Tag Archives: Causeway Bay

Café Corridor restaurant review – cute and cosy in Causeway

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 3 Comments

cafe corridor hk

Next stop on Mirander & Rach’s cute café tour of Hong Kong – Café Corridor in Causeway Bay.

Tucked away down a… surprise, surprise… corridor opposite Times Square, Café Corridor is a homely little independent joint that’s become surprisingly well-known and loved despite its positively diminutive size. Its owner, Felix Wong, knows his way around a coffee bean (he also founded two other companies, Coffee Assembly and Barista Academy, to promote HK’s coffee culture) and Café Corridor’s reputation quickly grew, meaning the space is always packed with people looking for a quality caffeine fix.

However, if you’re looking for a coffee review, I’m afraid you’ll have to go elsewhere. I don’t drink the stuff (other than in highly diluted, sweetened, milkified and no longer bearing any resemblance to actual coffee, dung ga fe form) so can’t give you my opinion on that… but I’m happy to tell you about everything else!

Café Corridor has an almighty tempting cabinet of homemade pastries and desserts and I had a hard job picking just one… So I picked two, of course! Luckily, Mirander was there to order our second sweet treat, lessening the heavy side order of guilt (calories shared don’t count, right?)! On my second visit, the desserts cabinet was much less well stocked, so I guess it depends on getting lucky on the day!

cafe corridor earl grey chocolate tart

Our first dessert was Earl Grey Chocolate Tart, which managed to look both elegant and sinful, one of the best possible combinations! It tasted great, made with proper rich dark chocolate, not the wishy-washy stuff you find in many places. The Earl Grey was rather too subtle to make much of a difference – more a hint of mellowness that kept the whole thing on the right side of not too sweet. The buttery base was similarly delicious but it was the texture of the chocolate that threw us off – we were expecting a gooey ganache consistency, but it was quite firm and difficult to break into. It got softer, better and more melt-in-mouth towards the wide end of the slice… we just wish the whole thing had been like that.

cafe corridor caramelised apple tart

Our second dessert of Caramelised Apple Tart was pretty flawless, with presentation SO cute that it’s just crying for shedloads of Instagram pics. Thankfully, the adorable presentation was backed up by the taste – soft sticky syrupy caramelised apples, but still with a hint of bite, heaped generously into a moreish flaky buttery pastry shell. It managed to be homely, comforting and cute but done with considerable style.

cafe corridor bacon and scrambled eggs

I also managed to fit in a main dish of bacon and scrambled eggs on toast. I’m generally a sunny side up kind of girl but this was surprisingly scrummy – it had been seasoned and herbed up to perfection, making it taste more than the sum of its parts. But Café Corridor, why so stingy with the bacon?! I admit to loving my bacon more than most (I can tuck away a whole pack in one sitting), but one and a half tiny rashers divided over two pieces of toast is just not enough!

cafe corridor peanut butter and banana toast

Next trip, Mirander went for peanut butter and banana on toast – a combination I’ve clearly not eaten nearly enough of over the years as it was more-ishly addictive. I loved the lashings of syrup and cinnamon on top; I didn’t love the uber-charred crusts that had been left on the toast though.

I washed all this down with a pot of lemongrass and ginger tea, which was so weak that it didn’t taste much different to tap water (which, incidentally, staff are happy to give you free of charge); I’d try a smoothie or hot chocolate next time instead. With desserts costing around $30, mains around $60 and drinks $20-40, prices are reasonable enough given how good the desserts are and the lack of a service charge. Judging by its popularity and quality, Café Corridor could easily open up a larger shop elsewhere or have several other Café Corridors popping up all over town… but that just wouldn’t be the point of the place.

Inside is small and cosy (a euphemism for cramped… the toilet being particularly grim), with wooden tables and chairs packed in tightly like a game of sardines, although there is also a small outdoor space too. A floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall mirror at the back of the room cleverly gives the illusion of space, so much so I almost wandered directly into it! The décor isn’t much to write home about, but I did like the abundance of personal touches, with one wall covered in Polaroids of staff, customers and other little scribblings.

For such a cosy café, the range of the menu and desserts is truly impressive and there is plenty I want to come back for. With such lovely presentation and homespun local charm, it’s the kind of place that just puts a smile on your face (even if you’re so close to the table next to you that you could join in their conversation) and happily transplants you to a kinder corner of Causeway, a world apart from the rest of its commercial cookie cutter-dom.

In short, the place, just like the food, has been obviously created and filled with love. And for that reason, although it doesn’t benefit my afternoon tea comfort, Café Corridor thoroughly deserves to be packed out every hour of the day.

Café Corridor, G/F, 26A Russel Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2892 2927

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Fiat Caffè restaurant review: start your engines!

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

My friend Mirander and I are engaged in on-going quest to check out every café in Hong Kong… and latest to make it on our radar was the Fiat Caffè in Causeway Bay. And yes, that is Fiat as in cars.

Cunningly disguised as a car showroom in Leighton Centre, I must have walked past countless times before realising that there was actually a menu pinned outside… and not just a basic café menu of perfunctory espressos and sad-looking sandwiches, but a mouth-watering menu stuffed with interesting Italian dishes.

Amongst the bruschetta, panini, pasta and gelato on offer, there is one gimmicky ‘most expensive coffee in the world’ (it comes with a Fiat) but otherwise, the menu is done with far more conviction and flair than you would expect of a café parked within a car showroom (parked… see what I did there?!).

The environment is bigger than expected (from outside, all you can see are the cars!) and a little busy – there’s a large kitchen-bar area, food to buy and take home (including pasta, tea bags and ice-cream) stacked everywhere, and a wall constantly re-playing Fiat commercials (I will probably now take Jennifer Lopez’s advert to the grave). Again, I was expecting a more gimmicky element – Fiat branding on the crockery, seats shaped like cars (clearly, I’ve been to too many Disney themed restaurants in my time!), but thankfully it was much cooler than that. Mirander and I eyed the uncomfortable-looking latticework perspex chairs dubiously, but actually they were surprisingly fine (for the first hour anyway) – so not just style over comfort!

Because I am a pig and couldn’t pick between two salivating-sounding bruschetta, I ordered both! First up was one topped with crispy pancetta, fried eggs, stewed tomatoes and black truffle – come on, doesn’t that just sound seriously sexy?! It arrived looking just as sexy, a mountain of indulgent Italian goodies (like a posher English breakfast!) piled atop a hefty wedge of toasted and defiantly un-soggy bruschetta, and it was as utterly scrumptious as those ingredients would have you expect.

