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

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/

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

Viet Baguette & Kitchen

Xandir is on a never ending quest to save his boyfriend, while I am on a never ending quest to find a decent (in terms of quality and quantity) Viet baguette, aka banh mi in Hong Kong. In case you haven't read the post on Bee Two, it was a total disappointment as nothing about that baguette tasted like a banh mi. Well maybe the bread tasted right, but that's about it.

I saw Viet Baguette & Kitchen a week or 2 ago when I was walking out of IFC One and heading towards the escalator. They have a huge red sign up across the street on the left hand side that caught my attention, and I made a mental note to visit the place for lunch some time soon. Finally I gave this place a try last week as my plans to go to Sunday's Grocery failed.

Located in the Nexxus Building, this is a proper full on (pho) restaurant with a take out area for quick bites like baguettes, salads and juices. I think they have 4 kinds of baguettes to choose from and I went with the traditional pork one. Price wise it was $58 and about 2/3's the size of the baguettes in Edmonton, so I would consider that to be quite expensive. In case the baguette wasn't going to fill me up (which it did in the end), I also got a small salad from Pret.











Surprisingly, the sandwich kept me full until the end of the day so I didn't end up having my salad. Taste wise, they've checked the list below:

• pate
• cilantro
• fatty pork with skin
• chili pepper/jalapeño
• cucumber
• pickled carrots
• Vietnamese salami

I recall reading somewhere that Maggie sauce is supposed to be an essential ingredient as well. Never actually knew that since I thought Maggie was more of a Honger sauce. In any case... the point is these baguettes do not have Maggie sauce so it tastes slightly bland. As someone who is trying to lower salt intake this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the baguette still tastes good.

Overall, I would say that $58 dollars is not bad for the taste and size (though it wouldn't hurt if they came in bigger sizes).

Location: Ground floor of Nexxus Building
Website: NA

The other problem is the crumbs aftermath...

Pololi

I've been struggling to find places to write about lately as I ran out of local places that I haven't talked about. The (unstated) goal of this blog was to introduce people to more cheap local food places, but today I will talk about something not cheap and not local because I think it's a pretty good deal for the quality and quantity of the food.

When I walked in a young lady was extremely friendly and asked if I've been there before or if I've tried Hawaiian food. Honestly the first things that come to mind when people say Hawaii is number 1, my favorite type of pizza, Hawaiian, and second, Lilo and Stitch. Anyway, I said no, and then she proceeded to give me a tasting of all their different flavors of tuna. I think there were like 10-12 of them so don't ask me what all the flavors are because I can barely even remember what I got today. The ones that I do remember are a spicy one, a spicy mayo, spicy avocado, ginger, "HK" flavor (pretty interesting actually and really did taste very Hong Kong because of the spices they used). They have a lot of non-spicy ones too but I only remembered the spicy ones since I like spice. If you are not a tuna fan, they also have a Korean style octopus thing (I did not like it). They may have some other vegetarian options as well but I was obviously not vegetarian so she didn't bother to introduce those to me. By the time I was done tasting all of them I was already slightly full.

She didn't really ask if I wanted the big one for $90 or the smaller option for $60, but I guess it was obvious to her that I could eat and gave me the bigger option. She takes out a pretty big box and asks me what I want as the "base". You can do all rice (white/brown), all salad (only one choice) or half half. I always want to try everything so I opted for the half half with brown rice. They only have one salad dressing but it worked in my favor as I like balsamic vinegar and love honey Dijon. On the tuna side you also get 2 choices, so I went with the first spicy one I tried and the spicy mayo.

To be very honest, $90 is quite steep for lunch, but the fact that the tuna really does taste good (fyi, I love spicy tuna), is fresh and you get a lot of it, I can justify the price tag (unlike TaKorea where it's $90 for one wrap). I can imagine on a hotter summer day or for a lot of girls here the smaller option for $60 would be enough as well. Tuna is protein and... protein is supposed to fill you up right? If you really think about it, this is only $5 more than what I usually get at Mana. It's nice to change healthy things up every now and then as well.

Location: 35-39 Graham Street
Website: http://www.pololikai.com/

越僑 Vietnamese Fast Food

This restaurant is at the end of Tit Hong Lane and caught my attention as I was hoping it would be a good replacement for cheap Vietnamese food (since I am no longer close to Pearl on Wo On Lane).

 

This is how I feel about this "new" place in comparison to Pearl. 

 

Price range: Vietnamese Fast Food is at around $43 for a soup noodle, where as Pearl is around the $27 mark which is significantly cheaper... so Pearl for teh win here.

 

Taste: I didn't actually get the noodle soup as it wasn't in the daily special so I got the cold vermicelli instead with spring roll and pork. As long as the fish sauce is right, it's not too easy to go wrong with this dish, so I would say it's about the same. However, the spring roll at Vietnamese Fast Food definitely does not taste as good as the ones at Pearl... so I guess Pearl for teh win again here.

