Chouchou (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

The last time I sat down for a proper meal on a weekday was… well, I couldn’t remember exactly when. It’s been a busy few weeks in both my personal life and work schedule, so I was relieved to finally get a chance for a decent outing.

Located at J Residence in Wanchai, Chouchou is an upscale French brasserie brought to us by the team behind Babette. Since this was going to be a rare proper meal for me, I decided not to sit at the bar and instead headed for a seat in the main dining room.

The bread wasn't bad but it was the homemade tarragon butter that shone through.

Cured striped jack, calamansi, pickles — I expected a fair bit of acidity from the calamansi and pickles here and not surprisingly, it was front and center.

The cured striped jack came with some lovely crunch. It was nicely complemented by the dill cream, salmon roes, and the sharp acidity from the calamansi dressing. Pretty nice, refreshing dish.

Grilled black cod, potato, salmon roe, fennel, dill, sansho pepper — The thick, buttery fennel velouté came together well with the confit potato cubes, salmon roe, dill oil, and sansho pepper, adding another layer of texture and flavor to the cod fish.

Service and food were both reasonably good, but the selection on the lunch menu was pretty limited (unless you go à la carte). And with all the supplements (for me, both dishes required supplements), $400 felt like a heavier price tag than I expected to pay for lunch in Wanchai.

Food Rating: 6.8/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop 8, 1/F, J Residence, 60 Johnston Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Wanchai

Tel: +852 8432-6216

Website: http://www.chouchou-hk.com/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm (Mon - Fri), 11:30am - 4:00pm (Sat - Sun), 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Sun - Thu), 6:00pm - 12:00am (Fri - Sat)

Superb Canton Delicacy One Avenue 炳勝品味 卓悦中心店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Superb Canton Delicacy (or Bingsheng, 炳勝品味) is a Michelin-recommended Cantonese restaurant chain that originated from Guangzhou. It currently has three branches in Shenzhen and is best known for striking a near-perfect balance between traditional Cantonese flavors and modern innovation.

Some of their signature dishes include their black char siu made with secret recipe (秘製黑叉燒), jumbo pineapple bun (招牌手掌大菠蘿包), and crispy “Ice-River” eggplant (招積冰川茄).

While Superb Canton Delicacy wasn’t initially at the top of our list, an unusually long wait nearby at Tao Tao Ju forced our hand. It turned out to be the perfect Plan B for this afternoon while we were strolling at One Avenue (卓悦中心).

Signature black char siu (秘製黑叉燒) (¥108) — Praised for its ideal fat-to-lean balance, delivering a melt-in-your-mouth texture, this came coated in a rich, decadently sweet secret sauce. 

For me, though, the sauce was a tad too sweet. And if the texture truly was meant to reflect the “melt-in-your-mouth” balance, it also suggested the char siu leaned more heavily towards the fatty side. It wasn’t bad at all, but the health-conscious side of me probably won’t let me order it again next time.

Steamed chencun noodles with premium soy sauce (豉油王蒸山泉水陳村粉) (¥48) — This was essentially like having steamed rice rolls. When the flat rice flour noodles are done right, even a simple drizzle of soy sauce is enough to make them feel truly special. The flavor was heavenly in its simplicity.

Pan-fried tofu with pork in chicken stock (雞汁煎釀水鬼重) (¥48) — A hearty dish with minced pork stuffed on top of the tofu.

The textures of the tofu and pork complemented each other perfectly and I thought the chicken stock added just the right finishing touch. Supportive rather than overpowering bringing the whole dish together nicely.

Crispy spring chicken with spices (吊燒手撕脆皮文昌雞) (¥89) — Much like the tofu dish, this one had me asking for more steamed rice.

The crispy skin delivered a really satisfying bite, and I liked the fact the hint of black truffle (called 'spices' on the menu) stayed subtle instead of overwhelming everything else.

Other than the signature black char siu, all three other dishes passed our test with flying colors. Still, it’s hard to understand why a Cantonese restaurant, especially one well-regarded, doesn’t offer a single dim sum option during lunch service.

