After You Dessert Café Lee Tung Avenue (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★☆☆☆☆

For a number of years, Jelloman has been telling me about After You Dessert Café at Tang Lung Street in Causeway Bay. Even during the pandemic, it was impossible to get in (Too bad they don't take reservations) and believe me, we did try but failed miserably. So, when I heard about this popular Thai café relocating to Lee Tung Avenue in Wanchai, I decided to come and have a look.



After You Dessert Café is best known for their kakigori (or shaved ice) and butter toast.

I decided to come in for a closer look. At 12pm, there wasn't a whole lot of customers. Perhaps, people haven't heard about their relocation?

I knew this place quite well from its previous life as home of the first Omotesando Koffee in Hong Kong.

Thai milk tea – My first impression wasn't a very good one. The Thai milk tea was bland like water. There weren't enough tea flavors, sweetness......everything that could go wrong with this drink, did go wrong.

Mango sticky rice toast – I chose a butter toast that came with a Thai twist. Presumably, this was inspired by the great mango sticky rice.

The butter toast was topped with cubes of fresh mango, sticky rice and a scoop of coconut ice-cream, and served with another scoop of mango ice-cream and coconut sauce on the side (something we can probably do at home, right?).

As soon as I cut the bread open, I realized something was wrong. While the toast was crispy outside, the interior was all soggy thanks to an excessive amount of melted butter in the middle. The texture of the bread was soft and a bit mushy. To make things worse, the mango wasn't ripe so there was this sharp acidity added to a dessert that was supposed to be pretty sweet.

I decided that I better stayed away from my butter toast and bring out the hazelnut chocolate doughnut I got from Bakehouse instead. It tasted so much better.

There was no other way to put it. This was a total failure and for sure, an one-and-done for me. I just didn't understand why there was such a big hype about it in the first place.

Food Rating: 3/10 

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop G24, 25 Lee Tung Street, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Wanchai

Tel: +852 2312-2038

Website: www.afteryouhk.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:30pm (Sun - Thu), 12:00pm - 11:00pm (Fri - Sat)

Victoria Harbour Restaurant 維港茶餐廳 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We couldn't draw it up any better than this. On our first Shenzhen trip together in more than a decade, The J.E.R.K. boys spent the majority of time at the humongous Uniworld Shopping Center (壹方天地店) in Longhua. We went on to take a taxi towards Lok Ma Chau border, enjoy a foot massage there and when the night finally falls, sit down for a quick dinner before crossing the border back to Hong Kong.



It was then that yours truly spotted Victoria Harbour Restaurant (維港茶餐廳) right across the street from Futian Port Control Point (福田口岸).



I was absolutely overjoyed when my iced milk tea arrived as I have yet to get my caffeine fix today. This was pretty creamy and I thought better than ones found in a lot of places back in Hong Kong. I was impressed.

Braised pork belly With preserved vegetables (梅菜扣肉) – The pork belly was nice and fatty, and the preserved vegetables very tender. Couldn't think of any better dish to go with our steamed rice.

Curry Beef Brisket (咖哩牛腩) – K got ourselves a soupy beef brisket dish served in a clay pot. The sauce was Hong Kong-style curry which was again perfect to slurp up with rice.

Stir-fried cauliflower (清炒花菜) – I was familiar with the term "flower veggie (花菜)" and was too shy to ask. Turned out, it was just cauliflower and they've given us some nice spicy kick here with batches of chili. Pretty nice.

For such a small tea restaurant near the border, we really didn't expect much so the experience more than exceeded our expectation. Now, with a happy belly, we could finally get ready for the border-crossing which wasn't always the nicest part of a Shenzhen trip. 

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop C105, 50 Yuheng Road, Yunong Community, Futian Street, Futian District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市福田区福田街道渔农社区裕亨路50号海悦华城C105

Tel: +86 755 8307-6799

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/8d/fJoK

Yue Lu Eatery Longhua Uniworld Shopping Center 岳麓食記 龍華壹方天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I can’t believe we are really here at Lok Ma Chau station (落馬洲站) crossing the border. My first trip to Shenzhen in nearly eight years, my heart was pouncing so fast that I thought I needed medical attention. But I do have my high school buddies J.E.R.K., my wingmen who have stood by me for years by my side. So, despite the unexpectedly heavy traffic crossing the border on a Monday morning, the feeling was good.

