Last week we had the opportunity to try a new restaurant that's pretty close to our home. Daai Zaak (大宅), is a new Chinese restaurant in the Mira Moon hotel in between Causeway Bay and Wan Chai. Bryan remembers this hotel because back when we used to live in Boston, he would stay here when visiting Hong Kong because "it was the only Starwood hotel on the Island."
These days, we don't need to stay in a hotel anymore (of course!). Our apartment is close by, and thus we were more than happy to come try this place out (thank you Dai Zaak for setting this up!).
Chef Wu Zhenpei (吳震霈) helms Daai Zaak Mira Moon, which just opened on December 22, 2024. Chef Wu has more than 30 years' experience cooking at various high end restaurants throughout Hong Kong, as well as having served many celebrities, politicians and business leaders through being a private chef.
Daai Zaak focuses on rediscovering certain "lost flavors of ancient Chinese heritage" through the sharing of "exclusive, time-honored family recipes." The cuisine is a fusion of Cantonese and Fujian styles.
Daai Zaak Mira Moon - Tasting Menu (HK880)
We began with a tasting of three of their appetizers.
The Pickle Turnip with Green Sichuan Peppercorn Oil (青花椒醬油蘿蔔 ) was crunchy with a mild mala kick.
The Marinated Pear with Roselle Juice was surprisingly good. I am sometimes not a huge pear fan (especially if it looks "cooked" in a liquid) since I really don't enjoy mushy textures. I am a crunchy fruit loyalist, even at the expense of sweetness (which is often the case). In this case, however, the pear was light and crispy, and the roselle added a nice tart balance to the bite.
The Smoked Vegetarian Goose 煙燻素鹅 was made with tofu skin wrapped around carrots, celtuce, and mushroom. The whole dish was light and felt healthy and wholesome. It didn't really taste like goose at all, and I wasn't exactly sure why it was called "vegetarian goose."
The Seasonal fresh fruits skewer (冰鎮時果) came served in perhaps a slightly over-dramatic fashion with dry ice floating all over the place. Inside each crystal teardrop was a single fruit tomato filled with cream cheese and candied walnut. I found it to be a bit heavy and sweet (this early in the meal), but was thankful for the wine (dry Barbaresco), which helped balance out the bite.
Soup
Braised Fish Maw Soup with Sea Cucumber and Croaker (花膠海參黃魚羹)
This rich, nourishing soup was thick (full of collagen), not too salty at all, with dense, rich flavor resulting from fish maw, sea cucumber, vegetarian shark fin, Jinhua ham, morel mushrooms, and dried scallops slowly cooked under a long "double boil" for hours. The chef adds a Fujian twist to the traditional soup with the incorporation of 20-year-old Huadiao wine, Jinhua ham, pork tendon, and pigeon eggs. We also tasted a hint of orange peel, which added a bright and floral note to the umami laden soup.
Main Dishes
Braised crab cream & fresh crab claw, vegetarian shark's fin (蟹黃銀針燴蟹鉗 )
This dish is made using a lot of crab meat (he begins with 2 lbs of crab!), crab roe, vegetarian shark fin, and chicken broth. The overall flavor was delicious, full of rich flavors coming from the crab and chicken broth. If real shark fin would have adde any additional flavors, I didn't miss it here. The texture of the vegetarian shark fin was pretty much just like the real stuff.
Abalone with fermented rice sauce & pepper oil (乾燒麻香鮮鮑魚 )
I'd never had abalone stir fried in such a bold way with chilis at a Cantonese restaurant. I liked this version, which included heat, spice, and numbing elements from the Sichuan peppercorns. The wok hei plus generous use of scallions also added to the fragrant and very satisfying flavors in this dish.
Slow cooked wagyu with homemade sauce and pan fried rice rolls
I actually exclaimed out loud in surprise when I tasted this dish. The flavors of their secret "homemade sauce," was intensely flavorful. It was slightly sweet but had plenty of umami, and (I found out after the fact) is made with star anise, bay leaves, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. The wagyu short ribs are cooked sous vide at 65°C for hours, and were melt in your mouth tender.
I loved the pan-fried crispy rice rolls (腸粉) that accompanied this dish. So brilliant!
Pan Fried Marinated fish （生煎一夜鮮 ）
This whole fish was deep fried flat and served table side. The server helped us cut up the fish into about 8 pieces, which we enjoyed with wok-fired scallions and (another) special soy sauce. Eating a piece of fried fish together with some scallions plus the soy sauce really reminded me of Cantonese steamed fish, but with an added crunch.
Handmade noodle soup with cabbage & yunnan Ham （手功煨麵 ）
We ended with handmade "simmered" noodle soup. The texture of the noodles reminded me of pho, and I am guessing that they were rice noodles.
Slivers of napa cabbage were cut to be about the same width as the noodles, while the Yunnan ham was present in small bits throughout the flavorful (chicken, I think?) based stock.
Desserts
大宅追月 Daai Zaak signature large sesame dumpling
Daai Zaak's signature large sesame dumpling is meant to remind diners of a full moon representing the joy of a reunion. These fried sesame balls were made using a blend of sticky rice and rice flour, coated generously with sesame seeds and deep fried.
They served it with a light inside, really resembling the moon!
Below is a video of our server cutting it up. I really enjoyed this crunchy and chewy at the same time snack. Reminded me of mochi.
京城石獅子 Sesame ice cream in a lion shape
The lion shaped black sesame ice cream was impressive to look at, and tasted fine (but was probablyan icier texture than I typically prefer when it comes to for ice cream).
芋茸燉鮮奶 Double boiled milk with mashed taro
At this point we were getting pretty full, but I love double boiled milk, so I wanted to give this one a try. The flavors were nice. Although I typically love taro, I felt that it made this dish quite heavy, especially for the end of the night. Perhaps I would have preferred just a simple double skin milk without the heaviness of the taro.
General Thoughts for Daai Zaak Mira Moon
All in all, though, we enjoyed our meal a lot. My favorite bites would probably be the fish maw soup, braised crab, stir fried abalone, and wagyu + rice rolls. I also think the sesame ball is pretty fun, and might be fun for mochi lovers and/or to show visitors to Hong Kong who have never seen anything like it.
A tasting menu similar to the one we had will cost around HK$880. They also have a vegetarian tasting menu for HK$368, a simpler tasting menu for $488, and some fancy CNY menus for $1488, $3288. There's also an extensive a la carte menu where you can have more control over exactly what you eat.
All in all, good food, reasonable prices, and decently central location (though a bit off the beaten path between Wan Chai and Causeway Bay).
Daai Zaak Mira Moon
MIRA MOON
388 Jaffe Road,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
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