Minimal 迷你毛 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Minimal (迷你毛) is a neighborhood all-day café and restaurant in Sham Shui Po serving international fusion dishes. I’ve always wanted to visit more often, but the slightly inconvenient location, lack of booking availability, and the occasional poor service have kept me from going back as much as I’d like.

This time, with my sister in town, we decided to give it another shot and drop by for an early dinner.

Chicken, tacos, avocado, mango ($118) — Little nugget has always wanted to try authentic Mexican-style tacos. While this was more of a fusion take than a traditional one, it should still give him a good idea of what the flavors and textures might be like.

The taco came with seared chicken breast, tacos, avocado cream, all tied up nicely by a mango salsa.

A little too much on the sweet side but all in all, not bad.

Risotto, miso, crab, dashi ($138) — The Japanese dashi infused with miso gave the risotto a nice lift. 

Orecchiette, egg yolk, maitake, truffle ($128) — Little one’s first encounter with orecchiette pasta, and he fell in love with it. The fresh (duck?) egg yolk, maitake, truffle, and parmesan came together in a really impressive finish.

Salmon, honey mustard ($178) — The salmon fillet grilled to perfection, was finished off with a honey mustard salsa. Delicious!

Apple, toffee, custard, puff pastry, apricot ($92) — Dessert is always a highlight here and it was the case again tonight. 

The poached apple, with a centre of diced apple compote, was paired with toffee, custard, puff pastry, and apricot. It was absolutely packed with flavors.

Coconut, mango, meringue, Malibu milk ($90) — A lighter dessert compared to the one before it. It was full of exotic flavors from the coconut mousse, mango compote, and meringue, finished with a Malibu milk foam. Everyone seemed to enjoy the poached apple more, mostly thanks to its presentation.

Despite the small selection on the menu, everyone seemed very happy with the combination of flavors across the dishes. Like many dining experiences here, the service can be a bit impatient and inattentive at times but as long as the food (and dessert) quality stays consistent, we can try to live with it.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 121-123 Apliu Street, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Sham Shui Po

Website: www.facebook.com/minimalcafehk/

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm daily