Braised Beef Brisket Noodle Soup (紅燒牛肉湯麵) - Din Tai Fung (Causeway Bay) 鼎泰豐 (銅鑼灣)

Braised Beef Brisket Noodle Soup (紅燒牛肉湯麵) - HK$58

The Hungry Nobody score - 5/10

Flavorful meat, noodles are a little flat, but (un)fortunately the price is spicy hot.

Din Tai Fung (Causeway Bay)

Shop G03-G11 G/F, 68 Yee Wo Street

鼎泰豐

銅鑼灣怡和街68號地下

(+852) 3160 8998

What I did like was that the noodles are freshly made and they didn't have that soapy taste to it that you sometimes can (unfortunately) find.  I ordered mine 'spicy' but the spiciness didn't overpower the flavor of the broth or beef.  The meat was well marinated and tender, so the flavors, although I couldn't isolate them (assuming soy bean, some star anise, rice vinegar, the usual culprits), they permeated through the beef.

What I didn't like was that oh boy, here we go.  The meat was a deliberate combination of brisket (1 piece), shank (3 pieces) and tendon (1 piece).  When I say deliberate, I mean they definitely were cut to be tiny individual pieces.  I got the feeling the kitchen staff are under strict orders of how many piece of each are to be put in each order.  And those pieces were pretty small.  Ok, if the noodles were out of this world, then maybe you could get away with charging me $58 for noodles, but alas, they were limp and uninspiring.  If you were hoping to get a pick-me-up from this by ordering them spicy, you'll be disappointed.  Hmmm, maybe it's because they flooded my bowl with soup.  I had to empty out 1.5 small bowls of broth just to get a decent shot of the bowl's contents.  Ok, so I'm griping more about the value of the dish than the food's taste and quality.  Yes, the broth is decently good.  Yes, the meat is acceptably tender and flavorful.  The noodles, meh could be better.  BUT, when I feel I'm getting ripped off by the quantity of the meat AND the price I'm getting charged, I have to knock more than 1 point off (I actually took 2).  You won't see me ordering this again.