mi ga korean (cwb)

I never usually go by myself to restaurants that aren't on street level. I'm ashamed of this, but it's so easy to get roped in by the bright lights and pushy hostesses on the street. I've never been crazy for Korean food, but when my aunt said that her Korean clients always go to this place across the street from Sogo I was happy to check it out. I actually liked it so much after the first time that I came back by myself the next day; the meal at Jin Luo Bao was still fresh in my mind, so at least I could make some sort of comparison.

I really liked the way that Mi Ga looked, the seats looked new and less like the diner that was Jin Luo Bao. All the Korean small dishes were essentially the same, there were a couple new ones as well. I had the mixed stone pot rice which was very good, I thought a little better than JLB. Unfortunately they don't give black sesame ice cream for dessert here, instead you just get a syrup drink--probably the only spot where JLB is better. Lunch prices are about half of dinner prices, so it was only 50HKD for my stone pot and all the smalls.

4 of 5, good value, pretty restaurant and a great lunch.

mi ga korean restaurant

9/f goldmark

no. 502 hennessy road

causeway bay

2576 2078

jin luo bao korean restaurant (causeway)

I usually avoid eating in restaurants that leave the TV on at the same time as they play music, it makes me feel like I'm in China. They do that here during lunchtime, but the food is good enough to occasionally put on your mainland-hat and eat between the disagreeable speakers.

The menu is a little confusing because it doesn't straightforwardly list prices; there's a note on the top that says everything is 20% off during lunch instead of just making a lunch menu. If you can get over doing the math, or if you're so loaded that you don't think about money, then it shouldn't bother you. We tried the kimchee fried rice and the stonepot rice (because we're good at math). They bring you all the standard Korean snacks and they even mix the stonepot rice at your table before serving you.

I think most naive westerners like myself, don't really know anything about Korean food that isn't BBQ. Jin Luo Bao serves (according to a friend more Korean than me) good Korean rices and noodles in addition to its BBQ. To be honest, I usually prefer Thai flavors than Korean or Japanese, but this was really quite good. After finishing the snacks and main dishes, lunch also includes fruit, black sesame ice cream and a stick of Doublemint gum.

3.5 of 5, seats feel are ugly and old, good service though.

jin luo bao korean

6/f island beverly center

1 great george street

causeway bay

2895 3986

about 70HKD for lunch

hui lau shan (causeway bay)

For all intents and purposes this is a mango shop. Although their English subtitle is "Healthy Desserts," they don't specialize in anything other than the beautiful yellow fruit (and yes, I know mangoes can be quite healthy). For 30HKD you can get mango served in pretty much any appealing way imaginable. Countless kinds of drinks and bowls with red bean, sago pearls, ice cream and pudding. The drinks always feel cheap to me so I recommend one of the mango bowls. My favorite is the dish with glutinous rice balls, ice cream and extra mangoes. They all taste pretty much the same though.

I've also been satisfied with my limited exposure to the snacks here. They serve rice balls with mango inside, like the kind that you can buy at a bakery and they're covered in coconut and have fresh mango inside. It's a strange combination at first, but it's also not shabby. Everything is very decent here--there's little variation in the dessert quality.

One of the things that I didn't really like about Hui Lan Shan was that it doesn't have a wall facing the street. So when it's cold, like it is now, and you're sitting inside, you feel like you're sitting on the street. It's also typically overcrowded and the stools feel like they were stolen from a pre-school. This is HK for you though I guess. They've also got takeaway, in the case you'd rather eat in an alley or somewhere warmer.

3 out of 5, food is better, but environment is sometimes annoying

hui lau shan desserts

24 percival street

po han bldg

causeway bay

pho hoa (causeway, other int'l cities)

Chains blow.

On Tang Lung Road my rule of thumb (the one that says that dumpier places are always cheaper and have better food, albeit poorer presentation) is getting badly beaten around. Pho Hoa may be smaller and uglier than Pho Vietnamese down the street, but that doesn't make its food better. For slightly more honkies you get a smaller bowl of pho, you don't get size choices like L or X, and the soup IS NOT BETTER! I'm surprised and disappointed at the same time; still no stellar pho has been found!

In addition to equally mediocre soup, with less meat and less volume, the service was a little bit spotty. I came in around 2:30 to miss the lunch crowd and stood around the door trying to get someone's attention in a half-empty, very quiet room. After a minute of motioning to the empty table by the door, someone confirmed that, yes, it was ok for me to sit there. In the states this wouldn't bother me, it would probably be normal, but here I'm used to everything happening fast. It was also difficult enough ordering a glass of water that I ended up asking the other server.

Finally, no tissues provided here. Pho is something that makes me sweat, and your competition a few doors down knows this. That's why they give me tissues, and that's why you should too. I take some of the blame for this I guess; no matter how long I've lived here, I've never gotten used to the idea of packing my own napkins when I go out to eat. In the big picture it's not really that bad here, it's just really not that good.

