[Review 1896] Best Western Chinese style comfort food @ 友膳坊 Charlie's Place

20/10/2012
友膳坊 Charlie's Place
灣仔蘭杜街2號麗都大廈8號地舖
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/best-western-chinese-style-comfort-food-e2264684

I always come here for Chinese food because it is the same style as the Chinese food served in UK.
Apart from me, there are lots of expats and overseas born Chinese that dine here.
Their menu layout and the way they list the items are also similar to the restaurants/takeaways over there.
There are pictures on the wall which were put up recently.
Anyway, all the dishes here are the ones you can find in UK apart from the soup noodles which I also decided to post because they were delicious as well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soup:
The soup was interesting because it was really clear and there was ginger in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Duck with pancakes:
This is different to the local Peking duck served in Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.
The duck actually has meat and the pancake sauce has a strong bean taste which is not the Sweet sauce that you find served with chow meins or rice rolls.
The pancakes are made by them.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Duck chow mein:
Here the noodles are soft and not fried so there are no crispy bits and in the chow mein they have put onions and green peppers which makes it taste and smell aromatic.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken with lemon sauce:

Although it was slightly burnt, the chicken was coated in light cornstarch batter and together with the lemon sauce it tasted like the lemon chicken in uk.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Kung po prawns:


This is similar to the sweet and sour but there are chilis in it. The chilis that they used were dehydrated and different.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Laksa:


Although this was not comfort food, it was delicious. The broth was extremely strong. The sambal sauce that they put on the noodles is really spicy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Duck with dongguai soup noodles:

Another bowl of noodles that taste great too.
You can see there are so much herbs in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The curry and the mongolian beef is also good.

[Review 1895] Frankly delicious hotdogs @ The Frank

169/10/2012
The Frank (已結業)
金鐘金鐘道93號LAB Concept金鐘廊 F01-02號舖
Shop F01-02, LAB Concept, Queensway Plaza, 93 Queensway, Admiralty
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/frankly-delicious-hotdogs-the-frank-e2264663

On my way to Arome Bakery Room, I saw this bright chic hot dog joint which also serves Yo Mama because the Frank's founder was also the founder of Triple O’s burgers and Yo Mama’s frozen yogurt.
They have a wide variety of hot dogs and different franks.

Drinks can be added for an extra $10 if you order any hotdog.
I chose The All Day Breakfast and The Tokyo hotdog which were both chicken.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The All Day Breakfast:

This was my favourite, there was scrambled eggs and potato chips on top,
I did not like the chicken frank because the skin was too tough.
But the the egg and sausage and ketchup was a good combination.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The Tokyo:

This hotdog had a japanese touch to it with sesame mayonnaise and sesame sprinkled on it.
The taste of this hotdog was slightly too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
English breakfast tea
The tea bags they used were STASH's English Breakfast Black tea.
Since it was black tea, the taste was slightly stronger.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 1894] Not quite a scotch egg @ Izumi Curry

19/10/2012
Izumi Curry
銅鑼灣軒尼詩道500號希慎廣場11樓Kitchen 11
Kitchen 11, 11/F, Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/not-quite-a-scotch-egg-e2264587

Came here again because of the cheese and scotch egg
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Homemade hamburger steak curry:


The beef was patty was awful, it was full of elastic bits in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Scotch egg curry rice with extra cheese:

When it arrived I realised it was not going to taste nice because the scotch egg did not have sausage meat around it.
The scotch egg had beef patty around it, which was the same as the patty in the hamburger steak.
The patty was so bad that it had elastic bits in it that I wanted to throw up.
The eggs that they use at this restaurant are different because they have orange yolks which explains why their omelettes look really orange.
As for the cheese, it was delicious with the rice when hot, so I had to eat it quickly.
After the cheese had cooled down it was tasteless, hard and stringy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 1893] Really refreshing fruit tea @ 天仁茗茶 T TenRen's Tea

天仁茗茶 TenRen's Tea
銅鑼灣軒尼詩道500號希慎廣場10樓誠品書店SK01 專櫃
eslite, 10/F, Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/really-refreshing-fruit-tea-tenrens-tea-e2264496

I never noticed this Taiwanese drinks shop because I skipped eslite on my way to the restaurants above.
I only found out recently so I went and had a look.
The drinks counter was quite interesting because it did not look very modern and I nearly thought it was from China because of the tea leaves it sells and the cups they use.
Usually the Taiwanese drinks come in plastic clear cups but here they use paper cups and the chinese name characters on the paper cup looked like it was from one of those Chinese tea leaves shop.
I saw some people collect some frothy looking drinks so I looked at the menu, it was basically divided into hot drinks and cold drinks.
There are teas, milk teas, flavoured milk and fruit teas.
In the end I chose the fruit tea. I was slightly annoyed that they did not ask me the level of sweetness but luckily I requested the tea not to be so sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fruit tea with 30% sugar hKD30:
I really liked this drink and it reminded me of the fruit tea at SHARE TEA.
The orange in it was really strong, it tasted like minute maid orange juice mixed with tea.
However I could not taste the other fruits so I might as well of just ordered orange fruit tea.
I only chose 30% sugar hence the taste was really refreshing.
There was an equal balance of tea and juice.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 1892] Fruit covered chocolate & Venchi choc sold here @ The Royal House

