I eat basically everything BUT thai food. Yes, Thai food.My dislike for Thai food is quite irrational, this i have to admit.
Nevertheless I was kinda forced to eat at a Thai restaurant when i was at Cyperport one afternoon. What a laugh.
It was after lunch hour when we finished the crappy, boring movie at Cyberport cinema. The arcade was pretty deserted and not many restaurants and cafes were still open. What a pity that there was not enough time for us to go to Aberdeen! Left with no choice, Thaima-V was the only restaurant we could go for lunch.
The restaurant looked scarily empty after a big business group left.Korean pops started echoing. Luckily the servers were not frustrated and continued to work with much energy and efficiency(this i really appreciate). The menu was quite extensive, covering a wide range of East-Asian dishes. We ordered a Pomelo and shrimp salad($68), Pineapple fried rice($88) and crushed cucumber with garlic($28).
I wonder how the restaurant could be sustained with so little business (Cyberport looked kinda empty to me and there were more shops for lease than stores in operation) - who would come to eat and shop at such a remote corner on the South side of the island? Bel-air residents would not bother to eat here, the restaurants were definitely not attractive to demanding gourmets;many more and better restaurants could be found at Aberdeen and Apleichau. So Cyberport is pretty much stuck in the middle and its pool of potential customers is really small. Lecturers and students nearly might go here for a quick lunch, how about dinner?
Anyway, our dishes came at an unexpected speed, interrupting our discussion on the potential of business at Cyberport. Much to our delight, the dishes were nicely decorated and looked very attractive. We started by digging into the pomelo salad.
The salad was reasonably seasoned: flakes of pomelo mixed with shredded coconut, chillies, crushed peanuts, fish sauce, cashews and shrimps. The texture was nicely varied and the cashew was extraordinarily crispy and yummy! The salad tasted just a little spicy and we should have asked for the normal level of spiciness to make it more refreshing to eat. It would be better had the pomelo had not been vaguely bitter. The fruit i had in Thailand was flawlessly sweet. The shrimps were big, fresh and spongy tho.
Moving onto the
Pineapple fried rice, i remember how we always crush the pineapple after eating so that it could not be reused!
What fond memories! It had been years since i had my last pineapple fried rice, and i was sufficed with what i had here. The rice were moist after cooking in pineapple juice and fish sauce; it was aromatic and full of flavour, and tasted like curry. I like the bits and pieces of raisins, nuts, chicken breast cubes, juicy pineapple chunks etc. in the rice which had greatly varied the taste and texture of the rice. I normally eat only one bowl of rice but i could not stop myself from helping myself to a second bowl! They could be more generous with the meat foss however - there were hardly 2 pieces of the nice and crunchy condiment on the rice. It would taste even better had there been more.
The cucumber was slightly disappointing as not only were the cucumbers too neatly chopped (instead of crushed with the side of a chopper), the garlic mush was quite bland in taste. It was indeed savoury and refreshing to eat but it tasted DULL and monotonic. Some fish sauce or sesame oil would have made it taste better.
The food we had were nice but i am sure better ones could be found at many Thai restaurants in Hong Kong at a cheaper price.This even confused me as who would have come all the way to Cyberport to eat if the restaurants here are just, to speak the truth, so-so? I wonder how they could pay the rent every month and how much patience would be needed to operate business here.
I was stopped by some students conducting a survey about the business at Cyberport, and one question i was asked was whether i think Cyberport is a good place to do business at. Recalling my experience at this restaurant and what i saw as i walked around in the spacious but empty arcade, i said, 'no. not at all.'
Good luck and all the best to the restaurants and shops in Cyberport.
