彩龍, Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong

This entry dates back from  Christmas Day. My wife and I went for an early lunch with the in-laws, followed by a hike as it was cool and sunny that day. 

Food was had at Choi Lung (phonetic translation) restaurant that is situated half way on the highest mountain of Hong Kong, Tai Mo Shan.   

It uses a canteen service in that they have food counters where you choose your item but then it is noted on your ticket in order to pay at the end. There is no queuing system so is a little disorganised but it is not anarchy. Tea is also served by oneself.

There is a decent selection to choose from, and we selected a variety as shown in the picture below. Starting from the top at the twelve o'clock position, there was Watercress; Black Sesame Roll; Steamed Quail Egg Dumpling; Spring Roll; Large Steamed Bun, Steamed Cake; Deep Fried Milk; and Prawn Rice Roll.

Our food

Most of the items that were taken were standard dishes when visiting a dim sum restaurant. The exceptions to this were the black sesame roll or 'photo film' as it is called due to its appearance, which has a sweet glutinous taste. The Egg Dumpling is rather like a wonton dumpling with a cute little egg on top. Deep fried milk is something I had never tried and not sure how they make it (it may have come from Scottish cooking techniques?). However is was inoffensive.

Although not pictured we had more food with barbecued pork buns and choi sum taken later.

It's not particularly clean but the food it prepared professionally enough, served with basic plastic plates and bamboo steamers, and service is really by oneself.

Some things were good to eat, some OK. It's not dirt cheap but not that expensive either. Due to the location of it being halfway up a mountain, it is unlikely I will be frequenting this place. However, it is worth a visit if one is in the area.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 2/5

Overall: 11/20

Total Bill: $278, about £5.50 a head.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Pu-er tea.

I wore: Hooded Top.

泰記, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

There was nothing much in my fridge one morning so I went to the local cooked food centre for breakfast. 'Tai Kay' as it is phonetically pronounced is one of the restaurants on the top floor of a wet market building that is common in (and probably unique to) Hong Kong.

After a slight guess at the Chinese characters of the menu, I went for the "Set B" breakfast, which is the local Hong Kong cafe style meal.

I received a bowl of rice vermicelli first, with two half slices of luncheon meat placed on top. The soup base was not packed with flavour but it was an adequate enough dish.

The set meal also came with a Western style cooked egg, for which I chose an omelette that was cooked well with still some runniness in the egg.

First part of my order

The third part of the meal was a thick slice of toast with butter, shown below, which is available for a $5 supplement. As this was the last part of the meal I was rather full after finishing this large piece of toasted bread. 

Thick slice toast

Service is aggressively friendly at first to get your business as there are about three establishments sharing the food court area. Once food was ordered it arrived fairly promptly.

This place is hygienic enough but it will not be to everyone's liking in terms of cleanliness. Toilet roll is used as serviettes here. Plates are basic plastic ware. But it is cheap and cheerful and must suits the local residents' needs as it was doing some decent trade on a Saturday morning.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 2/5

Overall: 11/20

Total Bill: $29, about £2.50.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Chinese style milk tea, which  I am not a great fan of, due to the use of evaporated milk.

I wore: Black tracksuit top.

Kings Dumpling, Wanchai, Hong Kong

I am here at Wanchai, with my wife, for a Saturday lunch at Kings Dumpling. We did not eat just dumplings but other items as well, noted below.

We browsed through the menu and ticked off items on the order sheet.

Table Setting

The first item to arrive were the dumplings, the Siu Lung Bao, which were really good. They had 'hairy crab' roe (which is a local, seasonal dish) in them, giving them an extra nice flavour.

Siu Long Bao

The 'Dan Dan Mein' pictured below was good bowl of noodles in a not too spicy sauce (although there were two chilli icons next to the menu) with a nutty twist to the flavour as well.

The plate on the right of the picture is Chicken noodles salad (not the literal translation). This cold dish comprises strips of chicken mixed with translucent rice noodles and cucumber slices topped with a peanut sauce. It was light and refreshing.

Dan Dan Noodles & Chicken Noodle Salad

We had a fourth dish, which was Wonton. There were about seven of these vegetable and meat dumplings, which were served in a light, clear soup and ended the meal nicely and sufficiently.

