Situated in the Intercontinental hotel in Salisbury Road, Yah Toh Heen serves Cantonese cuisine, the restaurant having opened in 1984. Its kitchen is run by Lau Yiu Fai, who joined the hotel in 1980 when it first opened, and worked his way up through the ranks, becoming executive chef in 2001. From the main entrance of the hotel, enter the lobby and turn left, follow the corridor to the right and you will see a flight of stairs leading down to the dining room. The room itself faces the harbour, with an attractive view over the water for those with window seats. The dining room is carpeted and had plenty of natural light, the tables large and well spaced.
Crab and prawn spring rolls (HK$ 60) had crisp batter and plenty of flavour in the filling (15/20). Steamed barbecued pork dumplings (HK$ 54) were superb, very light indeed and with well flavoured sweet pork filling; this dish is a dim sum classic, but it is very rare indeed for it to be executed this well (17/20). Seafood dim sum (HK$ 158) came as a trio: crab, scallop and grouper dumplings, each very delicate and with plenty of seafood flavour, for example the scallop having lovely sweetness (16/20).
Wok-fried prawns with white asparagus (HK$ 380) had sweet prawns that were lightly cooked and served in a delicate crispy potato net. The asparagus was precisely cooked, served with a few diced vegetables - a very enjoyable dish (16/20). Gai lan (HK$ 88) with garlic was lightly steamed and had good quality vegetables that were cooked accurately and were nicely enhanced by the flavour of the garlic (16/20). Finally, lotus leaf rice (HK$ 75) had nicely defined grains of rice, the lotus leaf layer sealing in the cooking aromas until it was unwrapped.
Service was very good indeed, our waitress helpful and friendly. The bill came to HK$ 1,401 for two persons, having just tea and fruit juice to drink, which works out at £54 a head. If you came for dinner and shared a moderate bottle of wine then a realistic bill would be around £80 a head. Overall this was a very good meal indeed, showing considerable skill in the kitchen.
Andy R
My wife and I dined here in Nov 2017 and had one of the tasting menus. The food was pleasant but unexceptional - maybe half of the dishes 1 star quality, the rest passable. A wonton soup had pieces of seriously overcooked lobster in an almost tasteless broth. In contrast a braised abalone was tender and flavourful. Service was pleasant and well-meaning but overly fussy. At one stage five different people walked past and topped up my wine in a 5 minute period without me having taken a single sip. My main criticism was the speed with which the dishes arrived. It took an age for them to take our order and for the service to start, but then the whole tasting menu was served in 65 minutes. One dish arrived whilst we were half way through the previous one. Remember, this was a sequential tasting menu, not a traditional family-style Cantonese service. At the eye-watering price you expect faultless service and to make a full evening of the experience.
David W
Superior to Lung King Heen in my (limited) opinion. Very enjoyable meal.