Hin Ho Curry Restaurant    恆河咖喱屋  

恆河咖哩屋 has be getting its Michelin stars for several years. In my humble opinion, not sure how long would it keep its star, because for sure, the standard went down since my last visit couple years ago. It was a public holiday, it was full of customers, but I mean for HK$150 bucks to eat a Michelin dinner is a bargain, I can totally understand. However, they truly disappointed me, with both the food and services.

Cuisine: Indian
Food rating: 5/10*
Service: 5/10
Ambiance:6/10
Price: HK$160pax

* Food Rating: 6/10 is equivalent to 1 Michelin star, 8/10 to two Michelin stars, and 9/10 or above to three Michelin stars

On the house

My first experience at this restaurant was great and the curry was delicious. Recently though, it has disappointed me time and time again. One time I was there and I was waiting for my food for quite a while. Then, a group of 4 people came by and sat near me. For some reason, they got their food before I did. When I asked what the status of my order was, someone had to come back and ask me what I had ordered! Today I went back again. As I was drinking the complementary soup, the bowl smelled like bleach. The bowl was probably not rinsed thoroughly or the bleach was so strong that the smell remained. I told the waiter and he just gave an uncomfortable look to me and did not offer any apologies. The nan is also not the same as before. I will not waste my money there again.

I had been to this restaurant before they were famous and was impressed by their flavors, but now this is not the same anymore.

This time, I saw a completely new staff, including the cook and the food definitely is different. Even the nan bread had changed, it used to be more thin and delicate, now it's big and thick. Now, they are not as bad as some fast food curry, but still, this is not the same food that won the Star.

I'd the set lunch with the lamb, it tasted OK and I wouldn't have given a second thought if this is just another small joint by the street, but I expected it to be much more and not just average.

I guess it is hard to be consistent, but I didn't expect the big change.

I have been a diner of Hin Ho Curry Restaurant, for both its Shau Kei Wan and Sai Wan Ho branches for some years. However, I have stopped dining there being afraid of queuing up in this so-called AWARDED RESTAURANT.

After tonight's dinner in SHAU KEI WAN's branch, my wife and I swear we would NEVER DINE there again.

We had just ordered two dishes + plain Naan + plain rice.

We are not 'PICKY' diners and never will we be... but we were very disappointed with one of the recommended dishes

'Pineapple Curry Chicken':
We found 4 small pieces of UN-marinated chicken, PLAIN without taste at all, but just the smell of frozen nature.It seemed to us that the chef just cooked it in hot water and then served it with the tasteless curry sauce. Well... the best ingredient was the 3-small pieces of fresh pineapple. For a dish that costs around 80 dollars, I don't think it worths trying (Definitely, any fast food shops serve better curry chicken than this so-called AWARDED RESTAURANT).

"Madras Beef"
The beef was tender enough and the Madras sauce was thick and good with fresh tomatoes and onions. Definitely, the two should go well but again, anyone can easily found that this is a special dish that is made by just adding Madras sauce into the tender beef. Hardly could we found the inner part of the beef was cooked with the sauce long enough.

'Rice'
Plain rice was served in a big black plastic bowl. Enough for 2 adults.

'Naan'
Hot enough but easily found in any Indian Restaurant. Nothing special.

The P-L-A-I-N Pineapple Curry Chicken was just one of the reasons we felt disappointed... the most irritating experience was the STAFF.
The staff was rude and indifferent. No matter how nice I was to say 'Thanks' for appreciating the service they provided. They just felt impatient and collected everything soon after we finished for a second.

We don't mind paying for good dishes, ... and we enjoy all kinds of food and are willing to pay. But going to this so-called Awarded Restaurant won't be a good stomach-filling experience.

Everything was bad The service, the food, the restaurant itself ...

There were only 2 waitresses, one of them (young girl) who didnt seem to know what she was doing, everytime we ordered or had questions she had to get the other waitress to serve us so I dont really see the point of her being in the restaurant at all !

I ordered a green apple 沙冰, waited for 10 minutes so chased the waitress (the girl) about it then she told me 沙冰is not available today ! So I ordered a Milk Tea instead but again waited for 10 minutes and chased them 4 times and at the end she gave me a Lemon Tea !!

When I went to 恆河 before they received the Michelin Star, the food was so much better. Everything has gone downhill since.

I will never go to 恆河 again even if its free !!!

It's so happened that I went to 筲箕灣 and found out this restuarant in openrice with the most ... so I decided to try this out. Arrived at 7.15pm... it's so lucky that there wasn't any queue... I thought I was so lucky to get a table without any wait. However, it's actually a misfortuante!!!

Food: The food I ordered were 蕃茄咖哩牛腩, 白咖哩雜菜 and butter naan... I guessed these are one of their signature dishes that everyone would love to try them out. However, they are like Asian modified curry... they taste not bad but also taste like those you can find in a normal resturant. The butter naan is too oily with no butter taste....

Service: It's a restaurant that I wouldn't tip. It's not that they don't have any service... but even more worse their service is bad to a standard that seems like they are the only restuarant which can serve curry. They just dont care... I saw a guy came in saying that he has booked a table for 4. Then the waitress said rudely that his table is given to another group since he is late. The guy said he was only late for 5 mins. Then the waitress said we don't hold any table and asked him to wait outside...

Waiting Time for Food: The butter naan came 5 mins after I placed the order. 白咖哩雜菜 came 10 mins after the naan. After we finished the naan and 白咖哩雜菜, the 蕃茄咖哩牛腩 still hasn't come. 蕃茄咖哩牛腩 finally came after 45 mins....

Seating Arrangement: Squeezy

Price: HKD 200 for 2 ppl

Overall: I wouldn't come back to pay for bad service!!!

