Auntie MALAY 安娣瑪萊 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Last month, Auntie MALAY (安娣瑪萊) replaced a long-time favorite of mine, Hainan Shaoye (海南少爺) at Harbour City. Hainan Shaoye has been around for more than a decade and was instrumental in bringing Malaysian-Singaporean flavors to Hong Kong at a time when Satay Inn was the only sizeable restaurant serving authentic Singaporean cuisine in town. But over the years, Hainan Shaoye and its sister restaurant Shaoye 18 have been trending down in their food quality and service; and their closure was very much expected especially with the pandemic.



With Auntie MALAY, I was looking forward to a more exquisite and authentically Malaysian dining experience.

Inspired by the colonial charm of Nyonya mansions, its interior décor exudes a strong mix of colors.

I decided to pick a spot near the window to soak up the harbour view this afternoon.

Iced teh tarik (凍馬來西亞拉茶) – First up was the Malaysian pulled tea. The tea was noticeably stronger than the other Malaysian cafés in Hong Kong including Kedai Kopi Semua Semua (蘇媽.蘇媽馬來西亞茶餐室) and Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus (捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳). A bit more condensed milk would probably be enough to strike the perfect balance.

Signature Hainan chicken rice (招牌海南雞飯) – The set came with the usual three types of sauce, rice with oil and soup.

The chicken was really tender and it was nice to get the leg and wing without paying extra!

Pandan kaya toast (班蘭咖央多士) – The presentation of the kaya toast was really nice. The only blemish was the texture of the toast, which could have been a little more crispy.

Not a bad first impression at all. I think comparing to Hainan Shaoye, the cuisine here is a little more refined. And since I didn't get the chance to check out the other popular Malaysian dishes such as Char Kway Teow, a return trip is a must now.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop G16, G/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2110-3533

Website: www.auntiemalay.com

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 9:30pm daily

La Patisserie des Idees (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

For nearly a year, I have all forgotten about La Patisserie des Idees, my neighbourhood cake shop at D2 Place. So since I had an early exit from work this afternoon, I was too happy to finally pay the little patisserie a long overdue visit.

Not surprisingly, there were new creations that I've never laid my hands on before.

Matcha mochi (抹茶麻糬蛋糕) ($50) – Like this one, with matcha mousse, matcha creme, sesame dacquoise and black sesame crunch.

The delicate matcha mousse was bursting with deep matcha flavors, so expectedly the sesame didn't really stand out even in its complimentary role. 

I did enjoy the density and creaminess of the matcha mousse, working well with the crispiness of the sesame dacquoise and crunch.

Food Rating: 6.2/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 224, 2/F, D2 Place One, 9 Cheung Yee Street, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok
Tel: +852 9282-6827
Website: www.lapatisseriedesidees.com
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm (Tue - Fri), 11:00am - 8:30pm (Sat - Sun), 1:00pm - 7:00pm (Tue - Fri)

Seasons Cafe Hoi Lai Shopping Centre 四季餐廳 海麗商場 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Everybody in the household was dropping like flies over the weekend. Jelloman (and her parents) and little nugget both fell sick over the weekend so when I felt a little under the weather this afternoon, I decided to go see the proper authority after work.

I was instructed by the nurse to return in about half an hour. I thought she was telling me to go have an afternoon tea first in a slightly subtle way. There wasn't much choice when it came to cha chaan teng near the clinic so I was too happy to simply settle for Seasons Cafe (四季餐廳) at the corner of the shopping arcade.

Well, I haven't had tea all day but iced milk tea for a sick person!? What the heck I thought....this was really milky, perhaps a little too milky even for me. The color showed that perhaps there was way too much condensed milk in there for the tea to stand up against.

The combo of deep-fried chicken leg and French toast drew mixed reviews. While the French toast with peanut butter was a marginal pass, the chicken leg was a little peppered with spices and what I thought was heat from the ginger.