We were chanting “四個小生去旅行” on our way to the metro station on the Shenzhen side. Hangar Jack organized the trip for us  and he chose a long long route to get to our destination. Almost 7 stations to Lok Ma Chau and another 13 to Longhua (龍華) via metro line No.4. When everything was said and done, the whole trip (one-way) took us more than an hour before we eventually arrived at Uniworld Shopping Center (壹方天地).

The first order of business was an early lunch at Uniworld which happens to be one of the biggest shopping malls in Shenzhen spanning over four zones (A, B, C and D). Not surprisingly, the four zones are packed with restaurants from western, Asian to Japanese and Chinese cuisine eateries. Since there aren’t that many restaurant in Hong Kong serving hearty Hunan dishes (地道湘菜), we thought we should seize the opportunity to check out Yue Lu Eatery (岳麓食記), a Hunan cuisine restaurant in Zone B of the mall.

Yue Lu offers a pretty small food menu which was only readable by scanning the QR code on the table. You need to have the DianPing (大眾點評) app or other alternative mobile apps installed on your phone to do so. That wasn't working for me but luckily some of us had my back covered.

Here we found a number of Hunan specialty dishes including sautéed beef with chili (辣椒炒肉), and stinky tofu (長沙臭豆腐) but I wasn't feeling all that adventurous this afternoon...

Roasted crispy chicken (現烤脆皮雞) – This looked more like a pigeon from my vantage point but most of us were too hungry to care much. The crispy skin certainly wasn't bad and there was some nice smokiness from the meat to back things up.

Stir-fried spicy beef with chili (小炒黃牛肉) – This dish was one of the key reasons we were here after Master c-foo spotted a poster of it just outside the restaurant.

I have to admit, they really know how to make a grand entrance.

I thought the beef was less spicy than I first anticipated (still pretty dry and spicy) and it worked reasonably well with the unlimited supply of steamed rice. But we were left scratching our head wondering why they shredded the beef into such small pieces.

Sautéed beef with chili and garlic (辣椒炒肉) – Pretty much the same as the previous dish but this was tossed with green peppers, garlic and black beans (almost same except the beef was in even smaller pieces). 

Dry pot baby Chinese cabbage (干鍋娃娃菜) – Of course, we needed some vegetables following all the meat and this was perfect.

I have heard from friends and families that food was relatively cheap in Shenzhen everywhere and they were equally delicious comparing to Hong Kong. But such was not the case this afternoon. Our bill was around 350RMB but we weren't really close to being full at all! However, rather than having another dish or two, we decided to simply settle the bill and perhaps look for some sweet treats in a couple of hours. That would be our plan going forward.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Level 3, Shop 021, Longhua Uniworld Shopping Center, 4020 Renmin Road, Shenzhen, China

Closest Metro Station: Longhua

Tel: +86 755 2107-6443

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

TOSS Semua Semua 蘇媽.蘇媽 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After our lunch at Lung Wah, we had a nice walk around IKEA, bought some stuff there and looked all set to head back home. But some of us called a "timeout" on our way back to New Town Plaza. That timeout was actually a signal for a break in action so we could all enjoy some afternoon snacks. I was of course all too happy to hear about the request for sweet treats so without hesitation, I led everyone straight to TOSS Semua Semua.

Iced Teh Tarik (凍馬來西亞拉茶) – Their iced pulled tea was so irresistible this afternoon thanks to our little outdoor walk from Lung Wah (and then IKEA).

Kaya toast (椰香咖央多士) – This came without the usual thick slab of frozen butter but that didn't stop the coconut infused kaya jam from shining through. Delish~

Fried radish cake in crispy fish chili Sauce (魚仔醬炒蘿蔔糕) – This is where it usually gets a little dicey, the savory part of Semua Semua's food menu. We were looking for some traditional fried radish cakes but these came deep-fried on the outside so not surprisingly, the crust was hard and chewy. Definitely not the best radish cakes we had in town.

