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Editor’s note: This is part of our series, Hidden Gems, in which we take a look at those restaurants you should know about but may not. They are either tucked away in strip malls or otherwise off the beaten path. Try them out, and if you like what you eat, pass the word.
I had heard that Centennial’s Hong Kong Station serves some of the best Chinese food in Colorado for a couple of years now. Considering it only opened in August 2020, that word-of-mouth buzz has been more like a scream.
The restaurant, tucked up into a strip mall just above Interstate 25 and South Yosemite Street (on the Twin Peaks side, for perhaps my most reluctant-ever description), is the second for Jenny Zhang, who also operated Hong Kong Café in Aurora before selling it last year.
Zhang runs Hong Kong Station with her son Li Wang, and their culinary vision for the spot — what Wang calls a mixture of authentic Cantonese, spicy Szechuan and Americanized dishes — clearly resonates with eaters. There wasn’t a free table at a Saturday lunch, and I am totally envious of those who live within takeout range.
The menu is large, a whiplash of choices that even includes a section called Special Snacks. Just above that, in the more pedestrian Appetizers section, the scallion pancakes are among the best I’ve eaten. Flaky, light and with just the right amount of tug, the tissue-thin layers remind us that it’s not just the French who own laminated dough.
I also loved the Szechuan-style chicken, made with a secret-blend peppercorn sauce and double black soy. I’ll be coming back for the crispy, bone-in version of this dish, with more of those mouth-numbing peppers.
American-style is part of the Chinese food canon here, and Hong Kong Station’s sesame tofu — although not an “authentic” dish found in China — is a reason why. Sesame tofu (and chicken) can sometimes be cloyingly sweet, thick, chewy and artificial tasting, but here it’s fresh and crisp, with just the right hit of sugar.
Wang said those sesame proteins are among the restaurant’s best-sellers, along with their take on hot pot and beef chow fun. “A lot of people come for the brisket and tendon hot pot, because we’re the only restaurant that has that style,” he said. The juicy, tender chunks of beef are slow-cooked for eight hours each and every day, arriving at the table bobbing in a clay bowl of dark, bubbly broth.
Other hard-to-find dishes are the crackly salt and pepper chicken wings and Hong Kong-style French toast. The latter can be ordered as dessert, an appetizer, or pretty much whatever terminology you want to give to a course involving fried, sweetened bread stuck together with peanut butter and topped with condensed milk and a pat of butter.
After hearing about Hong Kong Station and its low-key hot-spotness for two years now, I’m so glad I made it down. My only question is what to order next.
Hong Kong Station: 6878 S. Yosemite St., Centennial, 720-592-0861; hkstationdenver.com
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