The Trafalgar Brewing Company

Hi y'all! I just tried sounding Texan/Southern but that obviously didn't work. 

Finally, another post of proper food instead of desserts. xD Anyways, there's a specific area in Wan Chai, near the Renaissance Harbourview Hotel, where there's a lot of Western restaurants. A lot of white people dine there and these restaurants are usually opened by foreigners (or gweilos if you will). Usually, the shop owners who orignate from their own country will of course, open a restaurant that's following their nationality - if that even makes any sense. Such as this restaurant, The Trafalgar is a British and German restaurant, so there will either be British, German or British x German mixed people running this restaurant. You get? 

I visited this restaurant yesterday with my family and to be honest, it felt more of a pub than a restaurant. There was a section with a bar counter, with lots of tall stools and tables with a window view. I feel like I'm doing a really bad job explaining the place, and I didn't take any pictures. :( But from what I remember, the corner seats were very spacious and comfortable, and the waiters/waitresses were very kind and helpful, plus they are fluent in Cantonese and English (aye). 

Review:

Okay so first up, we have the minestrone soup with bread sticks. I was actually so used to the "Russian Borsch" in cha caan teng that I felt the minestrone soup tasted funny! Even comparing the one to Pizza Hut, I felt that it just tasted... Funny. My dad told me the minestrone soup is legit and minestrone is supposed to taste like this, since this is the first time I tried minestrone made by Westerners. Fair enough dad, you win.

The minestrone was served piping hot and it wasn't thick but it wasn't too watery either. There are a lot of vegetables and spaghetti strands in the soup which altogether, complimented the whole dish.

Soup of the Day: Minestrone Soup

British fat chips! Yes these fries are too die for. They're deep-fried, seasoned perfectly and served with Thai sweet chili sauce; they're not too oily too so that's a bonus! There are actually 4 different kinds of fries served at Trafalgar, but from the top of my head, I can only remember these fat/chunky chips and potato wedges. Anyone who loves fries/chips should definitely try this dish, and if you just like it salted ONLY then perhaps not, but in my opinion, the seasoning was done very well!

British Fat/Chunky Chips

Close up of the British fat/chunky chips.

Time for the main course!

Sole fillet with ratatouille and vegetables. Yep, ratatouille. Doesn't it remind you the movie? When I found out that ratatouille was just vegetable stew, I was a bit disappointed because I expected more than vegetables just cooked in tomato sauce LOL. 

Nevertheless, the ratatouille was bearable and it did taste okay with bits of crunchy peppers and other sorts of veggies. The broccoli served as a side was huge! Definitely looking like a tree. Oh, and the sole fillet, ah the fish of the hour. Definitely good, it was 2 & 1/2 of a fish so it was pretty big! Though it felt as though there's no taste, I never really came across a restaurant that had a seasoned sole fillet (or maybe that's just me). 

Grilled Sole Fillet with Ratatouille

Close up of the main course.

Dessert, I actually don't know it was. Perhaps it's cheesecake with whipped cream, half a strawberry and chocolate sauce. I didn't particularly enjoy the dessert because it was a bit too dry - I felt my throat getting dry after eating the whole thing! 

Cheesecake

Drinks, you can choose what you want of course, but please avoid the coffee! I'm a huge coffee lover but the coffee was just too strong and bitter that even I couldn't take it! I take black coffee sometimes, but man, the coffee served there was just, wow. So please, if you cannot take strong coffee, I BEG you, please choose another drink! 

However, despite the unpleasant coffee, it did come with a really cute spoon! :)

Twisty Spoon

Sideview of the twisty spoon.

Price:
About $100 for a set lunch.You can check out the menu on their website: Trafalgar

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★☆
Value for Money: ★★★★☆
Presentation: ★★★★☆
Environment: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:
中文: 灣仔駱克道54-62 號博匯大廈5樓
English: 5/F, The Broadway, 54-62 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai 

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Street Food in Sham Shui Po

Hi!

