Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Choo Choo (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After walking past a slew of auto repair shops and hole-in-the-wall eateries, I finally arrived at tonight's dining destination - Choo Choo. Honestly, I found it a little difficult to categorize this little restaurant in Lai Chi Kok. It's a fusion restaurant doubling as a dessert bar I was told!? Let's find out.....



There are really not that many train-themed restaurants in the city. Burger Circus immediately came to mind but Choo Choo is different. While the interior of Choo Choo looks nothing like a train coupe, the wall-mounted TV (playing non-stop footage of views from a moving train) does evoke a feeling for diners that they're indeed traveling on a moving train.



Choo Choo's food menu offers some pretty interesting fusion dishes including Thai-style spicy soft shell crab with squid-ink spaghetti, whole-wheat spaghetti with sakura shrimps in pesto sauce and so on. The East-meets-West twist is certainly going to make this "train ride" a lot more enjoyable.

As a solo traveler, I thought I couldn't go wrong by going with something from the "Solo Traveler" section of the menu. The barbecued chicken with paprika, red coconut sauce ($108) was pretty tender and fragrant thanks to the milky coconut sauce. I also love the extra kick from the paprika which was mildly spicy. If it's not for the fact that the chicken leg was slightly under-cooked leaving a bit of pink in the middle, this would have been something.



Dessert was one of the reasons I came all the way for dinner here. Out of the three dessert options, I went with their signature L.J.K ($98), which looked pretty amazing right from the start.



A frozen cheese ball with raspberry soda, mixed berry curd, cocoa nibs and honeycomb. There were different levels of acidity there and a bit of sweetness (honeycomb) to back it up. Very nice.



I totally didn't expect this kind of quality from a little known restaurant like Choo Choo.



Choo Choo is somewhat located in No man's land between Lai Chi Kok and Cheung Sha Wan. Not exactly where you would expect a creative kitchen like this but I thought they have the making of a pretty good restaurant.




Food Rating: 4.8/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 1, G/F, Cheung Fai Building, 364-368 Shun Ning Road, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Cheung Sha Wan
Tel: +852 3707-1034



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