Mango Tree Elements (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

With everyone practicing social distancing in April, I had to postpone most of my birthday gatherings until this month. Tonight, I am meeting up with my buddy V, whom I haven't seen in almost 6 months. There are still a fair bit of protests at some of the shopping malls so rather than picking what we'd like to eat, a safe location seems to be our main focus here.

I've been coming to Elements Shopping Mall pretty often these days. We all agree that it's much safer there comparing to other shopping centres in town. Thai food at Mango Tree? Sounds like a lovely deal.

Char-Grilled Pork Neck Fillet (炭燒豬頸肉) ($118) - The marinated pork neck fillet was served with Esan-style tamarind sauce. This was pretty decent albeit a little too thinly sliced than I hope. The one from Sweet Basil was way better.

Mixed Satay with Chicken and Beef (雞、牛肉沙爹) ($128) - These were served with peanut sauce and Thai vinegar. I haven't had their beef satay before and it was a pleasant surprise. The charred exterior formed a lovely crispy texture on the outside, which was nicely matched with the homemade peanut sauce.

Red Curry Roasted Duck (紅咖喱荔枝烤鴨) ($168) - The roasted duck fillet in mild red curry was paired with pineapple, cherry tomato, lychee and sweet basil. A little less spicy than I thought. Not bad.

Stir-fried Thai cabbage with garlic (蒜蓉炒椰菜苗) ($98) - Always enjoy the lovely crunch as always.

Sticky Rice with Mango (香芒糯米飯) ($98) - Always a crowd pleaser with fresh Thai mango and sticky rice topped with coconut cream.

We ended up sitting there until the restaurant started cleaning up; that's almost 4 hours in total! Obviously, we haven't seen each other for way too long and there were just lots of talk about. But let's hope we're seeing the end of the pandemic so me and my buddies can meet up more regularly in the summer cuz right now, it's not ideal.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 2032, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Station
Tel: +852 2668-4884
Website: www.mangotree.com.hk

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 11:00pm daily