Clover Cake & Coffee House     幸福餅店  

This coffee house has been opened for a few years but since I am not a coffee drinker I never went in.

Visited at a quiet period on a weekday. Store was bright and clean. Tables and chairs were arranged in a spacious way. The decoration was very simple - almost feel like there is nothing there, but lots of good looking cakes!

I went for the Tuna Bagel with Leaf Salad at the side. Portion was perfect since I was very concerned about having enough room for dessert - the delicious cake afterwards. Bagel was served warm, tuna was well seasoned. Side salad was very fresh with a Japanese dressing. The set came with a warm drink. I picked the warm Yuzu Lemon honey.The lunch was more filling than I thought. So I went for their fruity range for cake. As usual it was very difficult to choose one (only if I could eat more..) Passionfruit is always one of my favorite, so I went for this Passionfruit Mango Cake. The fruity flavour was very balanced. The passionfruit flavour blended very well with the rich and smooth creamy mousse. The crunchy cookie base was very nicely made - crispy and buttery.

Will definitely visit again to try out other cakes. With an empty stomach next time perhaps

On a funny note I discovered this shop in 2010 and told HK Epicurus about this place because he likes coffee and so that he could give this place the first review.

Anyway, as for myself I have always wanted to try their cakes but I never got round to it, but finally I tried something from this shop.

It was so nice of Mjqueen7e to get me some cookies from Clover.

Environment: The shop itself is really cozy, though there is a garage right next to it. And the cakes are simply super cute! It kind of reminds me of those cute cake shops that just pops out in the middle of nowhere in suburban Japan, where all the customers are female. (Yes, most of the customers are female. ;) Not hard to deduce, it's a really great place to just talk (or gossip). Most customers seem to take their time at the shop. But then we visited during a weekday afternoon, and it was quite empty.

Food: I had a Mont Blanc with coffee set. (Around HKD45) The chestnut flavor really does come out, and the texture combination with its base is just perfect. Overall, I think the cake is great, but a bit overpriced. I'd probably not come here alone again, but I'd be happy to come here with my girl friends for a long chat.

CLOVER Cake & Coffeehouse tucked away in North Point area though it is closed to the famous Yat Woon Min and opposite Provident Center. I knew of its existence back six months ago when I had a chance to visit the shop days before its opening when its coffee gears were being setup. At the time, I was quite impressed with the coffee and think that I will definitely drop by for a cup. Nevertheless, one thing leads to another, this is the first time I had that chance.The store front decoration is clean and nice and I like the push door open/close strip that somehow reminded me of the fond memory I had from my trips to Tokyo. Inside, the seating area was quite opened and airy, very comfortable to sit though I'm curious about noise level if the restaurant is at its capacity as all surfaces are flat and smooth. Anyway, it's more of a nitpicking here for this nice coffeehouse.I like the cake showcase a lot. It looks quite stunning in front of me and I like to have everything that was there as they all look real good to me. While I realize that there is a space limitation here, the showcase was way inside the coffeehouse which some customers may miss this gorgeous cake showbox as they may just sit on the seat in the front section of the shop.I picked the $30 Raspberry Yuzu for its look. I have to confess first that I'm not a fan of any cake in Hong Kong which seemed to have a sponge like texture.

Nevertheless, the added yuzu in this cake conveyed just enough zing to the whole thing, making the cake lively in the mouth and allowing me to forget that mushy/softer than soft rubber like texture thing that seemed to be what local likes. In fact, this was among a few time I can really finish the whole cake so Kudos to the pastry chef. I was told that the chef used to work for Teresa's festival a long while back.Back to the main reason I dropped by this place, the coffee.

From the picture, you see a rather simple setup but it works. A "Prosumer" Expobar Office Leva and the famous Anfim Super Caimano are the coffee package that proved itself before elsewhere it can make a killer cup in a capable hand. It seemed the dual boiler espresso machine that Office Leva sports works well outside Italy as the focus is more toward milk drink. The grinder wasn’t actually just an afterthought in making good coffee but one of the major factors whether one can succeed.Now, how’s the cup. Let start in chronological order. The Capp I ordered to accompany my cake was surprisingly OK even though the barista used the spoon in pouring the milk..

