janetii's Profile

Good authentic Hong Kong cart noodles, pretty decent prices with 3 ingredients pairing + drink added, not a bad choice for quick meal fix. Quality is reflected in the prices, so don’t expect grand high imported ingredients in this place. Will come again if I was around but not worth a purposed tri over. …Read More

Hot summer night, wanted light bites, and I decided to give this a try...and this place doesn’t have AC... great.I’ve walked past this place afew times but its truly humble (aka near non existent) signage caused me to just ignore this as some other random eatery rather than a gem. Thought I’d give this a try after seeing its 100% good reviews, thinking really? Only ordered afew skewers as a try, thought if it’s no good, wouldn’t have wasted money. But I can honestly say, really wrong! Their food isn’t Michelin, don’t take me wrong. But their quality is very on par with other Jap restaurants in soho, cwb, tst, which I was truly surprised about. After skeptically ordering the first afew skewers, I gladly enjoyed another round of beer and skewers before taking my bill. Felt that this place really tried to keep the Japanese izakaya spirit, essentially an informal bar. As opposed to well-designed izakaya restaurants that’s the norm in HK, their decor are simply wooden and plastic wine boxes as table and chairs, a tiny wooden bar table, afew lanterns, nothing flashy, yet very causal and welcoming even if you’re just grabbing a beer which I saw some doing. I’m not going to describe the food, pics can explain, as I feel words just don’t justify the overall experience I had. For the price, I can say for myself the quality justifies it. Summer is really for the brave, expect a sweaty meal. Winter will definitely be enjoyable, eating and watching ferries come and go, but I expect a lot of people will be going there also. Seats are limited, around 10. If you’re not there early, try your luck next time.…Read More

We unintentionally came here since we were so late or dinner and had to find alternatives. This place is conveniently located on Wellington, not far and hard to find. It’s a huge sake library with a la carte dishes mostly cooked via teppanyaki grill which is quite new for us. Normally restaurants in HK present teppanyaki as elaborate, lengthy dining experience whereas in here, they allow you to see how they cook your dishes per ordered. Honestly, the food here is really amazing. Things like edamame are normally blanched and seasoned with salt, but they would grill those slightly with salt and pepper so you can taste the different cooking flavours. There was also the half-priced sake with free dish promo, which we made used of, with their raw seabass sashimi which was really refreshing. Their sake is slightly priced up, but not by far. Our bottle originally cost 700 for 720ml, but with their 1/2 price, making it $350 is really reasonable for such a location. My conclusion to their food is it’s unordinary based on the ordinary, like Jap dumpling stuffed with chicken soft bone, fried rice in uni sauce, pork belly paired with shisho. It’s a great place to chill with good Jap food, great atmosphere, great sake. …Read More

I’ve been here before for a cup of coffee, but never really sat down for its food. Finally had the “courage” (pun intended 😆) to come and try out their lunch over Easter, completely regretted not coming sooner because they serve bagels! We ordered bagels, 2 styles. They are BOTH fantastic! Extremely filling, totally satisfying! With runny yolks all over smoked salmon and avocado, or fluffy scramble eggs paired with warm portobello and rightly ripe avocado, we’d say they paired it all quite well. Main focus: bagels! We’re served with blueberry bagels which we were really skeptical at first, but were quite surprised that it works and we enjoyed it. We also had lattes: the usual and a rose flavoured one (which may suit ladies). They’ve likely flavoured it with abit of rose syrup, but it’s not overwhelmingly pungent and taking over the coffee itself. Location is super convenient, in the heart of TST east. We even questioned ourselves why not come sooner. It’s nice to discover all these new cafes hidden across HK, this is definitely one if you want somewhere easy, nothing fussy, and goes straight to the point. …Read More

