Eat Drink Hong Kong

This place was doing brisk business even on a cold and damp Wednesday evening. No doubt the lure a hot and hearty bowl of beef pho was attracting customers. I was certainly what I was thinking of when I rolled up the escalator, but after I had got settled at a table and the menu in my hand I began to have other thoughts.

It’s a pleasant place. The decor is in a French colonial style with pale greens an white. It is elegant but not over done. The menu also boasts hints of the country’s colonial as well as offering the occasional not to its Southeast Asian neighbours.

I sent the waitress off with an order for a plate of Ban Mi Chien Tom, or prawn toast ($48) and a bottle of 39 Saigon Porter ($30) and took my time reading the rest of the menu.

All the familiar dishes are represented, bowls of pho, spring rolls both hot and cold and stuffed chicken wings. But there were also a number of regional dishes that are less frequently seen and I was keen to try a couple of these. So as the waitress delivered the prawn toast is despatched her a second time. This time for an order of Ban Hoi Ga Nuong, vermicelli cake with grilled chicken ($48) and Cha Ca Hanoi, Fried fish with dill ($128).

While I waited for those to be prepared I tucked into the shrimp toast. This is basically ground shrimp mixed with garlic, spread onto slices of baguette and, usually, fried - but I think this version may have been grilled. These are then dipped into a puddle of nuoc cham dipping sauce.

The other two dishes were delivered together. The vermicelli cakes are made from layers of the fine noodle pressed flat and drained. Along with the chicken they are served with fresh mint an a pile of lettuce leaves. The abundance of lettuce usually indicates that you are to wrap the other items inside a leaf and make little parcels of food so this is what I did. No-one came to tell me I was doing it all wrong so I suspect I was on the right track. Though I clearly need more practice at wrapping things in lettuce.

The fish, as the name would suggest, is a popular dish in Hanoi. It consists of tender cubes of fish rolled in bread crumbs and fried with dill and onions. It really would have gone well with a bowl of rice but since I already had quite a lot of food I decided to skip rice. Never-the-less it won my heart and I shall be heading back for another helping very soon.

I finished off with a white chocolate Creme Brulee ($38) and, feeling suitably fortified, headed back into the cold night air.

136 Tung Lo Wan Road
Tin Hau
Hong Kong
Tel 2895 0788

6P032, Level 6, Terminal 2 Sky Plaza
HK International Airport
Lantau
New Territories
Tel 3197 9440

2/F Cigna Tower
482 Jaffe Road
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2832 2863/2832 9038

Shop 3, 8/F Megabox
38 Wang Chiu Road
Kowloon Bay
Kowloon
Tel 2359 0117

G/F Circle Tower
28 Tang Lung Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2574 177

2/F Ashley Centre
23-25 Ashley Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2736-7177

Wu Chung House
213 Queen’s Road East
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 2891 1177

49 Staunton Street
Soho
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2803 2253 or 3481 3280

According to the place mat the restaurant takes it’s name from a recipe for the famous Vietnamese beef noodle broth that was popular at a railway station hawker stand. The old hawker never gave up his secret recipe but cafe locomotive have created their very own.

It seems to be popular too. On my previous trips to this area the Cafe Locomotive has always been packed. This time I got there early.

The decor boasts a railway theme with luggage racks and station clocks showing the time in several cities around Asia. The staff are friendly and efficient. I ordered a coconut base with jelly bits and ice and perused the menu. Most people were having the noodles and they did look very good but I had decided I wanted to try something different.

I started with roasted French quail ($48) this is served simply on a banana leaf with a slice of lime and an orchid (which I didn’t eat). It can sometimes be a bit of a fight to get the meat from the bones of small birds. The use of fingers is essential. The restaurant does provide disposable plastic gloves but that is cheating in my view and besides it makes the whole process seem rather surgical.

It was a tasty bird and it wasn’t long before all I had left was a neat pile of bones. The waitress enquired as to whether everything was to my satisfaction. I assured it was and she whisked my plate away.

The waiter had warned me that the quail would take around fifteen minutes to prepare. This meant that my next dish, big head prawn ($118) arrived almost as soon as the last one had been cleared away.

The prawns were baked in a rich, buttery garlic sauce. This too was most agreeable. The only downside was that flesh of the prawn seemed rather less that the shell had promised. But I guess that is prawns for you. You never do get as much as you think you’re going to get.

