Time Square Food Court - Korean Counter

The other day I had to run to Causeway Bay at lunch to grab something so I decided to take the opportunity to buy lunch nearby as it should be cheaper than Central. Yes, aren’t you glad I am talking about Causeway Bay again?

Anyway, I was in Times Square so I went down to the food court and found a Korean counter run by Lee Fa Yuen and found this <----. For $10 more you can go for the set which just means you get a drink as well, so I opted for the a la cart since I’ve got drinks in the office already.

I really liked this bowl because it had a good amount of spinach (covered by the seaweed), beef and kimchi. The best part was there was a bit of japchae as well so I didn't have to decide between rice or noodles. The next time you are in Times Square and don’t know where to go… I strongly recommend you trying this place!

Location: Time Square

Website: NA

樂心冰室 Glee Cafe

Stepping outside of Central is awesome, and I would like to introduce you to a new area called Causeway Bay. OOoooOoo0000OOoo… Alright, I’m just being sarcastic. About the new area part of course. Stepping outside of Central is always awesome.

I walk by Jardine Street a couple times a week, and when I am in a rush I like to grab food from here because it tends to be less crowded than the rest of CWB and the food is “local priced”. Glee Cafe is not the healthiest option but it has the typical cha tsan tang macaroni in soup + hot drink + scrambled eggs/ham/toast menu ($40). Unlike typical cha tsan tangs though, this place is relatively clean and newly renovated. The seating isn’t too crowded so it actually has room for me to put my big backpack. Though this place looks more modern, do not expect service to be great. The cashier looks like she wants to stab me every time I am paying her. Oh well, she never actually stabbed me so it’s all good. Speaking of dangerous things though, a couple months ago a part of this street actually collapsed after a guy walked by and he actually got injured falling into the hole. True story.

This is my “usual” there, loaded with white pepper and I always ask for chili oil. I’m also super happy that they have almond tea since I don’t really like having HK style coffee or tea with my meals.

Conclusion: This is one of my favorite cha tsan tangs in Hong Kong. Not the cheapest but at least you don’t have to eat with your arms stuck to your sides. Try it.

Location: G/F, 54-58 Jardine's Bazaar, Causeway Bay

Website: NA

Kale

In the final week of April all I want to do is recover. I’ve had the cold, the flu and severe stomach aches most of the month so I’m doing my best to get back to 100% asap. Food choices obviously would make a huge impact on this process, so this week I’ve been opting for healthier options for lunch.

 

Lifestyle Asia had an article on healthy lunch options in this link earlier, so I’ve decided to go ahead and give Kale a try today as I’m really not a fan of the salad places near my office. http://www.lifestyleasia.com/hk/en/dining/eat/feature/nourish-5-healthy-lunch-spots-hong-kong/

 

After about 10 minutes I found Kale in a building that’s quite old near the Gateway Supermarket (actually I’m not sure if it’s still there). Sitting on the 13^th floor this place is quite nice considering it’s located in such an old building. I nervously decided to go for the salad instead of the mini sliders because I had more confidence that the couscous salad would fill me up more than the sliders. I was nervous because I haven’t been a fan of couscous so wasn't sure if I’d end up hating my lunch. For $65 you get a pretty decent sized salad, and you can choose to get everything on their salad board. I hate beetroot so I got everything but that.

 

Conclusion: To my surprise the couscous actually tasted pretty good and I didn't hate my lunch. Was a little disappointed though that they don't pack the box as tightly as they do at Open Kitchen or Simply Life. I was worried that the portion wouldn't fill me up until I saw that they gave me a lot of pumpkin. As a result, I think I was actually fine for the rest of the day. Wing Lok Street might sound really far away, but it’s actually just around 10 minutes from IFC One. I’d recommend you giving this a try if you are looking for something different but still healthy and doesn’t make a dent in your wallet.  

 

Location: Rm 1301, 13/F, Cheung’s Building, 1-3 Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan

Website: http://www.kale.com.hk/

Flaming Frango + Godiva

I came across this restaurant on either Sassy or another food site featuring new restaurants. This is definitely not a cheap cheap restaurant but looked interesting because their main dish is something called piri piri chicken – something I have no idea what it is. It sounded interesting enough though so my friend and I decided to go give it a try.

It’s all the way on Staunton Street by Feather Boa (btw, has that place finally shutdown yet?), so it was quite a trek especially in the hot weather. We were sat on a high table and was told there is no set menu, however they had a promotion where upon ordering a main from 2 specified sections you get a soup and a non-alcoholic drink. My friend used to live in London and she said the place reminded her of Nando so she was quite happy we went to give this place a try. We got the chicken thigh, and for sides we got the mashed potato, Frango rice, seasonal roasted veggies and “shoestring” fries.  

 

This is what I thought of the food…
Mushroom Soup: Was ok, my friend didn't seem to like it though because it was sour.
Piri piri chicken: I liked the taste as it was slightly spicy and went well with the coriander sauce and spicy sauce. Problem is whatever chicken they were using was too small and it was obvious that we were gonna be hungry afterwards.
Mashed potato: Was fine but I don’t like how they had chunks of potato in it (I know some people like that).
Shoestring fries: Er, they weren’t really shoestring fries… but nonetheless still quite tasty so I liked it.
Frango rice: Subtly flavored. I liked it but my friend did not.
Seasonal veggies: Our least favorite of the sides as it was extremely uncooked and hard.



