Tokyo Secret 味之藝術

Hi guys!

So so so sorry for the late upload/post. I've been super busy at work, and I've been going on many food hunting adventures that it's quite hard to catch a breath! I know I said I'll try uploading a new post once a week, but I guess it has almost been a month... Oops. Nevertheless, I'm really happy I can finally squeeze some time in to blog!

Anyway, you guys have probably heard the new matcha soft serve in town called Tokyo Secret! I know, I know what you're thinking - another soft serve place with the name "Tokyo" in place. But what can I say, perhaps the materials and ingredients really did come from Tokyo!

I heard some mixed reviews about this matcha soft serve. Some said it was good, some said it was bad. Being a curious person, I hopped my way down to Tsim Sha Tsui one rainy night, and gave this a shot... And boy was I glad I tried this! Luckily I didn't listen to my friends, who didn't enjoy this as much. There are reasons why I enjoyed it and they didn't, so STAY TUNED. :)

Review:

I ordered the Matcha Affogato, which came with a free topping of your choice: rose jelly, red beans or tea leaves (not entirely sure what it is). Rich, creamy and refreshing, with a slight hint of bitterness, this matcha soft serve won my heart over! Topped with crumbs, chocolate and coffee sauce (is it coffee? it's brown in colour!), this is definitely a dessert to remember.

People have said that their soft serve wasn't as good as mine, and that's because theirs was very bitter. Tokyo Secret has explained that they served customers the STRONG VERSION of the matcha soft serve. I was lucky to have gotten the LIGHT version of it, so do indicate your preference when you order!

Regardless of the bitterness, I do think that at its soft opening, it's already quite good. Of course, there are areas in need of improvement, such as the fact that the matcha ice cream melts so quickly! By the time they finished sprinkling the toppings and served it to me, the ice cream was already melting. Not exactly impressed when I always take a few shots before I start eating! Despite the melting, which is probably the only issue I found with it, I found this dessert very delectable, and I am definitely coming back to try their new products that they have described to me!

By the way, shoutout to Tokyo Secret for letting me stand inside their store when it started raining cats and dogs! Also, it's very nice how they listen to customers' feedback, and are not offended when people give them developmental comments! A very good way to interact with customers, and it shows that they're willing to improve! Really admire Tokyo Secret for that!

With all of that said, it's a wrap! Get down to Tokyo Secret perhaps, it really is something special. :)

Matcha Affogato with Rose Toppings

Price:
$32 (soft opening price) for Matcha Affogato 

$42 is the original price.

Ratings:
Taste: ★★★★☆

Value for Money: ★★★★☆

Presentation: ★★★★☆
Environment: ★★★☆☆
Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:
中文: 尖沙咀加連威老道52號地下C鋪 

English: Shop C, G/F, 52 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui 

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Lamb Rack 羊鞍餐廳

Hi, I'm back with another post! :)

This time, I'm going to be talking about Lamb Rack in Kowloon City. Apparently, it's a French restaurant but I can't seem to make out how it's French so I'll just assume that it's Western.

I decided to try the lunch sets because they're relatively cheap compared to the dinner sets. I have to say that their portions are relatively big compared to other stores, so I was quite pleased when the food arrived and I felt it was worth the $50-$60 that I have spent.

The amount of lunch set choices is very wide, as I believe there are about 20 sets to choose from! Usually, restaurants give you about 3-5 lunch sets to choose from the menu, so I was surprised when I was presented with 20! *laughcry*

Review:

The first time I tried this restaurant, I decided to give this set a go. I forgot which set it was on the menu, but it has pictures for your reference. This lunch set included soup (either vegetable or cream soup), bread, the main course and a drink. I decided to go for the pork chop (you can choose either chicken steak, pork chop, beef fillet, or chicken wings), with the spaghetti in Russian Borsch. 

I have to say that I was so full after eating! I swear my stomach was about to burst from the amount of food in my stomach. I really enjoyed the pork chop because it was quite big and it was grilled/pan-fried (my favourite), and the seasoning was just on point! Moreover, the pork chop was tender and juicy, which totally won over my heart. 

I felt that the spaghetti in Russian Borsch was just normal, nothing special. The spaghetti was tasteless, so I'm guessing they cooked the soup and spaghetti separately instead of together...

