Eat Drink Hong Kong

1/F Shop A Hanley House
68-80 Canton Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon
Tel 3113 6989
Fax 3113 6991

Food Forum, 12/F, Times Square
Matheson Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2506 3377

1/F 9 Lock Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2366 8171

Nan Lian Garden
Diamond Hill
Kowloon
Tel 3658 9388

There are two branches of Dressed Salads. I hadn’t paid either of them much attention but then I found a crumpled take-away menu on a colleagues desk and decided I ought to go and take a look.

I went along to the Queens Road East branch which is opposite the Hopewell Centre. It’s a bright cheerful place with colourful 1960’s retro seating. The first thing you see is an enormous array of ingredients and these, according to the menu, can be mixed in any way you so choose.

The basic salad starts at $58. This includes a choice of greens, four toppings and one dressing. There is plenty to choose from that would enable you to build a jolly nice salad without going over the base price. For the greens alone there is mesclun, baby spinach, arugula iceberg and romaine to choose from.

But it’s the premium toppings that make these salads so special. The premium toppings cost extra but none of them are too expensive. Crumbled blue cheese, for example, costs an extra $4. Italian Salami costs an extra $8, seared tuna $16, up to lobster which adds a princely $26 to the total.

And there are plenty of other choices in between. So many possibilities that both myself and my companion wimped out.

There are also over a dozen salad combinations that have been designed by the companies own chefs. I went for the Shrimp Scampi ($78). This consisted of grilled shrimp, roasted garlic, white beans tomatoes, fried capes and baby spinach in a lemon caper vinaigrette. It appeared in a heavy ceramic bowl, a forest of spinach concealed most of the ingredients but they were plentiful and delicious.

The salad came with two slices of grilled flat-bread but if you prefer this flat-bread can be used to wrap your salad in. This is what my companion has opted to do with her Seared Tuna ($88). Wrapped in there with the tuna was carrot capers, grilled asparagus, mushrooms, tomato and mesclun with chipotle aioli vinaigrette.

Wraps are prone to fall apart halfway through but this one held together very well. How much of this was down to the architecture of the wrap and how much was down to the skill of my companion I couldn’t tell but she did say it was very good.

We both washed our meals down with home made lemonade ($20). This is lemonade as it should be, made with real lemons. Not some fizzy stuff out of a can made with sugar and citric acid.

I suppose Dressed Salads could technically be called fast food but it’s a refreshing alternative to burgers and fried chicken. I hope to see more of them around town before long.

Shop 2016
Level 2,IFC Mall
Central
Tel. 2295 4848

Shop 1
G/F QRE Plaza
202 Queen’s Road East
Wanchai
Tel 2893 4848

8/F Goldmark
502 Hennessy Road
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2808 1386

1/F 21 Tang Lung Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 3109 3152

Harmony Cafe is tucked away on a little side road called Tang Lung Street that runs from Hennessy Road to Canal Road on that stretch right in front of Times Square. Though finding the road is the easy part. The restaurant is on the first floor at number 21 and is marked only by a small sign on a grey gate.

Upstairs, it’s a friendly little place with seating for probably no more than 15 or 16 people. The decor is simple, just some book shelves and magazines and a few ornaments. The atmosphere is relaxed and the strains of Bob Marley drift through the air.

I’m not quite sure why but Bob Marley seems to be very popular in vegetarian restaurants. Still I’ve no complaint with that, I like Bob marley. So with head gently bobbing to the music I perused the menu. There is a fairly wide choice of dishes ranging from vegetarian pizza, noodles rice and salads. A couple that caught my eye were the steamed veggies and mushrooms with organic brown rice and the bean sprouts and and tofu soup. But in the end I opted for the baked Italian salad. ($30)

This consisted of tomatoes and basil with mozzarella cheese melted over the top. It was a simple but pleasing dish. I also ordered a glass of organic red wine ($50) which was produced by a small vineyard in France. They didn’t have any more information than that but it was quite drinkable.

For those who don’t want wine there is a mouthwatering range of fruit smoothies and healing juice combos. Apple and beetroot, for example, would boost my circulation whilst apple and lime would calm my nerves.

My main course was grilled eggplant and noodles with homemade organic soy sauce and garnished with alfalfa ($45). This didn’t look like such a large dish at first but it was certainly very filling and very tasty too. Like the starter, the key to its success was the simplicity.

For dessert I ordered a Fresh Fruit and Tofu Parfait. This consisted of mango, strawberry, banana, cinnamon, flax seed and raw honey ($35). Again this was a very pleasant dish, it could have been even better had it been chilled just a little more. But it is a small complaint in what was otherwise a very pleasant meal.

Despite being small and difficult to find, the restaurant had a steady stream of customers.

They are open six days a week, Tuesday-Sunday. On Mondays they give demonstrations where you can learn to cook your own organic food. For both reservations for the restaurant and demo call 3109 3152.

G/F Shop A-B Yardley Commercial Building
New Market Street
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong
Tel 2542 4788

The waves were lapping the shore, birds were chirruping in the trees. My colleague and I made our way along a table of delicious yet healthy looking morsels choosing whatever took our fancy. Which in my case was a bit of pretty well everything.

It was hard to believe that we were really in a restaurant on small road at the back of Western Market.

I don’t know how long Harvester has been open, it is still quite new looking so I would guess its less than a year. Having said that, it is already very popular, we were there around 7pm and it was already quite busy. I’m told that it gets very busy at lunchtimes.

It is not difficult to understand why it is so popular, it combines two of my favourite elements. Good food and great value.

The system is simple. Once you have found a table you collect a plate and choose the items you want from the buffet. Once you have decided, the cashier weighs the food and charges accordingly, $12 per 100 grams of food. Mine came to $48. It’s a system the the owners believe encourages people to take only as much as they need.

The food was a blend of western and Chinese style vegetarian dishes. There were potatoes, tomatoes with mozzarella cheese, vegetable dumplings, fake prawns on tofu, mushroom and pumpkin dishes. All of which were very tasty indeed. I can’t really single one out above the others, nor can I think of one that I would rather not have had.

In addition there is congee, green bean soup and brown rice all included in the cost.

Harvester also stocks a wide range of other organic products such as wine and herbal teas. They can cater for private parties and corporate events and even offer a health consultation service.

1/F Dannies House
1 Luard Road
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 2520 5308
Fax 2520 5508

4/F Winfield Commercial Building
6-8a Prat Avenue
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2367 0555

10/F World Trade Center
280 Gloucester Road
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2890 3127

10 Shelley Street
Soho
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2810 9777

1/F Kiu Fai Mansion
413-421 King’s Road
North Point
Hong Kong
Tel 2561 8123

Shop B-C G/F The Hennessy
256 Hennessy Road
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 2574 3248

Mingle Place
8 Observatory Court
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2155 8777

105-107 Thomson Road
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 2838 3608

Lantau
New Territories
Tel 2985 5248

3/F Coda Plaza
5 Garden Road
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2525 0552

241 Hennessy Road
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 2519 9148