That said, the food quality is strong enough that I’d happily return for a second visit.

Food Rating: 6.7/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address:  Shop L244, Level 2 One Avenue, Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华路卓悦中心商场2层L244号铺

Closest Metro Station: Gangxia (岗厦)

Tel: +86 (0755) 8273-8819

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:30pm (Mon - Fri), 11:00am - 3:00pm, 4:30pm - 9:30pm (Sat - Sun)

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/1b/UUk

Xinxing Restaurant Beijing Road 新興飯店 北京路店 (Guangzhou, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Xinxing Restaurant (新興飯店) is a renowned, century-old institution in Guangzhou, famous for its intangible cultural heritage lamb feast.

This branch of Xinxing near Beijing Road (北京路) features a refined décor inspired by precious artifacts from Qing Dynasty (清朝) merchant ships, making it ideal for business diners and tourists.

After arriving at Guangzhou South (廣州南站) early in the morning, we transited onto the Guangzhou metro before finally arriving at Ganghui Building (港匯大廈, also known as Ganghui Mansion), a prominent commercial building in Yuexiu District (越秀區) near the edge of Beijing Road, just before noon.

Not long after we sat down by the window, music started and the cultural show featuring girls dressed in traditional Chinese costumes began dancing in front of the guests.

Why are you so happy seeing girls dance left and right, kido?

Once again, I ordered way too much food that would feed the whole village.....😫😞

Crispy jade rice rolls with prawn (翡翠鮮蝦脆皮腸) (¥35) — This was built exactly like the ones we often see in Shenzhen, but with a red-colored wrapper.

They weren't bad, but I thought the green-colored wrapper made with what I thought was spinach, didn’t fit quite well with the crispy prawn and the rest of the ingredients.

Pan-fried turnip cake (臘味蘿蔔糕) (¥20) — Way too soft and wobbly. The lack of preserved meats also hurt the texture and flavor.

Steamed scallop dumpling (鳳眼帶子餃) (¥31) — The dumpling was topped with a thin slice of scallop (thus the name?).

Hidden inside the wrapper was minced pork and coriander.

Mulberry leaf dumpling with dried conpoy (金湯瑤柱桑芽餃) (¥31) — The sweetness of the pumpkin broth gave a nice lift to an otherwise average and uneventful dish.

Stir-fried choy sum with lard (豬油渣炒菜心) (¥38) — Very generous portion. The choy sum was silky smooth thanks to the lard.

Beef tripe with Nyonya curry sauce (娘惹咖喱牛錢肚) (¥35) — The beef tripe was pretty tender. The curry sauce was slightly more powerful than I first expected.



Baked sheep milk (酥皮焗羊奶) (¥23) — For a restaurant known for its lamb dishes, it was hard not to order a couple of their lamb-themed signatures. The first to arrive was one of the house specialties here — baked sheep milk.

We used the mini wooden hammer to break the crispy crust, and there it was — the pudding made with sheep’s milk. It was really soft and velvety. Unlike what I thought originally, there was no gamey aftertaste but instead, there was this clean, mildly sweet flavor with a rich, creamy texture. Very nice. 👍👍

Crispy tart with sheep milk custard (千層羊奶酥) (¥23) — Another signature dessert made with sheep milk. 

The sheep milk custard was silky smooth and flavorful, but it was a tad too sweet even for me. The biggest failure for me, though, was actually the tart itself. It was noticeably less buttery than most crispy egg tarts in Hong Kong. I’m guessing they deliberately made it less buttery to let the sheep milk stand out more?

Sugar puff doughnut (冰花糖沙翁) (¥20) — This brought back a ton of memories from my childhood. Not many Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong make these anymore—I could only think of Tai Wai Dining Room (大圍小館) right now.