Overall, this was a pretty good meal! I wouldn't mind eating this lunch set again, if only it wasn't so much. In addition, this is the cheapest meal on the menu and they gave quite a lot so... You can only imagine how much better (or worse maybe) the other meals are! 

Pork Chop with Spaghetti in Russian Borsch

The second time I came to Lamb Rack, I decided to try the grilled Brazilian BBQ pork chop with mashed potatoes. At first glance, it looked really good, the BBQ sauce glazed over the pork chop, and it's grilled very nicely.

The first bite was good too, and the BBQ sauce filled my taste buds and I really did like it. However, as you keep eating it, you will soon realise it gets quite sickening, that the BBQ sauce doesn't actually taste that good after a while, and it will lose its appeal after a few bites. Yes, the pork chop was still tender, but it wasn't that juicy because the BBQ sauce and glaze took all the attention and I was quite sick of it after finishing it off. 

The mashed potatoes were alright, they're quite tasteless, so you have to add in a dash of salt and pepper to spice it up a bit. Actually, eating the mashed potatoes tasted better after finishing the BBQ pork chop because for me, I was just so sick of it, the mashed potatoes was my escape from the BBQ taste. 

Needless to say, I don't think I will be trying this lunch set again...

Brazilian BBQ Pork Chop with Mashed Potatoes

Price: 
Lunch: $50-$100
Grilled Pork Chop with Spaghetti in Russian Borsch: $50
Brazilian BBQ Pork Chop with Mashed Potatoes: $60

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

Address:
中文: 九龍城福佬村道22號地舖
English: G/F, 22 Fuk Lo Tsun Road, Kowloon City 

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Hakata Ippudo 一風堂香港

Hi! I'm back again after 5 days woohoo! :)

Lets face it, assignments can be a huge bore. So I'm taking a break and decided to blog about food because, food is definitely more important! 

This post will be shorter than my other posts, but I think I'll do be doing more short posts in the future since I don't always have a huge course meal. Blogging about food and introducing restaurants to you guys is definitely better than nothing right?

Ippudo. I have been dying to try out this Japanese ramen shop since the beginning of time and I finally did! Yay! I have yet to try Ichiran, which I have also heard is good. I'll be making my way there sometime soon. :)

Review:

I ordered the "Tokyo Shoyu", which is basically pork slices in fish and chicken soup, served with thick noodles (aka ramen). I love the soup base, probably the highlight of this dish! Yes, the pork slices were good - tender and soft - but they only gave me two slices!!! They also added in some vegetables and one small fishcake. The noodles were good too, chewy with a fine texture. You know how some noodles are really limp? Ippudo's ramen isn't like that, which I'm really pleased about! 

100% going to eat at Ippudo again in the future, can't wait to try out all their ramen dishes. I'm terribly satisfied with the quality and service of this restaurant!

Tokyo Shoyu 東京醬油

Price:
$68 for Tokyo Shoyu
$88 for Special Tokyo Shoyu (basically more toppings, such as wontons and seaweed)

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

Address:
中文: 九龍灣偉業街33號德福廣場1期G54A1號舖
English: Shop G54A1. Phase 1, Telford Plaza, 33 Wai Yip Street, Kowloon Bay 

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Ocio 窩夫專門店

Hi everyone!

It's been a long time since I have posted and I apologise for that. I've been super busy with university and having work thrown at me so, have to deal with priorities first!

Anyways, I recently visited Ocio again. The first time I went was with my friend in July when she came back from Canada. Last time, we ate dinner and dessert so it was a bit pricey. Recently, I visited again with one of my classmates and we just went for dessert since we were a bit too full for anything.

Nevertheless, it's a good place for desserts, not too pricey and its definitely worth it because the presentation and the taste is SO good. I can just stress on how amazing the desserts taste but of course, it's my preference and some people may find it a bit too sweet or not sweet enough, etc.

Review:

Right, so these are the chocolate crepes with strawberries, served with chocolate ice cream. Can I just say how BOMB these crepes are? The crepes are soft, but not too flimpsy that they break easily. The whole thing is so chocolatey, with chocolate sauce, stuffed with strawberries under the folds of crepes, and the chocolate ice cream? Oh what a perfect combination! In my opinion, it isn't too sweet and I would definitely eat this again because seriously, chocolate overload with strawberries is basically my idea of HEAVEN.

