Moon Koon Restaurant, Happy Valley Racecourse, Hong Kong

It was Mother's Day in Hong Kong a couple of Sundays ago and I went for lunch with my wife's family, treating my mother-in-law for a dim sum lunch at Moon Koon restaurant that is situated in the racecourse.

There was a party of six of us and we booked a window seat that gives you excellent views of the racecourse. This is good if you are dining and want to watch the horseracing at the same time but there was no racing happening that day to distract us from our food.

The glazed facade on one side makes the restaurant very airy and whilst it was busy, it did not seem like a crowded place. Tables are smartly laid out and they have a nice cutlery holder for your chopsticks and spoon, with a little horseshoe shaped rest for your spoon as shown below.

The table setting

We ordered a lot of dishes and this is what we ate:

The first to arrive was a savoury item, being the Chicken and Mushroom rice shown below. Nicely steamed pieces of  chicken and Chinese mushroom in a pot of plain rice was a generous portion that everyone got to have a taste of.

Chicken & Mushroom Rice

The next dishes where the Taro Cake and the Turnip Cake. The Taro has a bland floury texture about it for its filling and edible enough but not something I would order personally. The fried Turnip Cake was really good. This one was an XO sauce variant so that gave the darker colour and spicier taste.

Taro Cake and Turnip Cake

We ordered he classic barbecued pork buns 'Char Siu Bao' and Egg Tartlets, shown below. The former had the usual fluffy dough and sweet pork filling. The latter was a delicious little tart, with light flaky pastry and warm, sweet egg filling. 

Clockwise from left: Char Siu Bao and Egg Tartlets

The picture below shows three traditional dishes in Lotus Rice, Siu Mai and Har Gow from left to right in the foreground. The rice was fine, it was the glutinous kind, steamed with mushrooms and other finely chopped ingredients. Siu Mai had a decent pork filling with prawn on top and Har Gow had a sizeable prawn filling wrapped in the translucent pastry.

From Left (in foreground): Lotus Rice, Siu Mai, Har Gow.

Below shows rice rolls and fried dumplings. The rice roll wrapped around the a deep fried 'doughstick' and when dipped in soy sauce, it gave it a better flavour to this light dish. The dumplings had a flavoursome mixture of pork and chive filling, with a slightly thicker pastry. Please note the turnip cake seems to be turning up on all the pictures; the dish was well received by us but because of the amount of food we took our time in finishing the whole plate.

From Left: Rice Roll, Turnip Cake (again); Fried Dumpling

One of the sweet dishes we had was Steamed Cake, which looked massive when it turned up on the table. It was cut perfectly into six portions enough for eveyone. Although big in portion size it was light and spongy and this one had a hint of coffee in its mixture, which was a nice change from the norm.

Steamed Cake

As with dim sum meals, some dishes are really tasty and some are so-so but that is the varied nature of this type of lunching. None were awful and all were nicely presented but they could have had a slightly bigger selection. My favourites were the Egg Tartlets and the Turnip Cake. The waiters were friendly and served us efficiently when giving us our food, refilling teapots and clearing dishes.

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

Overall: 14/20.

Total Bill: $580, about £8 a head.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Lung Jeng (Dragon's Well) tea.

I wore: Respectable enough clothes for Mothering Sunday.

My Flat, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

This entry is a break from the norm as the venue is my place, the chef and waitress was my wife and the meal was in the evening.

I was cooked a home made dinner last night prepared by the fair hands of my wife.

She cooked four dishes which are shown below.

My Dinner

Working from the top, that dish was Aubergine and Minced Pork. Traditionally this is cooked and served in a clay pot but we made do with a stainless steel pan. Also salted fish is usually added but there was not any in this. Instead there were chillies added instead to give it a spicy flavour. This was my favourite dish of the lot, with the mince and aubergine cooked to a lovely and soft texture.

Working clockwise is steamed crab. This was 'flower crab' (the literal translation) was cut into smaller pieces, which was then steamed with garlic and spring onion. This made a great finger food as you dip it in the red vinegar (centre of the picture).

At the bottom of the picture is a delicious Steamed Fish. Unfortunately I do not know the kind ('Chong Yu' is the phonetic translation from Cantonese) but it was a really meaty kind and covered in a lovely soy-oil dressing and garnished with plenty of spring onions.

Then on the left is stir fired Indian Lettuce, fried using garlic to give a lovely flavour and still crunchy.