Crisp outside, soft and pillowy inside. Love this~

I thought the traditional Chinese dance was the real highlight of our dim sum lunch this afternoon. While I expected a lot from the food itself from this century-old institution, it turned out to be slightly disappointing until the three desserts saved the day for us.

Food Rating: 5.9/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: 2/F Ganghui Building, 15 Beijing Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, China

广州市越秀区北京路15号港汇大厦第二层201铺

Closest Metro Station: Haizhu Square (海珠广场)

Tel: +86 (020) 8338-8388

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:30pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/7c/s2Lk

Island Gourmet (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

We had no immediate plans on the Saturday before Father’s Day. Little nugget’s wounds were still bothering him, so we didn’t want to risk him getting injured or anything. Going forward, the plan was simple — no plans.

As usual, I was the first to wake up. After having breakfast at a nearby cha chaan teng, I went for a little walk on my own. That little walk turned out to be much longer than I expected. It took me all the way to Admiralty, where I picked up a few things — and then, suddenly, I felt the urge to walk over to Island Gourmet, the famed dessert shop at Island Shangri-La, to grab a sweet treat for tonight.

I was hoping to get little nugget a strawberry cheesecake, but it wasn’t available this early. Instead, I picked up their signature Hokkaido cheesecake.

Island Gourmet’s Hokkaido cheesecake is a delicate, decadent dessert featuring a crisp biscuit base, airy and fluffy baked Hokkaido cheesecake filling, and a generous topping of silky Chantilly cream. It comes in a larger size, as well as this smaller one inside the round box.

The centre of the cheesecake velvety, airy, and whipped — almost weightless and mousse-like, rather than dense or sticky like a New York–style cheesecake.

It paired beautifully with the top layer of Chantilly cream and the bottom base of crumbly biscuit crust. It’s a perfectly light dessert for anyone looking for a sweet treat that melts the moment it reaches your tongue.

There is a subtle hint of yuzu in the cheesecake filling that cut through the sweetness beautifully. Time for an encore soon!

Food Rating: 6.6/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 5/F, Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, Admiralty, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Admiralty

Tel: +852 2820-8550

Website: www.shangri-la.com/hongkong/islandshangrila/dining/restaurants/island-gourmet/

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 7:30pm daily

Pier Lounge Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Little nugget will be down and out for the next couple of weeks after his surgery earlier this week. He’s obviously very much on his grandparents’ minds. Even when they were enjoying dinner at Pier Lounge in the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel tonight, their grandson was still top of mind.

To wish him a speedy recovery, they've ordered a Black Forest Cake for him with a message on top: “You’re brave like a lion!”.

Any chocolate lover would love this.  The cake features layers of moist chocolate sponge matched perfectly with velvety chocolate mousse and cherry filling. I just wish there were a bit more of those tangy tart cherry bits hidden throughout the sponge but all in all, a pretty tasty Black Forest cake. I guess I really miss having a Black Forest cake.

Everyone’s doing their part to help Little nugget cope with his recovery. Just like his grandparents, I hope he stays strong. With his courage, I’m sure he can do it~!

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, Pier Wing, Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel, 180 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Ocean Park

Tel: +852 3555-1700

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

Cheung Hong Yuen Kai Tak Sports Park 祥香園餐廳 啟德店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We didn’t have much planned for this long weekend since little nugget was down and out after his surgery. For the most part, we’re staying at home, except for this morning when I have an early pickleball game at Kai Tak Sports Park (啟德體育園).

I didn’t know much about the pickleball facility at the sports park until last week, when we had a gathering with our friends here. A friend escorted me around the venue, and after dinner, I even got to visit the outdoor pickleball courts. To my pleasant surprise, the courts are actually cheaper than the private ones at industrial/commercial buildings and better yet, there were open slots even on the weekends. We ended up booking an hour slot to test it out this weekend.

To be brutally honest, I haven’t woken up for a game this early since high school but I have to admit it was a lot of fun despite the tremendous heat. The outdoor courts being under a roof helped a little, but we were still sweating it out within 10 minutes.