印度餐...都係我其中一種最鍾意既菜..
但係 講到呢間..no comment.
想打中文..實在太慢..閣下要寫英文，唔好意思！
Basically, I can call myself a tourist as I travelled all the way half the globe and came here to try this restaurant. Not that I aware of this restaurant, it's because I love indian food and I noticed the promotion and word of mouth from everyone about this restaurant and how good it was rated as it's rated as a 米芝蓮-class. I experienced numerous authentic Indian cuisine, however, I was extremey disappointed with the overall quality and experience in this restaurant..
I can summarize my experience in the following points:
- Waited for more than 30 minutes after first dish arrived. We asked to reheat the dish and other dishes were served after the owner re-verified our order. They do not recall what we have ordered.
- Two distinct taste of chicken vindaloo dish. Extremely spicy with red colored on the first dish and not-as-spicy with brownish colored on the second dish(re-served). I felt like I had a different dish of the same vindaloo.
- Duck and fish dishes were sweeter than I expected. Perhaps I am not familiar with Indian cuisine, I never had much sweet flavored dishes and maybe it was tuned for Hong Kong'ers' preference?
- Water was not re-filled in a proper timing. It took way-longer-than expected time.
- Water has a weird scent with it. We had to purchase water bottles from 7-11 across the street. (There's another store selling water for only $3/bottle)
- Service rating: 0/5
- Attitude, Customer experience: 0/5
Reasons:
1. They never recall if we have ordered rice or not, they asked us more than 5 times did we order rice (we did not order at the beginning, and we ordered one afterall)
2. Ordered naans and came with naans and roti. We need to ask the server at least 2 times to ensure our orders were fulfilled.
3. Billing was terrible. While we were checking the bill for accuracy, the owner said "四百幾蚊，甘都唔信?"... After we checked, they calculated 3 rices instead of one, the bill was actually INCORRECT. The owner than said "三百幾蚊，抵食啦！" What kind of attitude was that?
4. While we were waiting for the bill, we overheard the owner had 微言 from other table that was not ready order.. He was complaining other tables taking too long to order, and said other tables order more than $3000+ la... etc... giving attitudes.
5. 全部員工服務態度差。Seriously, I don't want to say this, but I feel sorry for people who is eating in the restaurant as the owner and workers are so 寸 and 唔休做 attitude. If this has been rated with 米芝蓮, does it also include service and quality of the overall experience?

From the above summary, I can say that food was "okay" and not as "great" as I expected, I am sure there are a LOT MORE indian restaurants in Hong Kong having better quality and service. A lot more people can do better than this..
I am not sure if others experienced this, but I would say if there are no improvements with such 囂張 behavior and the food serving pace, how can this restaurant be rated into 米芝蓮 and being recommended to others, including tourists? This will totally ruin the Hong Kong image, and it has already been done, as I am a tourist.
I feel sorry for this restaurant and anyone who also experienced such in the past.

We arrived (party of 3) at Hin Ho Curry at about 730pm for dinner and waited in the lineup for about 15 minutes, not as bad as I expected. I can tell right away that the restaurant could use a couple more staff. We decided to order the mutton curry with mango, the chicken vindaloo, tandoori scallops, naan bread and roti with a side of rice. Unfortunately we did have to wait a while for the food as it did take at least 15 probably 20 minutes. When the food came they put the naan and roti on our table first which I thought was ridiculous letting it sit there without the other dishes. But eventually the main dishes came and I do have to say, it is definately worth the wait. The mutton curry was beautiful, full of flavour with the mutton cooked enough that the meat was falling off and crumbling in your mouth. The chicken vindalooo was delicious, VERY SPICEY but we were warned before we ordered it. There was not one thing I could complain about on quality of food as I felt that all dishes were completely authentic. Service was mediocore but not poor, they did apologize for the food being late and yes we had to ask them a couple times for our drinks but at the end of the day do you really go to eat at a place like this and expect service?? I came for the food, and on food alone the kitchen at Hin Ho Curry delivered so I am a happy customer!!

The bill for the food and 3 beers came out to $341 so definately not an expensive meal.

Here is another classic example of a restaurant which is cursed by the fame brought upon by a Michelin star.

We arrived before noon on a Saturday afternoon. There were already people waiting outside the restaurant. We waited for nearly half an hour which was ok.

We tried the set lunch. I'm sure the Michelin star of this restaurant was awarded on the back of dishes selected from the more expensive a la carte menu, so it is probably not appropriate for me to say whether or not the star is deserved based on what I ate. However, my key disappointment about this place is not the food but the service. The curry we had from the set lunch was ok and not spectacular by the way.

Throughout my whole stay inside the restaurant it was clear that the restaurant staff were overwhelmed by the number of guests they had to serve. Upon being seated we placed our order pretty quickly but our table remained empty (i.e no cutlery etc) for 20 minutes. Then two plates were brought to our table (despite the fact that we had three people) and nothing more happened for another 10-15 minutes even when we chased. We ended up "taking it into our own hands" by getting up and searching for cutlery ourselves. After the soup came the curry. But the naan bread never arrived and the curry was getting cold. Unlike the cutlery, we couldn't make the naan bread ourselves so all we could do was to keep chasing. I was edging towards boiling point when I saw the naan bread chef came out and gave naan bread to a table who ordered later than we did. Ultimately we got our naan bread but they got the type wrong.

From my observation, we were not the only table which had something to complain. I certainly saw at least two other tables who were dissatisfied due to one reason or another.

The staff (three of them) were actually not rude people. They were just too busy to stop and listen to what you have to say. And clearly they are not exactly the kind of managers/waiters who used to serve in a busy restaurant as they were quite slow.

Michelin experience? You must be kidding.