That should be all for today. Tomorrow, I have a new adventure waiting ahead for me. A trip to Shenzhen with my high school buddies J.E.R.K. I haven't been to the Mainland for almost 8 years so this should be fun.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 107, 1/F, New Town Plaza Phase I, 18 Sha Tin Centre Street, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Train Station: Shatin

Tel: +852 2882-8371

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm daily

Lung Wah Hotel 龍華酒店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Mid autumn festival will be upon us soon and I got the memo late last night that we would be having a gathering to celebrate the festivity over the weekend with the venue set at Lung Wah Hotel (龍華酒店).

Since the start of the pandemic, we have come to this roasted pigeon specialist quite a few times already, mainly for nostalgia's sake but also wanted to help out their deteriorating business whenever possible.

Roast pigeon (脆皮燒乳鴿) – Still an excellent choice for roast pigeon in town. The crispy skin was so addictive.

Sweet and sour pork (菠蘿咕嚕肉) – Another signature dish around here and again wasn't bad this afternoon.

Deep-fried pigeon egg (椒鹽鴿蛋) – This came highly recommended by our server. Little nugget was amazed (and stunned) by the size of these pigeon eggs. He thought they were dinosaur eggs!

Stir-fried broccoli (清炒西蘭花) – Some veggies to balance out the meat.

Hokkien fried rice (福建炒飯) – This rarely happened but little nugget wanted rice instead of noodles. I thought they matched well with the rest of the dishes.

Afterwards we stopped by IKEA for a quick look. This guy was again over all the place.

We were a little sad to see the turnout at Lung Wah this afternoon. Many friends and family told us that Hongkongers prefer to flee the city for Shenzhen over the weekend these days. I hope this trend won't come at the cost of our century-old establishments cuz there aren't that many left following the pandemic.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 22 Ha Wo Che Chuen, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong
Closest Train Station: Shatin
Tel: +852 2691-1594
Website: www.lungwahhotel.hk

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:30pm daily

Shet Shan 1956 雪山冰廳1956 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

As a team, little nugget and I managed to achieve something that we have never done before - visited two households of elderlies living alone. On our way back, he was full of question marks and of course a ton of questions to be asked. Since the other kids were having similar questions so a few of us dads who participated in the event, decided to hold a debrief meeting immediately after. The venue, Shet Shan 1956 (雪山冰廳1956), a local cha chaan teng not too far off from the community centre who co-sponsored this event.  

Okay, a big part of the reason for this so-called debrief session was because most of us were super hungry. 

The silky pantyhose milk tea was pretty strong giving me more than enough caffeine for the rest of the day. Solid start!

The French toast was smelling good with the thick slab of butter melting on top.

As usual, I tried to cut it into nine equal pieces before the shower of maple syrup. This was so good! 

I like what Shet Shan 1956 brings to the table on top of the usual local cha chaan teng favorites which includes dishes like hamburger with deep-fried pork cutlets, typhoon shelter fried chicken leg as well as this grilled hot dog king Osaka-style.

The buttery hot dog buns really combined well with the Frankfurter sausage, Bonito flakes and mayo. Something we don't see at a local cha chaan teng everyday.

Food Rating: 5.5/10 

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 4-5, G/F, Tone King Building, 413 Castle Peak Road, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Cheung Sha Wan

Tel: +852 5226-3468

Opening Hours: 6:30am - 12:00am daily

Mei Ki Heung Bakery 美其香餅家 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Little nugget and I have signed up for an activity to visit elderlies living alone this afternoon and we are bringing along some small gifts including mooncakes and pears which have been donated by a charity foundation. We were assigned to an area in Cheung Sha Wan and after meeting up there with other participating parents and kids, we slowly marched towards our destination together.  



I wasn't familiar with this neighborhood so it was fascinating to run into these old shops and cafes. One place that caught my eyes immediately was a local bakery called Mei Ki Heung Bakery (美其香餅家). There was a huge lineup queuing up for their mooncakes. When I tried to google this place up, I finally realized it was a longstanding neighborhood bakery founded in 1979 which has been very popular among the locals.  