So it's been a while since I last posted, but now I'm back!

Street food in Sham Shui Po has always been my favourite. Sure, there's street food in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay as well, but the food just isn't as abundant and cheap compared to Sham Shui Po. You can get some "deals", such as having a large bowl of curry fishballs for $20! There's actually a lot of fishballs in that bowl so it is worth it.

There are some places where there's stick fishballs, worth about $9 for 6 fishballs. It isn't worth it compared to the ones you can find in Sham Shui Po. Plus in Sham Shui Po, there is a lot more variety fo foods available, such as pig organ soup (which smells heavenly), fish and cabbage soup (yum, with lots of pepper it's better), and just a lot more choices really.

Sham Shui Po has always been my go to place for street food, and I'll be updating this post regularly since I can add different kinds of street food to this post. I've recently started taking pictures of the street food I eat, so stay tuned!

Review:

This bowl of fishballs costs me about $15, and there's about 15 fishballs in the bowl. I find it quite cheap because where else can you get such a good deal besides Snack Express? However, the fishballs in Snack Express can't compare to the really good ones in Sham Shui Po, so I would say that Sham Shui Po's deal is more worth it. :)

Sham Shui Po's fishballs are my absolute favourite. I swear you could go to any street food stall in that area and have really good fishballs. I was wandering around trying to find the store I always go to, but I came across this one instead and decided to try it. Of course, I still prefer the original store I went to but this one isn't bad.

I ordered the non-spicy fishballs and surprisingly, they still had some taste. It wasn't just only fishballs cooked in water, unlike some places I know. The fishballs were bouncy and chewy and it tasted really good - I gobbled it all up in about 5 minutes.

I don't know the specific address for this place, but you just have to take the MTR, alight at Sham Shui Po station and get out at Exit A2. Right across the MTR station, you will see a street food stall and that's the one you're looking for!

Non-spicy Fishballs 原味魚蛋

Close up of the fishballs. 

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Tezukuri No Mise 手作之店

Hey! :)

I'm sure a lot of people love ice cream, and are paying a lot of money for it. With ice cream stores such as iCremeria, Lab Made, and Via Tokyo, it is rather difficult to find ice cream shops that sell cheap and delicious ice cream (McDonald's doesn't count).

No fear, Tezukur No Mise offers cheap AND tasty ice cream! A small cone is $9HKD, and if you can upgrade it to a large cone for $16HKD! Due to its cheap costs, this shop attracts more customers compared to other shops because you can get a large cone for just $16HKD! What a deal! Moreover, this shop sells Japanese ice cream, and everybody knows Japanese ice cream is the bomb.com. ;)

Review:

I didn't try these two flavours as my brother was the one who ate it. He chose the double scoop ice cream, in strawberry and durian flavour. According to my brother, the strawberry ice cream was very good, and the durian ice cream did taste like durian, but it wasn't a strong durian taste. As my family is Singaporean, we expected the durian taste to be very strong. I felt that the presentation of the double scoop cone very good, as it is difficult to 1) have two perfect scoops of ice cream 2) fit one on top of the other without it being lopsided. In my opinion, Tezukuri made it look very nice overall and it definitely doesn't look sloppy.

Strawberry & Durian Double Scoop, Large Cone

So here's my ice cream cone, the smaller one compared to the double scoop. I chose chocolate ice cream (as always), because I'm a huge lover of chocolate. It is my go-to ice cream flavour no matter how light or dark it is, though the darker the better! The presentation of the ice cream was good, it was very round and it fit the cone perfectly.

The chocolate taste was there but not very strong, so to improve it, I suppose the chocolate taste could be stronger. It was creamy, and it had chocolate bits in it! However, the ice cream melts relatively quickly compared to McDonald's ice cream, so I had no choice but to gobble it up. However, this cone is just $9HKD, so what can you expect from ice cream that's so cheap?