After the game, our friend took us to Cheung Hong Yuen (祥香園餐廳), a local cha chaan teng just a short walk from the sports park, for breakfast.

Iced milk tea (凍奶茶) — I learned from their Lai Chi Kok outpost that Cheung Hong Yuen always has a very strong, robust milk tea. I’ll give them that. The tea was creamy again today. A nice way to start the day for my tummy!

Butter pineapple bun (菠蘿油) — Somehow, I never had the pleasure of trying their pineapple bun. The thick slab of frozen butter was the best companion for the bun and to my surprise, it actually came with some scrambled eggs. Not bad.

Noodle soup with satay beef (沙爹牛肉麵) — The noodles were OK but the broth could have been more flavorful. The beef was a little rubbery today, but with the outstanding iced milk tea, I wasn’t complaining.

I’m starting to like the Kai Tak sports facilities more and more. And the fact that they have a dedicated mobile app for booking makes everything so much easier. Perhaps we should do more pickleball games like this from now on.

Food Rating: 5.2/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 1, G/F, Kai Yan Court, 6 Muk Lai Street, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kai Tak

Tel: +852 5975-4011

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 9:30pm daily

Pizza Maru Kai Tak Sports Park Mall 2 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We have a birthday party to attend tonight, and it’s for one of Little nugget’s oldest friends. By “oldest friend” I mean he’s from little one’s preschool more than six years ago. That feels like such a long, long time ago.

The kids got to play at one of the playhouses at Kai Tak Sports Park before dinner, but the dads knew better than to join too early. Instead, we all showed up at the dinner venue — Pizza Maru, a popular Korean-Italian fusion brand known for its health-conscious pizzas made with well-being dough, alongside authentic Korean fried chicken, pastas, and craft beer.

We got ourselves an exclusive private dining area (sort of), so we were shielded from the noisy main dining area.

Rose toppokki fried chicken — Nobody would ever say no to these crispy Korean fried chicken pieces. They were nicely complemented by Korean rice cakes, finished with their homemade spicy rose cream sauce and special honey butter powder.

Maru 5 premium pizza — The eye-popping signature pizza from Pizza Maru featuring Korean-style BBQ beef, pepperoni, bacon with potato wedges, spicy chicken, corn, and mozzarella cheese. There were also cheddar cheese, mayo, steak sauce, and chili sauce on top of the tomato-based sauce to tie everything together.

Mentaiko seaweed shrimp pizza — This one was more like a flatbread with mentaiko cream cheese sauce, shrimp, flying fish roe, seaweed, mushrooms, onion, cherry tomato, rocket salad, rice paper chip, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, mayo, and sesame oil. It was a very, very busy dish with a ton of ingredients and the kids seemed to love it!

Pepperoni pizza — Some of us were purists when it came to pizza so a simple pepperoni pizza with a tomato sauce base, lots of pepperoni, red onions, mozzarella cheese, parsley, and onions already did the trick.

Honey butter fried chicken with corn ribs — Another Korean fried chicken. This one came with roasted corn, parmesan cheese, and Pizza Maru's original honey butter powder, but no rice cakes.

Toowoomba seafood casarecce — The weakest link tonight seemed to be the pasta dishes. This casarecce pasta was tossed with onions, king trumpet mushrooms, oysters, prawns, parsley, and spring onions, but it didn’t receive many rave reviews from anyone.

Following the meal, the kids squeezed in some board games, which is always a ton of fun. Too bad a few of the kids left right after the playhouse and didn’t get to join this fun-filled dinner tonight.

It was nice for little nugget to hang out with his long-time friends from preschool again. It’s been a while since we last had a gathering, as everyone’s been busy with their respective school activities and studying. But they would never forget each other — especially the COVID days, when they used to hang out almost every single day without school.

Food Rating: 5.7/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop M2-010, G/F, Kai Tak Mall 2, Kai Tak Sports Park, 38-39 Shing Kai Road, Kai Tak, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kai Tak

Tel: +852 2110-1277

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