Category Archives: Food

Paul Lafayet Tiffin Afternoon Tea at The Langham Hong Kong review – teatime for two in TST

Posted on July 17, 2014 | 3 comments

Back on the afternoon tea trail – and one of my favourite teatime old faithfuls is the Tiffin Afternoon Tea at Palm Court in The Langham, Hong Kong. For truly old-school Hong Kong dwellers, you may know the building better as the former Great Eagle Hotel; it was rebranded as The Langham Hong Kong in 2003, modelled after the historic Langham Hotel in London… which, of course, is legendary for its afternoon tea, so I really wouldn’t expect anything less!

Although the contents of The Langham Hong Kong’s cake stand aren’t anything too ground-breaking, the Tiffin Afternoon Tea does have a lot of other great things going for it – super pretty crockery, a really relaxed loungey vibe and frequent promotions to keep things interesting, including their current collaboration with French patisserie, Paul Lafayet.

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged afternoon tea, afternoon tea hong kong, afternoon tea Tsim Sha Tsui, best afternoon tea hong kong, best afternoon tea Kowloon, best afternoon tea Tsim Sha Tsui, best scones in Hong Kong, high tea, Palm Court, Paul Lafayet, Paul Lafayet afternoon tea, review, The Langham Hong Kong, Tiffin afternoon tea, where to have afternoon tea Hong Kong, where to have afternoon tea Kowloon, where to have afternoon tea TST

Chom Chom Hanoi Happy Hour restaurant review – just winging it

Posted on July 14, 2014 | 2 comments

As a non-drinker, it often feels like Hong Kong’s plethora of Happy Hours are wasted on me. But no worries, because Vietnamese eatery Chom Chom has discovered the best way to entice me along to one – by offering plenty of delicious food too!

I loved Chom Chom back when it was a teeny-tiny private kitchen dishing out limited servings of pho and special tasting menus on Wellington Street. And I love Chom Chom even now it has turned into a hipper-than-thou “bia hoi” eatery serving up Vietnamese street food and casual bites to the baying masses on Peel Street. Wherever Chef Peter Franklin goes, I will follow!

What I do not love, however, are queues – and the new Chom Chom boasts these by the bucketload. It’s cool, it’s hip… of course it doesn’t take reservations, kids! My usual trick to avoid queues is to be a bit of a granny and go early (perfectly in-keeping with my other granny tendencies, like the constant need for naps and dislike of loud music) – and now thanks to Chom Chom’s nifty Hanoi Happy Hours, the early bird really does catch the worm… if the worm was a delicious pho roll, that is!

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged banh mi, best chicken wings in Hong Kong, best restaurants in Central, best Vietnamese food in Hong Kong, best Vietnamese restaurants in Central, best Vietnamese restaurants in Hong Kong, bia hoi, Chom Chom, Chom Chom Hanoi Happy Hour, Chom Chom Happy Hour, Chom Chom HK, Chom Chom Hong Kong, Happy Hour, Peel Street, Peter Franklin, restaurant, review, VFC, Vietnamese, Vietnamese Fried Chicken

The Butchers Club Deli restaurant review – the steaks have been raised

Posted on June 30, 2014 | 3 comments

*UPDATE: Sadly The Butchers Club Deli is now only open for private events*

As someone once known as “The Red Beef Girl”, you can imagine that any establishment called The Butchers Club and I are likely to get on very well indeed.

The Butchers Club Deli in Wong Chuk Hang is the latest offspring of the burgeoning Butchers Club empire that’s rapidly spreading throughout Hong Kong. With a private dining room and sausage-making workshop in Aberdeen, a burger joint in Wan Chai, a series of successful steak-themed foodie events around town, and regular market stalls and an online store selling their high-quality steaks and sausages, it’s a case of the more meat the better!

The Butchers Club Deli is the casual lunch spot cousin of this meat-feast family, and is hidden away on the 16th floor of a vaguely sketchy-looking industrial building in the increasingly happening neighbourhood of Wong Chuk Hang. I say “increasingly happening” – but you’ll probably still have to ride one of those creepy cargo lifts with a topless labourer trundling a massive crate-filled trolley to get there… yeah, you aren’t in Soho anymore, kids!