Despite what I've said, it is actually pretty good, the ice cream was smooth and it did taste good, though there could be improvements of course. Perhaps, I'll go for the green tea flavour next time, which is said to be one of the more popular ones. Other flavours that are recommended are the mint chocolate, cookies & cream, rum raisin, and peach.

I will definitely be coming back to try the other flavours because it's cheap and it tastes good; I wouldn't mind trying the recommended flavours if they do taste better than the chocolate one (and the chocolate one tastes pretty good already)!

Chocolate Single Scoop, Small Cone

Price:
$9HKD for small cone with single scoop
$16HKD for large cone with double scoops

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★☆
Value for Money: ★★★★★
Presentation: ★★★★★
Environment: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:
中文: 將軍澳坑口東港城1樓1號小食亭 
English: Food Kiosk 1, 1/F, East Point City, Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O, N.T.

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Hello Kitty Secret Garden

Hihi! :)

As you can see from the title, I finally visited the Hello Kitty cafe! I have found a Hello Kitty lover who wanted to go as well and so we did after our morning classes ended. 

We reached Tai Hang at about 2 p.m. and there was already a short queue. Thankfully we did not have to wait long - about 10 minutes. I have read reviews where people had to wait for 30 minutes! The cafe is quite small with limited seats, and due to the long queues, customers are only allowed to stay for an hour before being asked to leave. 

The food is quite pricey so be sure to bring enough cash because this cafe will literally eat your wallet. I felt so broke after paying my portion of the bill! It was really difficult to choose as there is a variety of choices available, such as All Day Breakfasts, spaghetti, burgers, salad, soup, appetizers, dessert and drinks! My friend and I settled on the poporn latte, but I decided to try the chocolate tart whilst she tried the strawberry tart. 

Nevertheless, all Hello Kitty lovers should visit this cafe at least once! The cafe is decked with Hello Kitty from the ceiling to the floor, and it's just so cute! 

Review:

I didn't have a bite of the strawberry tart, so I will have to trust my friend's review on this. She found the presentation of the tart very cute, with the strawberries very nicely laid out and the cute Hello Kitty chocolate peeking out from the tip of the mountain-like strawberries. 

She said that the strawberry tart tasted really good, and there was cream with the strawberry mousse. The Hello Kitty chocolate was hollow on the inside and she broke it to pieces. Overall, she didn't say much except that the strawberry tart tasted good and it really did taste like strawberries with cream. xD 

Hello Kitty Strawberry Tart

Next comes the chocolate tart, which was the one I ate! The chocolate tart was surprisingly good. The chocolate (sheets? pieces? thins?) was quite bitter considering it looked pretty dark. However, it was really hard to dig in without the chocolate sheets getting in the way. I had to eat all the chocolate sheets before I could actually take a bite out of the chocolate mousse! Eventually, eating the chocolate sheets got quite messy because I had to carefully remove the embedded chocolate from the mousse and it was just quite annoying. 

Finally, I finished the chocolate sheets and I just dug into the mousse! However, the tart base was hard and needless to say, a chunk of the chocolate tart flew towards me and fell to the floor. Argh!!! Anyways, the mousse was good though, very creamy and had a strong chocolate taste. It's such a pity that the tart base was too hard to cut with the fork because things got super messy in the process of eating and it felt like I was murdering the tart with my fork. 

Although it did taste good, the chocolate sheets just got in the way of eating the tart, and the tart base was really too hard for me to cut so I wouldn't mind trying the other tarts next time. My friend successfully cut a portion of the tart base with no trouble, so I'm wondering if it's just the chocolate tart or just the tart they gave me... I guess that I'll never find out. xD

Hello Kitty Chocolate Tart

Popcorn latte! Yes, they had popcorn latte! It was on the daily special menu so my friend and I decided to try it out. It costs $40 so we were quite disappointed at how pricey it was but decided to give it a shot because it sounded interesting. The latte took quite some time to make so we were slowly enjoying our tart and taking pictures of it while waiting.

