Located next door to the eccentric Cheung Hing Tailors, Podium Cafe is one of these "Only in Hong Kong" occurrences; a restaurant hidden on the 4th floor of an office building in the middle of Central.
Aside from Delifrance, Cafe de Coral and Maxims, which are ridiculously crowded, it's often difficult to find a cheap western lunch in Central.
The restaurant isn't very large but uses its space very efficiently and also has an outdoor terrace. If fills up after 12:30, so if your lunch hour starts later, make a booking.
The lunch set, which includes soup, a main and a drink, is HKD 53 if you finish before 1pm or arrive after 1:30pm; otherwise, it's HKD 63(no service charge).
There are 2 choices for soup(Cream of Pumpkin & Chinese Vegetable when I went), a few choices for the main(Lasagne, Sole Filet, Teriyaki Chicken, Smoked Duck, and some others I can’t recall), 3 choices for the side dish (rice, spaghetti or potato wedges) and a decent choice of drinks (espresso-based coffee and standard HK drinks).
The Cream of Pumpkin was creamy and not too salty but quite hot when served. The pepper on the table seemed to be a combination of white and black pepper, which was a bit strange when added to the soup. The Chinese Vegetable soup came with some cabbage and carrots but was pretty tasteless.
The spinach lasagne, which is apparently their specialty, came nicely presented with a leaf of romaine and cherry tomatoes. It had much less cheese than a standard American lasagne but was well-made, with a generous tomato topping and all the pasta layers cooked through, which made for less-messy easting. Despite the lack of cheesy flavour, it was quite tasty, without leaving you bloated.
We also got the sole fillet with spaghetti, which also came nicely presented with baby carrots and boiled cabbage. The fillet was very large but the white sauce was a bit tasteless. The spaghetti had no sauce on it and was a bit rubbery, probably from sitting out. Overall ok, but not as good as the lasagne.
The drinks were quite nice, coming in large glasses and with no extra charge for cold drinks or espresso-based coffees. The hot coffees are served in nice clear class mugs and cold drinks in a variety of large glasses.
Service is cheerful and efficient, which is a nice change from the usual HK gruffness, although a bit confused (3 different people asked us for our drink orders).
I’m not sure how often they change their menu, but it’s worth visiting if you enjoy a post-meal coffee and are tired of your usual choices. The Teriyaki Chicken with potato wedges looked to be a popular choice which is worth trying next time.
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