18/10/2012
The Royal House
土瓜灣新碼頭街14-16號1B號舖
Shop 1B, 14-16 San Ma Tau Street, To Kwa Wan
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/fruit-covered-chocolate-venchi-choc-sold-here-e2264344

Discovered this shop on the way to the Legend Restaurant, it is basically next to it!
The shop was huge and sells lots of boxed chocolates, it was mainly fruit covered chocolate such as durian which I really wanted to try, but they did not have a smaller box.

As well as Malaysian chocolate they had Venchi chocolate, but there are lots of Venchi branches elsewhere so I chose the chocolate by Beryl's ( a Malaysian brand).

The bag they used was a Venchi bag!
The receipt was interesting too, the shop was called The Royal House but the shop front had chocolate.

The opening hours were even more confusing!
From 10:00-0800 so does that mean from 10 in the morning to the next 8am in the morning???
It was 7pm that night so I could not work out whether this place was still open as there was no one in there.

The variety in there was amazing and I could not decide which chocolate to get!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beryl's coconut chocolate HKD48:
In the end got this one and it was quite nice, the shape was irregular and it had crispy bits inside which were full of coconut taste.
The sweetness of the chocolate was just right but I would have preferred dark chocolate.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 1890] Soy sauce stir fried noodles @ 潮城燒臘粥店

18/10/2012
潮城燒臘粥店 
灣仔駱克道139號地下
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/soy-sauce-stir-fried-noodles-%E6%BD%AE%E5%9F%8E%E7%87%92%E8%87%98%E7%B2%A5%E5%BA%97-e2264292

This shop has two sides, one side specializes in congee and the other side specializes in noodles.
The sitting area at the congee side was full so was allocated at the noodle side but you can still order food from the congee restaurant.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soy sauce stir fried noodles:

The noodles looked good but were actually tasteless. They were hard and dry.
After adding vinegar and chili it tasted quite nice because I do not like adding the Chinese sweet sauce.
Luckily they did not have sesame seeds on it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef rice rolls:

As always these were delicious, they had delicious dried tangerine peel in it.
The soy sauce was too salty this time so the rice rolls ended up too salty.
There are two types of beef rolls: minced beef or sliced beef.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 1890] Tuscani pizza series Part 3: Feta n Ocean @ 必勝客 Pizza Hut

18/10/2012
必勝客  Pizza Hut
鑽石山龍蟠街3號荷里活廣場3樓321號舖
Shop 321, Level 3, Plaza Hollywood, 3 Lung Poon Street, Diamond Hill
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/tuscani-pizza-series-part-3-feta-n-ocean-e2264288

After trying the Portobello passion pizza and BBQ bonanza sausage pizza, this was the last pizza in the series to try.
Came during the late afternoon hours so was able to order a tea set and the Tuscani Feta n Ocean pizza a la carte.
For the tea set, I ordered the Aglio Olio with Prawn pasta which came with a drink and soup.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken mushroom soup:

The soup tasted really milky and it had the occasional pieces of chicken and mushroom in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Feta n Ocean pizza:

Out of the three pizzas in the Tuscani series, this one turned out to be my favourite, the Portobello passion pizza was nice because of the strong spices but the cheese was not that prominent, the BBQ bonanza sausage was too sweet and this one was packed with flavours which I expected.

I was expecting this one to taste the best, hence I tried it last because the second one I tried (Portobello passion) the chicken did not have much taste and that pizza relied on the herbs and mushrooms.

However this pizza was packed with flavours especially Feta because it has a slight sour and salty taste and crumbly texture to it and the pizza also had clams and prawns that are naturally salty.


Visually it was colourful as well because of the olives, cherry tomatoes, purple onions which contrasted the spinach.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Aglio Olio with Prawn:


When it came, it smelt really nice, there was strong peppers and garlic.
The prawns were fresh and springy.
As for the pasta it was lovely and al dente but most importantly the olive oil and garlic flavouring was infused to it.
The pasta was also quite spicy because it had chilis.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Tuscani pizza series Part 1: BBQ Sausage bonanza
www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2263708
https://supersupergirl-openrice.blogspot.com/2020/05/review-1878-tuscani-pizza-series-part-1.html
Tuscani pizza series Part 2: Portobello passion
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2263782
https://supersupergirl-openrice.blogspot.com/2020/05/review-1884-tuscani-pizza-series-part-2.html