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    Home » Cuisine

    Roots Wan Chai - Modern Cantonese French cuisine

    Published: Mar 3, 2020 by Jennifer Che

    Roots Wan Chai

    You can get almost any type of food in Hong Kong - everything from French cafes and sushi flown in from Japan to local Chinese street noodle carts and FIVE GUYS. However, whenever friends visit from out of town, we like to show them restaurants that are unique to Hong Kong.

    Roots is definitely a twist on the traditional Cantonese fare that is prevalent throughout Hong Kong. Chef Stephanie Wong takes French cooking techniques executes traditional Cantonese fare using a blend of Eastern and Western ideas and ingredients. It's a very unique cuisine that you may not even fully appreciate unless if you really know traditional Hong Kong dishes.

    Roots Wan Chai

    Chef Stephanie Wong took a slightly unusual path, working as a banker at HSBC for almost a decade before deciding to pursue her love of the culinary arts. She traveled to France to work with Alaine Ducasse before coming back to Hong Kong to work at places such as Amber.

    She opened her own place, Roots, after a successful run as a pop-up in PMQ. Her new menu at Roots is playful, creative, and most definitely expresses the uniqueness of Hong Kong through her creative lens.

    Starters

    • Roots Wan Chai
    • Roots Wan Chai

    Starters are fun, such as the salted egg yolk tofu toast with shaved white truffles (left - HKD198) or comte cheese gourgeres topped with kale chips, Iberico ham, and a mountain of cheese (right - HKD128).

    Roots Wan Chai
    Roasted heirloom root vegetable salad HKD98

    Rice

    The restaurant is called "Roots" and to me it sort of holds a double meaning. Stephanie is reaching back into her Cantonese roots while literally serving "roots" on her menu. This was another favorite dish of mine. Not only were the flavors of the roasted root vegetables refreshing and healthy, I loved the artful plating with the paper-thin cauliflower petals.

    Roots Wan Chai
    Summer corn and asparagus risotto, black bean chive oil

    Meat and Seafood

    Roots Wan Chai
    Roasted French Spring Chicken, glutinous rice HKD288

    Out of all the dishes we tried, the Roasted French Spring Chicken glutinous rice was definitely the one that impressed us the most. The chicken was delicious and the glutinous rice had a lovely crispy bottom that was addictive.

    Roots Wan Chai
    Rib eye, jus, salted egg yolk crumble, broccolini, potato confit (200g) HKD368

    Several dishes incorporate salted duck egg, an umami-filled Hong Kong staple that is often used to add flavor to dishes in Cantonese cuisine. Th steak was solid, though overall this dish was less interesting than others.

    Roots Wan Chai
    Spotted grouper en papilote with black bean,
    champagne sauce, summer corn, haricot verts HKD308

    Here, a classic Cantonese favorite fish (grouper) is cooked in a very traditional French style. (to be honest, I prefer grouper prepared the traditional Cantonese style, simply steamed with ginger, scallions, soy sauce), but this one was fine.)

    Dessert

    Roots Wan Chai
    Salted egg yolk tart HKD48

    The salted egg yolk tart has a traditional French crust, salted egg infused custard, and is brûlée at the top, a nod to the Macanese or Portuguese egg tart.

    General Thoughts - Roots Wan Chai

    We fell in love with this place the first time we came. We especially were smitten with the roasted chicken over glutinous rice, which we thought was really special, reminding us of "bao zai fan" 煲仔飯 or Chinese claypot rice. I also loved the roasted heirloom roots salad, an promised to myself that I would order it again. We have since returned a few more times and tried a few more dishes. Our favorites remain. On one visit execution of the dishes wasn't quite as good as we remembered, but we hope that it was an off night in the kitchen.

    All in all, we have enjoyed the creative dishes at Roots, which are a bit different than many of the other restaurants in the Wan Chai area. Definitely worth checking out!

    Roots Wan Chai
    7 Sun St, Wan Chai
    HONG KONG

    Hong Kong Restaurants
    Le Garcon Saigon Wan Chai
    Morty's Delicatessen Wan Chai
    Sushi Masataka Wan Chai

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    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen
    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen

    Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am an expat who moved from Boston to Hong Kong 5 years ago. Born and raised in Ohio to Taiwanese immigrant parents, I am a chemistry nerd, patent attorney by day, blogger by night, church musician on weekends, and food enthusiast always. Feel free to explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!

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