Conclusion: My friend and I agree that the good wasn't bad but not sure if we would go back since the portions aren’t exactly big for people from Europe and Canada (we eat, a lot). Our meal ended up being around $150 which was reasonable, but then again not so reasonable since we weren’t full. In fact we had to go to Godiva for a soft serve afterwards to satisfy the rest of our appetites. Thoughts on the Godiva soft serve? Well I had to try it since it’s been seducing me for weeks with all the ads around IFC. $45 isn’t super outrageous considering the brand, but let’s just say I still prefer the cheaper Nestle or whatever ice cream cones from convenience stores and super markets.

Flaming Frango
Location: 36 Staunton St, Central
Website: NA

Godiva

Location: IFC
Website: http://www.godiva.com.hk/

新香園 Sun Heung Yuen

Awesome, a local place again! This is also located in Tit Hong Lane in Central, and probably the last restaurant from this alley I will talk about since I have no intentions of visiting Danish Bakery (I can't justify paying over $50 at a local cha tsan tang in an alley).

I believe this place is famous for its Hong Kong style milk tea and the satay beef. Can't remember which day this was but I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so I wanted to get something tasty and soupy. Satay beef on anything is one of my favorite foods so I opted for the satay beef on macaroni that particular day.

If you are the type who doesn't like the thick satay sauce then you might like this place. I was expecting it to be a really thick layer of satay sauce with beef over my macaroni, but it turns out it's the very runny soupy type. Though the taste was on the light side, I quite liked it because I was having a crappy no appetite day. It was good acting as the bit of fuel to keep me going until the end of the day.

I'll probably be back one day to try the milk tea. In the meantime, check this out when you are also having a crappy no appetite day.

Website: NA
Location: Tit Hong Lane

Open Kitchen

There’s been some FB post on people finding cockroaches in their food from Canteen/Maxim lately. I think I’ve been super lucky since I’ve never found anything like this, not even at all the ghetto local places I’ve been to.

Canteen at Prince’s Building used to be one of my favorite spots at my old job since I found the price and quality to be quite fair. Now that I don’t work in that area anymore I don’t really go there anymore. There’s an Open Kitchen near where I work, but I try my best not to go there since I find it pricey and boring. Oh, and Open Kitchen is basically Simply Life, which is part of Maxim Group.

Last Thursday though… was different. I was in a rush to go back to work so I just ran down to Open Kitchen to grab something quick. For $75 you get to choose 3 Asian dishes on top of white rice.

Although I try not to go there, whenever I am there I see the reason why it’s always so packed. Even though $75 is quite a bit, they have a good variety of dishes to choose from (healthy and non-healthy). I like that there are a number of veggie dishes to choose from, so you can make it as healthy as you want your lunch to be.

This day, I chose Chinese cabbage, beef brisket with radish and sweet and sour pork. I really like their sweet and sour pork because it’s so crispy and tasty. The beef was ok but I was more drawn to the radish. Veggies are veggies so not much to say on that. Same goes for the rice.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a go-to lunch spot even if you are in the area, since if you walk an extra 5 minutes you can get something cheaper. But on days when you need every minute you can squeeze out of your day this is a good choice.

Location: IFC
Website: http://www.simplylife.com.hk/open-kitchen/

Danish Bakery - Central

It's been a while so there are a couple of restaurants I wanted to talk about. First... let's talk about Danish Bakery.
 
If you've worked/lived/roamed frequently in Causeway Bay you may know about this “bakery” that is infamous for their fried chicken thighs. I’ve tried it once but honestly I don’t get what all the buzz is about. I guess the reason why people like Danish Bakery so much is more for sentimental reasons – this place has been around for over 40 years. Given the cheap price, I imagine a lot of kids probably grew up eating from this place.

Anyway, today I am not reviewing Danish Bakery in Causeway Bay, I’m talking about the new shop in Central with the same name. I’m not entirely sure it’s by the same owner, but judging from the news clippings posted on the walls by the entrance it should be the same.

Unlike the CWB location, this place is much nicer, and is actually a proper restaurants with seats… and I guess that’s how they are justifying the much higher cost of >$30 for breakfast and >$50 for lunch. I get that it’s Central and rent is much higher, but then what about the restaurants next to it in the same alley? They aren’t as nicely renovated but the costs are much more reasonable. When I saw the new location and the prices, I just thought to myself… gee, someone is extremely ambitious.

Anyway, so onto the food. So in a previous post I mentioned that I would likely not try this place out given its outrageous pricing, but that day I caved because well, I really wanted a hot dog. Like, really really wanted a hot dog. There is Wing Lok Yuen, but it’s just too far away for me. So yeah I gave this place a try.

For $55 I got a macaroni in soup with scrambled eggs and bacon on top, a double weinered hot dog, and a hot drink. I quite liked the macaroni in soup, but was not a fan of the hot dog at all. I asked for no cheese and with ketchup, and yes, they left out the cheese, but they put mayonnaise in it!! To top it off, it’s not even the normal Miracle Whip, but it’s a weird mayo that’s slightly clear... with the consistency of what looks like… ok, this is a food blog so I will keep it clean. But anyway, I am sure you get the jist of what I am saying.

Conclusion is I probably won’t revisit unless I get another extreme hot dog craving.

Location: Tit Hong Lane

Website: NA