The look of this Capp may be quite disappointed. I actually don’t mind that there’s no latte art on top; I’m more concerned about the taste, the velvety texture, the temperature and the milk sweetness. The foam top was quite fragile as the barista spooned the foam cap into the cup. My understanding is that she tried to create the famous Cappuccino ring though it didn't look like that. Despite the watery milk under the fragile foam cap due to the usage of spoon, the milk texture was not too bad even after this abusive technique and some sweetness was there. By the way, I asked for not too hot cup which seemed to be the key words these days to get any decent milk drink in the town that people like it really "hot". Another saving grace is the coffee with a nice milk chocolate tone which helped sweeten the drink further.

In all, it's an OK cup with potential to significantly improve on, i.e. using free pour instead of spooning and keeping the temp lower not to scald away all those sweetness and goodies milk can deliver via frothing.How about its black coffee.

The espresso was very interesting with some acidity wrapped around by a hint of body. Nevertheless, this blend had a very long lasting milk chocolate tone over half an hour. Amazing.

Let me talk about the blend a bit. The potential of this blend is much more than the cup Clover delivered to me on that day. The blend Clover is using is a Single Origin blend of African bean. If you follow the current Indie trend, the Single Origin blend is what is hip and happening in the coffee world these days. This blend has been tasted by coffee lovers and was judged at 2010 HK GBC. The blend scored very well at the competition and came in among the top score coffees and could possibly be the highest score in that competition.

In addition, I consider this blend a homegrown pride as it is designed and roasted locally in Hong Kong via a local master roaster who is also coffeegeek and one of the technically proficient barista too. I tasted this coffee pulled by combinations of machine and grinder before so I am somewhat familiar with the blend and know its potential. At its peak, one should get a quite pronounced orange/orange peel taste with a milk chocolate aftertaste on top of a rather clean cup. For coffee lover, this is an enough hint to tell them where the coffee was from and roughly some basic roasting/blending technique used in arriving at this blend, definitely not a rocket scientist thing. This taste profile can be achieved on a pressure profile modified espresso machine and from the espresso set that Clover is using right now as I tasted them both earlier.

With this much help, the coffee has to be good. I would say what one drinks at Clover is at best the base line of what this single origin blend and the coffee machine can offer. No, the coffee at Clover is not a kind of shot that will make the head honcho at Barista Jam sleepless at night; far from it. At minimum, the barista needed to work on the mouthfeel/body and created a cup with more pronounced taste and clarity than what it delivered so far. It’s the Mano that was quite lagging here, not the coffee and the gear.

However, even with its base potential, it could easily knock your socks off. To be fair, we should compare the drink at Clover to other cafés that boasted their imported beans or some cake shops that seemed extremely meticulous but using imported Italian coffee. Seriously, with this only base performance delivered by Clover, this coffee was way beyond all those imported Italian at any regular cake/bakery or café in term of drinkability, particularly on black coffee. Typically, I had a harsh/acrid/burned cup from those nicely decorated coffeeshop and some even told me that if I don’t want those bitter/acrid tastes in my coffee, I should drink water … I wonder they have ever tried coffee at Clover before they make such a remark. Whether all of them fell victim of romanticizing all things Italian or something along that line!

Let me stress again that you won’t get the peak performance of this coffee gear and blend at Clover for now. Its barista needed to improve a lot more. But what you get is a really well worth your time, a drinkable cup of espresso with a decent tasting note here. No typical bitter/overextracted coffee in your cup with espresso at Clover. Also, one doesn’t need to resort to those milk and sugar for the ‘cover up’ job. In this sense, Clover more than achieves a baseline what a café should offer on its coffee. A prized possession of neighborhood cafés like Clover without acrid/harsh tone in the coffee at all is worth a strong recommendation so much so that if you are in the area and wants one of these, Clover is the place I can recommend for a drinkable espresso in this neighborhood.And this was the damage to me on that day. Of course, I will be at Clover again next time I'm in the area.

