I am very lucky that I have some good friends in Hong Kong with whom I always share a meal or two when I am visiting. During my trip in June 2019 they took me to a traditional Hong Kong eatery in Wan Chai. It is one of those restaurant that is as large as a private dining room. On a Friday night it was packed. It must be a very popular place. Its English name is “Your restaurant”.
The visit
Dishes started to arrive pretty quickly. The first was a vegetable soup.
The main attraction of the evening was a garlic chicken served with tofu. The tofu was very tasty, almost as much as the chicken. In the picture above you can see the dish before the waiter poured the garlic dressing (see picture on top of the page).
Clams.
I particularly enjoyed this deep fried whitebait.
Glazed pork.
More chicken meat in soy sauce.
Some greens.
At the end everyone praised the house puddings. I had a coconut pudding, while the most popular around the table was the whisky pudding.
The check
It was 980 HKD for a huge feast. In the end we paid around 160 HKD per person (20 USD). Relly good value for money.
Where in Hong Kong: 3 Tai Wong St E, Wan Chai Open rice page.
Update September 2019: I have been informed by friends that the restaurant closed down. The owner just had it enough. Old Hong Kong disappearing.
I rarely enjoyed a dim sum meal like this. And it was not in a luxury location like Mott 32, the Swan Hotel, or Yi Long Court. It was an old-school dim sum joint in West Hong Kong with a quirky name: Three Minus One (Saam Hui Yaat 叁去壹點心粉麵飯). A friend explained me the story. Initially the restaurant was planned to have three owners, then one stepped down and the name was adopted.
The visit
The storefront with a sing using only Chinese characters.
The owner let me take a picture. He was a very friendly individual Luckily they had an English menu, so ordering was not an issue.
The classic shrimp dumplings were full of meat and super fresh.
The Chiu Chow (or Teochew) dumplings came with a perfect crystal skin and I could taste the aromas of the different herbs used. It is a vegetarian dim sum from a cuisine distinct from the classic Cantonese dim sum.
I am not usually a fun of these big steamed dumplings, but I enjoyed this one with a chicken filling.
Finally I had a pair of tasty meatballs.
The check
In total I spent 76 HKD (around 10 USD) including a pot of tea. It was a hearty and satisfactory breakfast. All the food tasted very fresh and was coming straight from the steamers. If you read this review and are visiting Hong Kong, send me a thank you for sharing this little gem.
Where in Hong Kong: 11 Pok Fu Lam Road, Western District. In Chinese: 西環薄扶林道11號.
I had had a dinner at Aqua restaurant 15 years ago. It may have had a different name, but the concept was the same as today: Italian and Japanese food under one roof. They are my favorite cuisines, so it seemed a good idea to go back at least once. I went for brunch on a Sunday in June 2019 that they call “Because”. Why I cannot say.
The visit
The restaurant is located on the 29th and 30th floor of One Peking, a skyscraper on 1 Peking street in Kowloon. It sports a beautiful view of Victoria harbor.
The brunch started with a dish of Italian cold cuts and roasted vegetables. Quite good.
There was also a bread basket with a nice hummus dip. It was not replenished during the meal though.
The second appetizer was a generous portion of burrata cheese. Also very good.
They had a station where the burrata was prepared on the spot.
One oyster.
More sashimi: botan ebi, salmon, hamachi, kampachi, a futomaki roll. Good quality. I am not sure that they also included the diced tuna with caviar that was included on the menu (I am noticing this only now that I am writing the review).
Then there was a truffle risotto with Grana Padano cheese. This tasted a bit weird, too sour. I am not sure if this was the expected taste.
The cheese was grated from a big cheese wheel.
Back to Japanese cuisine, with a pair of pan-fried gyoza. Quite forgettable.
Next was prawn tempura (really basic) and an acceptable lamb chop.
The dessert platter was quite nice, it included also a couple of ice cream scoops.
The check
Final check 647 HKD (82.50 USD). There were some good dishes, but most of them were actually pretty mediocre. So the check is not really justified if not for the view. At least water was included.
I was really hoping Aqua would challenge the law of heights in restaurants: the higher you go, the more expensive the check and worse the food. It is a pity because if they had invested just a little bit on one or two dishes, it could have been a good brunch overall.
Where in Hong Kong: One Peking Road, TST. Website: aqua.com.hk.