The eggs (two eggs! result!) were cooked beautifully; one prod and beautiful yellow creamy goodness spilled out from the yolks. The pancetta was crispy salty and wonderful, although I do wish there had been a little more of it given the size of the dish, whilst the truffle flakes added a slight but unmistakeable woody smoky touch. I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes so would have preferred them in a less ‘wet’ form, but they added the right amount of fresh tanginess to balance the other rich flavours.

Second and even better was the prosciutto, sun-dried tomato, shallots and Fontina cheese bruschetta. The flavours here were much lighter and more obviously Italian than my first pick. The prosciutto was heaped on generously (how many times have you ordered this kind of thing only to get a tiny handful of the stuff?) and was dreamily beautiful – soft, salty and dangerously addictive. The sun-dried tomatoes were also packed with flavour; I see these all too rarely in restaurants here and wish they’d been more generous with these too! Nevertheless, the lack of sun-dried tomatoes was almost made up by the abundance of beautiful shallots – little balls packed with zinging sweet but sour loveliness. The Fontina was sliced very thinly, meaning it was practically welded to the toast, and has a more mild nutty flavour compared to other Italian cheeses, but the tastes all came together perfectly. I had to admit defeat and couldn’t finish half of the bread this time – yes, there are limits to my gluttony!

Miranda opted for a panini stuffed with more Fontina, balsamic mushrooms and tomatoes, pronouncing it ‘pretty good’; panini are a bit of a weakness for me so I will definitely be back to try one. I also really liked the honest presentation of all the dishes – no fancy drizzling of this or that, just plated up (in the case of the panini, on a rustic chunky wood board) and letting the ingredients and tastes do the talking.

Even better, despite the fact that this is a table-service joint and the waitresses are happy to keep topping you up with free tap water at all times? No 10% service charge! With the bruschetta and panini costing around $60-80, prices aren’t unreasonable for the quality of ingredients and hearty portion sizes, plus if you are that way inclined, they do offer good value lunch, afternoon tea and dinner sets too.

Although Hong Kong is not exactly short of Italian restaurants or indeed cafés, Fiat Caffè is a one-of-a-kind here. The dishes are a cut above the norm and despite their simplicity, are combinations that I just haven’t seen elsewhere. They’re well thought-out, authentic and have been created with an obvious love for food – and are absolutely delicious enough to warrant repeated return visits to work your way through the whole menu (I’m already eyeing all mentions of anchovies and homemade ricotta)!

The busy environment and the gradual sensation of the chairs’ latticework pressing into your bum means that the Fiat Caffè isn’t really the place to enjoy a long leisurely meal or a social dinner gathering. However, as a pit stop for an afternoon pick-me-up or a quick, filling and very delicious lunch, it’s definitely right up there for pole position. Vroom vroom!

Fiat Caffè, Shops G5-6, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2960 9222

Bottom photo credit: Fiat HK’s Facebook Page

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Jack Wills is opening in Hong Kong… and it’s Fabulously British!

Posted on November 27, 2011 | 7 Comments

Amidst all the new international store openings in Hong Kong (Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, American Eagle, Gap, Forever 21), one store has quietly sneaked in under the radar… and may just eclipse them all. Ladies and gents, may I introduce you to Jack Wills.

And it definitely is an introduction. When I mentioned Jack Wills to most of my HK friends, the resounding response was ‘Who?!’. Having lived, attended school and gone to university in the UK, I was very familiar with Mr Wills. It was just getting big when I left around 4 years ago; Nottingham, the big university town where I spent far too many of my formative years, had just got its own store and had basically become THE uniform of choice for nearly everyone from my old school and uni.

The typical Jack Wills wearer then was:

In case you don’t know, that’s JP (played by Jack Whitehall) from  Fresh Meat (and do watch it, it’s hilarious), who basically epitomises near enough every person I went to school and uni with. JP would probably pronounce Jack Wills as “totally rape”… but enough Fresh Meat in-jokes!

Back then Jack Wills was very much a preppy British A&F, beloved by poshos and public schools (their tagline is ‘University Outfitters’, after all). Round my parts, we call these people ‘rah’s – for girls, think Ugg boots, sweat pants, all-enveloping scarves and big artfully-tousled bed-hair; for guys, think rugby shirts with collars never anything but up, lived-in jeans or board shorts determinedly worn in a country and climate that really doesn’t warrant having your hairy legs out for 8 months of the year.

Seriously, I could spot people from my school long after I’d left from the fact their hair was fluffed up to about five times the size of their body and that they were slouching about in sweats with ‘Jack Wills’ emblazoned on their arse. And as you’re probably now realising, I might just be a bit of a rah too. Like blates. But sadly, without the budget!

So I was already more than interested in Jack Wills opening in Hong Kong and the chance for me to relive my rah days. But, having attended a preview of their new store, I am now no longer interested, but EXTREMELY BLOODY EXCITED.

What became clear, especially after chatting to the fabulous Rachel Johnson, head of womenswear (and with a totes awesome first name, may I just add), is that Jack Wills has come on leaps and bounds since my time in the UK. Yes, there’s still rugby shirts, sweatpants and checked shirts galore, but now there’s so very much more too.

I was blown away by their range of dresses, all of which were immediately covetable, absolutely gorgeous and yet still had that signature Jack Wills feel about them. My heart did a little hop, skip and jump of delight when one of the models came out in the spotted black dress above – the very dress I pointed out to my friend a few moments before from the lookbook, stating ‘It must be mine.’

I was also rather enamoured with their fur capes, sparkly cardigans and fabulous tweed-y outdoors coats (with adorable metal anchor-embossed buttons – its the little details that count!) – here’s hoping HK actually gets cold enough to wear them! I’m also going through a cute print underwear and legwarmer obsession, so you can imagine what I made of the box of treasures below!