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Tagged Aarik Persaud, best chips Hong Kong, best fish and chips Hong Kong, best lunch Aberdeen, best lunch Wong Chuk Hang, best poutine Hong Kong, best steak pie Hong Kong, David Kan, duck fat fries, fish and chips, Johnny Glover, poutine, review, steak pie, steak sandwich, The Butchers Club, The Butchers Club Deli, The Butchers Club Deli Hong Kong, The Butchers Club Hong Kong, where to eat Aberdeen, where to eat Wong Chuk Hang

Dessert of the Day: a helluva hot chocolate at Original Playground

Posted on May 27, 2014 | 5 comments

Hot, strong, sweet and rich… Not only the ingredients to the best kinds of romantic heroes, but also to the best cups of hot chocolate!

Most of the hot chocolates here in Hong Kong are insipid little things – sad, unsexy cups of limp, cocoa-flavoured water. But that just makes it all the more noteworthy when a smoking hot version comes along, like the Belgian Sipping Chocolate at Original Playground.

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged Belgian Sipping Chocolate, best cafes in Hong Kong, best cafes in Quarry Bay, best hot chocolate in Hong Kong, hot chocolate, hot chocolate Hong Kong, Original Playground, Original Playground HK, Original Playground Hong Kong, Quarry Bay, where to eat in Quarry Bay

Cath Kidston afternoon tea at FEAST review – it’s all coming up roses

Posted on May 5, 2014 | 3 comments

Cath Kidston + afternoon tea = a marriage made in “pretty things” heaven!

Yep, I’m back on the afternoon tea trail, this time with the Cath Kidston afternoon tea at FEAST – the casual all-day restaurant located at the EAST Hong Kong hotel in Tai Koo.

I actually eat at FEAST quite regularly… but with the Cath Kidston afternoon tea in full swing, the restaurant was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. In fact, it was full on oestrogen overload! Girls seem to be drawn to Cath Kidston prints like bees to a floral-decorated honeypot; factor in a highly Instagram-able afternoon tea set (is Instagram-able a word yet?) and you end up with a restaurant packed with tables of girls all doing an awful lot of photographing/swooning over cute teapots and not that much actual eating!

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Posted in Food, Pretty Things

Tagged afternoon tea, afternoon tea hong kong, afternoon tea set hong kong, best afternoon tea hong kong, best afternoon tea Tai Koo, Cath Kidston, Cath Kidston afternoon tea, Cath Kidston afternoon tea Hong Kong, Cath Kidston Hong Kong, dessert, dessert hong kong, EAST Hong Kong, Feast Hong Kong, high tea hong kong, Penney Pang, review, Tai Koo

Mott 32 restaurant review – bringing sexy back to Chinese dining

Posted on May 2, 2014 | 5 comments

I have real issues spending big bucks on Chinese food. Perhaps it’s because my auntie rustles up amazing Chinese cuisine right in the comfort of my own home (and I don’t even need to change out of my pyjamas) or perhaps it’s because my brain finds it hard to shift gear from my usual diet of el cheapo cha chaan teng prices… but if there’s a place for me to start splashing the cash on siu mai, then it sure as hell is going to be Mott 32.

The first Chinese restaurant from Hong Kong hospitality super group Maximal Concepts (the folks behind Brickhouse, Blue Butcher and Fish & Meat), Mott 32 is the very definition of Asian fine dining… And I’m talking seriously “fiiiiiiiine”!

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged best char siu in Hong Kong, best Chinese restaurants in Central, best Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, best interior design Hong Kong, best Peking duck Hong Kong, best restaurants in Central, best restaurants in Hong Kong, best siu mai in Hong Kong, Chinese fine dining Hong Kong, HK, Hong Kong, Joyce Wang, Maximal Concepts, Mott 32, Mott 32 Hong Kong, review, Standard Chartered Bank Building

Akrame restaurant review – modern Michelin-starred dining ahoy!