Wonton

Food was in general good and plentiful enough for lunch, and not too pricey. It is a clean and modern looking restaurant, with efficient staff. Whilst the restaurant was not packed for a Saturday lunch, they had already run out of one of the items we initially wanted, which was odd though.

Plus, one can tell Christmas is coming soon as the festive songs made up the Muzak in this place. 

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 12/20

Total Bill: $222, about £9.50 a head.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Chinese Tea, variety unknown.

I wore: Black Polo Shirt.

Farm House, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Another Sunday lunch at a dim sum restaurant, again in a commercial high rise tower (which is a common sight in this town). There was enough space in this eatery for us to be sat in a comfortably sized table. The seats had cream coloured upholstery that had visible tea stains on it, though. We ordered through waiter service. Typically you order dim sum dishes by the steamed basket, which contain about four pieces, but this restaurant allows you to order individually, which is a good thing for limiting food wastage.

Our Teapot with Warmer

The first dish to arrive was the Chicken Wing shown below, which is their speciality. It had a glutinous rice stuffed inside a crispy skin. This  was the first time I had tried this and was really good.

Chicken Wing with stuffed rice

The next two dishes to arrive are shown below. The Har Gow pastry was a little too sticky but the prawn filling was tasty enough, and the Fried Beancurd Roll was crispy without being special.

Fried Beancurd Roll (right) and Har Gow

Shanghai Dumpling (Siu Long Bao) came next and that was excellent. They were a sizeable portions that had a lovely broth along with the pork meat stuffing that had crab roe mixed in for extra flavour. Siu mai were big, meaty portions as well.

Siu Long Bao and Siu Mai

We had Spring Rolls of two varieties as they got our order wrong the first time round. The first (incorrect) one had taro in it and the second one had turnip cake filling. Both were different but I prefer the standard meat and vegetable filling.

Spring Roll I

Spring Roll II

The Runny Custard Bun (not pictured) was served very hot and the custard was scalding when it spurted out after biting into it, so here is a Health & Safety warning to readers.

As well as getting our orders wrong with the spring rolls they delivered an incorrect dish as well. Plus little things like not lighting the tea candle under our pot to keep it warm comes to mind when considering the service from this restaurant.

This place was quite expensive compared with other dim sum restaurants. Some of their items are good and a bit unique but overall not warranting a repeat visit soon.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 2/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 11/20

Total Bill: $417, about £17 a head.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Iron Buddha Tea  Water.

I wore: Sunday Polo Shirt.

Foo Ka, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

I was here for a later lunch at this restaurant serving dim sum. It is quite a plush place located in a modern office block tower. Although we were approaching the middle of the afternoon there were still a few customers in this place having their mid-day meals.

Tables are neatly presented and laid out as we sat at our seat, which was by the window and had a decent view of the harbour.

We were asked our tea preference and ordered Dragon's Well and then proceeded to mark our order on the Dim Sum sheet.

Table setting & Tea choice

Our dishes did not take that long to arrive and the first two shown below. Chicken's feet was nice spice and sauce to it. There was turnip as well. For the Har Gow, the pastry was a little sticky but it was filled with decent sized prawns on the inside.

Left: Har Gow, Right: Chicken Feet

The Spring roll was really good with a crispy outer shell and meaty and moist filling, which was the most enjoyable dish of that day.

Mini egg tarts were cute and sweet, although they were not the ones with flaky pastry that my wife prefers. 

Top: Spring Roll, Bottom: Mini Egg Tart

'Jaa Leung' (there is no English name that I know of) shown below (literal meaning Fried Twice) consists of a rice rolled wrapped over fried dough. This was a little over steamed so ended soggy to bite into, making it the least liked dish of the day.

'Jaa Leung'

Savoury dumplings, which are not pictured were fine with the sweet fried dough mixing well with the meat and vegetable filling.

Because of its location, Foo Ka is more suited to business lunchers with its decorated interior and its slightly higher price for dim sum. Food was generally good apart from the 'Jaa Leung'. Service was OK but it had its weak points in that one waiter spilt some Worcestershire sauce on the egg tart whilst serving us and did not acknowledge it so there is room for improvement perhaps. As it is close to my work I would generally only go here if I was in the area for a repeat visit.

