How and why I came across this place... Went to Caffe Habitu the night before, coffee was a turn-down.
So I ran a cafe search on openrice near Yau Yat Chuen, this came up and photos suggested it would be a place for tranquility (evidently true).

Location... peaceful quiet setting, possibly only because it was on a saturday morning. Other posts have mentioned it can be packed during the week. Comfy chairs. Inside and outside seating available. plenty of sun. I don't recall playing music, but it wasnt radio/pop music, so maybe thats why I dont remember anything.

Drink... Im a longblack-a-holic. But, to know if the cafe was worth a revisit, I tried a latte instead. I couldnt see the frothing process, though from what I heard, it wasnt too violent, kissing sound was just right... I was looking forward to the taste, but when it was up, two glitches...A. the lattee came in a white ceramic 'cappuccino' cup, lattes are meant to be in a glass cup, preferably Duralex cups. B. No spoon? I asked, and the dude was like, "try it without stirring." Im not against his suggestion, but that's up to the customer, the spoon should still be provided. Nevertheless, these are minor issues. More importantly, the taste of the coffee was great, milk was smooth and silky, suitable amount of froth. Could be hotter.

FOod... Didnt order any.

Improvements... THey do have a collection of magazines for readers, but they could consider providing newspapers. Secondly, I got there at 12, and they opened at 11, but the sign still says closed.

I will surely revisit the place next weekend to take advantage of the peace. Ill try durin the week, but, hopefully not too busy... cos I love sitting at cafes for hours.

Sorry no photos, but there's been many posted already.

This is more of an impromptu visit as a coffee enthusiast asked me whether I want to try coffee roasted by himself and I can make it just in time. Typically, I won't go this far out of my usual coffee area but I took it as an opportunity to find out about this Café that was mentioned quite often by places I frequent.The "but" on the heading is reserved for "but my cover was blown" as this coffee enthusiast introduced me to Ben, one of the owner, and Gary, the senior staff there. I typically enjoy visiting the café on a low profile/incognito kinda thing. Not that I'm that important but I like to get an exact same treatment as any other customer does so that I can recommend the place knowing that my experience is highly likely to be repeated in the same manner with any other customer.

With all the disclaimers above, I can now say that the hospitality at Café Golden was great.

Knowledgeable and professional personnel took care of my orders without a glitch. Other customers in the shop looked quite relax and happy too so I think this is probably the DNA of the shop which can only be achieved from top down, a great thing indeed. Kudos to all staff at Café Golden for the level of services shown which is quite difficult to find these days. Ben, the owner and barista himself, showed me things that indicated he and his partner are really "in" to the coffee. Apart from roasting coffee himself, he maintains what I consider a "mini-lab" at the back of the shop. There's all the goodies; some are not easy to find in HK and elsewhere like Versalab M3 grinder, Extractmojo/New VST Coffee Refractometer and more... The roaster I saw looks more like a sample roaster and I was told the place used to use a home roaster Gene Café for coffee served there.

Now, what's matter to us coffee lovers is what’s in the cup.My first usual was Cappuccino. Its signature soufflé like foam cap reminded me of the same drink from the defunct Café Little in Sheung Wan which somehow further reminded me of Barry Yuen; it makes me cringed any time I see this kind of preparation. Nevertheless, the foam cap here is much better, i.e. maintaining some velvety texture vs. the ‘nasty’ fragile sponge/plastic like I had at Café Little and wanted to forget. Unfortunately, that's all the good thing I can say about the milk drink. The temperature was on the high side, scalding away the goodies in the milk, i.e. milk sweetness and texture. With the foam cap like that, it is unlikely one can feel the velvety texture in the frothed milk no matter how good barista frothed the milk. I believe spoon played some part in this though the 'liquid' under the foam cap wasn't as bad as I thought it should be, i.e. not quite like a dishwashing water left in the container.

