Wanted to splurge on a classic Cantonese meal, since I'm in HK - capital of top-notch Cantonese cuisine.

Did some research and settled for a good, old, trusted established name, after reading glowing reviews by international press - NY Times inclusive! (Me = big sucker for reviews & NYT)

Was really disappointed when much awaited meal turned out less than spectacular. Okay, maybe I pinned too much hopes on the meal, expectations were primed and the bar was raised. But at HKD 1800 per person, I was honestly anticipating to be blown away! I mean, that's easily SGD 300, USD 230 down the drain! I supposed the dining scene in HK is much pricier than Singapore's. But it's a real heartache when I spend that amount of money on a less than stellar meal.

We ordered a dinner set meal which had the signature (!) dishes - shark's fins, abalone, crab gratin, roasted pigeon, roasted suckling pig, lotus rice and dessert of bird's nest - all served in small, individual portions. I have no gripes with the serving size cuz I'm not too big an eater and there were quite a few dishes after all. So basically the expensive stuff like shark's fin and abalone passed muster, but the other dishes, especially the roasted pigeon (isn't HK famed for its roasted meats and birds?) just lacked finesse.

The saving grace of the meal was the bird's nest dessert - nicely presented and generous servings double-boiled in a coconut with fragrant almond milk (or choice of coconut milk).

Quite a pity the food does not live up to the hype as the service was pretty good - polite, attentive and accommodating.

Still a bit perplexed why the restaurant managed to garner all the good reviews and why the usually gourmand Japanese can't seem to get enough of it - there are four branches in Japan. Hmm.. maybe I ought to check back on the dates of those reviews I read. Were they written back in Fook Lam Moon's bygone heydays? Or should I have eaten at the original Hong Kong outlet instead of this Kowloon outlet?