Sai Kung Cafe & Bakery     西貢咖啡餅店  

Took some government officials from UK who are also in the food business to this local bakery only because they wanted to try some local products.
Anyway, the shop was not pleased when they tried to pay with a $500 note, but if you were a tourist, you wouldnt have much change on you. I would have thought Sai Kung was tourist friendly and used to Tourists paying with large notes.

Apart from that, their items were slightly more expensive than other shops.
I finally got to try this famous pineapple bun that has been on debate with other reviewers and I am not going to step into this debate.
I just felt that it was too dry.

This cafe offers western style cheesecakes, as well as chinese style pineapple buns (bor-lor bau- don't expect any pineapple!) and egg/milk tarts.

There is always a queue for this cafe- especially on public holidays. So, does it live up to the hype? I decided to give this cafe a few tries before making a decision. My answer is simple- If an owner of a business does not welcome its own customers, then, in my opinion, he does not deserve them. Despite the fact that the cakes are alright, I will make an effort to never set foot in this cafe again.

1. Food - people queue here for three key items- cheese cakes, pineapple buns and egg/milk tarts. The cheese cakes are pretty decent and there's a wide variety; if you happen to be there at the right time when the egg/milk tarts are fresh out of the oven, then that would be a bonus as they really are quite nice (pastry is crisp and egg/milk centre is rich); the pineapple buns, on the other hand, are only nice if and only if fresh out of the oven (as bread generally is), otherwise they are no different from the standard ones you get in a standard chinese style diner.

All in all, because of the high turnover rate of this cafe, chances are that you might be there when a fresh tray of buns or tarts come out. On this basis, these are tasty as they are fresh, just as buns and tarts are generally tasty if you wait for a fresh tray in a bakery. If you are there when a fresh tray is out, then I would say go for it. If not, then it is really difficult to justify the shameless markup the owner has put on these items (it is almost double what other bakeries charge).

2. Drinks - this is where I think it's daylight robbery. This cafe charges over $30 for a drink. Okay, proper cafes charge that much for a drink or even more and I still go regardless, but their drinks are really quite nasty (if you order a cold drink, over 3/4 of it is ice anyway). I would steer clear of their drinks even if you eat in.

3. Tables - I won't comment on the quality of the cafe decor, as it was never meant to be a chic cafe anyway. All I will say is that if you go on a weekend/holiday, be prepared to wait for a seat.

4. Service - this is the real turn off. For those who just queue outside for take away and don't order at the counter, you might not have encountered the owner. For those of you who have ate in and ordered at the counter (especially during busy hours, i.e. every weekend), you will get what I mean. The owner seems to hate his customers. Not only is he unhelpful, but he actually goes out of his way to be rude and make life difficult for his own customers. What should take 1-2 minutes to order can turn, and often has turned into a 5-10 minute order just because he cannot be bothered with his customers. There are two queues in the cafe, one for takeaway and one for eat-in. He often makes his customers queue twice (once for eat-in and another time for takeaway) just because they are ordering different items from the menu i.e. you queue at the counter and pay for your cheesecake, then queue again for takeaway for pay for your pineapple bun- this is a nightmare when it is busy, especially when he could easily have taken the money for both items anyways (this is the first time I have seen worse service at a cafe for eating in as compared to take away). That is a poor system in itself, but the worse part is his attitude. I have been there a couple times now and every time his attitude was so bad I wondered why I was paying so much to be treated like that- I came to the conclusion that it was not just a bad day for the owner (unless every day was a bad day for him). Even when he is free with no customers to serve, he would not deliver any of your food/drinks out to your table, he would get his waitresses to call you in so that you can pick it up yourself!

I have been to this cafe a couple times now; however, despite the fact that their cheese cakes are pretty decent, I have decided never to go again. The food is not so good that I would pay more than double a decent cafe just to be treated like rubbish. As I said above, if an owner of a business does not welcome its own customers, then, in my opinion, he does not deserve them.

portugese tarts... too burnt
garlic bread, nice and soft
ham and sweetcorn bread, very very nice, deeply filled with filling, bread is very soft, bought some for my flight back to uk, and after 24 hours from buying it it was still very fresh soft and tasty

this bakery is a must-go place to me if im going sai kung

before going to the island 'kiu tsui', we went to this bakery to buy brunch. last time i bought a cold pineapple bun here and its definitely no good. so i told my friend we had to buy it when its hot only. at that time the buns were cold so we bought others:

1) 蛋麥包: the surface of wheat bread has honey and somehow grilled. quite tasty! $8
2) 蛋白條: cant remember the name, there's an egg white stick in the middle. with some cheese on the surface. the bun is very soft, though it should be better when its served hot. $14

after returning to sai kung pier we went to have 'car noodles' and after that we bought a pineapple bun for 'dessert', because its just freshly made! very tasty & very crispy. its even too hot! $6 only

p.s. you can ask the lady to cut the buns half. its a lot more convenient when you wanna share the bread and dont wanna be so messy.

When this bakery/cafe opened, I thought great, finally there is a western style bakery here.

However when I tried their bakery, they were obviously trying to imitate the western bakery, however it still tastes very asian.

I have also tried their angel hair pasta with meat sauce, I found it rather tasteless.
Also spaghetti in broth, this is totally chinese, you would not find this in Europe.