Forum
Forum's former general manager CK Poon says Yeung Koon-yat made himself a fried rice in the early 1980s, when a cook who was owed two months' pay told him to cook it himself.
Why go
Yeung Koon-yat, known in Hong Kong as the abalone king
, opened Forum with partners in Tsim Sha Tsui in 1977.1 He told the SCMP in 2020 how the dish came about: At the time, Forum was just a family eatery. But we didn't stand out as a restaurant, so we created our signature abalone dish.
His abalone went on to competitions abroad and to the tables of Deng Xiaoping and Jacques Chirac. The MICHELIN inspectors gave Forum three stars in 2020.1
Forum moved from its long-time home on Lockhart Road to Sino Plaza on Gloucester Road in 2014. Yeung died in July 2023, aged 90.31 Time Out named Adam Wong as executive chef in January 2023.6 SCMP's 2026 guide says Forum has held up since Yeung's death: The service remains perfectly attentive, the dining room virtually unchanged, and the high standards intact.
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Order the Ah Yat braised abalone with goose web, the webbed foot of the goose, served in the same sauce with mushrooms and broccoli. The Top of Food Chain blog ate it in July 2023, two weeks before Yeung died: The Ah Yat sauce was so flavorful, and the tender abalone soaked up all of that delicious, complex savory and umami flavor. Even better was the goose web, which was gelatinous and even more flavorful.
2 Susan Jung, the SCMP's critic, had the goose webs with mushrooms in 2014 and called them the highlight of her meal: huge and perfectly cooked so they stayed intact when we picked them up with our chopsticks, but were tender when we bit through the skin and tendon.
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The rest of the menu holds up. SCMP's 2026 guide names the crispy chicken executed with precision, braised oxtail lifted by star anise and chu hou sauce, and the Ah Yat fried rice that has achieved its own fame
.4 Forum serves dim sum at lunch. Vicky Cheng, the chef of Wing and Vea, calls it his favorite place for dim sum and told Tatler in 2022 what he orders: My must-order item is Ah Yat steamed premium shrimp dumpling.
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Order this / avoid
- Order: the Ah Yat braised abalone with goose web and mushrooms, which the Top of Food Chain blog called
a spectacular dish
in 2023.2 - Order: the braised oxtail with potato. Top of Food Chain in 2023:
The oxtail was perfectly fatty, gelatinous, and slightly firm still.
2 - Order: the deep-fried crispy chicken. Jung in 2014:
delicately crunchy skin and moist meat
.3 - Order: at lunch, the char siu bun with the pineapple top. Top of Food Chain in 2023:
the top was so shatteringly flaky while the bun was soft and sweet.
2 - Order: at lunch, the soup dumplings. Top of Food Chain in 2023:
burning hot, but they were worth burning my mouth for.
2 - Avoid: the braised rice with fish maw and conpoy (dried scallop) in abalone sauce, which Jung found
heavy, soggy
in 2014.3
What locals & experts say
- Top of Food Chain (July 2023, 10/10):
The food here was fresh, hot, and perfect.
The one reservation:The service was good, but not as personal and professional as the 2 stars I've been to, which was disappointing.
2 - Susan Jung, SCMP (2014):
Forum is famous for its expensive dried seafood, especially abalone, which is pricey but delicious. But if you look carefully through the menu, you can spot other good dishes for more reasonable prices.
3 - MICHELIN Guide (2025 page, three stars): on the abalone,
To this day, it remains the speciality that attracts food-loving crowds from near and far.
5 - Dan Hong, the Sydney chef (2024):
In terms of dim sum, the Forum.
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Good to know
- Price: SCMP's 2026 guide puts lunch at HK$500 a head and dinner at HK$2,000, with HK$500 corkage.4
- The abalone: ask its price before you order. Dried abalone is graded by head, the number of pieces to a catty (600g), and the fewer the heads, the dearer the abalone.1
- Timing: lunch and dinner, every day.6
- Booking: call 2869 8282.9
- The room: up stairs and escalators inside a shopping center, with dark wood furniture and a glass case
filled with a mountain of Ah Yat abalone
. Seven private rooms.24 - Where: 1/F, Sino Plaza, 255-257 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, not the old Lockhart Road address.5
Verdict
should-visit — Go for the Ah Yat braised abalone, the dish Yeung Koon-yat built Forum on, with the goose web braised in its sauce, and ask the abalone's price before you order. Come at lunch for the dim sum chefs name. The newest account of a meal came two weeks before Yeung died in July 2023. SCMP's 2026 guide finds the service and standards intact since.