I honestly think this place is not bad. For a local cafe trying to bring in some Jap vibes, I feel they’ve quite nailed it. The decor is not your usual HK coffee shop, rather very minimalistic and raw, giving me a feeling that it’s time to zone out alittle. Food isn’t your 5-star, but it’s homey, and filling. We ordered their avocado and smoked salmon sandwich which I must say, fillings are quite decent with range. We also had their Jap curry sauce with hamburger steak on rice, and were also surprised with this dish. The curry doesn’t feel like your standard Japanese curry from a box. They’ve either self made it, or brought the curry as base and added a lot more ingredients to taste. We tasted alittle of the apple flavour being Japanese curry’s signature. Portions are very reasonable. Sandwich is alittle light (which we should have expected since it’s primarily avocado and salmon). Curry was hearty, you’ll definitely end up full afterwards. Some say prices were expensive. But for how it’s prepared and ingredients, along with decor and location (Prince Edward, what can we say), I’ll say it’s pretty much near it or only over by slightly. Personally, I do like this place. It’s a good place for coffee with a book, or a lazy weekend lunch. …Read More

This place is a hidden gem, and I truly wish less people will ever know about it. Inconspicuously locates on Ichang St in TST, the experience was truly out of my expectation given its humble price range. I was honestly skeptical before walking in, it’s priced similarly as those sushi belt branches. Having low expectations, and was aiming for a whatever sushi meal I could get, I walked in and ordered their Omakase sushi for less than $300. Opened by locals, they try to offer as true an Omakase experience for a fraction on what’s normally on market. To be fair, their ingredient quality isn’t out of this world, but you could tell from its taste they did try to find the best within budget given. Their preparation and interaction is very akin to an authentic Japanese sushi restaurant where the chef interacts highly with its customers. It was later during the night when I found out all of them were pupils of Japanese sushi chefs. No photos taken, since so many commentaries has taken them already, and their daily ingredients are based on whatever they could source from the fish market in Japan. But if you’re looking for a semi formal Omakase experience without needing to pay 4 figures, this is a great alternative which I highly recommend. Ps my meal cost $800 in the end, but half went to sake so no complaints on food vs quality given 😆…Read More

琴日行完好攰，又未食得晚飯，所以就過嚟食少少野。今次係第一次，所以都唔係好敢嗌得多。點左一串牛脷，腸仔，車厘茄同雞皮。知道車厘茄玩唔到咩花款，所以都冇期望。但個腸仔燒得好有心，用咗少少蜜糖。雞皮好趣，但最好食係牛脷！有牛脷味，同埋一啲都唔”銀”，搞到我想捱到一串，但因要食飯所以都係下次先。☺️Ps sorry 冇相，因為太肚餓同我真心覺得幾好食，食完先發覺呢個問題🤣下次再食！…Read More

This place is good for its food and vibe, and I’ve been there for a few times. The snack platter is always a bargain, given the price and the portion you get. I’m not a fan of creamy Tom Yum Gong soup, but the version this place is a toned down with the coconut milk, so it’s great for those who doesn’t prefer the overpowering coconut taste. Raw shrimp sashimi is also a must order whenever I go here, its always fresh, never failed me and their spicy lime sauce always help give a refreshing touch to the already overloaded palette. But I highly suggest checking your bill before paying. Happened to me twice, including last night where I paid without checking. Turns out they charged higher than what I ordered. The amount wasn’t extravagant but it was still 10-20% more compared to what I needed to pay. It’s really a pity since I love this place so much, but their bill incorrectness rate is so high, I’m skeptical coming here without ease of mind that they are honest restaurant operators. …Read More

Bookmarked this for a long time but never got a chance to go. Finally went and must say, their food and service exceeded my expectation given their low price tag on menu. My usual presumption of low priced menus = mediocre quality. This place has rightly defeated my skepticism, hats off 🙇🏻‍♀️Crab croquette was delicious, lots of crab meat, big portion. Pork belly skewer was tasty with balanced meat/fat ratio, it doesn’t feel oily. Grilled eggplant was filled with flavor. Biggest disappointment was surprisingly the lobster seafood platter, simply not outstanding comparatively. We sat by the bench was extended to outdoors, giving more a western vibe. It’s such a great place, to chill with reasonably priced good food, I recommend those looking for outdoor cafes to try this place out, including myself again 😋😋😋…Read More

