supragurl7's Profile

I feel so smart! I upload my photos first in case the site freezes on me! I want to SCREAM, I LOVE THIS PLACE! Why haven't I gone sooner!!!! I feel like I wasted part of my life by not coming here sooner. I feel like I wasted my tastebuds energy by not coming here sooner. I feel like I wasted my calories on other cakes that I've ate that are not good. Ok you get it, I LOVE THIS PLACE. Everything is over the top here at the Mandarin, packaging, price, service, decor, etc... I chose the Opera ($39), Raisin scone ($18), and Custard donut ($20). The Opera is so good. It was the perfect percentage of dark chocolate used that wasn't bitter not sweet, but with cocao flavor.The texture was amazing as none of them stood out more than the other creating an awesome balance and consitency to put your fork through it. It was tiny and I could have finished it with 2 bites but I slowly devoured it. The raisin scone was the best I've ever had, I'm serious. I've had scones in United Kingdom many times from places like Harrods to a regular bakery. The raisin scone was moist an it wasn't hard like a rock. I chose to eat it without butter, cream, and jam, but in reality you don't need it because it is so good. I would like to have more raisins in it though. That day they had 3 kinds of scones, plain, cheese, and raisin. The custard donut....well...I don't was to say it was bad, nor average. It was good except for the dough, it was tough and too chewy for a donut. I'm from California and we have a lot of good donut shops, and I grew up eating donuts, so I know what I like in a donut. The texture bettwen the custard filling and chewy tough dough didn't meld together. If the dough was a bit softer this donut would be so amazing because the custard filling was so AH MAY ZING! They sure did not skimp on the filling. I would like to see this custard filling used on profitleros or even in a layer of a cake. I will definitely come here again and again. However, I will dine in next time so I don't kill any trees. The packaging was too much even though it was nice.…Read More

I came before 12 pm and surprisingly there were only 2 other tables occupied. I came here because I saw that they have baked rice and their version looked interesting. The corn soup kinda dragged me in too. So I ordered the baked curry rice with shrimp. The other choices were spinach+mushroom and chicken (i think it was chicken) They were all the same price. I also ordered the corn soup because I really like japanese style corn soup. I feel that the baked rice did not have enough curry sauce. In addition to the curry sauce there is also some cream sauce. I rather not have the cream sauce and be it cheese. I also did not like the shrimp because it was kinda salty and small. I should have gotten the spinach and mushroom one. The corn soup was good except it wasn't hot enough and there were no croutons. …Read More

We thought it was intersting to use rice for the dough of the pizza. However, after the meal it wasn't go interesting anymore, you'll see.... We ordered the salmon and mushroom pizza, okonomiyaki, and sweet potato parfait for dessert. The pizza was just OK. The rice needs to be more crispy at the bottom. I would not recommend the salmon and mushroom pizza because it was quite flavorless. They used a cream sauce which tasted nothing too unique. I think a teriyaki sauce would have been better. I think the pizza with beef, pork, or chicken would have been better. Don't even bother to order the okonomiyaki, it was just not good. It wasn't even hot when the dish arrived. The dish worth talking about is the dessert. We ordered the sweet potato parfait which has green tea ice cream, sesame ice cream, sweet potato chips, caramalized sweet potato chunks, whipped cream, and brown sugar syrup. It was to die for! Both ice cream had so much flavor. The chips and chunk of sweet potatoes were so good. Alright, finally, why do I not think it is not so interesting about rice pizza. Tthink about baked rice and claypot rice, that is WHY. This rice pizza is a cross between those two. The cheese and meats of top of the rice pizza is from baked rice and the cripsy rice on the bottom is from claypot rice. NOW if Toi were to have spectacular toppings with more ORGINALITY in their sauces (perhaps homemade house special sauces) it would have won me over. They think they can do away with mediocre flavor and topping with the idea of using rice as their pizza base. Wrong move!Note: I tried to upload pictures but it is not working. I'll have to upload at a later time.…Read More

I just wrote the review and when I went to upload a picture OpenRice just froze on me!!!! This isn't the first time either. Anyways, this review is long overdue as I visited in Dec 2011. There was an offer set ($68) which includes your choice of cake/tart, your choice of macaron, and coffee or tea. I went witht he tiramisu, ginger macaron, and Kusmi chai tea. I was going to go with the ever popular creme brulee, but was afraid it will be too heavy. I'm quite glad I went with the tiramisu because I'm in love with it. I've tried tiramisu where strong coffee/espresso was used making it bitter and I've tried it where coffee liquer was used which I don't favor. I like Paul's tiramisu as coffee flavor was light and the cake, mascarponw ratio was perfect. It also wasn't too sweet. Unfortunately, the macaron did not live up to its hype. I don't want to sound like a know it all, but I've had my fair share of macaron experience. I've had Laduree and Pierre Herme from France and over a dozen places in Los Angeles. I know what a good macaron is. When I bit into Paul's macaron the shell cracked fell into crumbles, it was too dry. I think texture and flavor are important components of a good macaron. Paul got the flavor part but missed the texture part.Note: I've tried to upload the picture again and it froze on me again. I will just have to upload the picture at a later time.…Read More