Finally the latte came and they had an imprint of Hello Kitty and Daniel on it! They also served the latte with some popcorn on the saucer. The appearance of the drink looked really cute as a whole. However, the latte didn't have any popcorn flavour, it just tasted like normal latte. The popcorn was supposed to be placed in the latte so it will melt and absorb the popcorn flavour. We did that, but it still tasted the same. The only popcorn I tasted was at the very end, when the leftover unmelted popcorn was left. I ate the popcorn and it tasted minty! My friend and I were confused because that would be disguising the real popcorn taste, so it was more like a mint latte instead?

We were disappointed because we were expecting more from the popcorn latte, but we decided to let it slide because "it was our first time" and we "didn't know".

Daily Special - Popcorn Latte

So that's the end of the food review, but here are some pictures of the exterior of the Hello Kitty cafe! It's just too cute to not include with the review. :D

Exterior of Hello Kitty Secret Garden, taken with wide angle lens.

Close up of Hello Kitty holding a coffee cup, so cute!

Waiting area, with a Hello Kitty bicycle and helmet with a plush toy!

Price:
$97 per person // 10% service charge 
$40 - popcorn latte
$48 - tarts & other desserts

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★☆☆
Value for Money: ★★☆☆☆
Presentation: ★★★★★
Environment: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★☆☆

Address:
中文: 大坑安庶庇街19號地下
English: G/F, 19 Ormsby Street, Tai Hang

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Lee Keung Kee 利強記北角雞蛋仔

Hey guys! :)

I love street food so much, it's basically my life. One of my absolute favourite street foods in Hong Kong is definitely the eggette. I love love love the chocolate eggette, because 1) chocolate is my favourite thing ever 2) eggettes are great; put the two together and you get a really delicious combination! Of course, there are other flavours, such as sesame, strawberry, cheese, you name it! People have become really creative with the flavours and I'm glad to see that there are some other flavours available besides the original one - I'm not the biggest fan of the original flavour.

This shop is actually one of the most famous original eggette stores in Hong Kong! Lee Keung Kee has several outlets littered all over Hong Kong, but the main shop is situated in North Point. Although I do not have a preference for the original eggette, I have to admit this shop sells and makes very good ones. Since this is one of the most famous stores, be prepared to wait in line for about 15 minutes! If you're lucky enough, there will no queue. :)

Review:

When you're within a certain distance from the eggette shop, you can start to smell the aroma of the eggettes cooking in the waffle pan. The smell is very strong, and it lures you to the shop in a blink of an eye.

The eggettes are freshly made when you order them, so they'll be piping hot and crispy when you finally get them in your hands. The first bite is basically a bite of heaven; the outer of the eggette is very crispy, and the inner is soft and warm. The fragrance also compliments the whole eggette eating experience and this snack is crispy from the first bite to the very last bite.

Original Eggette 雞蛋仔

Price:
$15HKD for the eggettes.

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★★
Value for Money: ★★★★☆
Presentation: ★★★★☆
Environment: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:
中文: 北角英皇道492號
English: 492 King's Road, North Point

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Qinghai Tibet Beef Noodles 青藏牛肉麵

Hey everyone! :)

Beef noodles are awesome. Chicken noodles are awesome. Mutton noodles are awesome. I love meat and noodles so much it's not even funny.

This beef noodles restaurant is located in North Point, about a 2-3 minute walk from the North Point MTR Station. It's located on a slope, where there are a few other restaurants and a Monkey Tree tuition centre. This restaurant serves food in Tibetan style and is also a certified Halal restaurant.

My parents found this place when they were venturing around North Point finding a place to eat. Who knew that stumbling upon this place would bring back even more visits, and even dragging my brother and I along to try out the famous beef noodles.

This place is relatively crowded every night as it is a hotspot for many people. There are limited seats as the restaurant is quite small, so be sure to get there early or else you would have to wait with the rest of the crowd for a while!