I loved the way the outfits were styled too – classic but still fashionable and in a way that felt distinctly British. I was also smitten by this Liberty-style print dress (most prints are bespoke to JW), paired with a slouchy knit cardigan, the perfect mix between dressed up and dressed down; all I have to say is, yes, yes YES! And this mannequin, showcasing sparkly sequinned shorts matched with a plain tee and statement-outfit making red blazer (I’m getting Claudia Winkleman vibes off this look) – even more YES! Even if I’d probably never be able to pull it off myself…

The great thing, especially for someone like me who buys what I like rather than paying close attention to whatever’s in fashion, is that Jack Wills doesn’t slavishly follow trends but rather forages its own distinctive path. I’d describe it as British heritage with a modern twist but with clothes classic and well-designed enough to last far more than a few seasons. However, unlike other shops that have an easily-identifiable signature look (*cough A&F cough*), Jack Wills doesn’t feel like a one-trick pony stuck in a major sartorial rut.

The other cause for major excitement – they’re doing BEAUTY. I think I totally freaked out Rachel, JW’s lovely brand coordinator Lauren and gorgeous PR extraordinaire Elle with my extreme excited squealing when they told me! It seems, in my time away, that Jack Wills have branched into nearly everything – home décor, mugs, iPhone accessories, jewellery and, obviously much to my delight, cosmetics too. The packaging, in their signature pink and navy stripes, is absolutely beyond cute and everything looks really affordable too. Obviously I can’t wait to get my grubby little mitts onto some of the product to give them a test drive – but that Union Jack tin stuffed with nail polishes?! It may as well have my name written on it!

I also NEED the following make-up bags – well, you can never have too many make-up bags, right?!

The lookbook is basically the cast of Skins having had a shower and minus the hipster posing, mini Rosie Huntington-Whiteleys and Prince Harrys. A sense of quintessential Britishness is as intrinsic to the brand as with Burberry or Mulberry, but at high street prices. (Though not that High Street – I’d say prices are on the more premium side, comparable to Ted Baker or Club Monaco here, but not unreasonable for the quality and with some more affordable basics. Rachel assured me they wouldn’t be jacking up the price tags for the HK market either, and my wallet thanks them hugely). There’s an emphasis on heritage prints, old-school Arran knits and little details, like embossed buttons and vintage-style labels sewn into each piece, that give it a sense of much-loved tradition but with a youthful twist.

I was also totally in love with the store itself. In HK, home to the mega-mall, store anonymity is the norm. The Jack Wills flagship, housed in Leighton Centre (behind G.O.D) in Causeway Bay, is anything but.

Firstly, it’s huge. Two floors, high ceilings, practically a mansion by Hong Kong standards. Yes, A&F may have got the press inches by forcing out Shanghai Tang but, unless they’re going to work wonders, this is actually the much better shop space.

Secondly, it’s amazing. No longer will wandering through M&S be my only port of call when pangs of homesickness strike – I can now go stroke some Jack Wills stuff too! There are so many idiosyncratic little touches, just the right mix between quirky and cool whilst being distinctively and delightfully British, that I can imagine people (especially Mainland tourists) will be popping into the shop just to take photos – and no doubt, grab a few Union Jack emblazoned souvenirs whilst they’re at it. So there’s a fireplace, vintage luggage cases, huge pre-loved Union Jack sofas, sweeping staircases, dazzling chandeliers, walls of haphazardly placed but perfectly-thought-out pictures, neon antlers, stuffed animals (didn’t take any pictures of these, slightly creepy)… oh and did I mention the big Jack Wills-striped Range Rover too?!

In a place where stores rarely have such a quirky sense of individuality expressed in their décor, this makes Jack Wills a very exciting… and enticing… prospect indeed. Their unique brand identity is just so cohesive (even their business cards have the pink and navy stripes!)… flick through their lookbook and everything just goes. It’s a study in easy fluidity yet without trying too hard.

Honestly, I really can’t think of anywhere that could compare to it in HK, which can only be a good thing. For me, another British chain with a similarly strong (though totally different) brand identity would be All Saints – in Notts, its store was an old bank kitted out to feel cutting-edge cool and rock-star gothic; meanwhile, another brand that has the quirky Brit thing would be Ted Baker, although I feel this has pretty much been entirely lost in HK stores (they used to give away condoms in my local one… can’t see that ever happening here!), whilst on the whole cool word-of-mouth front they’re totally doing a Superdry… but with a slightly posher accent!

A verrrry English tea… complete with too pretty to eat cupcakes!

Jack Wills is famous ‘in the industry’ for not doing billboards and conventional advertising, but going by word-of-mouth and viral marketing campaigns; they used to hire pretty young things to wear their clothes (and no doubt look stunning on them) and have Jack Wills beach and pub parties in the UK, all the time promoting the brand and handing out freebies.

I had a little chat about their marketing strategy here, as I was concerned that with all the new stores opening that would be aggressive about their marketing (seen those huge Gap adverts taking over the whole of Central MTR yet?!) and with very little brand recognition to work on, they might get somewhat lost. However, it sounds like they do have some cool tricks up their sleeves (involving HK’s iconic trams and some fab Facebook competitions) and they’ve created a bit of social media buzz already by inviting so many bloggers to check it out – and from what I’ve seen so far, response has been really positive, myself included!

I brought my friend Aurora along, a hot local twenty-something with a shopping addiction almost as bad as mine (i.e. totally JW’s demographic) and no previous knowledge of JW. She was won over within minutes. What she saw even from a half-finished store and a few racks of clothes had her almost as excited about the store as I was. (And here she is above, rocking her Jack Wills goodies far better than I ever could).

Her – and my! – final thoughts? Forget A&F! Head to Jack Wills instead!

Jack Wills will open two stores in HK – at Leighton Centre, Causeway Bay (see artist’s impression above!) and LCX (Ocean Terminal), Tsim Sha Tsui – at the beginning of December. Thanks to Elle and the whole Jack Wills team for inviting me and being so very welcoming and lovely throughout.

I’ll see you all at the launch party!

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Applegreen restaurant review: These are the salad days…

Posted on September 15, 2011 | 6 Comments

After my post on being a calamari glutton at Grappas, I had a lovely email from a reader demanding (very politely, of course) more posts like that. So hello Kai and may I present another of my regular Hong Kong haunts – Applegreen.

Applegreen’s cuisine is inspired by the café culture of California and its strapline ‘The house of salad’ is the main reason it took me so long to get there! My boyfriend is no particular friend of salad (or anything healthy and non fried potato based) and made disgusted faces every time I attempted to broach a visit to a place boasting salad as its signature dish. Instead, I waited it out until a group dinner with friends, which turned out to be great and where I spotted Cajun Fries (served in a trash can, no less) smiling brightly on the menu. Well, the boyfriend loves Cajun Fries almost as much as he hates salad – and consequently, we have found ourselves there nearly every fortnight ever since!