Bo Innovation is the award winning restaurant of Alvin Leung in Hong Kong (three Michelin stars). I had already tried Bo Innovation in Shanghai and found it impressive. But I was not ready for a twenty-something tasting menu that characterize the dinner experience. Luckily the restaurant offered an abridged tasting menu for lunch that looked ideal. So by email I made a reservation for my June 2019 trip to Hong Kong.
The visit
The restaurant is located in Wan Chai (incidentally, above Five Guys) and the dining room was spacious with a modern touch.
The professional waiter pointed out that the dishes were antiques collected by the chef.
There was a spectacular welcome dish: an egglet pancake filled with spring onions and other herbs. As you may know, egglet pancakes are a fixture in Hong Kong street food. This was the right start.
The first dish featured a corn mousse and crackers, Japanese cauliflower, pinenut, and Pat Chun sweetened vinegar. Pat Chun was founded in 1932 by Mr Ng Wai Sum. The words Pat Chun「八珍」refers to a phrase in the ancient Chinese Book of Rites that described precious ingredients used in concocting hundreds of sauces with different flavors. The sweetened vinegar is their flagship product and a quintessential Hong Kong ingredient. The waiter proudly showed me the bottle of the vinegar that helped to fuse the dish elements together. Most of the dishes to come would feature such ingredients linked to the history of Hong Kong.
The second dish featured a lobster tartare, black truffle, and the signature ingredient, an oil called har mi (dried baby shrimps). It is obtained infusing the dried baby shrimps in the oil for 3 days before distilling it. It is Alvin’s invention once again using a popular Hong Kong ingredient. I was even offered a couple of jars of the juice to add to the dish at my discretion.
The third dish consisted of a meaty Hokkaido scallop, Shanghainese jolo sauce (a type of red rice fermented vinegar), sugar snap peas, and some “woba” (the name the crispy burnt rice that was the leftover in rice pots in olden days before the invention of rice-cooker). Bonus: here you can find the recipe. This was one of my favorite dishes.
The next dish was the celebrated molecular xiao long bao (soup dumpling). To be eaten all at once, it did recreate the flavor of a soup dumpling on the palate.
It was now time for the foie gras that came with bamboo shoots.
The foie gras was sprayed (literally, using a perfume dispenser) with Chu Yen Ching liquor. I do not like liquor and this was not a great add on form me.
The foie gras was accompanied by a charcoal mantou.
The palate cleanser was a green concoction with the prized Chinese wine Moutai (its bottle looks like a detergent, doesn’t it?), calamansi, and butterfly pea flower. It was offered on an imperial Chinese implement. Sorry, maybe it is me that does not like alcohol, but it tasted like a detergent. I just had a sip.
For main I could choose among suckling pig leg, cod, or beef. I went for the suckling leg with crispy skin and it was great. The plate was sprinkled with Pat Chun vinaigrette, some Sichuan peppercorns and a piece of pineapple. There were also some baby greens on the side.
To finish up, I was offered a bowl of Bo’s signature fried rice.
What made it special, was that the waiter shaved on it sun-dried abalone (very Hong Kong) and dried foie gras (made by Alvin). Delicious.
The final dish was Alvin’s “no shark fin”. Alvin is opposed to the use of shark fin in Chinese cuisine (it is still commonplace I can tell you) given the detrimental effects on the shark population. The dish is meant to resemble a shark fin bowl and is presented in a traditional implement specifically used for shark fin dishes in wedding and ceremonies. I once had a shark fin soup and it is just another of those Chinese delicacies like bird’s nest and sea cucumbers that my palate cannot understand: it is mostly tasteless. This dish was not tasteless at all. It was a refreshing dessert made with yuzu, osmanthus, peach resin, and dried persimmon.
The check
After adding a bottle of water, the check was 1,078 HKD (or 137 USD). The full degustation menu served for dinner was around twice as much. There were also some lighter lunch options. Overall, I found this ten course menu the perfect size and very satisfying. There was a little bit too much alcohol for my taste, but I enjoyed all the references to traditional Hong Kong dishes throughout the meal. I could really see that the chef loves his city and has used his creativity to celebrate it.
Where in Hong Kong: 60 Johnston Rd, 60, Shop 8, J Senses. Entrance on Ship Street J Residence. Website: http://www.boinnovation.com.
