After half day of non-stop working, I really need a coffee to gain some energy.
In causewaybay, 18Grams is a good choice for me, especially around 15h, there is not too many people.

I tried piccolo latte last time so decied to have a flat white today.

Relaxing environment with glass letting natural light come in. This coffee has a really good balance between bitterness and fruit acids. Easy to drink.
Instead of as milky as latte, flat white have a more even mix of liquid milk and smooth velvet foam, and without sacrificing the crema like cappuccino. It is strong and fill all your sense in coffee, just like an espresso.

Flat white is not just a small latte.

Date of visit : 1 May 2013 (Wed) 12:30 pm
No. of diners : 2
Average cost per head : $100
Food quality : 8/10
Environment : 7.8/10
Service : 7.8/10
Value-for-money : 8/10
Overall rating : 7.96/10

18 Grams has 3 branches in Hong Kong while this one in Causeway Bay is the first one opened some 3 years ago and the smallest among others.

Similar to Unar Coffee Company, coffee addicts can place their coffee on the bench by the pavement outside the café. Other than coffee, they serve all day breakfast and cakes too. Staff are generally helpful and pleasant.

a) Vegetarian Breakfast ($68) – 7.5/10The scrambled eggs carried a golden yellow colour but did not bear a creamy texture that I expected. The greens were fresh though.

b) Jam & Toast Breakfast ($48) – 8.5/10As a jam maniac, the keyword “homemade” just caught my eyes. 2 flavours, cinnamon apple and strawberry were served with butter and 6 pieces of white and wheat toasts. Unlike those we got in bottles from supermarkets, these homemade jams were a light and healthier version with less sugar and no preservatives. For the cinnamon apple, it’s not difficult to relate the filling in an apple tart. This one was tasty but too dry to be in jam or spread texture. I would suggest either adding pectin as thickening agent or smashing some apples to make a puree base.

For the strawberry jam, despite in a pale red than the usual brick red, it gave a refreshing and natural strawberry flavour. However, as the jam was not thick enough, the toast would become damp quickly. Anyway, would be perfect if the serving size of the jams was doubled.

c) Cappuccino ($17 upgraded from standard coffee of breakfast) – 8/10With a standard latte art, the proportion of milk and milk foam was appropriate to give a smooth texture.

d) Americano (inclusive of the breakfast set) – 8/10The house blend was called Black Sheep with beans from Mexico, India and Colombia which gave a mild floral note and yet not too acidic.

e) Long Black ($32) – 8/10The coffee crema was more intense than Americano as the shot of espresso was poured on top of hot water. Flavour wise was also stronger.

f) Grand Cru Chocolate ($32) – 8.5/10I was attracted to “Grand Cru” which means premium quality for wine or food. Instead of the famous chocolate maker Valrhona, 18 Grams used another French label Weiss. The chocolate drink was smooth, of the right sweetness and not over-intensive chocolate flavour.

05.2013

Great sunny day, chilling at home for the whole morning and early afternoon after a late night out on Friday night, a bit wasted to stay at home for the rest of the day. Luckily, my friend called to have coffee, yes I need coffee to wake up!

I always want to have more cafe in HK, not those chain stores, but cafe like this. Small, cozy, good quality of coffee at least. High business operation cost is indeed a headache, and hopefully there will be more like this when the city speeds up the re-development, openings more space for small businesses, the city will be prettier with less standardized pattern of life. If this was another chain, I wouldn't have come over to Causeway Bay, because there are major chains near my place.

Very small place, with 4 tables, cozy decoration to make it overall more comfortable, less impact from the busy traffic just out there. I saw they put a bear as table decoration on the wooden table near the entrance, very cute.

Simple menu, my friend's favorite flat white and I had cappuccino, I love the cappuccino art, one day, will go to attend a class, time to do lifestyle management out of working life. Good quality!

Didn't order food, but saw the couple next to us, ordered kind of sandwich, it's huge and quite presentable Will try next time.