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 20, G/F, Hoi Lai Shopping Centre, 100 Sham Mong Road, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 2997-2841

Opening Hours: 6:30am - 10:00pm daily

Match² Taiwanese Kitchen 麻吉灶咖 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Ever since I returned from Taipei last month, I've been on the lookout of a good Taiwanese restaurant in town. It took me a while but I finally got the chance to check out Match² Taiwanese Kitchen (麻吉灶咖), a relatively new Taiwanese eatery in K11 Art Mall which has been on my radar screen since its opening.

I really enjoyed the décor here. The design elements including the high ceiling and "tent-shaped" sofa seats made it very eye catching.

The other side of the dining area was a blurred image of a "secret garden"? OK, it was my imagination only.

Assorted beef with handcrafted noodle (總裁牛肉人工麵) ($128) – I was going for the home run here with their signature handcrafted noodles served with assorted cuts of beef including beef shank, beef short-rib, tendon and ox tripe.

First up, the ox tripe. Slightly chewy in a very good way and for the most part, very tender. 

The slippery beef tendon wasn't bad.

The shank, shaped like a slice of Chinese sausage, was soft, tender and delectably gelatinous. I missed taking a photo of the beef short-rib but by far, it was the best of the bunch. Really succulent and like the ribs, gelatinous and full of flavors.

The soft-boiled egg was served up on top of the noodles like the Japanese ramen.

The noodles have been chopped into small pieces so no slurping needed!

For the broth, I had a choice between braised and mala; and since I couldn't bear the numbness from a mala soup, it was a no-brainer for me. I noticed there were carrots and cordyceps floating atop the broth. I wonder if it's intended to enrich the flavors of the broth or......next time, I will ask....

Well, this was much better than the beef noodles I had at Tien Hsia San Chueh Noodle Cuisine (天下三絕 牛肉麵). Not sure if it's just me but the noodles is definitely worth a return trip. And I hope to get up close and personal with their duck blood too.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop B226 & B227A, B2/F, K11 Art Mall, 18 Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2321-2881

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

Red Bean Cafe Tsuen Wan 紅豆冰室 荃灣 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

The post-pandemic era in Hong Kong has brought us a ton of casual dining restaurants with cha chaan teng (local tea restaurant) making up the majority of the newcomers. Another day and another new cha chaan teng opening doors this one in the heart of Tsuen Wan.

I came across another Red Bean Cafe (紅豆冰室) when I was shopping in Mongkok a couple of years ago. Not sure if they are in fact from the same ownership.

The set lunch started off with a daily soup as usual. I opted for the Chinese-style soup made with some kind of gourd (winter melon?).

While the soup was nothing special to write home about, the iced milk tea caught me by pleasant surprise. The texture was silky smooth with a nice balance of tea and milk.

I guess the team here was super busy (and unorganized) on opening day so not surprisingly, the seafood fried rice didn't come piping hot as I would expect it to be. This was marginally serviceable but a little more seafood and maybe some "wok hei" would be even better!

Food Rating: 3.7/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 023, G/F KOLOUR • Tsuen Wan I, 68 Chung On Street, Tsuen Wan, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsuen Wan

Beans Bakery Café Park Central (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I left the gang behind and started my journey around the labyrinth of connecting malls in TKO following our quick lunch. My mission, to find the afternoon snacks necessary to get me through the afternoon; and it didn't take long for me to fulfill my quest.

Bean Bakery Café Park Central was just a comfortable 30 to 40 metre walk from where little nugget was having his afternoon snacks. I didn't even break a sweat walking over but soon I realized it was impossible for me to get myself a table here.

While contemplating my take-away options, I took a close look at these gorgeous Portuguese egg tarts from close range. 

Their doughnuts were also making a strong case as part of my afternoon tea lineup. 

Mochi Portuguese egg tart ($12) – I have to admit, these looked a lot like the sourdough egg tarts from my favorite bakery shop in town. Of course, I was referring to Bakehouse. As a matter of fact, the entire setup here was so reminiscent of Bakehouse.

There was the mochi in the middle. That was very clever. The sticky, chewy texture. Love it!