From continental China I usually reach Hong Kong by lunch time… kind of a tradition. Looking for a place where to eat upon my arrival I ended up at Obihiro Hagaten in Elements Mall that is connected to the Kowloon stop of the Airport Express. It was the summer of 2018.
The visit
Obihiro Hagaten is yet another Japanese restaurant, supposedly hailing from Hokkaido. Their specialty should be robatayaki, but actually they have a little bit of everything Japanese.
At lunch time, I found it relatively packed. I sat at the counter and I examined the extensive menu. In the end I went for one of their lunch sets plus a special dish: a o-toro tuna steak cooked in two ways.
First I was served a couple of negligible appetizers (okra natto?).
The lunch set was not bad (but also not cheap). It had some tempura, sashimi (tuna, a scallop, a small prawn), and some excellent Japanese pork. The set also included the mandatory bowls of rice, miso soup, chawanmushi (egg custard) and some pickles. Apart from the pork, it was all very ordinary.
The fatty tuna platter included twelve slices of the prized o-toro. Half was left raw and half lightly cooked. It was a substantial dish to the point to be difficult to finish (the fatty tuna was really fatty and quickly instilled a sense of satiety).
The check
Total check was 734.8 HKD (or 93.5 USD). The steak was the big ticket item costing alone almost 60 USD. The set lunch was also quite pricey. Too much for essentially another cookie cutter Japanese restaurant.
While not a disappointment, I find difficult to find value for money in a restaurant like this. Having said so, they had an extensive menu and it would be relatively easy to splurge even more.
Where in Hong Kong: Shop 2103-04, 2/F, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui.
Panino Giusto (literally “right sandwich”) is a chain of restaurants specializing in Italian grilled sandwiches (“panini”). It was started in 1979 in Milan and now has stores in half dozen countries. I tried them first in Tokyo years ago. Now I eat from them time to time when I travel to Hong Kong (they have a store in the IFC mall that is also the terminus of the Airport Express train, so it is an easy stop; this review is based on my experience with this branch).
The visit
You order, are given a number and then wait. The place at IFC is usually packed on weekends and lunch hour, so prepare to wait. The seating area face the harbour, so it is quite nice.
Here’s a snapshot of the Washington panino: Parma ham, goat cheese, tomato and black olive pate (the pate flavor is quite distinct). This is a typical example of their style: two grilled buns filled with high-quality ingredients. They have many options.
However, personally, I prefer their toasts! They only have a few available, in the picture you can see a “farcito” including Prague ham, Edam cheese and some pickled vegetables. Delicious.
The check
Check for this visit was 248 HKD (or 31.6 USD). The toast or the sandwich alone cost 108 HKD (around 14 USD). Expensive by any stretch of the imagination, but a nice culinary luxury to have time to time.
Where in Hong Kong: See their website for locations. At time of posting, they have a shop at IFC (third floor, just downstairs from Shake Shack) and one at Lee Garden mall in Causewaybay.
Tre Italiani is a very nice ice cream parlor and cafe in Causewaybay, at 535 Jaffe Road (they also have other locations, check their website). It is creamy ice cream coming both in traditional and innovative flavors. A cup with two scoops is 65 HKD (8.30 USD). They also have coffee and chocolates. What I like about their shop in Causewaybay is that they have seats and tables for a more relaxed experience.
Oddies
Oddies’ claim to fame is their egglets filled with ice cream. They also have a selection of 12 daily flavors that they claim to produce according to artisan standards (not tried yet). In the picture above, for 69 HKD (8.80 USD) one of their signature eggete parfait (small size) that combines one of their egg waffles and soft serve ice cream, in this case with some nutella sauce. I wish the filling was creamier. Beside, a place to try. The place is quite small, they only have a few high chairs, so you will most likely eat it on the street. Oddies is on 45 Gough Street, Central (a bit uphill).
Venchi
Festive Walk storefrontStanley Street at Pottinger storefront
Venchi is an Italian gourmet chocolate manufacturer based in Turin. In recent years they expanded internationally and also went into ice cream. Gianduia and cuor di cacao in the picture. Their chocolate flavors, in particular gianduia, should not be missed. They have three locations in Hong Kong: one in the mall Festive Walk, one on 44 Stanley street, Central, and one in Harbour City. 65 HKD (8.30 USD) for two flavors. They clearly also sell chocolate and do not have much space to sit inside.