 

Location: This is where it beats Pearl because it's significantly closer to people who work at IFC One. A lot of people who work in IFC don't seem to like to leave the mall because they don't really know what else is out there, so even if the taste and price doesn't match up to Pearl, it's still a new choice OUTSIDE of the mall without having to walk 15 minutes to.

 

In conclusion: I walk fast and in fact don't mind walking, so I will stick with Pearl.

 

Location: No. 12 Tit Hong Lane

Website: NA

 

 

Disclaimer: the veggies were not from this place,
but were from Fook Moon Yuen next door for just $12.



Bee Two French Baguette & Coffee

No, I will definitely not go back for their "banh mi"s because they really aren't banh mis. Out of all the banh mis I've tried in Hong Kong, this has got to be the worst of my experiences.

This place supposedly relocated to Central from Prince Edward, and now that I think of it I think I've walked past it before when it was still in Kowloon. In Central, this place sits on a corner near the Kau Yu Fong Lan Kwai Fong Hotel. Banh mis are the only sandwiches I enjoy eating so I am always on a quest to find them in Hong Kong.

This place has lunch sets for $54 which includes a (small) "banh mi", a (small) salad and a drink (lemon tea, lemon water or milk tea). I was pretty excited as I took the food out of the paper bag until I took a bite out of the sandwich. The shreds of carrots were way too sweet, the meat was like... honey ham or something... there's no pork liver pate spread... no Maggie... no jalapeno slices (ok this last one they warned me, but I didn't think they would just put some chili oil in as the "spice" that I requested for). FYI, I still have a look of disgust and hunger as I am typing this as it brings back the terrible memories.

I'm guessing their pasta or other normal sandwiches would be better, but please don't go for the "traditional banh mi"....


Location: G/F, 166 Wellington Street (near Kau Yu Fong)
Website: NA

Shugetsu 周月

I 've never been a fan of soupy ramen, though I love almost any other kind of soupy noodles. I am talking about actual ramen and not instant noodles. It irritates me when people call instant noodles ramen. Dude, stop trying to "class it up", it's just gong zai mien. Anyway, it's something about the texture that I don't like. Japanese and Shanghainese ramen both have that consistency. Anyway, so naturally when S suggested Shugetsu to me I was like fo realz? Ok fine, I will try it, since even though I am not a super fan of ramen, it's not like I am allergic to it or hate it.

Anyway, with skepticism we got there and luckily we got a seat. S explained that this is not a soup ramen, but a "dip" ramen, where the ramen is served dry on the side and you have to dip it into the sauce to eat.

When you order this, they will ask you a couple of questions which has no affect on the cost.

1. how many grams of noodles would you like? 100 / 200 / 300
2. would you like your noodles cold or hot?
3. would you like the sauce (soup) to be light or strong in flavor?
4. would you like the sauce (soup) to be less greasy?

My answers:

1. 200 grams. I have tried 300 grams before but it was just way too much. Even for me.
2. cold - I think this makes the noodles more chewy which is how I like it
3. strong - I've never tried the light
4. less greasy... which is already quite greasy. Plus why would anyone want extra grease? Doesn't add to the flavor

I never thought I would like ramen but Shugetsu sealed the deal for me. I guess the reason is because their ramen is more like udon than ramen, and I love udon. There is just the sufficient amount of pork in the sauce, and of course don't forget the egg on the noodles. Price used to be $85, but today they finally jacked it up to $97! Oh well, I still really like them so I will let this slide.

A lot of people think I am a foodie, but really I am starting to think that S is the real foodie. I can't recall any one of her recommendations disappointing me. The cheese and the chocolate chip cookies from Mark and Spencers, the croissants from Urban Bakery, Shugetsu. S - you've got excellent taste.

Location: Gough Street by the Kau Kee Beef Briskets.
Website: http://www.shugetsu.com.hk/

Dan Dan - Soul Food from Sichuan

Did you know that soul food means bla-I mean "African American" food? Anyway, I am not American so I don't know. This place caught my attention because I like spice (in case it wasn't already obvious from my previous posts). It looked interesting but the cartoon logo kinda put me off because it seemed... how do I say it... less legit? Like it won't really be authentic in my opinion. In any case, I ended up trying it on one of my solo lunch days after talking about it for so long.

I got there around 12pm to beat the rush and it was a good choice as it started filling up pretty soon after. Got the Classic Dan Dan Noodle set with seaweed and the tea. I think I got the regular spice and it was ok, but I could see how it can be quite spicy for some people.

• Classic Dan Dan Pull Noodles ($55): I liked the taste but can go for the spiciest (extra spice) next time. Please try to dine in instead or take out because it actually tastes much better there as they don't separate the soup when you get it to go.
• Tofu slices ($30): I was really looking forward to it as it was raved about on several reviews that I came across. I love peanut sauce but their sauce was too thick that it was basically gooey. I think if the sauce was thinner, less sweet, more spicy, it would be fantastic.
• Seaweed side dish (came w/meal): didn't enjoy the taste
• The tea (came w/meal): nothing special to be honest. I don't get why people were raving about it on their reviews

In summary.... I don't think the set (~$70) is really worth it because the side dish is very small and the drink is very normal. I would rather get an a la carte menu and try another side dish (I really want to try the pork ear slices) and just drink something when I am back in the office (where I have an awesome selection of free drinks).