Date Dined: Sunday 16th jan 2011- 5.30m

Ordered: Oreo, American Cheesecake, Crunch Cake, & Coffee cakesTaste: American Cheesecake- I liked this the most, and it was the first one I tried. The shape of it is quite unique from other american Cheesecakes I have tried. BUT the cake was really hard. It was obviously NOT fresh. Seems like it has been there for couple of days so it is real hard. But it did taste good. It was rich in cheese and it has this honey/syrup taste to it on the outside. It was definatey the best out of the 4 cakes i chose.Oreo: This looked very nice and it did taste like Oreo a lot. But Also this was hard too and bit dry. Not enough moist. the biscuits layers was bland. I would not buy this againCrunch cake: this came with the Crunch on seperate package. I sprinkled the crunch on top of that cake. The cream outside was fluffly and creamy. iwith the crunch which is hard and sweet, it was a good combination. this cake was more fresh than the other. Atleast it was not hard. But I did not finish the cake so left it overnight. Next day i tried eat it again, but it is already not edible. I wish thy could make fresh cakes each day.Coffee cake: I did note xpect to like this cake at all. But to my surprise it was actually okay. The coffe _ Chocolate mousse was rich and smooth. And this tasted the same after a day in the fridge. I liked it. And would recommend this one to people who like coffee or chocolate as It wasnt VERY strong in coffee.Conclusion: this new coffee shop is right next to the famous Hainan chicken rice shop. It looks newly decorated and looks much more modern than other shops on the street. With electroic door. Inside is spacious witha couple of tables. is aw two groups of women sitting down chatting and having cake. This shop is clearly trying to run as those trendy coffee shops for girls. i like dthe interior. the counter is at the back with 10 or more different cakes to choose from and cookies at the back shelf. There were 2 or 3 staff I saw. I was standing looking at the cakes for quite long and was not greeted or served til i had to get hold of a girl. i asked what is your signature cake,which she did not unerstand and asked if I meant what is their best selling cake. She told me it was the chestnut cake. But i did not choose the cake. I ordered four cake and they gave me a very nice boxto it. i did not go tsraight home, and ended up carrying the cake for good 20 mins, and realized when i got home some cakes have melted already and changed shapes. i think they could give out ice pack or advise costumers to go home as soon as possible to improve thier service. Again, like usual Hong Kong service, lack of smiles. I wasn't too impressed with their cakes to be honest. they tasted and seemed like a few days old. taste wise, they were okay especially the American cheesecake. Their average price for piece of cake is 28-33 hk dollars which is reasonable compared to Paul Layet and Tony Wong, but it atsed like cakes you could get from maxims bread shop.

I recently saw this small cafe in the magazine, and definitely want to try. Hong Kong really should have more petite cafe like this one ..... and not just the big brands. Their cake sizes are just right, and not too sweet. Their staff are super friendly, and will bring small cookies and water for you during your stay. However, I would suggest that their coffees could be hotter .... and for their large drinks, the portion sizes are quite small!

Overall I was impressed, and went back the following week! Keep it up!

I Went by Clover after work last night, notice they changed their window to XMAS display, I think its one of the most comfy and x'mas atmosphere store on that street.
Went in and bought two ginger bread $15/PCS and a mini noel.
The sales lady told me its made of dark chocolate truffle cream, and inside is vanilla sponge with some hazelnut chunks and chestnut mousse. I think it was worth $35 for that mini, because it was actually quite big compared to the other cakes there..haha
The Gingerbread was quite good, gingery but not too spicy and not too sweet. Its more of a chewy texture instead of crunchy which is what Traditional gingerbread are suppose to be!!
Would definitely order the big one for X'mas

Thanks to fellow foodie Supersupergirl, who informed me about this new cafe serving cakes and coffee. Knowing that I love this type of shop ~ she decided to give me the spot to review it first, how generous!

*****************************
Had the following, but not photos for everything:

- Strawberry Roll $25 - with strawberry cream and horizontally sliced strawberry. It was a little sweeter and drier than I wanted, but still acceptable. 3/5
- Tiramisu $25 - needs more coffee and / or liquor flavour to be more interesting, as these flavours were so faint! Cheese flavour also wasn't very strong. Looked lovely nevertheless. 3/5
- Puffs $22 - made to mimmick a miniature Croquembouche, with mini profiteroles each piped with a shot of cream inside, but using chocolate rather than toffee to bind them together. Sitting on a chocolate cookie base. Very cute, and I like how this tasted so light! 3.8/5

- Caffe Latte - their coffee is pre-blended from overseas, but once it reaches our shore they are then roasted locally. Kind of like what Crema Cafe practises. Its made on a miniature Expobar machine, but the amount of patchy foam as opposed to a smooth creamy froth on top was quite distracting, the milk underneath also slightly scorchingly hot. There wasn't enough coffee flavour ultimately, this can be partially blamed on how the Coffee Maker made espresso shots using separate Synesso shot glasses for measurement, before then re-tipping that into a 2nd cup. During this transition, you tend to lose a lot of crema, which is essential for making milk based coffee as they are the part which punches through the milk as they tend to float. Could be better, and hopefully soon!

*************************
They also sell Cookies, which a quick test bite of them (Earl Grey, Original, Chocolate) were pretty buttery and crumbly. They also sell larger sized cakes and I saw a very smart looking Crunch Cake sitting in the display fridge! That will be my next target...