Yue De Xian AVIC City 悅得閑廣式點心茶樓 中航城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Yue De Xian (悅得閑) seems to have taken over as our breakfast spot from Tsui Wah lately. At least it was the case this morning. The place operates several locations across Shenzhen in a similar style to Dianduda (點都德). In fact, their décor also feels a bit alike.

One interesting observation about the Yue De Xian branch at AVIC (中航城) is that even though it opens around 8:30am, the crowd doesn’t really show up until about 10:30am. So our plan was to arrive just ahead of the rush.

Assorted meat congee with sliced fish (荔灣艇仔粥) (¥32) — What I like most about breakfast here is the congee. They offer a few different options, and I usually go with this one thanks to the crunchy pork skin (豬皮).

Steamed shrimp dumplings four-ways (四喜蝦餃) (¥37) — Something for little one. To be brutally honest, I can never really tell the difference between the “four,” except for the color. The dumplings with the green wrapper were likely made with parsley. At least one of them does.

Bean curd roll with enoki mushrooms and abalone sauce (鮑汁腐皮金菇卷) (¥28) — 

The Hong Kong version usually comes with minced pork inside but no mushrooms. My teammates said the enoki mushrooms added a really nice crunch, and I can see why they enjoyed it so much.

Three dim sums for three people!? Usually, that wouldn’t be enough, but since we had pickleball a couple hours later, nobody wanted a full stomach while running around on the court.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop L317, Zone A, Level 3 AVIC City Junshang Shopping Centre, Futian district, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区华强北街道华富路1018号中航城君尚购物中心A区L3层L317

Closest Metro Station: Huaquiangbei (华强北)

Tel: +86 (0755) 8256-0812

Opening Hours: 8:30am - 9:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/ca/bDJi

Sense 8 Tea House MixC World 譽八仙茶室 萬象天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

It had been raining a little in Shenzhen this afternoon. Our pickleball game was partially rained out, so we headed back to MixC World (萬象天地) a bit earlier than planned. After a quick afternoon tea, our group went our separate ways. I managed to squeeze in some extra game time before meeting up again around dinner — around 5 pm as the locals like to eat early.

Like its sister restaurant, Sense 8 Cantonese Cuisine (譽八仙粤菜) at RAIL-IN (深圳灣睿印), Sense 8 Tea House (譽八仙茶室) is known for its luxurious, vintage Hong Kong tea-house vibe, classic dim sum, and polished Cantonese stir-fry dishes. The menu here is slightly different from the one at RAIL-IN, with fewer options (such as congee), but it generally stays true to the “Old Hong Kong” theme.

As usual, our visit to Sense 8 began with a few photos of the venue — plus some selfies. Jelloman, her mom, and her aunt (visiting from Australia) had never been here before, and not surprisingly, they absolutely loved the retro atmosphere.

Hong Kong-style roasted duck (明爐燒鴨) (¥68) — The same dish I ordered last time. This time it was just as tasty, with the tender, succulent flesh.

Hakka-style omelette with preserved radish (客家菜脯煎蛋) (¥48) — Not bad. The crunchy preserved radish really helped bring the dish together.

Fried rice noodles with sliced pork (豉油王炒生麵) (¥58) — The flavors from the superior soy sauce could have been more pronounced, but some of us actually liked that it was less oily than what you typically find in Hong Kong.

That was a pretty quick supper as we managed to finish everything in a little over 30 minutes.

As always, they did an awful job pacing tonight so we ended up taking the dishes one at a time (I like most dishes being served all at once). That’s always the drawback of eating here. It's not a great choice if you’re pressing for time. 

Food Rating: 5.8/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Level 6, MixC World, Shennan Road, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道华润万象天地L6层

Closest Metro Station: Hi-Tech Park (高新园)

Tel: +86 (755) 2290-9501

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/7e/yJ6

GE Flavor (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

GE BAKE is a highly regarded Japanese-style soufflé pancake and brunch spot in Shenzhen, and it’s gained solid momentum over the past few years. Now that they’ve built a loyal fanbase for their signature soufflé and western brunch items, it’s time to expand.

Enter GE Flavor — a brand new all-day-menu restaurant focused on comfort food, from salads and pasta to more classic, shareable plates.

Naturally, for their first location, they’ve chosen MixC World (萬象天地).

It was 3pm in the afternoon and the place was absolutely buzzing. Why am I not surprised?

Beef and fig salad with Balsamic glaze (牛肉無花果黑醋沙律) (¥78) — The beef fillet was really tender. I thought the fresh pink fig, corn, broad beans and balsamic dressing did a great job cutting through the richness.

Grilled ox tongue with sancho and scallion (山椒葱絲烤牛舌) (¥78) — The ox tongue had that melt-in-your-mouth texture, and it worked wonderfully with the extra heat from the sancho pepper (花山椒) aioli.

Chestnut Mont Blanc (栗子蒙布朗提拉米蘇) (¥56) — The reason why we were here in the first place.

I saw this on social media last week. In the clip, the server uses a special handheld squeezer to spray chestnut vermicelli all over the sponge cake — essentially what they call a tiramisu on the menu. Unfortunately for us, the spraying of chestnut was already done in the kitchen so we could only see the finished product.

The chestnut vermicelli itself was fine although it definitely wasn’t the creamy Tanba chestnut (丹波栗) from Japan. That said, it wasn’t the chestnut that bothered me. What really threw me off was the sponge cake at the bottom, which came with crushed nuts and dried fruit.

That was just weird to me. When was the last time you had fruit inside a tiramisu?

Food Rating: 5.7/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: G/F Tower C, China Resources Land Tower, No. 9668 Shennan Road, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道9668号华润置地大厦C座

Closest Metro Station: Hi-Tech Park (高新园)

Tel: +86 18026962030

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 10:00pm (Mon - Thu), 9:00am - 10:30pm (Fri - Sun)

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/14/H8pM