Yung Kee Restaurant – Famous Hong Kong Roast Goose Cooked in Charcoal Fired Oven

It was evening and we were trying to locate the famous Yung Kee Restaurant along the colourful thoroughfare of Wellington Street in Central. We found it soon because it was pretty easy to spot this famous restaurant with its large logo and gold facade.

Yung Kee Restaurant

Yung Kee is an iconic 76-year old restaurant in Hong Kong famous for its delicious roast goose. This venerable restaurant has a longstanding culinary heritage and closely guards the family recipe for its roast goose. The goose is roasted in a traditional charcoal fired oven (the only one on Hong Kong Island), despite the high costs of maintaining the oven and its chimney. This is not just to preserve tradition but also to ensure the high quality of the roast goose. After reading so many raving online reviews about Yung Kee, we were pretty excited to check it out for ourselves!

While reading about the restaurant, I learned that there was actually a bitter family feud behind this family business. Below is a brief outline of the feud, compiled using various primary and secondary online sources.

History of Yung Kee

Yung Kee was founded by Mr. Kam Shui Fai in 1942, who taught himself the techniques of charcoal roasting when working as a kitchen helper. The restaurant saw much success and was even named as one of the Top 15 Restaurants in the World by Fortune magazine in 1968.

Mr. Kam died in 2004 and left the bulk of his company’s shares to eldest son Kinsen and second son Ronald.

The remaining shares went to other family members. However, they soon took sides and gave their shares to the respective brother they supported after the two brothers started fighting over control of the family business. Eventually, Ronald became the majority shareholder with a 55% stake while Kinsen held 45% of the shares.

In 2010, Kinsen went to court in a bid to sell his 45% stake to his younger brother for HKD950 million. Ronald rejected this offer, meaning the company would have to be liquidated. This was unless the brothers could work out something before the liquidation deadline of 16 Dec 2015.

In 2012, Kinsen died of cancer, but his family continued fighting the legal battle on his behalf.

In 2015, Kinsen’s son Hardy started “Kam’s Roast Goose” with the help of Chef Wong Kwan Sang. Wong had previously spent forty years working at Yung Kee.

As the liquidation deadline approached, Ronald offered Kinsen’s family HKD1.1 billion to buy out their shares and keep the family business going. However, Kinsen’s family refused and now demanded HKD1.3 billion instead.

By 16 Dec 2015, Kinsen’s family still had not agreed to Ronald’s offer. Hence, as the clock ticked past midnight, the court’s liquidation order officially came into effect on 17 Dec 2015. After 73 years, Yung Kee was set to be closed down.

This also meant that Yung Kee’s defining feature, the traditional charcoal oven, would be lost because the government no longer issues permits for this type of cooking equipment.

However, the good news was that Yung Kee did not have to shut its doors immediately, because the liquidation process would take a long period of time. Hence, Yung Kee is still around today (as of 2018) and you can still enjoy their delicious roast goose!

Well, that did sound a bit like a TVB drama plot no? I was a bit sad to read about this bitter family feud, but I guess there are bound to be problems when family members do business together. In this case, the problems escalated until they caused the demise of a decades old family business.

Ok enough of history lessons and back to our review!

Great Service and Wonderful Ambience

quick picture before digging in

Walking into Yung Kee, we were led upstairs to a waiting area on the second floor. After about 15 minutes, the two of us were given a big round table on the same floor.

We loved the ambience at Yung Kee! The classy Chinese restaurant has an elegant setting with marble tables, upholstered chairs and oriental decorations. The walls have good acoustic treatment so that it wasn’t noisy even though there was quite a number of diners. The restaurant was bright and spacious, with a convivial atmosphere that made it the perfect place to dine with family and friends.

Service was pretty good! Right from the start, the restaurant staff were all very polite to us and we did not experience any of the infamous Hong Kong bad customer service at all. And even though the restaurant was quite packed, we did not have any problems getting the staff’s attention.

On the downside, we had to wait about thirty minutes for our roast goose. However, this was not a big problem since we are Singaporeans who are used to waiting for food. And it was good that the staff informed us about the wait right from the start.

Signature Charcoal Roasted Goose

After waiting for slightly over half an hour, our Signature Charcoal Roasted Goose finally arrived! This dish set us back HKD335 because we ordered the quarter portion goose (HKD275) and requested for the goose leg (extra HKD60).

This was one costly roast goose, considering that it was just a quarter portion. But was it worth the money?

Well, first of all it definitely scored high on presentation. The goose leg was chopped up cleanly and arranged neatly on the plate. The skin was roasted to a nice golden brown and had an alluring glistening texture.

But would the goose taste as good as it looked? I was about to find out as I eagerly picked up a piece and put it into my mouth.

It tasted great!

The roasted skin was crispy and juicy, and had a tantalising layer of fats beneath it. It was so sinful but tasted so good. I sank my teeth further into the meat, which was tender and moist with a pleasant meaty scent which permeated my palate. Together with the savoury marinade and tangy plum dipping sauce, this was one delicious roast goose!

Both of us finished the entire plate of meat in a hurry and drank some hot Jasmine Tea (HKD18) to wash down all the greasy goodness. After that, we slumped back on our chairs and rested for a while, feeling well-satiated.

Yung Kee Discount Voucher

If you are planning to check out the roast goose here, make sure you get the Yung Kee discount vouchers, which helps you save HKD55 for every HKD500 spent.

Conclusion

On the whole, we enjoyed our meal at Yung Kee very much! It had one of the best ambience among all the Hong Kong restaurants we visited. Service was great too. The signature roast goose was very delicious, and even though it was quite expensive we felt it was worth it taking into consideration the restaurant’s wonderful ambience and service. Yung Kee is a must-try if you are a foodie visiting Hong Kong! The restaurant is usually compared to “Kam’s Roast Goose”, though we didn’t have time to check out this rival restaurant.

Yung Kee Restaurant
What to order: Signature Charcoal Roasted Goose (HKD275 for quarter goose), Preserved Egg and Pickled Ginger (HKD15)
Address: 32-40號 Wellington St, Central, Hong Kong
Directions: Five-minute walk from Exit D2 of Central Station
Opening Hours: Daily 11am to 11.30pm
Phone: +852 2522 1624