Salads may be Applegreen’s thing but there’s plenty more on their menu, including meat entrees, pastas and a range of highly-enticing appetisers and desserts. Plus, of course, those Cajun Fries. Overall, it’s a really nicely-balanced Western menu, fresh, reasonably-priced and with some pretty unique signature items.

It’s also absolutely enhanced by the environment, which is relaxed, spacious and sophisticated. Clean minimalism is the order of the day, with colourful modern art splashing the walls (including more than its fair share of apples), and it’s just a really pleasant place to eat. Service is brisk and probably amongst the best I’ve had in Hong Kong, beating out more expensive restaurants and their snooty white-gloved waiters hands down.

Upon being seated, you’re immediately asked whether you would like warm or cold water – yes, the free tap water that many establishments go out of their way to hide, make you feel bad for ordering or, in some cases, actually charge you for. You’re provided with sharing plates, are always given a coaster (s0mething my Dad was obsessed with and which I can never now not notice), can easily customise orders for dietary requirements (we ordered potato skins without bacon due to a vegetarian and they actually went to the trouble of putting the bacon in a separate dish for us meat-eaters to still enjoy), they’ll always make the effort to seat you at the best tables as opposed to the nearest/easiest and it’s one of the few places where they still come to ask how your food is (always excellent, obviously). All the waitresses are quick, friendly, efficient and do their job with a smile. I can’t praise them enough.

Since we’re there so often, I’m just going to tell you about some of our favourite (and not so favourite) dishes. Take a deep breath, as it’s quite a long list!

Appetisers-wise, I’m obsessed with Applegreen’s made-to-order guacamole ($88). Actually, I’m pretty obsessed with guacamole full stop but this stuff is epic. It is YUMMY. Bursting with flavour, intensely more-ish and as hearteningly home-made as you can get without putting in the elbow grease yourself. I just wish it came with more tortilla chips to load up as you’re presented with a delightfully huge portion, and that said chips were actual tortillas as opposed to some strange wonton-pastry chip hybrid.

The Portobello Fries ($72) are slices of earthy mushroom with any potential nutritional goodness cancelled out by being deep-fried and encrusted in golden, crunchy batter. Just like that anchovy aioli I often dream about, the star of this is the black truffle cream dip, which is ridiculously delicious and thick and indulgent and did I mention ridiculously delicious too? It’s another wholly addictive appetiser, thick gooey clouds of gorgeousness, if a little heavy unless you’re sharing.

One of Applegreen’s signature dishes are their Asian Nachos ($68), chicken on wonton crisps with a smorgasbord of other toppings. It sounds a good idea on paper but the presence of puke-inducing wasabi meant it was a less enjoyable one in person. If you love wasabi, go forth and order; if not, like me, you might find it tastes oddly of toothpaste and old shoes.

A recent addition to their menu is a selection of flatbreads, which are just fantastic. They’re essentially lighter, healthier pizzas and are a total taste revelation. I love the Garlic Shrimp one ($148), which is also topped with pesto sauce, basil and cheese. It has a lovely fresh invigoratingly herby taste to it and the flavours are so more-ish that you’ll find yourself continually reaching for ‘just one more’ slice. The flatbread itself is light and crispy and it’s a pretty huge slab, so is ideal for sharing.

I suppose I have to feature at least one salad, and my rabbit food of choice is the Wild Mushroom ($58, $98). Their salads come in two sizes and include a slice of their utterly scrumptious banana walnut bread (which you can buy to take-away too and which I have been known to save until ‘dessert’!). I love the flavours of this salad – slippery woody nutty mushrooms combined with crispy greens and intense tang-tastic sun-dried tomatoes. I just wish they went a little easier on the oily dressing and were a bit more generous with their sun-dried tomatoes, which are just such amazing flavour enchancers that I’d like more of them with everything to be honest!

I’ve also tried their Shrimp Tostada ($70, $118), which is an intriguing Mexican-inspired salad, featuring black beans, corn, guacamole, sour cream and tortilla alongside the normal salad regulars. Major props for the presence of guacamole aside, this is, in truth, a little odd – two separate dishes that don’t sit entirely right with each other. The tortilla is marooned on one side of your plate, with dollops of sour cream and guacamole sitting on top like scoops of ice-cream that have forlornly fallen off a child’s cone somewhere. The rest is mixed together on the other side and is a bit stingy with the shrimp, which are cut into pieces and don’t number more than four morsels in total. It’s an “interesting” mix of flavours but probably not one I’d come rushing back for. Well, unless I just wanted to devour a load more of their guacamole, of course!

My boyfriend is obsessed with the Garlic, Chilli & Basil Spaghetti ($82) – even more amazing given that he generally turns his nose up at any pasta that isn’t in a red sauce. The sauce here is more of a dressing than anything else, olive oil mixed with the above ingredients and drizzled on, with cheese flaked on top. But despite the sauce being nearly invisible, some sort of food alchemy has gone on with this; it’s a highly flavourful, perfectly-seasoned dish that bursts onto the palette and exits with a cheeky little chilli kick to your behind. Very simple and very tasty.

I tried their Carbonara ($92) one day when I was in the mood for wallowing in puddles of creamy indulgence – and it definitely delivered on that! It ticked all the right boxes for a comfort bowl of carbonara – super-creamy and rich, ridiculously yummy, salty but somehow sweet and also way too heavy to finish in one go. Their Pesto ($82) is also rather yummy with a dynamic fresh taste but also quite heavy too. [All their pastas come with garlic bread and there’s also a list of ingredients you can add in too.]

Finally, desserts. Unfortunately, I haven’t sampled nearly as many of these as I’d like, because I’m nearly always WAY too full! I’d also add that their desserts are very generously proportioned – no piddling fancy Masterchef-sized efforts here – and you either need to find a willing partner to share or make the active effort to leave enough room earlier. I’ve so far managed a Brownie (gorgeous plus brownie points – haha! – for amazing inclusion of candied nuts, $58), Churros (cinnamon-y, finger-lickingly scrumptious churros, not enough chocolate sauce that was too anyway, $56) and the Applegreen Signature Sampler ($72), which was a light fun way to end the meal. The star of the plate was the apple crumble, the perfect mix of crunch, sticky syrup and molten fruit (the sampler has since been re-jigged not to include this) whilst the Applegreen Crisp, a bizarre little concoction seemingly filled with lemon cheesecake mix, was too unexpected for my tastebuds around to get their guacamole-addled brains around.