For vegetable I’d ordered morning glory in broth ($42). It turned out to be a considerably larger bowl than I had anticipated. I couldn’t finish it all though I made a valiant effort soaking up the broth with garlic bread.

The lemon creme brulee with cinnamon sugar French toast and ginger ice-cream ($39) proved to be an excellent finale but then I’m a sucker for ginger ice cream.

Cafe Locomotive is quite a small but very popular restaurant. If you’re making a special trip it’s worth calling ahead to make a reservation.

This is a large and very popular restaurant in Pacific Place and whilst it may be called Thai Basil, there is no shortage of Vietnamese influenced dishes on the menu.

I arrived shortly after seven. There were still quite a few tables available then but I was very lucky. I took a seat near the front in the belief that I would be able to watch shoppers bustling to and fro while I enjoyed a leisurely dinner.

I was wrong. By the time I had studied the menu and ordered, the place had filled up and there was a throng of a dozen or more people waiting outside. Since my view of busy shoppers was blocked I studied the decor. The walls were midnight blue. Decorating them, at least the part that was nearest to me, were stainless steel skulls of a variety of horned animals.

A series of white Romanesque columns showed the way to the back of the restaurant where, in the distance, I could see the kitchen staff going about their art.

I wasn’t to dwell on the fixtures and fittings for long before my first dish arrived. This was the Vietnamese style clear white rolls with mango and beetroot ($72). They also included carrot, cold noodle and were garnished with mint. They were really quite sumptuous.

Within moments of this arriving my second dish, papaya salad with seared tuna ($85) arrived. This is a Vietnamese variation of the famous Thai dish som tam. It is not as spicy as som tam - instead it has a tangy fruitiness which compliments the tuna perfectly. I’ve had other variations of this made with green mango and whilst my papaya version was delicious I’d love to try it with the mango as well.

The last main dish was Thai tiger prawns($165). These came wrapped in a nest of crispy noodles with a sweet and sour dip. As with all the dishes they are probably best shared, and while I had no trouble eating the lot single-handedly, the noodles did get a bit boring towards the end.

I rounded off with lime meringue pie ($42). Two small ones to be exact but with a tower of meringue that reminded me of something Van Gogh might have painted. Otherwise they were fairly ordinary.

The food at Thai Basil is great but the service is necessarily fast and furious. I would have have felt guilty dallying over coffee and meringue whilst the folks outside were eying it hungrily.

Vietnamese noodle shops are hugely popular at the moment, it seems there is a new one popping up every other day. I’m not sure how new Pho 26 actually is, it’s not a area I frequent too often, but it is extremely popular.

I first noticed it a few weeks ago but that time there was a queue already out of the door. The same thing happened on my second attempt a week later so by that time I was really curious.

That part of Queens Road isn’t exactly the life and soul of party-land so there had to be something that was drawing the crowds. So next time I got there around 6.30pm. There were already plenty of customers but tables were still available. I found one towards the back.

The decor is purely functional as one would expect, though the green that is beloved of Vietnamese restaurants is in evidence. The menu too is simple and functional consisting mainly of a variety of noodle dishes and a range of smaller side orders.

Top of the range of noodle dishes is the Top Choice Kobe beef Pho. It was an intriguing option and I’m sure it would have been delicious but at $138 I felt was perhaps a bit too luxurious. Each to their own of course, but for me a bowl of noodles shouldn’t require such deep pockets.

And indeed nothing else on the menu does. The next most expensive option regular Kobe Beef Pho ($49) so I decided to give that one a try. To go with it I ordered a side of pork and lemongrass paper rolls ($38). These are the popular Vietnamese style cold spring rolls.

There were some other items on the menu I would have liked to try, such as the black pepper steak cubes ($50) but I could already see the size of the noodles servings and knew it would be overdoing things.

The two dishes both arrived with impressive speed and, as I had anticipated, the noodles were a huge serving with a generous amount of beef that was gradually cooking in the piping hot soup base.

What I hadn’t been expecting were the two large slices of turnip that accompanied what was otherwise classic bowl of beef pho. But it was an inspired addition and I enjoyed the combination very much.

The menu also includes a variety of breakfast sets for around $25 and snacks that include everything from chicken wings to peanut butter and condensed milk on toast.

There are no desserts on the menu but the drinks can double as a sweet course. I had an iced ocean coconut milk ($17). I’m not sure where the ocean part comes into it but it was thick and sweet and laced with chunks of nata de coco. The straw it came with was very wide and cannon like. Presumably to allow solid matter to be drawn in but if you’ve never used one before you need to approach it with caution or will end up with coconut milk down your front. I speak from experience.