As a fan of traditional mooncakes, of course, I had to get myself a few of these to celebrate mid-autumn festival next week. I didn't waste any time cutting open a couple of these to check out the lotus seed paste and yolks.

This looked delicate and velvety. I could see why they're so popular in this neighborhood.

Price: $$

Address: G/F, 27E Hing Wah Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Cheung Sha Wan

Tel: +852 2744-0929

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 7:30pm (Mon - Sat), 9:00am - 1:00pm (Sun)

Jervois Cafe Soy Street 蘇杭冰室 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After an incredible journey exploring the vibrant food scene of Japan, I found myself  back home craving for the familiar flavors of our local cuisine. Not surprisingly, I have been longing for the hearty dishes of cha chaan tengs the most, and just the past two weeks alone, I have already visited three new places. Today, I'm making it four.

Jervois Cafe (蘇杭冰室), a local tea restaurant with a modern twist, has been on my radar for a while but since I have a long queue of restaurants to check out in Mongkok, it has taken a while for its turn.

The pantyhose milk tea wasn't bad. The tea flavors were rich with depth and fragrance. Don't mind having this again.

Stir-fried noodles with barbecued pork (乾炒叉燒一丁) – This came with a ton of char siu which was the good part. The bad part, well, stir-fried instant noodles tended to come with some wok hei (at least the ones I tried before) but this one was only served lukewarm and not really hot. 

This is not a one-and-done as the milk tea on its own deserves a second visit down the road.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 9-10, G/F, The Concord Building, 60-104B Soy Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Mongkok

Tel: +852 2885-5108

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 12:00am daily

Patisserie Uriwari 瓜破菓子店 Life@KCC (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

It doesn't happen very often but I have some personal matters to take care at KCC this afternoon. While on my way back to Kwai Hing station, I remembered this itch that I have been waiting to scratch since Life@KCC first opened quite a number of years ago. So, I ended up taking a detour.

Patisserie Uriwari (瓜破菓子店) used to be an online cake shop that I visited a few times before little nugget was born. In fact, a couple of our birthday cakes were purchased through their online ordering services. But during the time, they didn't have their own retail store so any pickup would have to be done at selective MTR station. Well, not anymore. 



Uriwari is always known for its Japanese influenced cakes with an extensive use of Japanese ingredients such as yuzu and cherry blossom. 

Zen 禪 ($48) – This looks like some of the pebbles we've seen from temples in Kyoto.

I thought the white miso vanilla mousse was pretty interesting thanks to its savory-sweet taste but the cake was badly missing some nice contrasting texture except (More crispiness on top of the hazelnut crunch?). The caramelized white chocolate ganache in the middle wasn't bad but it has gotten to be a little more runny. Perhaps a bit like the Chocolate Hazelnut cake at YYY House Of Cakes.

The last two weeks dining out, I realized that the local F&B industry wasn't rebounding the way people thought it would. And Hong Kong's status as a foodie paradise is slowly and gradually fading. Sad, isn't it?

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 409, 4/F, Life@KCC, 72-76 Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kwai Hing

Tel: +852 2135-6705

Website: www.uriwari.hk

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus 捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus (捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳) is one of the few cafés that I've been visiting regularly before and even after the COVID-19 outbreak.

I have personally seen a shift in the dining out habits of Hongkongers during the pandemic and it's downright hurting the business of many restaurants and cafés including Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus which used to be so full during the afternoon hours.

Teh tarik – I don't know whether it's the blend of tea leaves they have been using but their pulled tea is so aromatic and addictive.

Butter kaya toast – Another goodies here that I found really irresistible. The pandan infused kaya jam came with a hint of coconut making it even more irresistible.

I am hoping things could finally get back to norm for some of these favorite restaurants and cafés of mine. Cuz this is really disheartening to see with all the empty seats.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 188 Yu Chau Street, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Sham Shui Po

Tel: +852 2253-6911

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm daily