The Blue Butcher has in my opinion one of the best deals for brunch “semi-buffets” in Hong Kong. The idea of a semi-buffet is quite good: a nice spread of appetizers, desserts and other more or less substantial snacks and a menu from which to order one or two mains.
The Blue Butcher on weekends has a spread that is really difficult to beat in terms of quality. In addition to this, you get to choose a main dish from a list of five options and a cocktail.
Coincidentally, they are operated by the same company owning Mott 32.
The visit
In 2018 I have been to the Blue Butcher twice, the latest visit in December 2018. If I am staying in West Hong Kong it is a must. I usually book via phone or their website.
They have a bar/lounge area downstairs opening on Hollywood Road, while the brunch is served in the main dining room upstairs. It is a spacious and comfortable space.
The buffet is certainly their main selling point. They have a very good selection of cheese, tartines, cold cuts, seafood, not to mention the dessert station (I will mention it later).
The oyster station is alone worth the price of admission.
Seafood includes prawns, salmon, tuna and crawfish.
The choice of mains is quite limited, but they are all appealing. They have included in the basic price a burger, coal roasted Canadian pork (excellent), deep fried foie gras, pan-seared salmon, and a type of pasta (cavatelli) with mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. So far I only tried the pork and it was excellent.
On my last visit, I had one of their steaks that come at an additional price. It was a good 12 oz (340 grams) piece of Australian sirloin. Truffle and Parmesan fries are included.
Some of my choices: oysters!
Cold cuts and some good cheese (montasio and pecorino).
An avocado tartine, a piece of quiche, salmon and tuna.
My dessert panna cotta with strawberries, chocolate cake and a piece of authentic Italian panettone (it was mid December after all and that’s the season for this baked good).
The dessert station is pretty amazing and they can prepare you a real crepe.
The check
Normally the cost of the brunch is 495 HKD (63 USD). But I chose a steak and it was 220 HKD more, so the total check was 715 HKD (91 USD).
Honestly, with all the food available in the buffet, going for an upgraded main is not necessary, unless you really want a steak (but then go on a normal day when their steak menu is more extensive).
Overall, I found the Blue Butcher a very good alternative to more traditional hotel buffets.
Mott 32 in Hong Kong was recommended to me by a friend. He usually makes great recommendations. And this was another home run.
Without his recommendation, I would have probably skipped this restaurant as it is part of a group and sounded too pretentious. And the name is just confusing: it is supposedly the address of the first Chinese-owned convenience store in New York. But why this name if the company is from Hong Kong? Ok, to honor the emigrants that showed the kind of business acumen that will make Hong Kong great… but it seems a very loose connection. And that “originated 1891” in the logo is totally misleading… the restaurant opened in Hong Kong in 2014.
The company that started Mott 32 in Hong Kong has successfully opened branches in Las Vegas, New York and Vancouver (and there is one coming soon in Bangkok at the time of writing… they seem to be on a roll) so it has become an international brand.
The visit
The restaurant is located in the basement of the Standard Chartered Bank building in Central.
You need to climb the stairs and enter the bank building.
On the left inside you will find the reception of the restaurant (probably the guy in the picture will have finished to look at his phone by then). You will need to take an escalator down and…
…descend an additional spiral staircase. You are in the bedrock of Hong Kong!
Someones says that the dining room used to be a vault, others say that it used to be a more mundane storage room. Either way, the environment is remarkable: the main dining room has high ceiling and a octagonal shape. Here and there references to New York City as the name would suggest.
They have a very extensive menu of Cantonese dishes prepared with fancy ingredients. Their signature dishes are the Applewood smoked Peking duck (advance order necessary, 825 HKD) and the honey glazed pork, which I did not have, but everything I ordered was extremely good.
Both the dim sum menu and the full menu were available.
I was there at noon, the room got filled pretty quickly. I had a reservation made by email and the process was painless. No deposit or other nonsense required.
Their choice for still water.
My first dish was crispy roasted pork belly. Man, I like this dish and this was perfectly executed. Every bite was succulent and crispy at the same time. I did not feel the need to use the accompanying mustard.
Then I ventured in some dim sum dishes. The first was a turnip cake with a lightly spicy chili sauce. The turnip cake is a vastly underrated dim sum dish, this was excellent with and without the sauce.