Location: 181 Queen's Road Central,  Grand Millennium Plaza (near the Jenny's Bakery)
Website: http://www.dandanhk.com/

Crab Noodle 蟹麵膳

I don't even know if they have an English name, I always just refer to it as "Crab Noodle". This is a restaurant that has been around for a long time... possibly for around 5 years? I just never went in because none of my friends ever talked about it and they don't really do any "marketing".

One day I decided that I would step away from my desk and do some solo eating at a restaurant, so I thought, let's finally go try that restaurant that you've always been oh so curious about.... and well so I did.

Though I don't like wonton, I ordered their signature crab meat wonton noodles simply because they said it was their signature. I got a side of veggies and fried fish skin as well because altogether the bill would still be under a $100 and I felt like I deserved a nice meal that day. Honestly it didn't change my mind about wontons, but I could tell that if it was someone who like wontons they would have really liked that bowl of noodles. Also I saw that at the bottom of my bowl there were real pieces of crab meat (not the imitation crab meat), so I felt like they really put a lot of effort into making the soup base (which tasted very "crabby"). The veggies were pea sprouts and was only $20 so I thought that was really a steal. The fish skin I would not recommend because I found it not that crunchy and had a strong oily taste... or maybe it just didn't go with the crab wonton soup. Another thing that really impressed me was that the owner turned down my offer to move to another seat to make space for another group. Being in Hong Kong for 6 years, I know the cha tsan tang game... if you are taking up a table for 3 and you are alone, you should move to share a table with the other solo eaters! Anyway, I was impressed that the owner let me finish the last bites of my food instead of pushing me to sit shoulder to shoulder with someone else.

Anyway, after seeing the real crab meat and the refusing my offer to move to another seat incident, I went on to rave about this restaurant to my friends and colleagues. I brought my friend N there like... 2 days later or something and she really liked it as well. In 2 weeks I went there for about 5 times and tried most of their dishes.

• Hua diao chicken wings vermicelli 花雕醉雞中翼米: absolutely delicious and my favorite there. It really tastes and smells like hua diao without getting my drunk
• Hainan chicken rice 海南雞飯: also very good, the rice tastes really really good and they are really generous with the portion so I was really happy
• Crab brain sauce over pea sprouts and udon 蟹黃豆苗烏冬: this was on their daily rotating menu and recommended by the owner. I can see that they used real crab brain but the flavour was a little more on the light side (probably because they didn't want to overdose on the msg)
• Hua diao shrimp balls noodles 花雕醉蝦丸米: no I wouldn't get it again because it tastes nothing like hua diao and I don't like to pay $60 for noodles and the main ingredients are freaking balls
• Fried 3 treasures 炸三寶: I totally just made that English name up right now. Basically it's your choice of 4 items (I don't know why they always call it 3), so like bell pepper, tofu, wonton skin and eggplant "devil'ed" with fish meat and deep fried. I think they do a really good job of it here and it tastes very fresh and non-greasy.

By day they are a regular cha tsan tang kinda restaurant, but by night they are... Batman. No just kidding, by night they are a private kitchen with a set menu, so you have to call at least a day in advance to see if they have any spots left. You will also need to have at least 2 people in your party to make a reservation. It looks pretty legit so the plan is to visit it "someday". Visit their facebook page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/crabcrab2013

This is the shrimp balls noodle I wasn't really happy with... oh well, I still love them.

Location: ground floor of Haleson Building on Jubilee Street by "The Game Center"
Website: https://zh-tw.facebook.com/crabcrab2013

Mana (Fast Slow Food)

... well actually, more like slow slow food. Seriously there was a while people had to wait 30 minutes for their wrap and this was at 12:00... not even lunch rush hour in Central yet!

I've never been one of those super healthy vegan, gluten free people, and honestly do not think I will ever become one of those people any time soon. However I do feel that every now and then I need to "cleanse" my system and have a healthy day. Some people might think that's useless to have just one healthy day a week, but I feel like at least I'm doing something good for myself every now and then. 

Today was a "stressful" day so I went ahead and spoiled myself and got their lemonade ($45) as well. Someone told me their lemonade is VERY good so I thought I'd give it a try. Well, meh, it was not life changing. Along with the full "Pick Four" wrap my bill was at $130, which is super expensive considering it's self serve fast food kind of place. Oh well, I deserved it today. I will put this price range at $70-100 tag because I normally would never get a drink which lowers the damage to $85, which is still high but once a week I can handle. I think a half wrap is around $40-50, but I really do not understand how that can possibly fill anyone up. I always get the full wrap with hummus, tofu, cheese and rockets (all the filling stuff to make sure I stay full until dinner). My recent discovery is that along with the hot sauce I steal from Nam Kee, these wraps tastes so much more awesome.

Location: Wellington street near the escalator
Website: http://www.mana.hk/