[Review 1659] When quality does not match up to its price @ 抹茶屋 Kyoto Matcha Cafe

17/07/2012
抹茶屋 Kyoto Matcha Cafe
將軍澳唐德街9號將軍澳中心一樓123號
Shop 123, Level 1, Park Central, 9 Tong Tak Street, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/when-quality-does-not-match-up-to-its-price-e2245867












I was really excited with this place because there are not many places for Japanese inspired desserts.

Chose the noodles and the Uji Matcha set so that I could still have room for dessert.
I did not look at the menu description for the cold noodles when I ordered, I just assumed it was quail eggs and green tea noodles because I like the idea of quail eggs, but they said the quail eggs have been replaced by a poached egg, so I ended up ordering the Green tea noodles with seafood in soup.
Well anyway, after I ordered I looked at the menu and indeed the product picture contradicts with the description!!!

!!!Spot the contradiction!!!
Why won't they reprint the menu or cover the photo if it does not match the description??
While looking at the product shots for the soft-serve green tea ice-cream I found a variation in colour when clearly it was the same ice-cream!
The ice-cream on the left is a lighter colour than the one on the right!!
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Green tea noodles with seafood in soup

Since the cold noodles I wanted came with poached egg and not quail eggs I changed my order to this.
It was quite strange because the green tea noodles tasted like the quick cook instant macaroni.
The seafood was just quick frozen seafood.
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Uji Matcha set

This looked quite different to the product shot. The prawn was nice and big but very disappointing because there was no prawn taste let alone green tea taste!!!
What a waste of a big prawn!! Overall the rest of the items in the set were tasteless such as the scallop, noodles and pickles.
Lastly the green tea pudding was the only strongest tasting dessert when I compared it with the one I left room for.
The green tea taste was interesting it was not as grassy as the usual green tea and it was aromatic.
However if you have tried this perfume called Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden, it smells exactly like that.

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After finishing the food, made the wrongest decision to ask them to wipe the table because the cloth stank and made the table smell, it was so strong that the stench was strong that when my final dessert came it was tasteless.
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Supreme soft ice-cream, tofu pudding and dumplings


When it arrived, my table was still stinking after it had been wiped, but it was a bowl of tofu pudding topped with soft serve green tea icecream, tri coloured dumplings, and green tea pudding cubes.
The green tea tofu faintly tasted of green tea and was quite nice, and the cubes of green tea were nice but again the green tea was really faint.
As for the tri-coloured dumplings they all tasted the same so it was just food colouring and no flavouring, the taste was so floury.
The ice-cream was really creamy but lacked green tea taste!
The presentation of the dessert looked quite artificial and the green tea soft serve was a darker colour than its product shot featured above.
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Overall the food here does not match its price tags.
There are quite a few drinks similar to SinMei but cost more here, I am sure people would opt to go to SinMei!
Anyway, they also have a really expensive giangantic dessert for 4-6 people @ $238!!

Mega dessert for 4-6 ppl @$238
But I suppose if you are not concerned about food quality, this place would be a good hangout for drinks.

[Review 1658] 老城都 besides 老地坊 at Landale Street @ 老城都 Old Cheng Du

16/07/2012
老城都 Old Cheng Du
灣仔蘭杜街2號地下10號舖
Shop 10, G/F, 2 Landale Street, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/%E8%80%81%E5%9F%8E%E9%83%BD-besides-%E8%80%81%E5%9C%B0%E5%9D%8A-landale-street-e2245711













Found out about this new restaurant because there were so many hardcore reviews by fans who have just reviewed this place only and the menu was really interesting, there were so many things I have not heard of or tried.

When I visited this place it had just opened so only a few things were available.
Some of the portions were really small and there was a particular item I wanted to try but it was always not available. The item I wanted to try was the glutinous thing steamed on a leaf.
串街葉兒粑

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The dishes I have tried:
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Dan Dan Noodles

The portion was small but it only costed around $2X.
The sauce was mostly at the bottom and needed mixing.
The spicyness level were medium in my point of view.
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Green soup

This soup looked interesting so I ordered it, it was chopped mustard greens in thick clear soup topped with a few wolfberies.
The taste was quite grassy and I loved the bitterness of the green.
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Cold noodles with chicken, sichuan style
Again, this only costs around $2X so the bowl was quite small but it tasted quite nice and the sichuan peppercorns were intense. The chicken was slightly tough and dry.
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Glutinous rice balls in fermented wine

Again the portion was really dinky but I loved it, the sweetness was just right and the dumplings were really soft.
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Fried glutinous rice rods


This dessert was really interesting, it was fried bars of mochi and they were uniformly rectangular, it was crispy on the outside and chewy in the centre coated with lots of yellow bean powder and drizzle with golden syrup.
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Anyway I hope on my next visit they will have the steamed glutinous snack!