And oh yes, the Cajun Fries ($28). The whole reason I was allowed back to visit in the first place. They’re amongst my boyfriend’s favourite chips in Hong Kong. That’s about all there is to say really!

As long as Applegreen can keep delivering a high-quality menu at reasonable prices and with great service, we will keep coming back for more. Applegreen are a great unique and happily home-grown addition to Hong Kong’s dining scene who thoroughly deserve their success – with or without the Cajun Fries! (Just don’t tell my boyfriend I said that!)

All Applegreen locations in Hong Kong:

- 2/F, Plaza 2000, 2-4 Russell Street, Causeway Bay, 2368 1263
- 4/F, Carnarvon Plaza, 20 Carnarvon Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2312 2488
- 713-715, 7/F, Grand Century Place, Mong Kok, 2628 3711

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Red Pepper restaurant review: The spice of life!

Posted on May 17, 2011 | 4 Comments

Ask my boyfriend what his favourite restaurant in Hong Kong is and his answer may well be Red Pepper.

Red Pepper has been a staple of Hong Kong’s dining scene for years. It’s the kind of place that old-timers in HK for flying visits make a point of visiting, the kind of place businessmen take clients for impressive banquets and the kind of place that tourists get told to try. Consequently, some of my local friends shake their heads and complain it’s only for ‘gweilos and expats’, with its Sichuan dishes geared towards Western tastes. Oh well, leave it to the gweilos and expats then, as that means more prawns for us!

There is one star dish at Red Pepper that you will see every table order whilst the interior rapidly fills with a spicy-tinged smoke. It’s the Sizzling Chilli Prawns and it’s amazing. Those diners aren’t raising their napkins in horror but merely in anticipation of smoke stinging their eyes and sauce spitting away in a highly delicious manner! Huge chunky morsels of sweet tender meat, coated in an unctuous spicy-sweet secret recipe sauce, all served on a sizzling platter. It looks near-radioactive in photos and sure enough, get ready for a sensational taste explosion. It’s my favourite dish and the one that always keeps me coming back for more. Be sure to ladle all that special sauce onto your rice afterwards!

The Sizzling Prawns (yes, they deserve capitalisation) are without a doubt the star of the show. I’ve tried the dish at numerous other Sichuan restaurants and I do think these are the absolute tops. So there.

Elsewhere, the menu can be a bit hit and miss and some of the fare that bulks out their menu can be found (and better) at more standard eateries in the city. Sticking to their signature dishes, there’s a sweet and sour garoupa, probably enough to justify the ‘just for gweilo’ accusations, and which I find a waste of this delicate lovely fish. The sauce is thick and heavy, smothering the nuanced flavours of the garoupa, already overwhelmed by batter and a jostling of other unnecessary ingredients. One for Chinese takeaway sweet and sour fans only, I think!

Meanwhile, their diced chicken with chilli and cashew nuts signature dish is much better. The nuggets of chicken are tender and ideal for nibbling away on until suddenly they’re all gone, whilst the sauce is surprisingly light and subtly spicy, rather than the full head-blowing hit you might expect from the whole chillis that pepper the plate! I actually prefer their other diced chicken dish, which has a more salty somewhat tangy sauce and much more of it (I’m a bit of a sauce fiend in Chinese restaurants).

I’d also recommend the fried string beans with minced pork. I’ve not liked string beans before or since, apart from in the context of this dish, that’s how good it is! You can find it in lots of other Sichuan and Shanghainese restaurants and Red Pepper’s version hits all the right notes. So that’s fresh beans cooked to just the right texture (a bit of crunch but not enough to break your tooth on) and this wonderful mince mixture that’s both insanely salty yet sweet enough to keep it dancing on your palette. Their hot and sour soup also makes for a good traditional starter and it does everything you’d expect and a little bit more. I also like that all their dishes come in medium or large sizes, so you’re not stacked with leftovers as can often be the way when small groups dine at Chinese restaurants.

The must-have dessert is their banana fritters, which can also be found in most Chinese restaurants here and where the cooking process is almost as much fun as the eating! As with the plumes of smoke and raising of napkins that signal the arrival of the sizzling prawns, it’s all about the theatre. First comes a large bowl of ice cubes, then a plate of syrup coated segments of banana, with little slivers of cherry (not chilli as I’d alarmingly imagined!) clinging to the coating too. These are thrown into the ice, whereupon they snap crackle and pop with all the vigour of someone auditioning for a Rice Crispies advert. Then out they come – the Chinese equivalent of candy apples at the funfair, done with chopsticks throughout of course.

Any so-called fritters you’ve had in the UK can barely lay claim to the term after you’ve tried these. The banana is soft molten goo whilst the syrup snaps on your teeth in the most pleasing way possible. It’s super-sweet, strictly non diet-safe and obviously utterly delicious.

Red Pepper has a four-decade long history in HK and its retro décor belies this. We’re in trademark old-fashioned Chinese restaurant territory here, with a dragon-carved dark wood ceiling, ornate tasselled lamps, orange tablecloths topped with Lazy Susans and reverential service from staff dressed like waiters rather than stage hands or clothes shop assistants. The atmosphere, other than the sizzle and sputter of the prawns, is generally a tad quieter than the crowded commotion of more local joints. As such, it’s special occasion dining with prices that reflect this – a meal of around four dishes, plus dessert and drinks (and you know it tastes better washed down with a bottle of Tsing Tao!), should have you bobbling around the thousand dollar mark. Not unreasonable by any means, especially if you opt for their specialities rather than dishes you can get anywhere else in the city for significantly cheaper.

So Red Pepper – just for gweilos? You saw the prawns, didn’t you?! If so, I don’t think I need to say any more!

Red Pepper, G/F, 7 Lan Fong Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2577 3811

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Hong Kong Flower Show 2011: It’s all coming up roses (and tulips… and orchids…)

Posted on March 31, 2011 | 7 Comments

Forget the Botanical Gardens. Forget the overpriced, increasingly tat-filled Chinese New Year Flower Market. Forget the Chelsea Flower Show. Because for technicolour horticultural goodness, the Hong Kong Flower Show 2011 beats them all. (Well, it beats watching Chelsea on television anyhow).