Chocolate Crepes with Strawberries and Chocolate Ice Cream

Next up, we have the chocolate pudding (or lava cake) with vanilla ice cream! I didn't try this one but apparently it tasted good at first, but as you get into it, it just gets too sweet. The vanilla ice cream is good though (as according to my friend), and if you eat the vanilla ice cream with the lava cake, it's basically heaven in your mouth. Seriously.

Chocolate Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream

This time I just came for dessert. Their dinner menu was quite expensive and I was short of money so... Dessert comes first! 

Ocio's Desserts

Price:
$50-$100 for desserts, the price varies for the appetizers, main course and dinner sets.

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

Address:
中文: 旺角廣華街2-20號翠園大廈二期地下5號鋪
English: Shop 5, G/F, Tsui Yuen Mansion, Phase2, 2-20 Kwong Wa Street , Mong Kok 

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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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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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Islam Food 清真牛肉館

Hey fellow food lovers!

Dinner was at Islam Food in Kowloon City. If I'm not mistaken, Kowloon City is famous for its Walled City, Thai food and Islam food! This restaurant is Halal, which means no pork, and is also Halal certified, so Muslims and non-pork eaters can happily enjoy their food. This restaurant has been one of the better places for Halal food in Hong Kong, and due to the large crowds and increasing popularity of this restaurant, the owner has opened two restaurants in Kowloon City, each store being 2 streets away from each other.

Review:

This is the hot & sour soup, which I dare not drink. According to my parents, the hot & sour soup is one of the best dishes in the restaurant. They love it so much that they order it each time they visit the restaurant. I tried it once, and boy did my tongue burn! Adding vinegar gives the soup an added kick, so be sure to try that if you ever drink this soup.

Hot & Sour Soup 酸辣湯

Next, we have the flour sheet soup with egg and beef! There isn't really an English name for this soup, so what was shown on the menu was a description of what ingredients were in the soup. This soup is actually one of my all-time favourites! Each time I come to this restaurant, I will definitely order this! It's very warm on a cold winter day, but during summer, you might start to sweat a little because the soup is served piping hot and fresh off the stove! The beef is very tender, the flour sheet is an interesting addition to the soup, vegetables are ample and the egg helps make the soup more tasty.

Flour Sheet in Soup with Beef, Egg and Vegetables 片兒湯

Close up of 片兒湯

If you're a fan of boiled dumplings, this is for you! I think there's 3 fillings that you can choose from: chicken, beef and mutton. My family always goes for the chicken and beef because the beef is famous in this restaurant, and chicken because my family just loves chicken. These are the dry dumplings, and they don't come with soup for you to dip in.

Chicken Boiled Dumplings 雞肉水餃

Beef Boiled Dumplings 牛肉水餃

This is the Shantung Chicken! Shantung Chicken is basically crispy skin chicken that has been twice cooked (boiled then deep-fried) and served in a classic Shandong dressing of black vinegar, chilli, soy sauce and coriander. My parents absolutely loved this dish, but my brother and I didn't find a big deal about it. If you're a lover of chicken, then I would say try this dish out; the sauce is an interesting mix and it really compliments the chicken well. Since I don't have a preference for chicken, I am unable to say if it really is that good or that bad. However, in my experience, it isn't anything special that will make me go, "Wow I must eat this again!"

Shantung Chicken 山東燒雞

Man, this is a really good dish, chinese pancake! A chinese pancake is usually made from dough, and it can be either sweet or salty. There are many types of chinese pancakes, but I think this is just the plain one with sesame seeds on it, with nothing inside. This chinese pancake is shaped like a pocket instead of a disc-shaped flatbread like you see in Chinese restaurants.

I highly recommend this dish, and it tastes its best when served hot, which means you must eat it immediately! Drop everything and eat this once it arrives! It's soft and crispy, and it's basically a "family classic" since we order it everytime without fail.

Chinese Pancake 叉子燒餅

Overall, this restaurant has left a good impression on me each and every time. Their quality and service never fails me and even their quanitity of food has not lessened each time. I highly recommend this place to you if you're looking for a Halal restaurant, or just interested in trying their famous dishes, such as the beef pie (牛肉餅).