2.5 out of 5 overall, satisfactory

pho hoa

g/f circle tower

28 tang lung street

causeway bay

$32 and up for a bowl

pho (tang lung street, causeway bay)

I'm always looking for a decent bowl, and for being so near to Vietnam I'm always disappointed with the quality in HK. Nha Trang, near the bottom of the escalator in central is probably the first example that comes to mind of a terrible pho place. Unlike that disgrace, Pho on Tang Lung delivers size and quantity.

I tried the rare beef and brisket, super-sized for $6 (you can go ultra-large for an additional $13, someone please do this and tell me about it). The soup didn't blow my mind; it seemed to retain some Cantonese/won ton soup flavor actually, but the bowl is very full and they give you the most noodles I've ever seen in a bowl of pho. I was so excited by how cheap the menu was that, even though I was ordering for just myself, I had to get the spring rolls. I thought that spring rolls usually came in clear wrapping, but these were the deep-fried kind that you wrap in lettuce. Still good though, they were very hot and tasted especially fresh for fried foods.

It's immensely satisfying, and is generally a very decent looking place.
I didn't have to wait when I went in since it was about 2:30, but it's super busy during lunch and after 6. They're even understanding if you forget to take your wallet out of your other pants and bring it with you. For the time being, "Pho" gets the award for the most passable bowl I know in HK. The soup is the only thing that holds the place back. So the search goes on....

3.5 stars of 5

pho vietnamese restaurant

g/f circle tower

28 tang lung street

causeway bay

about $30/bowl


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rbt (causeway bay, other locations)

DISCLAIMER: This entry covers the same amount of material that you'd see in a write up on Pinkberry or In-N-Out. Nonetheless here it is.

It's hardly necessary to write home about a tea shop that lacks any of the mystery or intimidation that I normally try to dissolve, but on this occasion I need to show you that I'm serious about this blog thing. The menu here is straightforward with emphasis on the teas and the bubble teas. Although they offer fried noodles or toast with gnutella, the meal-food isn't very remarkable here. I think they once served Taiwanese desserts, but on my last two visits I wasn't able to find them on the menu. The milk tea here is great, as are most of the fruity drinks they serve; it's the best I've had in HK for Taiwanese drinks.

But really, my favorite thing about this spot (particularly the Causeway Bay/Sogo location) is the glass wall overlooking the street between Sogo and JP Cinema. It's fun just to chill out, drink some milk tea and look at people. This is really one of the things that I miss most about LA; because it's always sunny, it's always fun sitting outside a coffee shop and watching people walk by. You can't do that in too many places in HK. I haven't yet seen a restaurant seat people on the sidewalk in this SAR, but that's because these sidewalks are meant for walking; who would want to eat on a sidewalk in HK anyways? So to me, RBT is the best people watching in the city. You could argue that the LKF bars have plenty of outside seating on walking-only streets too, but that scene gets old faster than I do. The beautiful thing in Causeway is that it feels more local and less like a trading floor in IFC. Well, actually take that back, all of Hong Kong feels like a trading floor.

3 of 5 overall, drinks are worth 4 stars, but food is minus 1

rbt

2/f hong kong mansion

yee wo and great george

causeway bay

2577 2633

about $20/drink

sushi one (causeway bay, tst)

With Sushi One I think it's time to introduce HK's rampant "poor fitting music" disease. In contrast with trendy places in the US, it seems like nearly all restaurants here play music that doesn't really fit their style, if they even try to develop one. Here they softly play top 40 or pop hits on XM, I know it could be worse, but it still bothers me.

This was my third or fourth time to this restaurant now. All three of their locations are essentially the same and feature a conveyor belt and giant, wall-length fish tank. The fish tank and its accompanying wall-length leather sofa are probably the franchise's most defining characteristics. In one of the TST locations they even have a table enclosed in an aviary, which is sexy enough to wonder why Dragon-i didn't think to do the same with their bird cages.

For all the flashiness, I'm actually pretty impressed with the quality of the sushi. The fish is generally pretty fresh and the rice is always well prepared. There are hundreds of middle-range sushi shops in HK, but for the price, this one always seems to be at least a little bit better. I generally don't like the tackiness that comes with conveyor belt sushi shops because of their greenhouse spotlights that make you brighter than the jewelry in Wan Chai windows.

Bottom line: a reliable sushi place for the non-connoisseurs and a sexy enough restaurant to take a date for a quiet bite. Apart from the sometimes random tunes, Sushi One doesn't make most of the tacky ambiance mistakes that other sushi conveyors do.

4 out of 5 possible stars

sushi one

29 leighton rd

causeway bay

3188 0083

$50-$100 per person