Tiffany Blue Box Cafe (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I didn't realize it at first but Jelloman had never visited Tiffany Blue Box Cafe in TST, the first of its kind outside NYC before. But here's her chance as little nugget was having an exam this Saturday afternoon. It provided the perfect script for her first Tiffany Blue Box experience (we did visit the Tiffany Tuck Shop at Somerset House Ice Rink in London together more than a decade ago). 

We had exactly 75 minutes for this meal. Time to set our watches!

Prawn with Yuba Mille-feuille – A piece of prawn served on top of a "mille-feuille" made with tofu skin (or yuba). Everything was floating on chilled prawn flavored soy milk.

This really tasted a lot like prawn bisque, a chilled version of it anyways but it was obviously a little thicker and milkier than your usual bisque since after all, it's soy milk! I like the idea of serving the prawn with chilled prawn soy milk but chilled bean curd seasoned with fresh chives, sorrel and paprika? It wasn't bad but I had a difficult time making the connection.

Hokkaido scallop carpaccio – Jelloman went with a much safer bet, Hokkaido scallop carpaccio nicely decorated with caviar, croutons, coriander cress and chives. Not a bad move at all but I thought the burst of flavors from the lemon dressing was a bit too overpowering for the sweetness of the scallop.

Seafood Fregola – Our two main dishes were much better than the starters. My seafood fregola was very creamy, working well with the toppings of sea urchin, squids, salmon roes and snow peas.

Spring chicken with black truffle – Ironically, I have just seen a similar dish from one of Chef Daniel Calvert (formerly of Belon)'s recent posts on IG but this was a slightly different interpretation. Succulent chicken thigh, stuffed with truffle and ham mousse (and I thought some mushrooms), was served truffle sauce and mixed greens. I thought the texture of the chicken thigh was very nice but there was very little coming from the truffle and ham mousse. The flavors were surprisingly light, especially when we were talking about truffle in the mix. There was a second serving with the same chicken made into a little chicken ball that I thought was pretty good.

Our lunch amazingly finished right around 75 minutes; that was the good news. The bad news!? Little nugget finished his exam a little earlier than expected so we had to rush back to pick him up.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop#207-208, Lobby Floor, One Peking, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2362-9828
Opening Hours: 8:00am - 10:00pm (Weekday), 9:00am - 10pm (Weekend)

Lok Tin Cafe Lai Chi Kok 樂天冰室 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I really wasn't planning to have breakfast this morning but I ran into a brand new cafe (Hong Kong style one) called Lok Tin Cafe (樂天冰室) on the road unexpectedly.



Huge is probably the right word to describe the size of this cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) as most of the typical local tea restaurants only sit 20-30 max. I am guessing they have a capacity of over 100 here.

The first thing I used to judge the quality of a tea restaurant - its silk stocking milk tea (絲襪奶茶). This was silky smooth and very milky. The rich tea flavors not as strong as most places which was right up my alley.

This particular breakfast set came with noodles and beef, as well as fried egg and crispy toast. Well, I won't mind starting every morning with this!

The noodles were pretty tasty. I was impressed with the richness of the broth (in some places, it tasted like water) working well with the "al dente" noodles.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop C2B, G/F, Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building, 808 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 6226-0628

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 10:00pm daily

Seasons Cafe 四季冰室 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I'm back at Hin Keng Sports Centre (顯徑體育館) again this morning to drop little nugget off for his lesson. 

I'm really starting to get to know this neighborhood a lot better now. Last week, we spotted this local cha chaan teng called Seasons Cafe (四季冰室) just across the street from the sports centre and I knew immediately that I would be hanging out here this week while little guy's having his class.

They have a number of breakfast sets on the menu including a full continental breakfast with deep-fried fish fillet! But I wasn't all that hungry this morning so I went with a much lighter one instead. This came with macaroni soup, with spam and abalone. Of course, that's "vegetarian abalone" (素鮑魚) rather than 4-head abalone. 

I was pretty impressed with the broth. Not bad.

My sunny side up egg was done way better than most local tea restaurants too!

My hot milk tea was on the light side with mild tea flavors, which was right up my alley. With a bit more milk, it would be perfect!  

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$

Address: Shop 208, 2/F, Hin Keng Commercial Centre, Hin Keng Estate, Tai Wai, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Hin Keng

Tel: +852 2606-2398

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