Boiled Dumplings, Hot & Sour Soup, Long Beans 水餃，酸辣湯，豇豆

Price:

Depends on what you order, but the beef pies are 2 for $32HKD! So if you think that's cheap then go for it, if you think it's too expensive then the rest of the dishes probably are.

Ratings:

Taste: ★★★★☆

Value for Money: ★★★★★

Presentation: ★★★★★

Environment: ★★★★☆

Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:
中文: 九龍城龍崗道1號
English: 1 Lung Kong Road, Kowloon City 

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Nabe One 牛一

Hi everyone!

I went to Nabe One for lunch today with a few of my college peeps. The lunch set is relatively cheap, about $75 per head for an hour (or more if there's no crowd). We stayed for 2 hours, so I guess you can say it was worth it. To be honest, it was quite disgusting towards the end because we saw a huge cockroach, and it wasn't even crawling. It was actually a jumping/bouncing cockroach... Yikes!

Nabe One buffet table, a wide range of choices!

Review:

There was a wide range of choices at Nabe One, from vegetables to noodles, from fishballs to sausages. The ingredients/foods are rather fresh so that's a good thing as well. I have to admit that the choices given at Nabe One is quite impressive and there are lots and lots of vegetables so it's quite vegetarian-friendly. :)

Ramen, zucchini, enoki mushrooms, cheese sausages, Korean rice cakes, konnyaku, etc.

The beef was really fresh, and it was tender after being cooked. There are certain times when you "accidentally" overcook beef, and in this case, it happened many times. However, the beef didn't turn hard and tough to chew although it was probably cooking for 20 minutes. There wasn't too much fat in the beef - quite acceptable, and the beef was just great and I couldn't stop ordering it.

Free flow of beef!

Pork, where would I be without pork? The pork was also very good, though there's slightly more fat on it compared to the beef. The pork was also very fresh and tender; usually pork meat would get a bit tough if cooked for too long, but it wasn't in this case. Highly recommend ordering the pork and beef combo if you love meat as much as I do!

Free flow of pork as well!

The Kombu seaweed soup base is vegetarian-friendly. I don't recommend eating the seaweed inside the broth though, it doesn't taste that great. It's not your usual Japanese seaweed that chefs place in bowls of ramen, it's a different kind of seaweed. Anyways, the soup base was clear and it is rather tasteless if you don't dip the foods in your mixed sauces. I don't recommend this one, but this is one of the vegetarian choices, so if you're vegetarian, go for it! If you're not then please, don't try this soup base.

Kombu seaweed soup base!

The next soup base that my peeps and I shared is the salmon soy milk. This one gets quite disgusting after a while, and because it's full of white liquid, it can be very difficult to find the food in the soup, so you really have to go digging for it with your chopsticks and ladle. It didn't really have a taste either, I didn't taste any salmon or soy milk for that matter... I definitely wouldn't recommend this one either; I believe my friends and I got quite sick of this soup base at the end of our "da bin lo" session.

Salmon soy milk soup base!

And there's dessert! Yes they have 4 flavours of ice cream and froyo there! From what I remember, there's matcha and vanilla ice cream, and the original and melon flavoured froyo. There is also quite a range of toppings, such as boba, nata de coco, milo balls, nuts, marshmallows, you name it!                        

My friend's original froyo, with nuts and nata de coco (first thing he got once we reached Nabe One).

So this was my dessert! I got the matcha froyo and topped it with boba (multi-flavoured), cornflakes, nata de coco and milo balls!

Matcha ice cream with different toppings.

I should feel bad for getting two bowls of froyo/ice cream, but nah! So this one is just the original froyo topped with milo balls. I love milo balls so much, I just had to get froyo with milo balls only. Also, I got annoyed when my friend stole one from me. *insert angry face*

Original froyo with milo balls.

Price: 

Lunch: $58-$88

Dinner: $148-$188

Ratings:

Taste: ★★★★☆

Value for Money: ★★★☆☆

Presentation: ★★★★☆

Environment: ★★★☆☆

Overall: ★★★★☆

Address:

中文: 尖沙咀樂道32-34號1樓

English: 1/F, 32-34 Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui 

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