Cafe Groucho's, Stanley, Hong Kong

Having read the recent stories of LQ's Editor in Chief's charity walk training regime, I felt inspired to do a bit of walking myself.

My wife and I ended up at Cafe Groucho's after a 2 hour walk (and taxi ride) from our flat to Stanley last Sunday and decided to go to this place for some refreshments.  It's located on the waterfront, along with other restaurants and cafes and all seats are outside. Being the weekend it was busy and we had a five minute wait for our seat. We still had to share a table but that is commonplace in a busy cafe in this densely populated city.

Groucho's has a large selection of burgers but we ordered only side dishes as this was a late lunch. I chose fish fingers and my wife opted for chips with cheese topping. For drinks I decided to go for an iced lemon tea and my wife went for the hot variant.

My lemon tea arrived first in a plastic cup (with separate syrup jug) then the fish fingers in a cardboard bowl later. The former was a bit bland, probably because the tea was weak and not many slices of lemon were served. The latter were a little burnt and very hot. There was a dollop of tartare sauce as a garnish, which added a bit of flavour to an adequate dish.

My fish fingers & iced lemon tea

And that is all we ate as we were still waiting for my wife's order after I had finished my fish fingers. We then decided to get the bill and leave, cancelling the chips and hot tea. One good things was that my tea was served in a plastic cup so I took it away to drink as we left early.

I suppose Groucho's is a waterfront cafe in its relaxed (but friendly) service and that the food is served in paper & plastic. Unfortunately the service was too relaxed and we will be visiting other establishments the next time we go to Stanley.

Scores:

Food: 2/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 2/5
Setting: 3/5
Overall: 10/20

Total bill: $60, so just about £5 a head.

I ate: Fish Fingers (only).

I drank: Iced Lemon Tea (partly take-away).

I wore: New Salomon hiking shoes.

譽滿坊, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

Apologies for the lack of blogging activity as I have been fairly busy over the past month. A lot of my time has been taken up moving house so this entry is the first one in Happy Valley, which is where I now reside. We were taking a break from cleaning our new flat and stopped here for lunch with my parents-in-law. The restaurant does not have an English name so the phonetic translation would be 'Yu Moon Fong', which I will abbreviate to YMF. It's on one of the main streets in the area and a few minutes walk from our new abode.

As we entered the restaurant was virtually empty but that is because they were expecting a large party soon. Therefore we were lucky in that there was a spare table for us four diners. We sat down and were advised by staff to order quickly before the party arrived so we duly did so.

As YMF is a Chinese restaurant, they do dim sum for lunch so we ordered nine dishes to share. Here is how we got on:

Clockwise from top left:Siu Mai; Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf; Har Gow; Chive Dumpling; Char Siu Bao. (Top right Corner: Savoury Water Dumpling)

Siu mai: these pork and prawn dumplings were garnished with shark's fin on top. Whilst the dumpling was nice the shredded fin did not really add much, just some exclusivity and controversy.

Fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf. For this dish the rice is first fried then wrapped in the leaf and steamed for extra flavour and a smoother texture, which equates to a nice item.

Har gow with lobster meat. A premium take on the the classic prawn dumpling. Tasty with good pastry but I prefer a whole prawn as opposed to small pieces of meat.

Deep fried dumpling. This spherical dumpling was served very hot and had a chives and pork mixture inside with a light batter to cover everything.

Char siu bao. Barbecued pork bun was tasty, with light, fluffy pastry on the outside and hot sweet pork filling inside.

Ham shui gok, which has the literal translation of 'savoury water dumpling'. This is a deep fried item and had a delicious sweet crispy outside and a pork-based filing inside. Probably the best dish of the lot.

Top:Fried rice in lotus leaf. Bottom: Chicken Rice with Abalone

Chicken rice. This little bamboo steamer that contained rice, which was topped off with nice chicken pieces. Under the chicken were two small slices of abalone to make it more classy (and expensive).

1000 layer cake

1000 layer cake was the only sweet dish we had. There were actually probably only seven layers of sweet glutinous rice and egg yolk sponge. It was ok, but nothing special.

Spring roll (not pictured). Hot and crispy on the outside, packed with a meat filling in the inside. Usually cut in half to make them more bite size but they did not do this but that did not detract me from the lovely taste.

YMF serves some really nice food (albeit at high temperatures) and is a good local restaurant. The decor is clean and functional and not pretentious. The service was friendly, quick and efficient. It is probably a bit pricier than other restaurants in the area but you pay for that bit of quality and Happy Valley is one of the more affluent areas of Hong Kong, so I would recommend this place.

Scores:
Food: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5

Overall: 13/20

Total bill: $442, so just under £10 a head.

I ate: All of the above

I drank: Chrysanthemum tea.

I wore: Casual clothes suitable for cleaning.