The Hong Kong Flower Show is apparently an annual event held in Victoria Park that my auntie only piped up about this year, my third in HK. Thanks a lot! Oh well, at least she piped up eventually, as this was a sight I’m definitely glad I didn’t miss out on.

I love flowers – I love them even more when I don’t have to put in the hard work of maintaining them – so the Flower Show was absolutely perfect for those who want to feast on the visual delights of plants in all colours, shapes and sizes without getting your green fingers dirty! As someone who quite often misses her garden in the UK, this happily quelled any longings in some serious style!

For just $14 entry, you can wander around the countless show gardens, exhibits, displays and gardening stalls that take over the entire grounds to your heart’s content. It’s also free for the over 60s on weekdays; my auntie wasn’t sure whether she should be happy she saved money or upset that she looked old enough for no-one to check her ID!

This year’s theme was Symphony of Spring Flowers, hence all the floral pianos, harps and music notes you see scattered around – a bit cheesy in places, but generally too beautiful and immaculately-executed for you to care. There were also special displays by some of HK’s botanical societies (the orchid ones are always amazing enough to warrant a gander) whilst there were also some more modern, edgy and striking displays to cut through the cutesiness of the giant instrument-playing animals (oh who am I kidding, they were my favourite part!).

I also loved the numerous stalls selling plants and gardening supplies; if you can get past the crowds who mill around treating these as further photo opportunities, there are some really reasonable deals to be had on stuff that can be more difficult to unearth in HK. I bought a fuchsia for $30 and two violas for $10 each (and would have bought many more if I didn’t have to think about carrying it all home), whilst many orchids were only around $100. Basically, screw you CNY Flower Market, I’ll never be buying your overpriced tat again!

Anyway, enough of my rambling, I think the photos are gorgeous enough to speak for themselves. So fire up your monitor, click for enlargements so huge you can practically smell them and enjoy!

My favourite photo, taken at one of the show displays

How cute are the baby chicks?!

Ocean Park Garden

Love the creativity of these two, designed to look like music staves

Some of the more contemporary displays

Macau Garden

I think these ghostly pianos look like they were made from a skeleton’s bones!

Just can’t resist me some orchids!

Some of the more structural displays – note the number of OAPS enjoying a sit-down in the branch dome!

Mini gardens! Love the hydrangea tree and the cute little chicks and bunnies made from flowers!

After all that, I think we need a rest…

Hong Kong Flower Show 2011, Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, 11-20 March 2011. $14 entry fee, free for over-60s on weekdays ($7 on weekends). See their website for further details.


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Nitaya Thai House restaurant review: straighten up and Thai right!

Posted on December 8, 2010 | 1 Comment

I’m fond of telling people that it would be impossible to eat at every restaurant in Hong Kong in a lifetime. By that logic, you’d probably need to spend at least a few months in Tai Hang alone.

Why did no-one tell me about Tai Hang before?! A gnat’s sneeze away from the hysterical hustle of Causeway Bay, it’s a relaxed residential area within easy walking distance of Tin Hau and Victoria Park that has an entire winding road dedicated to food. What’s more, in a country where the dining chain is king, the majority are reasonably-priced independent local joints, with more charm going for them than Michael Buble’s eye twinkle. Forget the snooty grandeur of the somewhat similar Happy Valley hood, Tai Hang is where it’s at. Nothing to do with the fact that it’s also within easy walking distance of my home too (when I’m feeling fit that is!)…

It’s easy to get good Thai food in HK. It’s easy to get average Thai food too. I can safely say that Nitaya Thai House is in the former category.

The interior can best be described as homely (estate agent’s word for a bit cramped), with the resulting décor looking like a Thai thrift store sneezed over the premises, scattering its goods willy-nilly on the walls. But with its French window front, charming knick-knacks and convivial atmosphere, it feels like you’ve just wandered into someone’s front room for dinner – except that someone can rustle up a mean Thai feast!

Prices are very reasonable (averaging around $30-40 for most dishes), although portions are on the smaller size. We kicked things off with one of my favourite Thai dishes – clams with chilli paste ($58). Tiny tender morsels swimming in sweet, spicy chilli sauce = heaven. Thai spicy is about the only kind of spicy I can take i.e. mitigated by swathes of sweet coconut milk. The combination of flavours is intense but just right and I love having enough sauce to drench my other dishes in! These things are simply addictive!

Next up, another perennial favourite – Thai-style morning glory (ong choi, $38). I’m used to this being spicier (more ma la chun style); this sauce was actually rather sweet, perhaps due to the kind of fish sauce used or a hefty dose of oyster sauce. Either way, it was still very tasty and the veggies were fresh and tender.

I’m still going through my noodle phase so it was pad thai all the way ($35). This is such an oft poorly executed staple across so many restaurants in HK (not necessarily even Thai ones!) that I’d forgotten how utterly delicious it could be when cooked right. All the vital ingredients were present and correct – egg (not rubbery), bean curd (not rubbery x2), succulent prawns (not rubbery x3), bean sprouts (not masquerading as noodles), heaps of chilli and crushed peanuts (not dumped in a heap in the middle of the dish) and a squeeze of fresh lime juice on the side. The rice noodles were so light, fresh and tasty that they disappeared down our throats without our even noticing (especially once we doused them in that ultra-appetising clam sauce). This portion was barely big enough for two and we soon found ourselves chomping through another!

Finally, we tried Nitaya’s signature dish, which adorns various magazine cuttings presented with your menu and is my banner picture, and their curry steamed prawns ($68) were definitely something a little bit different. Prawns stuffed with what seems to be baby prawn meat mixed with some strong curry spices then drizzled with some soothing coconut milk on top. I’m not sure these were really my bag, as there was too much too thick coconut milk (almost congealed) and I didn’t like the texture of the stuffing (too close to baby food). However, the prawns themselves were delicately sweet, if a little overwhelmed by the somewhat forceful other flavours. A dish worth trying but not really my cup of char.

I’d head to Nitaya again, even though competition in Tai Hang is pretty stiff. Service is friendly, the atmosphere is lively and I haven’t even tried their curry yet! Yup, that settles it… I’ll definitely be back!

