Café Siam (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

It's been a while since I last met up with my buddy V for dinner. Both of us have been super busy with different things so when I got a ping from him last week inviting me for dinner, there was no way I would say no.



V suggested Café Siam as our dinner venue, a place I have heard rave reviews of but never got the chance to check out myself.



Located on the second and third floor of a tiny building (called The Plaza) in Lan Kwai Fong, I had to walk through some pretty unpleasant street corners to get there but it's a totally different world up here. Very warm and cozy.



And there's a great view of the Calfornia Tower (although not exactly a bird's view from second floor).



Thai iced milk tea ($52) - Price-wise, it's a little on the steep side but this is LKF after all. I thought it tasted OK (barely). I like my milk tea to be a little more creamy but unfortunately, it was a little on the watery side.



Refreshing pomelo salad with sliced shallots and dried coconut ($98) - Refreshing was the right word to describe this dish. The salad was full of refreshing flavors from the fresh pomelo and dried coconut. I was (pleasantly) surprised that there's no acidity in there too. I hate those Thai salads with strong acidity. Strong acidity is often mistaken as refreshing and I was glad they didn't have that "confusion" here.



Steamed mussels in Ton Yum Soup ($138) - V loves mussels so this was an easy choice for us. I thought the soup was pretty nice with a good balance of sweetness, spiciness and acidity but the mussels were definitely not the freshest I've seen.



Char-grilled marinated pork with a tamarind, toasted rice and shallot dip ($115) - One of the signature items here and it certainly didn't disappoint. This was much better than the one we had at Thai Basil last week with a much better proportion of fat and lean meat. Pretty nice.



Stir-fried king prawn in a coconut milk, chili oil and egg yolk sauce ($228) - This came with 5 big pieces but we jumped the gun, which explained why there're only 3 pieces shown in the photo. The king prawn was really nice and bouncy and I love the sauce made primarily with coconut milk and egg yolk. Together with the pork neck, they were two of the best dishes of the night, no question about it.



Fried rice with prawn paste and mixed seafood ($123) - I thought the color of the fried rice would be a little darker with the prawn paste but I was wrong. This was seriously good with very good "wok air". The flavors from the prawn paste were very rich yet subtle while the rice was nice and dry. We had to literally fight for the last bowl.



Smooth pumpkin caramel custard in a Thai pumpkin ($67) - Sticky rice with mango was originally high on our list but we ended up going with the pumpkin caramel custard instead. This was obviously a lot lighter than the sticky rice. The pumpkin custard was soft and sweet like a pudding. Surprisingly, there was no sign of any caramel in the mix but that was just fine with me.



Some said Café Siam is one of the better Thai restaurant in Central and after this dinner, I tended to agree. Even better was the fact that V booked it through openrice giving us a special 40%-off discount in return. That got us both smiling all the way to the MTR. 

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 2-3/F, The Plaza , 21 D'Aguilar Street, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central
Tel: +852 2851-4803
Website: www.cafesiam.com.hk