We cam around 11am and there were not a lot of people. I do like that it is the traditonal dim sum cart since you don't see that very much now a days. But that traditional aspect did not help make the food taste good. The most HORRIFIC dish was the steam BBQ pork bun (cha siu bao). The white bao part was dry and crumbly (maybe it was from yesterday), the base of the bao was soggy so it became gummy, and lastly the BBQ pork filling was nothing spectacular, no pork taste, and sauce was just blah. I seriously don't remember what was good because I know there were 1 or 2 items that were good out of the 15+ dim sum we ordered. We went to Fu Shing in CWB a couple days later and their BBQ pork bun was absolutely to die for. I will never come here again.…Read More

I want to give this place between a happy face and ok but openrice does not have that option. I wasn't sure what time this place open so I came around 11:30am, it wasn't open. So I'm guessing they open at 12pm. I went walking around and came back 12pm, still not open, but there was progress since the metal gate was opened half way. I went walking around again and came back around 12:30pm and it was finally opened. When I went inside there were many people inside already....maybe they went in when the metal gate was halfway open. I ordered the pork bone ramen because I like the white soup base. There are two interesting thing about this bowl of ramen. First is the pork, it is different....I am used to seeing it round shaped because it is a rolled up piece of pork belly meat. This pork is sliced from a slab of pork that was really tender, so it was squarish shaped. Second, is the taste of the white soup. I always thought the whiteness, milky color of the soup comes from long cooking of the pork bone. However, for this soup base, I tasted CONDENSED MILK! It is so weird...therefore I taste milkiness and sweetness. Those two interesting things aren't necessarily bad, just different. However, I would like that they decrease the amount of the condensed milk a tiny bit so it isn't so profound, because, it is tad bit too sweet for a savory dish. In addition, noodles were cooked perfectly and service was great.…Read More

I love this place! I ordered the duck and bacon baked rice. The rice is stir fried with egg. It is a white sauce with lots of duck and bacon. I really like the flavor of the white sauce. This restaurant has a lot of selection for baked rice and I want to try all of them. There are two things that would even make this baked rice even better than it already is. One is to have more white sauce. The rice in the middle didn't get a chance to be eaten with the white sauce. Second it to have more cheese on top. When I was dining there I find it odd that none of the patrons were eating baked rice as this place specializes in it. They have really cheap meals, everything is under $30!…Read More

I ordered the tako yaki with the omu yakiudon set. The tako yaki had too much batter and a very small piece of octopus. The omu yakiudon was nothing special except that the noodles were chewy. This meal was way too mediocre. I didn't felt like writing a review on this place because it was just too ordinary, but I had to get the word out. That's it about this place, nothing to talk about. …Read More

I ordered the green tea crepe with red beans. Green tea skin, green tea ice cream, red beans, whip cream, and chocolate sauce. It was very rich and filling. I actually got sick of it halfway. I've tried Marion Crepes in Japan, but this is different. The size is much bigger which I didn't care for, I just want it to be good. The whip cream is different, the one in HK is firmer while the one in Japan is softer and more tasty. There was just too much skin crepe also. Basically I didn't really like it, so I will not be coming back. Perhaps I should have gotten a regular skin crepe with not so much toppings. But, I prefer Mazazu crepe. …Read More

I came here because this one restaurant that specializes in baked rice in Sheung Wan was closed due to the holidays. I was on a mission to have baked rice that day, so Delifrance was the next and closest other option. I ordered the coconut chicken baked rice. They have another baked rice which is with tuna. I was informed by the cashier that it will take 15 min. Of course no problem, anything for baked rice. It came with a hot drink so I got hot tea. Since the baked rice will take 15 minutes they gave me a number to put at my table so that they can bring it to you. When it finally came it smelled so good and of course it was really hot. I didn't taste too much of the coconut, but there were a lot of pieces of chicken. The portion may be small for some but I find it perfect!…Read More

