Qian Fu Da Shao    千福大少    

...make for bad meals.

The first time we went to the restaurant about 4-5 months ago, it was okay. So on Sunday we were in the neighborhood and decided to go again for lunch. We arrived at about 12:15 and were amongst the first customers. My wife ordered a vegetarian pasta set meal and I ordered the pork chop set.

The waitress offered us a choice of soup or salad and said that the soup of the day was tomato. Since I don't like tomato soup, I ordered the salad. My wife ordered the soup. When it arrived, it seemed to be the palest tomato soup I had ever seen, and it tasted like cream soup, with no trace of tomato. Regardless of what it actually was, it was quite tasty, and probably was the best thing we had. As for the salad, i was very small and came in a cup without any dressing. When I took my first bite, it seemed very tasteless and dry. A second bite confirmed the lack of dressing. I pointed this out to the waitress and since my second bite had finished it, she took the cup away and said that she would tell the cook.

On to our main courses. The pasta dish was average and but not good enough to bother taking home the unfinished half. The pork chop was breaded and over-fried to the point of being a bit dry. It was served with rice, potatoes and a spicy curry sauce. I am all for double starch, but the potatoes were devoid of salt and bland. Guess the cook forgot to season them, and since there wasn't any salt or pepper on the table, I couldn't do this myself.

The bottom line is I have no desire to go back again.

A colleague told me how good the coffee was at this place, and took me there a couple of days later because he was craving another cup of their smooth, creamy coffee.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this restaurant was split into two cozy 'restaurants' - on one side, customers can enjoy their meals whilst on the other side was a lounge type room with mismatching, comfy chairs for customers to enjoy their coffee, tea, alcohol or even a shisha session. I have never seen a layout like this in HK and it reminded me of something you'd find in Australia. It was a welcome change to the normal coffee houses and restaurants that you can so easily find in the city, not to mention in the extremely busy Tsim Sha Tsui.

We went into the food section and ordered our lunch. The menu was extensive and had a lot of fusion dishes on offer. I ordered the black pepper pork chop with pasta and my colleague ordered the fish curry.

Black pepper pork chop with pasta ($68)
- Generous helping with a good amount of meat to balance out the pasta
- I was worried that the pork chop might be over cooked and hard to eat but found that this was cooked pretty well
- The black pepper wasn't overbearing (as some places tend to go crazy with the seasoning)
- Capsicum and onions were added to add flavour to this fusion dish
- It could've been slightly hotter, but it was still good!

Fish curry ($58)
- Two pieces of bread crumbed fish were placed on top of a bed of rice. Surrounding the rice was a yellow curry sauce (with coconut milk)
- Fish was crunchy but soft on the inside
- Garnished with a few strips of egg (not really sure what they did to it but it is something you'd typically find in a Japanese restaurant)

All in all, portions were generous, especially for the price we paid. The quality of the food was more than satisfactory as well. The service was excellent as only had to wait a couple of minutes for our food to come out and our water glasses never went empty. The staff had a decent command of English and were friendly

After we ate, we moved into the coffee section of the restaurant. One cool offer they had was that any coffee or tea you ordered after eating was 50% off. I ordered a mint cappuccino and my colleague ordered a cappuccino. I'm not a huge coffee fan so was curious to see how this coffee fared.

It was AMAZING!

I think this is probably one of the best cups of coffee I've ever had. The coffee was smooth and creamy (as my colleague said it was) and the mint flavouring was subtle but undeniably present. It didn't taste artificial (as a lot of 'trendy' coffees do nowadays) and didn't have that overbearing bitter taste that I find many coffees have. I didn't have to add any sugar to this either! The barista even went to the trouble of putting different designs on everyone's coffee which was a nice touch.

The overall feeling I got from the restaurant and its staff was that they cared a lot about their image and product. They didn't seem to rush our orders, were attentive, were friendly and the food (and coffee) was excellent.

Thankfully, this place is near my office, so I will definitely be making more trips to experiment with different coffee combinations (and fusion dishes) on offer as well as enjoy the quiet atmosphere. This has been put on my top 10 places to go for a relaxed, quiet meal with friends or colleagues after a long day.

For all coffee lovers in particular, go check it out! You'd be stupid not to

We have tried out this restaurant on a Saturday lunch time, it wasn't full at the inside part, outside area had only two tables occupied. We sat in the small inside area which furnished with sofas of 60's style, the round table is like a temporary setup, not really meant for comfort, the place is more like a small cafe for drinks than a restaurant, food menu is small and we had ordered Hainan Chicken Rice $88 and Prok Cutlet Curry Rice $58 and a Coke Light $48.

There were two choices of Hainan Chicken Rice, we took the waiter's recommendation to have the more expensive one, it turned out quite good but quantity was a bit small. It would be nicer if they could serve the two dishes we ordered at the same time. Prices on the menu are acceptable but the soft drink is a bit pricy at $48 and the services from the bar could be more efficient.

Overall the quality and price of food were OK..
It should be quite nice sitting at the outside area on a nice warmer day!