Review:

Since I'm a HUGE fan of mutton, my go-to dish is the mutton noodles. Although there are the famous beef noodles, and chicken noodles if you're not a fan of beef and mutton. In my opinion, the mutton noodles are unique. When I say unique, it's a positive kind of unique. The mutton doesn't taste like the mutton you eat outside, like lamb chops, mutton brisket or mutton slices. The mutton in this shop is very well seasoned, and the meat is very tender and easy to chew unlike mutton in outside shops. The mutton is also very fragrant and by the smell, you can tell it's going to be a good dish. :)

The soup is also very well seasoned and it tastes very good with the noodles and meat. The soup is particularly good on a cold day, and it can instantly warm your insides up. Moreover, the noodles are soft - not too hard, not too soft), and a generous amount of noodles were given. You can have two choices of noodles: thick noodles or thin noodles. For me, I chose the thick noodles because the thicker the better right? Both noodles are similar just that one is thicker/thinner than the other; it's based on preference. For me, I usually enjoy thicker noodles, which was why I chose thick noodles for the dish.

Besides having mutton and noodles, there are also radish, coriander and spring onion. Usually, I dislike having these in my soup noodles but this restaurant is an exception! The coriander really enhances and brings out the smell and taste of the noodles. The radish is very soft and easy to bite into; some radishes can be hard to bite and I have strong teeth! Spring onions - nothing special about it since spring onions are just spring onions.  I love spring onions so much; they make everything taste better!

Mutton Noodles 羊肉扁麵

At first glance, any person would think that these are pork sausages. Guess what, they're not! They're actually chicken sausages! Remember, this restaurant is Halal certified so people who are unable to eat pork can freely enjoy sausages at this restaurant. :) The sausages have a special type of seasoning which I have never tasted before. It can be quite salty if you don't have a "salty tooth", but other than that it tastes really good and it's one of the dishes I highly recommend you to try out!

BBQ Chicken Sausage Skewer 

I never knew barbequed vegetables could taste so good... The wintermelon skewer tastes quite sweet. It isn't as seasoned as the sausages but you can still taste the seasoning. The thing about this skewer which makes it so good is that it is a mixture of seasoning and the sweet taste of the wintermelon! I think this is a good choice if you're looking for a healthy skewer alternative, or if you're vegetarian. Nevertheless, you should definitely try this dish if you happen to stop by at the restaurant!

BBQ Wintermelon Skewer 孜然翠肉

Chicken skewers! I think chicken is alright, not the biggest fan of it. Actually, this chicken skewer is very juicy and you can see the juice dripping from the skewer when it's served to you. This is also very well seasoned and cooked to perfection! It's a very tender, juicy skewer and if you're a chicken lover, there is no doubt that you will love this side order!

BBQ Chicken Skewer 孜然烤雞肉 

BEEF IS HEAVENLY. You can choose the original flavoured beef skewer or you can choose the Mala flavoured beef skewer, also known as "麻辣" in Chinese. Since my tolerance towards spicy food is low, I ate the original flavoured beef skewer. The beef, although the appearance looks tough, is actually tender and easy to bite off and chew. The beef isn't dry and the flavour is very appetizing. Overall, the beef skewer is good if you like Mala/spicy beef, as I heard that it's more popular than the original flavour. I personally prefer the mutton skewer, which is one of the more popular side dishes!

BBQ Beef Skewer 孜然烤牛肉

Price:
$42HKD for a bowl of noodles, $8-$49HKD for BBQ skewers.

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★★
Value for Money: ★★★★☆
Presentation: ★★★★☆
Environment: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:
中文: 北角英皇道406-408號康威商場地下10號舖
English: Shop 10, G/F, Everwin Building, 406-408 King's Road, North Point  

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Sun Kee Restaurant 新記芝士麵茶餐廳

Food lovers! Hey! :)

So a few weeks ago, I went to Sun Kee in Tsim Sha Tsui to get a taste of the famous cheese noodles! I think they have another store in Wan Chai, but since TST is closer to uni, so I headed there with a few of my college peeps during the 3 hour break between lectures. 