First impression was slightly ordinary for its location and price, but don’t be deceived by its cover. Since it’s Chengdu cuisine, be prepared that 90% of the menu’s offering consists some sort of chilli. Hence painful since we have a non-spicy diner, but for all non-spicy/spicy dishes ordered, all delighted by its flavor and depth. It’s easy to assume dishes with chilli oil spattered on is what it tastes like since this is the generic offerings by other Sichuan restaurants in HK. But through seasoning, you can taste the various herbs used in making each dish and sauces served. It’s not to say non-chilli dishes were sub-par, in fact, they were surprisingly more pleasant for the palette through gentle and distinctive flavors allowing us to immediately savour those dishes despite having chilli aftertaste. Dinner was not cheap, but we felt that for its flavor, use of ingredients, location and the Victoria harbour view, we enjoyed paying every penny of it. …Read More

We came for a birthday celebration but left questioning if our venue choice was fit for purpose. The ambience, presentation, table wares were extremely eye pleasing, service and food presentation was quite spot on. Problem came when we started eating. Beef tartare tasted like corn beef, scallops were so tasteless that we had to return the plate. Risotto was... odd to say the least. The best dishes were beef wellington, and interestingly... the side dishes. Needless to say, what we all enjoyed throughout the night was the wine. We thought whether their intent to use British ingredients led to the catastrophic delivery of the dishes’ taste, but concluded it doesn’t make sense anyways to cook something not essentially British at all.On a fair note, it’s really a great place if you’re looking for ambience and environment. Service was superb. But do not expect high on the food, or else prepare to leave with disappointment. …Read More

This place intrigued me as it’s quite hard to find authentic Japanese restaurants in Central. Since it was weekend lunch, seating wasn’t a problem. Decor was very minimalist, and one of the chef was native Japanese. As brunch, we ordered the uni/minced tuna rice bowl, and another sashimi lunch set. With the dishes being raw ingredients based, we were able to taste its freshness. The sashimi set also served raw tuna and octopus, both being difficult ingredients to serve as tuna can easily have gamy flavor and raw octopus can easily turn foul. But the raw tuna tasted very light and fresh, with the raw octopus not having any slime and tasted light like squid. Even though for lunch it wasn’t cheap, but definitely an alternative instead of heading towards Causeway Bay where it’s heavily Japanese cuisine based. …Read More

Pairing the CNY theme this year, Hoi Wan Heen has various CNY themed dishes out during Feb. Originally we came for the CNY themed desserts: mandarin fried dumpling, and red date jelly roll with popping candy shaped into Chinese fireworks. But we didn’t realize it was for lunch only. We ended up ordering their standard a la carte, and CNY pig knuckles. The place was packed with many large group diners, but our server Sarah (sorry if I got the name wrong!) made sure our group of 4 was equally attended if not more. Their standard a la carte generally taste great with seasoning based on the ingredients’ natural flavors rather than msg or salt. The pork knuckle only came when we nearly finished our meal, but this was the best tasting dish. It’s German pork knuckles x Canton fried garlic/chilli style, tender meat with crispy skin. Knowing we came for the dessert, they went out of their way to convince their chef if one of their CNY lunch dessert could be made specially for us, which they did. Thanks Hoi Wan Heen in making it a special night for us! (ps. It was extra special since it was actually my birthday too, thanks!) …Read More

I’ve always wanted to visit The Envoy because of their (famous) True Blood cocktail, but seems like it’s off menu already. Still we were delighted by the range of cocktails they had, we couldn’t pass up the chance! We had tea cocktails followed by their hot ones, which were very enjoyable indeed!! Their food were also equally delicious and pleasant, but more like starter/snack food to be paired with their signature cocktails. Definitely a great place to chill with a glass of cocktail after work, but if you’re here for the food with wine you might end up being mildly disappointed since the taste might not match. Best wrap up was the banoffee pie, was the perfect portion and sweetness :)…Read More

It was a celebratory lunch and we decided to try this place, since Kennedy Town was quite far for our group. We ordered the lunch set which came with starter, pasta and coffee. We very all surprised starter included escargot, which we all ended up trying. It was fresh with a buttery sauce paired with mash potato. The mains were fish and meat of the day which was quite standard, and crab meat pasta. Overall, the crab meat pasta was enjoyed the most since it was completely covered with crab meat! The egg on the top gives it a nice creamy taste. Definitely thumbs up for the dishes’ presentation and taste! …Read More