Chuk Yuen has been on Gage Street for ages but I’d never been in before. I’d always quietly hoped it was going to be one of those little, great-value-terrific-food, gems that one finds from time to time.

I went along the other evening with a heart full of hope but alas, it was not to be. It was not a bad restaurant by any means just rather ordinary and, at that price point, one really shouldn’t complain.

The decor is predominantly bamboo and rattan with green paint. The tables are a rather dark green and make the restaurant rather gloomy. At least when there are not too many diners to cheer things up.

There were other people there and they appeared to have ordered quite a lot of food so I was heartened. All the usual suspects were on the menu, spring rolls, prawns on sugarcane skewers, noodles. I ordered pork and shrimp rolls ($24).

These are the typically Vietnamese dry white noodle variety. They were quite big, being generously stuffed with prawn, pork, noodles and bean sprouts.

To go with them I ordered a beef curry in a clay pot with French bread ($60). This was piping hot when it arrived and I had to wait a few minutes for it to cool before I could eat it. The curry, like the rolls, was a really generous serving and the sauce was really quite tasty. The beef however, was rather more fatty than I like.

There are, of course, plenty of people who would say that this was a good thing and that the fat is what makes it taste so good. I wouldn’t argue with that but I would have liked to see a little more lean meat because what there was also tasted good.

For dessert I had red beans with coconut milk ($5).

It would be wrong to criticise a restaurant for being too low cost. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but the Chuk Yuen has been around for quite a few years. That must mean that enough people do appreciate its style, and as far as they are concerned, that is what counts.

G/F 25 Elgin Street
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2523 8272
Fax 2523 8966

G/F 47 Elgin Street
Soho
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2521 1600
Fax 2521 2600

4B Wing Wah Lane
Lan Kwai Fong
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2840 0639

P413-418 Podium 4, World Trade Centre
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2890 3975

939 King’s Road
Quarry Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2561 5151

Shop 3319, 3/F Gateway Arcade
Harbour City
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 3151 7801

89 Percival Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2576 2240

Kimberley Plaza
Knutsford Terrace
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon
Tel 2316 2288

Gage Street
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong

2/F California Tower
30-32 D’Aguilar Street
Central
Tel 2869 7399

9/10 Knutsford Steps
2/F Miramar Shopping Centre
132 Nathan Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 3168 2000
Fax 3168 2020

G/F 11 Wun Sha Street
Tai Hang
Hong Kong
Tel 2882 8227
Fax 2882 8260

56-58 Yee Wo Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong

C16 Millenium City 5 APM
418 Kwun Tong Road
Kowloon
Tel 3148 1181

Shop G512-513 Shun On Mansion
Stage 5, Tai Yue Avenue
Taikoo Shing
Hong Kong
Tel 2569 7928

L/G 75 Hollywood Road
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2559 0997
Fax 2803 2097

Level 1 Stanley Beach Villa
90 Stanley Main Street
Stanley
Hong Kong
Tel 2899 0999
Fax 2899 0775

1/F Ocean Centre
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2730 4866

Shop 2004 Podium Level
IFC Mall
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2521 1117
Fax 2521 2050

10b-12a, G/F, Site A
55 Tai Hong Street
Lei King Wan
Hong Kong
Tel 3101 1580

11/F Food Forum
Times Square
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2506 1028

G/F 27 Hoi Wan Street
Quarry Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 3833 6362

B1, Grand Tower Arcade
639 Nathan Road
Mongkok
Kowloon
Tel 2380 0705

G33-35 Olympian City 2
18 Hoi Ting Road
West Kowloon
Tel 2740 4751

G/F Golden Mansion
83-85a Chatham Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2736 5918

Level 7, Grand Century Place
Prince Edward Rd West
MongKok
Kowloon
Tel 2628 9288

88-90 Wellington Street
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2581 9992

9-10 Knutsford Steps
2/F Miramar Shopping Centre
132 Nathan Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 3168 2000

9/F Canton Plaza
82-84 Canton Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 3520 4343

G/F Circle Tower
28 Tang Lung Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel 2574 1777

3/F The Royal Garden
69 Mody Road
Tsimshatsui
Kowloon
Tel 2733 2033

Shop 1044-5 Elements Mall
Kowloon Station
1 Austin Road West
Kowloon
Tel 2810 7575