Got the menu for this new Hong Kong cafe so decided to go with the wife for lunch. The prices on the menu seem decent and there were some good things worth trying. This place is located in the Food District of Scarborough, Midland and Finch. Over the years this area has accumulated lots of different eateries and have become a gathering place for people looking to feast their palates. This place was very small but the decor was tasteful. We sat down, looked at the menu and made our orders. They gave us our bill right away and stuck it to our table, almost like a list reminding them what we ordered. After a short while our food began to arrive one by one.
Stir fry beef and rice roll
The first to arrive, to my surprise was actually very small. This plate of stir fry noodles contain mainly of bean sprouts and onions with very little noodles. The taste was not bad, with lots of “wok hey” but for the price of 12 dollars I was expecting a full plate, not a snack size sampler. Wok Hey is a Cantonese word describing the intensity of the flame from the wok that give it that extra flavor.
HK Street Style Beef Offal
This is a Hong Kong street food specialty, made up of mainly beef intestines and radish. The taste was very bland, almost like they just boiled everything and put it into the radish stew. For 15 dollars this small bowl have got to be the biggest disappointment on the table.
Swiss Sauce Chicken Wings
The wings arrive in a even smaller bowl than the last. The sauce was not what I was expecting, I thought swiss sauce was like an European type of sauce. The taste was just chicken wings boiled in soya sauce, the wings was very soft like nasty fall of the bones soft. Since this was 6 dollars I was not expecting much, and that much is true.
Street Car Noodles
This last dish took forever to come. Everyone was complaining about not getting it yet. When it finally showed up, it was actually not too bad. For 9 dollars you can choose noodles, soup base, and 3 toppings. With the right combination you can make a very decent noodle bowl for a good price. However this bowl contains all ready made ingredients so how did it took so long was a mystery I will never solve. The taste was swiss sauce again, sucks that you had to pay 1 dollar extra for the veggies. At this point my wife was already beyond mad, she just ate a little and i ate the rest.
My Rating
01.
Taste
The taste of disappoint is like when you think swiss sauce is something good but actually is just soya sauce. Tasteless offals and soggy radish did not live up to the expectations of a popular HK street food. Only thing that was good was the stir fry noodles but there was just too less to actually enjoy. I will give this place a 2.5 star for taste.
02.
Environment
The decor was not bad, it have that retro hong kong tea house style. The tables are very small so we have to be all cramp together with very little elbow space. It have an open kitchen so there was lots of noise and the staff keep yelling in the background. The waitresses have very bad attitude, most of the customers were complaining silently. For environment and service, this place got a 1star only.
03.
Value
At first I thought the prices very decent but when the food actually came they were all so small that I was not even full after I finish eating. I know cost of living and eating is going up but this is just ridiculous. Besides the street car noodles everything was terribly over priced. Our bill was around 50 dollars but I was still hungry when leaving. 2star for value.
My Final Verdict
This cafe was actually a part of a large group of cafes with the same name created by a well known hong kong celebrity chef. After eating here I think this place only became popular because of the name of the celebrity chef. The MSG go Away sign really piss me off, this sign only caters to the ignorant few that still think MSG is bad for you. The owner of this restaurant is definitely a hypocrite trying to act like he cares for the well being of the customers. We will definitely not come to eat at this place again, I rather just make instant noodles at home than waste money here.