Posted on April 21, 2014 | Leave a comment

*UPDATE: Akrame has now closed*

When did Ship become so hip?

Back when I worked near Ship Street in Wan Chai many moons ago, the greatest culinary achievement it had to offer was a Sloppy Giuseppe at Pizza Express. And as much as I love me some garlic doughballs, they probably won’t be winning a Michelin star anytime soon!

Now, thanks to renowned British chef Jason Atherton moving into the ‘hood with 22 Ships, the area has become a veritable foodie mecca – and one of the newest places for gastro-pilgrimage is Restaurant Akrame.

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Tsui Hang Village 40th anniversary dim sum review – there ain’t no school like the old-school

Posted on April 7, 2014 | 2 comments

Sometimes, there ain’t no school like the old-school – so long-standing Canto restaurant Tsui Hang Village is making like Kylie and stepping back in time to celebrate their 40^th anniversary in the best possible way… with delicious retro Hong Kong dim sum! Now I can’t claim to remember all of these nostalgic classics from the first time round – but what I can attest to is that most of them are downright delicious!

I’ve been to Tsui Hang Village before for dim sum and have to say that they really do nail it here; unlike many of the other chains in Hong Kong (THV is owned by dining empire The Miramar Group), all their dim sum is prepared in-house, by hand and fresh-to-order – and it totally shows. There’s a certain lightness of touch to even the heaviest of dumplings here – you don’t leave feeling like a char siu bao boulder has plummeted to your stomach, nor do you feel the need to glug down litres of water to combat MSG overload.

Having said that, it soon became clear why this old-school dim sum might have fallen out of fashion over the years… lots of these dishes are pure heart attacks in dumpling form! Oh well, the most delicious food often is (she says, scoffing piles of bacon followed by deep-fried ice-cream), right?!

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong

Tagged 40th anniversary, best Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, best char siu in Hong Kong, best Chinese restaurants in Causeway Bay, best Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, best dim sum in Causeway Bay, best dim sum in Hong Kong, Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, classic dim sum Hong Kong, dim sum, Miramar Dining, Miramar Group, old-school dim sum, retro dim sum, review, Tsui Hang Village

Hit The Road restaurant review – the long and winding road…

Posted on October 18, 2013 | 1 comment

Are there any problems in life that aren’t solved by afternoon tea?!

Well, that’s a question I frequently put to the test with my cake partner-in-crime, Mirander! Our afternoon tea sessions usually consist of long periods of chatting, sighing, ranting and crying – mostly on my side, whilst Mirander says, “There, there,” and orders us some more cake.

Having drank a lot of tea and eaten a lot of cake in our time, the likes of Starbucks and Pacific Coffee just don’t cut it anymore. We love uncovering cute little cafés in Hong Kong where we can vent to our heart’s content in delightful surroundings – and our latest discovery is Hit The Road.

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Posted in Food, Hong Kong, Pretty Things

Tagged afternoon tea, afternoon tea hong kong, best cafes in Causeway Bay, best cafes in Hong Kong, best dessert hong kong, café, Causeway Bay, coffee shops in Hong Kong, CWB, dessert, dessert hong kong, eating out, Hit The Road, Hit The Road cafe, Hit The Road Hong Kong, independent cafes Hong Kong, independent coffee shops Hong Kong, review, upstairs cafés, upstairs cafés Hong Kong, where to eat Causeway Bay

Dessert of the day: do Ladurée macarons hit my sweet spot?

Posted on June 17, 2013 | 3 comments

What with Ladurée and Pierre Hermé opening here in swift succession, Hong Kong has gone totally macaron mental. And whilst my sweet tooth knows no bounds, I do draw the line at queuing hours for what is essentially a little puff of sugary air!

So… six months after opening and with everyone flocking to Pierre Hermé in ifc instead… I finally hit up the Ladurée’s Hong Kong store in Harbour City. Better late than never right?

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