I was quite some frequent customer of 18 grams. I first found it on openrice for having coffee with my hubby. Usually I would buy a cup of latte every week. After I got my Mocha pot, I bought their coffee beans almost one bag per week. However, everything changed after what I encountered this Tue.

I make coffee every morning. This Tuesday, I was about to run out of coffee. I had classes the whole afternoon and had things to follow up in the evening. So I rushed to Causeway Bay for their coffee beans. Two girls were there: one long hair, the other short hair. There was no small bag of coffee beans on the counter. The short-hair girl told me that no beans for sale that day. I told her I rushed there just for the beans and had to rush back to catch my classes. She told me to go to Mong Kok to buy one~~

Here one information needed to say is usually I asked them to help grind the beans, I know they have extra small bags. But she told me there is no more such bags. You know it'll be wired that coffee shop run out of coffee beans. So I asked if there is other size of bags to sell. She told me that I can buy 1 kg... One KG!!!! And she further added that she did not have the stuff for weighting...

Till then, I still wanted to get coffee beans from 18 grams. Can not offer exact weight of beans is fine, do not have small bags is also ok... I told her "Holding the beans by paper is fine as I can do the bagging myself at home later." She refused me by saying she need to keep the quality of the beans.... Well, if you saw her face, you'd know she just did not want to sell beans to me. Why? Maybe because she was cutting bread~~ If you really can not do so, plz explain it in a nice way... Not just by that look~~

Finally I rushed to some other coffee shop in Time Square and got a bag of beans. Eventually, the beans there are even cheaper but with better taste better than 18 Grams. Of course, due to the accident, I did not have time for food that noon~~

Anyway, should say the gentlemen there are nice and friendly. But the short-haird girl... I do not want to see her anymore~~

As my coffee skills can make same quality of coffee as 18 Grams. It is actually not hard, if you can master the protion of coffee and milk. The only thing I can not do is latte art~~ All I need is coffee beans. For coffee beans, you can always find good ones with similar price. For latte art, there are many other coffee shops can do way better~~

The adventure in 18 Grams makes me searching good coffee shops. And I found a nice one tonight, a little bit expensive but with nice ppl and quite relaxing atmosphere.

Honestly, 18 Grams was once my favorite coffee place. Now I have to say with sadness "Goodbye 18 Grams"~~

Finally decided to pay a visit on this hottest coffee shop in Hong Kong to see why there are so many 'likes' on open rice.

We came at around seven o'clock and the place was already half-fulled. We ordered two pasta and a latte. I would judge this place based on 1) drinks 2) food 3) environment and last but not the least 4) customer service

1) Latte Quality – overall speaking, the latte was nice and smooth. Latte was served in traditional Aussie way in which the drink was poured in a glass and you can clearly see that they have the right milk foam of 10mm on top of the milk and coffee mixture. The latte art was so so as I only got a rosetta on top. One thing worth mentioning was that unlike other coffee chain stores, the milk in here was steamed at the ideal temperaure which the milk has just started to caramelize to make it sweet enough to drink without adding any sugar. I hate drinking coffee with temperature over 70 degrees and that explained why you hardly find me drinking coffee in those chain stores.

2) Food - I had a spaghetti bolognaisse. The first impression I got was that the dish was small! The taste of it was under my expectation as the meat sauce was not juicy enough and the taste was rather weak. The melted cheese have improved the taste a little bit though but overall speaking, the taste was only marginally acceptable to me.3) Environment - the environment was freaking awesome! Although the chair was quite small and not that comfortable, all those decoration gave me a cousy feeling and that was what my ideal coffee shop would look like. 4) Customer Service - when I asked for a water, the waiter told me that it is self service! Although she replied in a polite way, it did no harm to offer to help to serve the water to the customers.

Overall speaking, if the food in 18 grams improved, it can challenge BJ to become my favourite coffee shop one day!