Scores:
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 2/5
Setting: 4/5

Overall: 12/20

Total Bill: $205, about £9 a head

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Dragon's Well tea.

I wore: Blue polo shirt & blue jeans.

TWG Tea, Central, Hong Kong

This Sunday lunch was at TWG Tea, a Singaporean chain of tea boutiques, which has its Hong Kong branch located in the IFC mall in Central.

The interior has a very British colonial feel about it. It is walk-in only during the day but there was sufficient space and we were sat at a very presentable table with comfortable chairs. They have a massive range of teas and give us an informative book on teas along with the menu after we were seated.

Table Setting

My wife and I both opted for the multi course brunch, of which there are a variety and I went for one called 'Dignitary'.

The first item to arrive was the orange juice, which was freshly squeezed, so a healthy and refreshing way to start the meal.

Fresh Juice

My brunch set had Eggs Benedict as the main dish. There is a choice of ham or smoked salmon, which I chose the latter. However when the dish arrived it was actually ham; I did not make a complaint and carried on eating. It was well presented, with a salad accompaniment as shown below. Taste wise I had no complaints; eggs were cooked right, the sauce had a nice sourness to it and the erroneous ham was a generous slice. 

Eggs Benedict

The next course was the muffin and scone course. The lemon muffin was light enough with strong flavour of lemon and a lemon sauce inside. The scone was a bit small but OK with little raisins in them, which was served with whipped cream and peach jelly, all shown below. 

My tea was served at this point, where I opted for an Irish morning Tea, as there was no Scottish kind so I stuck with the Celtic connection, which was very strong.

Scone & Muffin

A Cake or Pastry was the last course and I went for the strawberry tart. This had a firm biscuit base, light but sweet custard filling and lots of strawberries to top off as can be seen below.

Strawberry Tart

Whilst the staff were friendly enough, there were other little things to mark the service down like spilling the tea when pouring and some black pepper falling into my tea.

However, the food and drink here was pretty good which filled me up nicely and it is a very pretty looking place to eat. When we left there was a healthy queue for the afternoon tea session so it is a popular boutique tea salon and one where we will likely to be returning to. 

Scores:

Food: 4/5

Presentation: 4/5

Service: 2/5

Setting: 4/5

Overall: 14/20

Total Bill: $701, about £29 a head.

I ate: Dignitary Brunch Set.

I drank: Irish Morning Tea, Freshly squeezed orange juice, both of which were included in the brunch.

I wore: H&M Polo Shirt.

Ichiran, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

This early lunch quest saw me eat noodles at Ichiran on a Monday morning for breakfast.

It is a famous chain of ramen restaurants in Japan and they opened their first overseas branch in Hong Kong a couple of months back. Such was the hype that there have been massive queues to this place.

One gimmick is that they are open 24 hours so we used this to our advantage and got there early doors for our breakfast. This tactic worked as there were not many people so we did not have to queue.

Eating booths are individually styled and so not ideal for social gatherings.

Eating Booth

There is only one item on the menu, which is a bowl of noodles. There is a choice of how strong you want your soup base, how well cooked you want the noodles etc. I made my choices and handed it to the server.

The noodles then soon appear on your table through a curtain at the front of the booth, giving a slight level of surprise and unexpectedness of when your order will arrive.

It was a fairly large bowl of noodles, cooked to my order. There were two slices of pork and spring onions as a garnish as well, which I had chosen. Noodles were al dente as ordered and quite buttery in taste; the soup broth had a good flavour and was not too oily. You can also order a special sauce as well, which enhances the taste. The pork was a bit sparse in quantity, though.

My Order

Free flow purified water came from a tap fitted in each booth, which was good as no drink came with the noodles.

I liked my food from Ichiran, but it was a tad expensive (for a breakfast) and probably not worth the hype, nor long queue if there is one the next time I think about going here.

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

Overall: 13/20

Total Bill: $178, about £7.50 a head.

I ate: Ramen noodles.

I drank: Ichiran purified water.

I wore: Standard polo shirt.

Shop Exterior (with no queue at 8am)