the most terrible meal I've had in Shenzhen for a very long time. It was a total rip-off in my opinion. The family went to Coastal City which is the most posh mall you can find on the western side of Shenzhen. And getting hungry, we hopped into this small eatery which I have never tried before. It served a mix of Chinese herbal soup and dishes along with organic food. On paper, it sounds like a winning formula. Very healthy eating. I have passed this place by for two years since the mall opened and I've never once walked in. And for good reason why, as I was soon to discover.

The first item on the table was my soup. I ordered mutton with danggui and ginger soup (当归生姜炖羊肉汤). A perfectly great soup for winter as it warms the body nicely. I have taken this soup elsewhere and I rather like it. My first sip was one of utter disappointment. This is like drinking tap water! The soup portion was generous but the taste was terrible. Or rather, there wasn't any taste in it. What a waste of 45 RMB!



The next dish to arrive was the fried noodles (干烧伊面). And it was slightly better. Only slightly. Apart from rather ungenerous portions of noodles and nothing else apart from 6 thin slices of mushroom, it at least tasted a bit better than my soup.



Next came my main course, beef and radish stew with rice (清汤萝卜牛腩饭). My god, my day just got worse. All I could taste of the stew was salt. No flavour of the beef, let alone the mild sweetness from radish when it is stewed. And the plate of rice came and it could not decide it was rice or porridge. It turned out to be a mix of both. No photos of the rice here, as at this point, I was totally fed up with my meal.



The only bright spot in the day was the hard boiled egg cooked in tea (茶叶蛋). That, I must admit, was good. It was fragrant and I would like to say it saved the day, but it didn't.



On the whole, this restaurant is terrible and I wonder how they survived for so long. I guess you could go there for the tea eggs. Here are the details of the place, in case you want to try in spite of my experience.

The address:
Hung Fook Tong, Basement 1 just outside the Jusco Supermarket, Coastal City Shopping Mall, Nanshan District, Shenzhen. 深圳南山区文心五路海岸城负一楼吉之岛超市外



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