[Review 1657] Fish burger @ 孖沙茶餐廳 Ma Sa Restaurant

15/07/2012
孖沙茶餐廳  Ma Sa Restaurant
上環禧利街23號地下
G/F, 23 Hiller Street, Sheung Wan
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/fish-burger-ma-sa-restaurant-e2245655


I rarely bother ordering Chinese style burgers in Hong Kong because you just know its going to taste horrible because of the sweet buns and sauce, but from PangPangSang's review it seemed worth a try, so I went there again and ordered it and the Tofu with roast pork belly.
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Tofu with roast pork belly:
When I ordered I did not realised you could choose from normal tofu or the dried ones, so I ended up with the dried ones but if I had known I would have ordered the normal tofu which would be more filling and nicer.
The roast pork belly was good as well, it had crispy skin.
Overall the BBQ roast pork and roast pork belly is really good and I wonder if they roast them in house or get them from a local roast shop.
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Fish Burger:

I was really impressed with this fish burger, firstly the bun was not those standard ones used in Chinese restaurants and the sauce was really nice.
The bun's shape was similar to a brioche bun.
The fish filet had been fried just right and it was golden brown with tender white fish inside.
The lettuce as you can see was finely shredded.
I was also impressed that they gave me a knife and fork to eat the fish burger.
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[Review 1656]Simple fried egg, luncheon meat and tomato sauce @ 家樂小廚粥麵茶餐廳

15/07/2012
家樂小廚粥麵茶餐廳
將軍澳貿業路8號新都城中心1期地下G25-26號舖
Shop G25-26, G/F, MCP I, 8 Mau Yip Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/simple-fried-egg-luncheon-meat-and-tomato-sauce-e2245647


The fried egg and luncheon meat with tomato sauce reminds me of the same dish at Happy Restaurant in Tsuen Wan.

Although it was just simple fried eggs, luncheon meat and tomato sauce, it was really nice.
The egg was fried just right and the frying oil used was fresh and did not reek.
As for the tomato sauce it was delicious, it was not sweet but nice and savoury.
Although the sauce does not taste like real tomatoes it was similar to western tomato soup and it was really moreish.

[Review 1655] Instant all day Dim Sum @ 唐記包點 Tong Kee Bao Dim

15/07/2012
唐記包點  Tong Kee Bao Dim
將軍澳尚德邨尚德商場地下5號舖
Shop 5, G/F, Sheung Tak Shopping Centre, Sheung Tak Estate, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/instant-all-day-dim-sum-tong-kee-e2245645


At this place you can get dim sum at any time of the day and most items under the sun except for my favourite Prawn dumplings.

This time got the steamed beancurd rolls and shaomai with quail eggs.
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steamed beancurd rolls
As usual these were greasy and MSG loaded, inside there was lots of pork fat and oil.
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shaomai with quail eggs
These were ordinary shaomai wrapped with white wonton skin and the quail egg on top.
Again they were quite oily and tasteless and the quail egg was hard boiled so it tasted really dry.
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[Review 1654] Impressive Chinese sausage roll by Maxim's @ 美心西餅 Maxim's Cake Shop

15/07/2012
美心西餅  Maxim's Cake Shop
中環港鐵中環站CEN E18號舖
Shop CEN E18, Central MTR Station, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/impressive-chinese-sausage-roll-by-maxims-e2245644


Went past Maxim's and saw these sausage rolls for $9 which looked really nice so decided to get them.
I was really lucky because they just came out of the oven, had they not, they would have tasted totally different, the pastry would be hard and clumped together.

The appearance and filling is quite similar to an English sausage roll, however the pastry is slightly different and the sausage meat inside is different.
The filling here was quite nice, there was lots of herbs in it just like an English sausage roll, however the meat used was leaner which was good but not as soft as the English filling because less fat was used.

As for the pastry, there were less flakey layers than the English sausage roll and it smells different because the butter/ lard used was different.
That was why it tasted nice freshly baked because when it cools down the thick pastry becomes hard.
The major difference with Chinese pastries is that there is always a gaping hole in the middle between the filling the pastry.





[Review 1653] Green tea sundae x Wasabi flavoured sauce @ 麥當勞 (旺角)McDonald's

14/07/2012
麥當勞 McDonald's
旺角太子道西193號新世紀廣場M層M11號舖
Shop M11, M/F, Grand Century Place, 193 Prince Edward Road West, Mong Kok, Hong Kong, Mong Kok
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/green-tea-sundae-x-wasabi-flavoured-sauce-e2245558






I wanted to try the caramel pudding McFlurry but it was really similar to the caramel sundae I tried before but with Oreo crumbs so I opted for the green tea sundae.
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Green tea Sundae:
Left the red beans because I do not eat them and the green tea sauce was pleasantly light.
The ice-cream and green tea sauce tasted quite nice together and not too sweet, however I heard the red beans were rather sweet.
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Wasabi flavoured sauce:
The wasabi flavoured sauce was really sharp and if you have tried the McD’s wasabi fish burger the sauce is the same as that.
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[Review 7821] Kaya toast @ 一粥麵 Super Super Congee & Noodle

19/12/2020 一粥麵  Super Super Congee & Noodle 樂富聯合道198號樂富廣場1樓1113-1114號舖 Shop 1113-1114, 1/F, Lok Fu Shopping Centre, 198 Junction Road, L...