You can Canton Chef Khor Eng Yew, Executive Chinese Chef at Summer Palace, to keep the restaurant on a tight track of expertly executed Cantonese classic dishes while also delivering enough new ideas to keep things interesting.
Though his background isn't Hong Kong, this may be an advantage in that he has both more zeal for authenticity than many and more passion for pushing the boundaries.
A native of Kuala Lumpur, he's been cooking since 1995 in five-star kitchens in KL, the Philippines and Dubai and finished top at a 'World Culinary Contest' in Taipei.
If you get a chance to talk to him, you quickly realize that his knowledge runs deep and broad and his enthusiasm is boundless. You might say that he is almost as big a draw as the sumptuously appointed restaurant itself.
It's a large (250 covers/10 private rooms!) and beautiful restaurant with classic décor, a golden glow and large canvass art like a Chinese Monet might have painted. Precious porcelain pieces rub shoulders with white urns sprouting red grasses. The intricately patterned carpeting is so thick you could fall asleep on it and dark wood, red velvet upholstered chairs are more like thrones. But it isn't ostentatious and the chandeliers are reassuringly unpretentious.
It does, though, look expensive and it is a good place to splurge. However, it's weekday and weekend all you can eat dim sum lunches are priced to compete with all the nearby malls and you can dine handsomely without breaking the bank if you steer clear of rarities.
The regular weekday dim sum menu is pretty amazing with nearly 30 versions, five soups, two vegetable dishes, three congee dishes, four fried rice and noodles dishes and even two main courses, plus an unusually large dessert selection.
No one could possibly eat one of everything. Nor could four people together. But if you push your limit you will uncover some real treasures — like Chef Khor's prawn mousse, fresh coriander cooked with wheat flour, and affixed with toasted almonds. With a little mayo underneath and mango salsa on top, and a festive garnish of micro greens and wolf berries, these explode with fishy, sweet and nutty flavour.
Khor also claims as his own invention deep-fried smoked salmon dumplings with wasabi, shallot and ginger sauce, wrapped in light crispy dough: also very moreish!
Another recommendation is spinach dumplings with fresh spinach worked into the dough, stuffed with steamed prawn and garlic.
Summer Palace does the classics brilliantly too, including shiu mai dim sum which here is premised on finest pork tenderloin blended with fresh shrimp and adorned with shrimp roe.
Another dim sum is packed with crab meat, fish and shrimp with a tricorn garnish of finely diced jelly-soft wood fungus, carrot and crab.
Then there are powder puffs stuffed with emmental cheese combined with chicken meat and mushroom and wrapped around crab claws, then deep fried in a crispy casing of tarot, offered with plum sauce for dipping, also take some beating.
Ha Gaow, the little white dumplings stuffed with lightly seasoned fresh prawns (everyone's favourite, no?) are also expertly produced and absolutely delicious.
The restaurant's stir-fried chicken wings, thickly coated in a BBQ sauce that borrows A1 and HP sauces, are addictive. The wings are boneless (but not wingless!) and there's a lot of meat on them which is because they come from big, fat birds imported from China not the anorexic local varieties.
Also among the dim sum items is chilled marinated wood fungus with spicy Nippon sesame dressing, a chilly, jellified natural delight that is also believed to have antioxidant properties.
Summer Palace also distinguishes itself with its own dipping sauce, a mildly spicy Chinese salsa, if such a thing existed, which it calls Shanghai Sauce. There's tomato, chilli, garlic, shallot and what not with seasoning and it goes just as perfectly with meat or seafood, even abalone if you're pushing the boat out that far.
Szechuan soup is a good bell weather of any Chinese restaurant and Khor again gets full marks. The stock is created with chef's own Szechuan chilli paste, Szechuan pepper corn oil and white pepper for fragrance. You can be sure your bowl is fresh because the solid ingredients — soft white tofu, fish maw, shredded chicken, mushroom, bamboo shoots — are added just before serving.
One of the restaurant's signature dishes is its Peking Duck — a very fine production featuring very lean and crispy skin and a standout sweet black bean and hoisin sauce reduced for three hours to get the right gooey consistency.
A more unique signature dish is chef's Alaskan king crab — stacks of shapely legs in a mild chili and tomato sauce served with mini steamed buns with which to wipe up the luscious gravy.
We also tried the excellent pork stir fried with sweet and sour sauce and green vegetable. The pork is first barbecued to get the crispy crackling before being stir fried with the sauce.
As mentioned the dessert selections are much better than usual, including Chilled Chinese pear with sweet and sour plum syrup. This is another clever dish with the pear infused with Chinese plum flavour and the soup textured with snow fungus, wolf berries and gingko nuts. Delicious.
The weekend editions add Steamed scallop and spinach dumpling; Deep-fried chicken, black pepper and onion pancake; Steamed pork spare ribs with Yunnan ham; Steamed Chinese pork sausage and bacon rice roll; Baked barbecued pork pastry with Parmesan cheese; Chilled glutinous Tiramisu coated with grated coconut, and more.
Saturday and Sunday sessions are further enhanced with live Gu Zheng (like a Thai kim only the strings are plucked with the fingers) playing. But the background classical Chinese music is as fine as the food on any day.
Chef Khor prides himself on his in-house barbecue, including an amazing tasting plate of roasted duck, crispy whitebait and barbecued pork with jellyfish salad. Not to mention his monk jumps over the wall soup, that superior soup of abalone, shark's fin, fish maw, sea cucumber and chicken.
It is also worth noting that Summer Palace respects the essentials of Cantonese cuisine to the point of maintaining its own aquaria to keep its lobsters, king prawns, crabs and what not live before serving in prime condition. As for cooking styles, they range classic stir-fried fish or scallops with XO sauce, and wok fried prawn skewers with asparagus in Sichuan garlic sauce.
In fact for authentic Cantonese cuisine with some creative enhancements in a sumptuous setting, Summer Palace ticks all the boxes and more.
All-You-Can-Eat Dim Sum Lunch.
Monday — Friday at price Baht 688++.
Saturday — Sunday at price Baht 988++.
Lunch: 11:30 - 14:30 hours.
Dinner: 18:30 - 22:30 hours.
SUMMER PALACE Mezzanine level, InterContinental Bangkok 973 Phloenchit Road Tel. 02 656 0444 ext. 6434