Nitaya Thai House, 140 Tong Lo Wan Road, Tai Hang, Hong Kong, 3483 3497

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798 Unit & Co Gastropub restaurant review: rub-a-pub-grub

Posted on November 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

Whilst Hong Kong seems to be getting the hang of pubs (Dickens, Delaneys and Trafalgar are all worth a punt and I’ve heard good things about The Globe… just don’t head to The Pickle & Pelican if you value your stomach), gastropubs are proving a bit more difficult for HK to get its head round.

I’m not looking for a Heston Blumenthal experience. For me, a gastropub means a bit of a fancier setting, a bit of a fancier menu (featuring regular pub grub but with a few twists) and an elevation in the quality of the food. I don’t think I’m shattering many illusions when I divulge that most standard pubs in the UK are operating an only slightly superior variant on “pinging” supermarket ready-meals, especially as many are now run by cut-and-paste chains. With a gastropub, I’m expecting fresh ingredients, some element of cooking as opposed to just sticking something in an oven and an environment that isn’t coated in sticky beer stains. Of course, with such benefits comes a hike in prices – but within reason!

So whither gastropubs in HK? The Pawn isn’t far off the mark, but it’s a la carte menu is just too pricey. I would classify Jimmy’s Kitchen’s menu as pure gastropub, but its staff and its prices seem to be under the illusion that it’s a Michelin-starred restaurant. Frites (run by Concept Creations, who also own the fabulous Tapeo) has the environment down pat, top-notch food, a quality beer selection and would perhaps rank as a gastropub – in Belgium. Good luck looking for a lasagne there! As such, 798 Unit & Co. Gastropub is probably your best bet.

The environment is perfectly-judged. Looming chandeliers on lofty ceilings, chunky dark-wood furniture and squishy sofas, blackboard menus and other quirky little touches. Food is served in hearty, hefty portion sizes, which should be a given in a gastropub.

As for the food, the lunch menu (available between 12-3pm) is spectacularly good value. $88 for three courses plus a drink is fantastic, especially given that you’re in a Western restaurant in the typically pricey Times Square in Causeway Bay (compare with The Pawn, $150 for three courses sans drink). They also do even cheaper sets if you fancy a salad ($78) or sandwiches/pizza ($68).

All this would be meaningless if the food was rubbish. But it isn’t. For my money, 798 does the best fish and chips in Hong Kong. That’s not a claim to be taken lightly but here’s the evidence. It comes wrapped in faux newspaper. This isn’t just a tacky design thing – it helps soak up the grease! So many restaurants here seem unable to comprehend this simple fact and serve you a fish sliming about in its own oil, a sad but inevitable by-product of deep-frying things. It’s served with a load of side condiments, including vinegar, which you could be forgiven for thinking is a prohibited ingredient out here (alas, not Sarsons Malt but red wine vinegar, still better than nothing).

You get a full fillet of fish, not a few strips, and said fish is moist, creamy but still flakes apart expertly. The batter is golden, crispy and has an actual taste (there may be beer involved), as opposed to the anodyne floury sometimes herby stuff most places do. The chips are steak-cut, golden, fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside. I believe one of the main reasons chips in HK often suck is due to the quality of the spud (have you seen the sad specimens at the local wet market?!) but these ones have a yummy nutty flavour to savour.

[For those interested, I’d rank it alongside The Pawn’s extremely good version in terms of taste but it beats it in terms of presentation and price, even in its a la carte incarnation. And it pisses all over The Chippy from a great height.]

As for the rest of the set, starters are either soup or salad of the day. The rabbit food was underdressed but their soups are lovely. They taste homemade, as if they remembered being a fresh vegetable recently rather than in some dim and distant lifetime. The cauliflower soup was a little watery (a common problem in homemade soups) but the intense flavour came through nicely. It would be nice if you could use some hunks of bread to soak it up but I find 798’s wedges more suitable to propping up wobbly table legs rather than eating.

My auntie went for spaghetti for her main. Here we get a typical ‘gastropub’ twist – the ragu was made with lamb rather than beef. This works better than one of their other twists (for me, the taste and texture of duck just does not work with the taste and texture of lasagne, ok!) and the lamb was sweet, succulent and tender. And there’s lots of it. (I hate when you run out of meat in a pasta, and to keep costs down, it happens quite a lot out here). It’s balanced by a richly appetising ragu, with a heady hit of wine to boot!

No choice for dessert – you get the dessert of the day, although for $20 you can upgrade to an a la carte choice (which are uniformly scrumptious btw). Given the heavy main portions, it’s kept short and sweet. That day, it was a strawberry mousse cake – light and airy mousse, light and airy sponge, topped with a juicy fresh strawberry. Fragrantly sweet rather than overpoweringly so, it’s nothing groundbreaking but goes down a fluffy dreamy treat at the end of the meal.

Any future gastropubs opening in HK would do well to examine 798’s template. No molecular gastronomy, just good honest food at good honest prices. Just try and make it there in time for lunch!

Shop 1203, 12/F Food Forum, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2506 0611

Restaurant photo from 798 Unit & Co’s website.

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Mid-Autumn Festival: It’s a marvellous night for a mooncake

Posted on October 4, 2010 | 1 Comment

Mid-Autumn Festival may just be one of my favourite festivals in Hong Kong because just about everywhere makes the effort to look pretty. Admittedly, all it takes is a few paper lanterns scattered about, but at night time especially, it looks charming and uniquely Chinese.

Also know as Moon Festival, it’s held on the 15th day of the 8th month (of the lunar calendar, so roughly late September) when the moon is supposed to be at its brightest. There are many variants of the legend behind the festival, but I’ll tell you (in the best Chinese tradition!) the one that my mum told me.

A long long time ago, there used to be ten suns in the sky, which burnt away terribly at the Earth. The emperor commanded the most skilled archer in all the land, Hou Yi, to shoot down all but one of the suns – which he did, leaving us with the one sun we have today. As a reward, he was given a magic potion that would grant him eternal life and he hid it away at home. According to my mum’s version, Hou Yi became a tyrant, corrupted by power and ambition; on seeing this, his beautiful wife, Seung Orr, decided to eat the pill herself to prevent him from living forever (other versions have the wife finding and eating the pill accidentally). Upon eating the pill, she found herself becoming lighter and lighter and she began to float. Eventually, she floated out of the window, up into the sky and onto the moon where she lives today. She also has her rabbit with her, who you can sometimes see outlined on the moon.