I typically like a lower temp drink which preserves the natural sweetness of the frothed milk better with the great texture vs. the usage of "foam cap" as a tool to maintain the heat in the cup. Nevertheless, lots of locals preferred hotter than hot drink to "warm their heart” and will reject any drink I considered at a right temperature as “too cold or too lukewarm" for them, i.e. a flawed cup for this type of customer. Thus, if you are like me in enjoying the natural sweetness with nice texture in the milk, as for the "warm" drink and "free pour" cappuccino next time. I don't need to have a latte art on top, just a nice temperature with velvety and milk sweetness from well crafted frothed milk is sublime. With the hotter temp than my preferred range, not much of coffee base can be detected. Let move on to its black coffee offering.My espresso was prepared by Ben himself. The cup was surprisingly good for an imported coffee with some sweetness following by some spicy/funky kick (what that coffee enthusiast and me agreed to call "an Italian kick") toward the end of the cup. With imported coffee, the cup will not be as lively (felt kinda blunt or something is missing) as locally roasted coffee, the benefit of locally roasted bean which was not that difficult to get these days in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, I later learned that Café Golden "spikes" its imported coffee with its in-house roasted bean. These locally roasted beans will change over time so it's less likely you will get the same cup I did. To me, this is how Café Golden balanced out the local taste profile, ie roasty coffee, with some liveliness of freshly roasted bean to create the "best of both world" signature blend kinda thing. Of course, for me, I would go all locally roasted coffee; why bother to keep some drag in the hopper. Nevertheless, judging from the number of customers today at the hours approaching its closing and the overall ambience/feel, I think what Café Golden did is a bang on for its target and they know their customers well. I ended my coffee “journey” today with an espresso made by Kenyan bean roasted by a coffee enthusiast which will remain unknown unless the person is willing to disclose oneself. As expected for this lemony coffee, the acidity punch was front and center and quite hard to take for the very first sip. Once this first phase was passed, the sweetness rode on top the lemony tone was quite mesmerizing, reminding me of the experience I had with the sought-after $$$ like Panama’s La Esmeralda (yes, in espresso form by Barista Jam). The picture of the empty cup reminded me of the fragrance note which is very nice. However, the most important of all is that this was the best cup I had today at Café Golden. The coffee has a nice crema (sorry no picture as I finished this great cup in no time) and layers of taste I haven’t had for a long time. Credited this great cup to Gary Chow himself. The cup benefited from what seemed to be the character of the spring loaded piston machine (this one is from Wega), ie some form of pressure profiling which resulted in a rather smooth and round cup which is easy to drink and work well with acidity forward coffee like Kenya though acid freak in me can take more of this taste. However, one won’t get a superb cup clarity which is a signature of high-end espresso machines these days from Synesso and the like. La Marzocco GB5 has never made the cut for me, at least from my own experience so far with both experienced and newbie baristas operating this “de facto” machine vs. the cherished and extremely consistent cup clarity from Synesso and the like.This evening at Café Golden made me change my mind about this café 180 degree. Despite good words from persons I trusted on coffee, the soufflé like foam cap, its reputation of dark roasted bean and the distance vs. other great cafés were deal breaker for me earlier I’ve never thought of visiting this café before. I can now recommend those who in the area to have the coffee at Café Golden with ease. Yes, it has some quirks for darker roasted/imported beans but one gets an easy to drink cup which is very good for newbies to the coffee world, thanks to its machine and roast level that seemed to fit local taste profile. If only they can let go the soufflé like cappuccino and focus more on free pour which looks “normal” but allows the frothed milk to liberate the goodie the frothed milk can contribute.

When I visited the JCCAC for an exhibition last time, Café Golden hasn't yet opened so after hearing good reviews - I finally paid my due visit recently! Like Zambras Cafe, its not included in Moses Chan's new Coffee Guide Book - here, its probably due to the fact they've merely been opened for 3 months. If it had started trading earlier, I have little doubts it'll be featured as one of the 'Must Go' coffee shops!
{MYTH BUSTER No.1: The Modernised Hand-Pulled machines used here, similar to those found at Caffe Kenon and Cafe Little are in fact not dependent nor sensitive to the Barista's Arm Strength as usually believed - it can certainly become slightly misleading to people not overly familiar with coffee machine types, given the obvious presence of a Hand Lever rather than Buttons! Unlike the oldest, Full Manual Hand-Pulled machines which worked on vastly different principles, the modernised Spring-Piston Operated Machines run from a reverse position and operates quite 'automatically' and 'consistently' once you release that Lever upon loading up the mechanism. Despite the lack of an electronic pump, the Mechanical Setup with spring tension ensures it works in a Semi-Automatic way - although officially it should be called Semi-Manual due to its classification. Just trust me ok! - both this and newer Electronic Semi-Auto machines work so similarly to each other it almost borders on amazingness, despite the completely different machine design approaches. Either way you see it, both machines need utmost meticulous calibration, timings and important small steps to be taken by the Trained Baristas - both require nearly the same skill levels and the biggest difference is that one Extracts Espresso shots slightly faster than the other, due to pressure and other setup preferences!
They're absolutely different to the obsolete, 1st generation Hand Lever machines in Italy, which none of the coffee shops in Hong Kong possess one AFAIK.. Those require a different set of skills and approach altogether!}