Custard doughnut ($22) – Calling all doughnut fans, we've finally found another bakery shop in town with super fluffy and delicious doughnuts. This was so spongy and I love the generous portion of vanilla custard cream in the middle.

TKO is a little far for me but with this impressive lineup of baked goods around, I'll try to make it work.

Food Rating: 6.6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop G05, G/F, Park Central, 9 Tong Tak Street, Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tseung Kwan O

Website: www.beansgroup.hk/beans-bakery/

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

Transformers : The Ark Tseung Kwan O (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Little nugget has an event to attend in Tseung Kwan O this morning so the plan was for me to meet up with the gang as soon as I finished my gathering in Tsim Sha Tsui with Agent-I.

After our quick lunch at Tseung Kwan O Plaza, we hung around the connecting shopping malls before little nugget voiced out his request for afternoon tea. Since none of us knew TKO well enough, we had to circle around the mall before finally spotting Transformers : The Ark.

Transformers : The Ark was the talk of town when they first opened in Causeway Bay not too long ago. In fact, we planned for a visit but were told to expect huge lineups so we held off on our plans soon after.

Crispy chicken burger with a Transformers logo on the bun. Little nugget didn't look at that impressed.

To be brutally honest, I was also in need of an afternoon snack but wasn't all that interested in a burger with a superhero logo on it. So, I went on my little quest for the perfect afternoon tea snack on my own in TKO. Stay tuned.

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 130-132, 1/F, Park Central, 9 Tong Tak Street, Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tseung Kwan O

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

The Lobby Lounge Regent Hong Kong 香港麗晶酒店大堂酒廊 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Agent-I, my foodie-in-crime who left Hong Kong for greener pastures is back for a week but due to her jam-packed schedule, we were only able to arrange breakfast together.



I was tasked with finding a breakfast spot in Tsim Sha Tsui and decided that we should meet up at Regent Hong Kong's The Lobby Lounge (香港麗晶酒店大堂酒廊) for the occasion. Jelloman was recently here for a luxurious afternoon tea with her friends and she has been telling me how overrated it was. I honestly had no comment about the food quality here but the view was certainly overrated. I bet a dozen restaurants at K11 Musea boast a better view than this one but then again, we're still talking about a 5-star hotel. Case closed.

If I don't start off the day with some tea, it would be uncivilized.

Egg benedict with smoked salmon – Not a whole lot of choice here except egg benedict, waffle and French toast. Hm.....

This was pretty nicely done, and I like the way that they accompanied the cherry tomatoes, peas and hash browns with the benedict.

Of course, the yolk was perfect. 

It was nice to catch up with Agent-I again. This Chinese New Year gathering seems to becoming our regular annual meeting now.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Lobby Level, Regent Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui / East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2313-2313

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 12:00am daily

Salami Restaurant 莎樂美餐廳 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I remembered when I was a kid, going to a Hong Kong-style steakhouse used to be a big family thing. It's only meant for festive celebration around Christmas and Chinese New Year. The Christmas feast at these steakhouses brought back the fondest memories for me. They would have this multi-course menu starting with soup and starter, followed by the steak and of course ice-cream sundae. That's how my palate got spoiled at a very young age...

It's been a while since I visited a Hong Kong-style steakhouse and I decided to check out Salami Restaurant (莎樂美餐廳) with Mr. G this afternoon. Tucked away in Tsuen Wan, Salami continues to spoil diners with their thick sirloins served on sizzling hot plates. Sounds like the perfect way to celebrate "Renri" (初七人日).

As usual, the set lunch started off with a thick chowder and bread. 

It was followed by a fruit salad. Look at the size of this mango! 

The main event was sirloin steak from New Zealand with Australian lobster, served on their signature metal plate. 

The sirloin was really meaty working well with the classic garlicky sauce.

No ice-cream sundae but a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream worked just fine for me.

The milk tea was pretty strong today. Not bad.

Mr. G and I ended up fighting over the bill and at the end, I lost......

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 294 Sha Tsui Road, Tsuen Wan, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsuen Wan

Tel: +852 2492-5021

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