This might be a biased review, but I think I am allowed to do this. Overall this was a perfect dinner and cannot fault it at all. Food was great and presented wonderfully. Service was brilliant and setting was top class too.

Scores:

Food: 5/5

Presentation: 5/5

Service: 5/5

Setting: 5/5

Total Bill: Nothing as my wife bought all the ingredients!

I ate: All of the above, accompanied with white rice.

I drank: Fruit Juice.

I wore: Office clothes still as I could not be bothered to get changed. 

Starbucks, Hong Kong Airport Express Station, Hong Kong

On Sunday I went to send my wife off on her business trip. She was taking a morning flight and so we were at the train station before seven so this is a really early lunchquest.

Although there were quite a few train users the cafe was not that busy at all this time in the morning. I am not much of a coffee person but they do sell teas and I opted for their Earl Grey, in a 'Tall' size. They had a decent selection of food on display from their counter but nothing really breakfasty. I did spot a croissant so chose that and decided to get something else so I ordered a scone. Both items were made hot by the assistant.

The tea was made first before the food. I was a bit disappointed it was not in a cup and saucer as I was dining in. My food came a few moments later after being warmed up and I proceeded to sit myself down in the many empty seats.

My Order

I was given a knife and fork with my food so decided to eat with these implements so save my hands getting dirty. The scone was of the blueberry variant and was a large one. There were no accompaniments such as cream or jam but it was tasty and moist enough not need them. The croissant was soft with flaky pastry and a hint of butter. I suspect both items are not baked on site but they were nice served warm.

The tea was hot at first, which is no bad thing, and flowery.

It was not the cheapest lunch (breakfast) quest for what I got but the food and drink are of decent quality. The decor is your standard Starbucks fit-out and I managed to get a comfortable leather seat due to the sparsity. The staff were amiable enough at this time of day.

Starbucks are fairly ubiquitous in this city and their numbers were probably growing the last time I was in my home town so I would expect a compare and contrast soon!

Scores
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 2/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5

Overall: 11/20

Total Bill: $50, just over 4GBP.

I ate: Blueberry Scone and Croissant.

I drank: Earl Grey Tea in a paper cup.

I wore: Trainers, with a rucksack containing another pair of trainers for the gym.

Red Ant, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

We had a late lunch / afternoon tea at the Red Ant restaurant on Saturday just gone. It is local chain of eateries serving a mix of Hong Kong style cafe food to more elaborate dishes. 


The restaurant was busy but there was still room to fit my wife and I. There were enough staff and we gave our orders fairly quickly after seating.


They had set menus and I opted for their 'E' set, which was Curry Beef Brisket Noodles. When ordering there is a choice of about five different noodle and soup base types. I chose rice noodles as my starch selection and chicken broth for my stock. A drink was included so I chose Iced Milk Tea for a small supplement. Generally in Hong Kong cold drinks in a set menu carry an extra charge.

My wife in the other hand, went for a sweet option and chose the numerical choice of 13. This set comprised of three desserts: Hokkaido milk pudding, banana crepe and peanut & hazelnut sorbet.

My Iced Milk Tea on the left

The order arrived fairly quickly, with the drinks first (shown above). When waiting we were given cutlery but this was swiftly swapped for chopsticks  when my dish came as I was not going to eat my noodles with a knife and fork. The noodles were cooked well enough. The meat was soft and spicy but the chicken stock meant that it was not to hot and still good flavour. There were about two slices of Chinese leaf for the vegetable content. I had a few bites of the brisket, which initially looked like cooked turnip but it was the gelatinised collagen. It was chewy and edible but I could not finish all of it.

Beef brisket noodles

I did have a sample of my wife's order. The crepe did not taste that fresh and had a slight rubbery texture to it but the banana and cream filling was nice. The pudding (I am not sure if it was made in Hokkaido or just from that milk), although cutely presented in a small bottle was a little bland. The best of the three sweets was the sorbet, although that was more of an ice cream as it had a creamy texture but a really lovely nutty flavour.

Dessert Menu

My drink was cool, not too sugary and refreshing, given it was a hot day. However they tend to turn up the air conditioning when outside temperatures rise so this place got a bit nippy. Nevertheless it has modern decor, is fairly spacious for a cafe, efficient staff, decent food and not an ant in sight.


Scores:
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5 
Overall: 12/20


Total bill: $91, about £4 a head.


I ate: Curry Beef Brisket Noodles.


I drank: Iced Milk Tea.


I wore: Polo shirt and cargo shorts.