Then there was some theatrics with the lobster Har Gow. This was a huge dumpling that came with a sinister eyedropper containing lobster oil to be used to add the oil as one would see fit.
The next dish perfectly illustrates Mott’s philosophy. Take a Cantonese classic and re-engineer it with fashionable Western ingredients. This siu mai was filled not with the regular run-of-the-mill pork, but with iberico pork (speaking of being fashionable), but also with a soft quail egg and with black truffle. The combination of the three was really good; an effective transformation.
My main dish was the smoked black cod. For a moment a thought to be at the Ultraviolet table as the dish was served covered to leave the smoke (cigar?) lingering around. The sauce was not too sweet and helped stressing the cod’s flavor.
I did not find anything attractive in the dessert list.
The check
Total check was 869 HKD (110 USD) that places Mott 32 in the blog’s category of the luxury dining establishments. A place for bankers, even if most of the customers on the day of my visit looked like tourists from Mainland China particularly interested in the instagrammable properties of the food.
I am not sure what an expert in Cantonese cuisine would have to say, but for a Western palate like mine Mott 32 did a good job in re-creating Cantonese classics with the use of internationally-acclaimed ingredients. Is it worth the hefty price? Well, that’s debatable, but I can think of worse places where to spend this kind of money for a lunch or dinner in Hong Kong.
Where in Hong Kong: 4-4A Des Voeux Road Central, Central. Check the website for menus and reservation.
Every country has its own brand of casual restaurants. US generated the fast food concept. in Japan you have ramen shops. In Hong Kong you have cha chaan teng.
Hong Kong-style diners, or cha chaan teng, are a unique result of city’s modern history. After the Second World War, Western food became increasingly popular in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, it remained beyond the financial reach of many people. Local diners started offering dishes with Western influences and, more important, reasonable prices and the trend took off.
Today cha chann teng far from being outmoded by modern quick-serving restaurants remain a fixture in the city of Hong Kong and answer multiple needs: they are the place where many Hong Kong dwellers have breakfast; they are busy at lunch hours with seniors and office workers as well; many of them attract people from the neighborhood as a place where to socialize till late at night.
This article describes some of the traditional food that you can find in these establishments.
Macaroni and ham soup
This is really a Hong Kong classic. A soup with macaroni instead of common noodles and some Westerner ingredients such as ham or even spam. Variations on the menu included having eggs, pork chop, beef, sausage and son on.
They suggest to add some chili paste:
I had the one pictured for breakfast at China Cafe in Mong Kok and I really enjoyed it. Eating macaroni instead of swirling noodles is much more practical.
I also had a drink made of Horlicks, a British drink based on milk powder that in Hong Kong is drunk as it was coffee. In this case it was served cold and sweetened.
The total check was 36 HKD (4,60 USD) to be paid at the cashier. I should mention that this particular diner was featured in one of Anthony Bourdain’s shows about Hong Kong. This was my silly trigger to visit it and you can clearly see other tourists there on pilgrimage.
Deep fried pork, ramen noodles and french toast
My next stop was in a non descript diner in Quarry Bay (located on 981 King’s Road next to my next entry).
I had one deep fried pork chop and some ramen noodles with egg. The deep fried pork is not a cutlet, it lacks the batter. I was not particularly impressed by this one, the frying made it too stiff.
Also the ramen noodles were not great… but I feel a bit bad as the staff there was super nice.
In this diner finally I had a sweet treat: a Hong Kong style French Toast. This was not really like a regular French toast and had a nutty backtaste.
Total check for 68 HKD (8.70 USD) including a coke.
Roast Meat
The reason I went to Quarry Bay was to try this roast meat shop mentioned by Mark Wiens in one of his trips: Yau Wun Roast Meat. The shop is indicated with this English name on Google Maps. It is clearly a very successful shop as even in the middle of the afternoon there was a solid line. The shop is also a licensed restaurant and while they did not have an English menu and did not really speak any English in the end they were able to accommodate me in one of the tables inside the small shop.
For 38 HKD (4.86 USD) I got this substantial serving of roast pork meat. I need to say that I was disappointed, I tasted better ones. But I guess that my limited ability to interact with the staff may have prevented me from ordering something more interesting.
Roast meat is a different game and the shops serving this kind of food may not have on the menu anything from the previous entries.