We arrived at the restaurant a little before noon, so we had to wait for a few minutes while the shopkeepers were preparing kitchen and the dining area. The places opens at noon, so it's best to get there a little earlier because the tables and chairs fill up really quickly. I was lucky to have reached there a bit earlier because by 12:10pm, the place was mostly crowded and there was already a line queueing outside.

There are only limited seats and the tables are packed closely together, so there's no place to put your belongings (which means you have to carry or place it on the floor), and there is very close proximity between you and strangers. Beware of the waiters because they move frequently and they're always a in a rush, so they might possibly spill food and drinks on you if they trip over your belongings. 

Review:

The cheese noodles with pork neck was quite ordinary in a way. It's basically instant noodles with pork neck covered with cheese sauce. The pork neck was tender, juicy and easy to chew; the noodles were covered with cheese sauce. I was surprised that the cheese sauce wasn't as heavy as it looked, and it complimented the noodles and pork neck really well. The cheese sauce was very gooey and after mixing it together with the noodles, there didn't seem to be any "leftover" cheese as it's spread evenly throughout the noodles. For $42, it was a very small portion and I felt that it wasn't worth the money as I can easily make this at home if I knew how to make the cheese sauce. 

Overall, I would say it's worth a try because the cheese noodles really are good, and it's even better with the pork neck. However, the price for such a small bowl is indeed too high and I would not come back unless the price drops. 

Pork Neck with Instant Noodles in Cheese Sauce 豬頸肉芝士撈丁 

Close up of Pork Neck Cheese Noodles

Price:
$42-50HKD; the pork neck cheese noodles are $42, and the other cheesy dishes may range from $40-$50HKD. 

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★☆
Value for Money: ★★☆☆☆
Presentation: ★★★☆☆
Environment: ★★★☆☆
Overall: ★★★☆☆

Address:
中文: 尖沙咀金巴利道16-20號香檳大廈地下13-14號舖
English: Champagne Court 16-20, GF 13-14, Kimberley Rd Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

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Golden Hall Dessert 金滿堂甜品

Hello! :)

Dessert is served, and this is one of my favourite places for dessert in Kowloon City. They serve Hong Kong style desserts, such as tong sui (糖水),  jellies and flavoured shaved ice (花冰). I have read reviews where people thought the service was unexceptionally bad, but in my years of experience, they never really had a rotten attitude. I hope that one day, you will consider giving this shop a try because their desserts are really adorable, cheap and just worth it!

Review: 

This is the Maltesers mochi, and there are 8 pieces in a box. It costs $22HKD and it's basically the regular Maltesers wrapped in mochi and then rolled in Maltesers powder. The mochi is chewy and very soft, and the Maltesers just taste like... Maltesers! This is the house special, and everyone who eats there would usually order this dessert. 

Maltesers Mochi 麥提莎懦米糍

Inside the Malteser Mochi. 

This is for strawberry lovers! This dessert consists of strawberries, strawberry jelly, froyo and cornflakes! The jellies do have a strong taste of strawberry, and there is a generous scoop of original froyo. I definitely recommend this dessert, as it tastes very good and the presentation is cute and pink! If you look at the menu, you will see a "超人氣", which means it's very popular among the customers. This dessert costs $28HKD, which is quite a decent price.

Ice Cream Cornflakes & Strawberry with Ainiku 單戀傻小子

Price:
$20-$40HKD, the Chinese desserts are generally more expensive compared to the "Western" or "Taiwanese" desserts.

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★★
Value for Money: ★★★★★
Presentation: ★★★★★
Environment: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★★

Address:
中文: 九龍城城南道 5, 6, 9號舖
English: Shop 5, 6, 9 Shing Nam Road, Kowloon City

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