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CAPPUCINO -
Cafe Golden's OWNER approaches coffee a bit different to other competitors, in that they selected a well-known Imported Italian blend to make their espresso-based drinks involving Milk. Their normal Espresso's meanwhile concentrates on carefully selected, self-roasted Single Origin coffee beans! My Italian Cappucino came topped with a very spongy foam top and I was told to enjoy this by combining the bottom coffee liquid together with the foam on top by using the Spoon to drink! Although I'm familiar with this Blend and usually enjoy it tremendously, perhaps due to the fact Cafe Golden uses a Modernised Mechanical Machine rather than an Electronic Espresso Machine to make their coffee base, or because of the way the Milk was Frothed a bit differently by the barista rather than the more Velvety style - the Cappucino I got tasted fairly different from my expectations from this Imported Italian blend.

ESPRESSO - AFRICAN TANZANIA -
Its good to revisit a Tanzania Peaberry bean used as a Single Origin selection. My Shot is extracted at higher pressures and faster speed than usual, so it will differ slightly from the experience of a Tanzania made from newer machines. A true 100% Arabica Bean, the Crema layer is only around 1mm thick and 'correctly' thinner than most Italian or Commercialised blends.
{MYTH BUSTER No. 2: Unlike what is commonly repeatedy written in books or spoken about, sometimes even mentioned by Baristas themselves in a careless manner, Thicker Crema is not necessarily the truest indication of a better Espresso, in fact in most cases it can prove quite the contrary. Most Italian blends deliberately add a proportion of 'cheaper' Robusta beans because they possess more Body and Crema upon extraction, at the expense of Flavours. Besides this, certain great tasting Arabica beans in this world don't always carry natural Crema-ability. Also think of the Drip or French Press or Siphoned or Brewed coffees you've drank before? They still possess good overall flavours don't they, just less aroma... Yet, there's a complete lack of any Crema layering on top. Crema is NOT everything.
In reality, Crema is a foam-head that's created from Carbon-Dioxide during the extraction process quite similar to that of a Foamy Beer - the tiny bubbles are surrounded by Hydrophobic-Molecules to support its structure. Its not just Coffee Oil or Fat floating as mostly believe - the Wiki article is unfortunately incorrect, since Fats even tend to destroy Bubbles of Crema. Crema indication in the Cup is therefore not a means to an end and its basis for judging whether an Espresso is great or not is only dependent on what you understand of the original Beans' characters, whether the full pouring process contained a thick syrupy extraction consistently which automatically 'as a side-effect creates Crema' during the whole process rather than look into what visually ends up floating in the final cup. Its also dependent on many other variables presented as a whole! }
Here, my Tanzania Espresso initially carried a highly espressive Sweaty, Hay-like aroma with bright but slightly Ripe Date undertones on the first 2/3rds sip of the shot. Towards the end of the Cup, the distinctive, highly desirable 'Mitarashi' Sauce aroma presented itself stuck to the inside of the ceramic cup (presenting both Savoury Soy but Caramel like aroma simultaneously). The very last sip from the cup's bottom however evolved from Great into a slightly 'out-of-sync' tart acidity. This seems to be a possible recurrent problem with Mechanical Machines - usually due to the combination of certain Beans or Blends, Higher Pressure Set Up, Higher Speed Extraction, also a lack of enough Pre-Infusion to both expand and pre-heat the Grind enough before extraction. This 'acidic' part of the pour could be from the first 2 seconds of the extraction process, so some baristas might opt to discard this section!

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It was a really good Espresso and overall a highly enjoyable experience! Ben @ CAFE GOLDEN has big ambitions to introduce more coffee training and knowledge to the general Hong Kong population and I found the staff here to be highly knowledgeable, down-to-earth friendly and warmly enthusiastic - from our Conversations together, I certainly left the shop having picked up more information and knowledge about Coffee yet again! VERY EDUCATIONAL!