I came here with my co-worker which were our first time. The place was recommended by another co-worker of ours. My friend had made reservations and had placed an order of pig liver soup. We ordered various dim sum selections, vegetable, and clay pot fried rice. The waiters was jaw dropped at how much we ordered for the two of us LOL!!! Every time we called him to place and order after order he kept telling us it is too much LOL! (of course in a good way, he was being genuine) I thought the service was excellent and not sure why many reviewers complained about the service. I believe the way that you are treated is a reflection of the way you treat others. I am an easy going person and always treat people with the utmost respect and I do get that in return. Anyways, back to the food. We ordered shrimp dumpling (good, chewy skin that was not too thick or thin), shu mai (average), chicken feet (no flavor, however, it was tender), carrot cake (yum! came with shrimp paste that was panko crusted, came with hoisin sauce), cha siu rice roll (soooo pretty, see pic, really good, but i wish there were more pork), pan fried bean curd roll (average), pork sticky rice (my favorite!!), milk tart (average). I think that was all the dim sum we ordered. The highlight was the pork liver soup. It was so good, I'm still thinking about it. The waiter explained that they use double the ingredients to make that soup therefore it is very potent. Next highlight is the clay pot fried rice, which the waiter prepares in the dining area. Each rice was coated with goodness, therefore not sticking together. It had a lot of cha siu, shrimp, dried scallops, and shredded fried egg. It was quite an exquisite fried rice that no one should miss out.…Read More

I've been meaning to pay a visit here to try the egg pudding because it is too darn cute. We ordered the Yakult flavored snow. I don't know what is up with the snow desserts in Hong Kong, they have the weirdest toppings and sauces. I had wanted the taro snow, but it came with KIWI sauce WTH?!?!?!? The yakult snow came with caramel sauce, sounds a little better. The toppings include those balls that burst in your mouth (don't really like those so I ask to not have it), basil seeds, cocoa cereal, and chewy balls (i wished it was mochi balls, they were more like tapioca balls). I'm not sure if you can build your own, but it would be great if they really have that option. The snow was good, but I've had better. The snow was fluffy and moist, however, it lacked yakult flavor. I think it would be great if it was condense milk instead of caramel sauce. Next up was egg pudding, which I really like. It was creamy and eggy. One of the reviewers mentioned that it was small portion, but since it is creamy it is somewhat heavy so there is no need for bigger portion. I think the egg pudding it better than Australia Dairy, if you consider them in the same category.…Read More

I don't like this place as if you haven't notice yet. I came here because of many smiley faces and many people said the udon was chewy. Nope, uh ah, uh ah, it was not, it was not, it was not ! I arrived here at 5:45pm since I wanted to make sure I get in line before they opened at 6pm. There was really no line, we were the second group in line. When they finally opened at 6pm I told them 2 people and they said "give back the table in 1 hour" (in chinese of course) Sure no problem, 1 hour is plenty of time. I looked at the menu and had trouble deciding what to get because I was expecting to see more traditional udon such as with dashi and big juicy fried tofu. They didn't have any of the traditional udon soup. I ended up getting the cold udon with soft bone pork. My friend got the cold udon with seafood. When the food came I first tasted the udon by dipping it into the sauce. I bit into it and I almost spit it back out! ( I kid you not, it was true) I was utterly disappointed! At that moment I re-evaluated myself to make sure I did not set my expectations high due to the great reviews. In this case, I did not set my expectations high, rather I came here with an open mind. The fact that I was so upset was because it was not cheap. The udons were $65-$75 per order. If it was about $40 I would not be as angry. The food was not worth that price! The udon was too soft, barely had a bite, not al dente, not QQ. The seafood was just terrible, the clams had a weird, chili, sour, sweet sauce. Krab was well KRAB with a 'K'! The only thing good was the soft bone pork. I just don't know what kind of people are reviewing here on Openrice or what they ate at this establishment.…Read More

Came here because of all the good reviews and looked very homemade. I ordered the red bean soup and added sesame balls (tong yuan) It was so good. I was also surprise to see that the portions were quite hefty. It was a pretty big bowl. I really like the sesame balls because it is very hard to find good ones where the mochi is really chewy and the filling is smooth. I will have to go back to try other desserts. …Read More

First of all, I would like to apologize for not having any pictures. I forgot my camera I came here because of abundant good reviews, not particularly this location since it is new. I ordered the tofu flavored shaved snow/ice. You get to choose 2 toppings and 1 sauce. You can also add fruits for $6. The toppings selection was very weird to me, those toppings I would never put on shaved snow, like big clear tapioca balls, some kind of bean, and this clear ball that when you bite it, it bursts. My Chinese reading is not that good, so that is what I could make out to be. Also the sauces were stuff I would never put in my shaved snow which include strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce. They should have condense milk. For toppings they should have egg pudding or mochi balls, something like that. The tofu snow was quite bland and the strawberry sauce did not help. However, I won't be too harsh because most of the reviews for this place was not on the shaved snow but desserts like Summer or mango something.....Perhaps if you go, avoid the shaved snow and go with the other desserts.…Read More