If you’re a virgin to Moon Festival, there are only two things you need to know – lanterns and mooncake! Seung Orr adorns many a mooncake box and the traditional cakes are made with a yellow duck egg inside, representing the moon. Nowadays, there are all kinds of modern takes on the mooncake, including chocolate, mango, green tea or even ‘snowy’ ice-cream ones. We bought one that was shaped like a pig! It came in a miniature version of the traditional basket that real pigs used to be carried to market in the olden days and I love how he even has a little curly tail! Alas, he had to be decapitated and eaten – the filling was green bean paste – and my auntie said he looked a lot nicer than he tasted!

Lanterns are lit to accentuate the brightness of the moon and on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival itself, paper ones are lit and floated off to the moon. This year, one managed to land on an MTR train, sparking a small fire, panic, evacuations, delays and talk of regulating lanterns more closely next year. As with mooncakes, lanterns have evolved with the times and you can get them in practically any shape, size or colour you desire, with inflatable musical cartoon character versions proving particularly popular with youngsters (so if it’s late September and you’re hearing a tinny tune in the dim and distant, it’s probably a toddler holding a blow-up Doaremon).

We went to the special market in Tsing Yi’s Maritime Square Mall, which is basically your one-stop Mid-Autumn shop. As you can see, the lantern stall was a riot of colour! We bought two ($35 each) – a pretty lotus flower and a gorgeous goldfish. You can see them in action in our flat below!

However, these are mere small fry compared to the lanterns that the government has built to mark the occasion. For all of Mid-Autumn weekend, Victoria Park in Causeway Bay is transformed into a luminous lantern extravaganza. It costs a small fortune but hey, who cares when it looks this spectacular?!

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Going Over The Taupe at Cher2: OPI nail polish review

Posted on September 25, 2010 | Leave a comment


The other day, I had lunch with a friend who was sporting turquoise nails and I developed a sudden finger fetish, quietly coveting her aqua talons all afternoon. Having not painted my nails in about ten years, it suddenly struck me that there was a whole rainbow-coloured world of make-up that I was wilfully neglecting – and I felt the need to rectify it immediately.

Not as easy as it sounds. Without my trusty Boots to fall back on, I headed to the local equivalents (Sasa, Bonjour, Colormix) and checked out their huge vats of pick n mix nail polish. They were cheap (average $15) but not so cheerful – colours already separating in the pots, brands I’d never heard of and signs imploring me not to try out the goods. When I sneakily opened one, the sad thin lacquer dripped down, morose and unloved. No thanks. I trusted the Revlon and Maybelline concessions more but their limited range of colours left a hole in my technicoloured heart and although I’d heard you could buy good stuff at salons that did manicures, I felt a little odd rocking up at one without wanting a treatment. So it was a case of Sassy Hong Kong to the rescue.

Through Sassy’s fantastic website, I found out about a shop called Cher2, a candyland of nail polish that stocked every colour under the sun. What’s more, this was real nail varnish, made by established brands OPI, Essie and China Glaze, but sold at nearly half the normal retail price. In Hong Kong, you come to rely on such tip-offs because these secret goldmines are invariably tucked away in shabby, unassuming office buildings with those scary lifts where you have to open the doors yourself. I felt like an explorer navigating these old and dusty corridors in search of the treasure trove – and this quiet haven with racks and racks of rainbow explosions was definitely some glorious treasure for a make-up mavens like me!

I’d taken my first tentative toe-dips of getting back in the nail polish groove by doing my thumbnail with a tester pot of ‘it-shade’ Particuliere in Chanel. Classy, I know. I’d selected that mould-colour out of curiosity more than anything else, but over the past few days it had grown on me… rather like mould, I suppose! Armed with painted thumb, I asked the Cher2 shop assistant for the most similar colour they had. The girl was brilliant, knowing her stock exhaustively and producing about five different variants, with us eventually settling for OPI’s Over The Taupe as the most accurate dupe. So here we are.

I’m so in love with this shade right now. I love how subtle it is, yet also how very grown-up. Mushroom, putty, greige, mink, taupe, mould, cloudy coffee, sludge – call it what you will but it’s a sophisticated and seriously arresting blend of brown, grey, beige and even a touch of pale purple. I’d also forgotten how great wearing nail varnish makes you feel, like you’ve made an effort even on off-days, and I keep staring at my pinkies in pleasure. Yes, the finger fetish is back!

As for the nail varnish itself, I found it a little thicker and gloopier than I was expecting. OPI’s fatter brush took a while to get used to and I found the Chanel one easier to apply but this is as much due to the deterioration of my nail painting skills over the intervening decade (when advising me on base coats, the Cher2 assistant told me I had healthy nails – probably because I hadn’t painted them in ten years!) as to any shortcomings of the lacquer itself.

Despite lack of skill, I’m sadly still a bit of a perfectionist. I’d paint, not be entirely happy, try and tidy it up with nail varnish remover but manage to get acetone on other nice nails, meaning I had to start all over again, several times! It also seemed to take an age to dry, possibly because I didn’t leave enough time between coats (and you definitely need two coats, just one is too streaky and uneven) – I was amazed that it was still tacky over an hour after application, causing me to perennially smear it on things, meaning the final finish wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d hoped. 90 minutes and three rounds later, I was practically high on nail varnish remover fumes – but I had beautiful nails. Well, from a distance anyway!

I think I need to go a few more rounds with OPI to decide whether the thicker polish and fat brush works for me, but I really adore the colour. Two days on and I’m still chip-free, which speaks highly of the quality, especially reasonable at Cher2 prices.

I’ll be back on the nail varnish wagon again soon with the other two shades I bought so watch out for reviews of them! In the meantime though, I’ll just stare lovingly at my fingers some more…

Looks great with: Black, cream, smart/casual look
Drying time: +10-15 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: After 2 days

OPI Over The Taupe nail polish, Summer 2009 Bright Pair Collection, $70, Cher2

All Cher2 locations in Hong Kong:

- 1E Po Foo Building, 84-94 Percival Street/1 Foo Ming Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2882 2528
- 809, Mong Kok City Centre, 74-84 Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong, 2886 1132
- 1202A Century Square, 1-13 D’Aguilar Street, Central, Hong Kong, 2810 0171
- 607 Kowloon Centre, 29-39 Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, 2730 0701

http://www.cher2.com

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