This was my second visit to this place. For this place, I wasn't especially impressive with it, just think it is quite nice and comfy. Being here twice, I think the area of the shop is too small. The seats are comfortable if you are able to get a table inside, but you can see there isn't sufficient space for the waitress and people to really move around. Also, I would like to point out that the food were being served a bit slow. The problem is that when there are people waiting outside since there aren't many seats in the shop, people won't be able to return the table soon enough for the next customers if the food are served slowly, and will probably have lost tables of customers due to long waiting time.
For both times, I came on my own during teatime. Since I was alone, it was not difficult to get a seat for myself, or maybe I should say I was lucky enough. Last time I had their Banana Bread and Honey Cinnamon Toast, while this time I tried their Vegetarian Breakfast set.
Banana Bread with Organic Honey - $22This is one of their signature food, and the cake was indeed a delight to eat. The grilled patterns can be clearly seen, and the cake was warm and aromatic when served. Some may think that the flavor of banana ain’t strong enough, but every bite of the cake, maybe plus the effect of the atmosphere as well, was so soft and gave a very cozy and warm feeling. It was simply a pleasurable experience. The organic honey served along was very fresh and sweet, but I don’t think the honey may be necessary because I think the flavor of the banana bread itself was enough already.
Honey Cinnamon Toast with Cream - $38This might be a slight disappointment. Not that it’s not good, but it just ain’t as good. I think they have dizzled too much honey on the toasts. When I eat it, it seems that I was eating toasts soaked in honey instead (a little bit of exaggeration). I just think less honey would be better. The cinnamon flavor wasn’t very strong or outstanding. It was very mild. I quite like the cream though, the cream tasted light. I saw some cinnamon powder being sprinkled on top of the cream, but once again, the flavor wasn’t distinctive. But I appreciated their toasts, because they were toasted just right. Sometimes it is difficult to handle the best timing for toasting bread but they did a great job here.
Vegetarian Breakfast - $62 This breakfast set includes grilled cherry tomatoes, scrambled egg, baked beans, garden salad and two slices of toast. It was a light meal. The cherry tomatoes were very sweet. The texture of the scrambled egg was very smooth. I like the baked beans they used, it was tasty. Lastly about the toast, it was whole grain toast. The taste and texture of the whole grain toast was quite good with that slightly rough sensation, but I think the toast lacked the aroma of the wheat.
The breakfast set comes with a cup of coffee or tea, and I chose a cup of piccolo latte.I have never had piccolo latte before and was pleased to try it here. Piccolo latte is actually a coffee that is made out of an espresso shot and milk, and so it was served in an espresso cup. They made a lovely latte art for the coffee. The texture of the coffee was pretty good, and most importantly, the strength and taste of coffee were just right for me. I enjoyed the coffee a lot. By tasting this coffee, I believe the other coffee are equally as good.
The food may not be too special, and the shop may be too small and food served too slow, but I'd love the idea of just simply buying a coffee take-away here. After all, I believe they do make good coffee. It's coffee that is going to make me return.

Went there for a breakfast. Took 30 mins for a all day breakfast and 15 mins for 1 capp and cold chocolate. Thirsty to death. It's a small shop but how come the 'gwei lo' came later than us can hv coffee earlier than us?

coffee so so according to my husband who is a coffee fan. breakfast? nothing worth to wait from 0930 til 1002. my drinks? very normal.

thx for the bonus banana cake for compensation however, we will not come back again.

I've been wandering this tiny cafe for quite a few times. Always no indoor seat!

Luckily, this morning, about noon, I managed to find an indoor seat for my breakfast. I had bacon & egg with croissant + Latte. The croissant is crispy enough and the bacon was in right proportion of fat. As far as the taste of the Latte is concerned, I quite appreciate the aftertaste of it as compare to Coffee Plus in Happy Valley.

Overall, 18 Grams is not bad, I would consider it a nice choice in Causeway Bay area.

The waitress is friendly and the service is good.

Definitely the best double shot macchiato I've ever had in HK. Strong and aromatic with a healthy layer of crema at the top. Still can't forget the after taste that stayed for a long while afterwards. Only thing was I had to wait about 10-15 minutes for my takeaway coffee even though they only had about 5 tiny tables there.

It was a good flat white and the price reasonable. As good as a $40 flat white in Central. Will definitely come back. Strong coffee and smooth froth. The shop is very small but great coffee.