Tag Archives: stanley street restaurants

Slim Taste

4 Jun

Slim Taste, in my favourite building on Stanley Street with all the restaurants (3 more to go until I’ve done them all!) is one of a kind. Everything, and I mean literally everything in the restaurant is made of paper or cardboard. Cardboard chairs, cardboard tables, cup holders, decorations, everything. The only things not made out of cardboard are the cutlery and the plates. Obviously I had checked it out online and I added it to my list quite a while ago, so I was aware of the paper theme. Nevertheless I don’t think I quite expected what I saw on arrival. Attention to detail is evidently key here, as there are little pieces of cardboard on the walls all the way up to the ceiling. There are cardboard owls, cardboard farmyard animals, a cardboard Eiffel Tower, a cardboard sun, and even a rainbow made out of ornately put together pieces of cardboard! Definitely like no other.

When I mentioned the cardboard furniture to friends, they all were immediately concerned as to what happens if you are too heavy for the chair. Fear not, however, as apparently the seats are strengthened with wax so that they won’t soak up any spillages and can each bear a maximum weight of 180kg. So you can eat your heart out at this quirky little spot and not have to worry about breaking the furniture – always a bonus.

Slim Taste offers healthy Chinese cuisine from a range of regions. The dishes are primarily vegetarian, although there are a number of yummy-sounding meaty treats on the menu too. Wanting to be “healthy” and as I was dining with one of my most favourite vegetarians in the world, we stuck to the veggie treats, and thankfully they were so delicious that meat wasn’t even necessary.

Vegetarian spring rolls

The Tempura showy yam rolls, soft purple yam cylinders wrapped in a very light crisp batter were interesting: sweet and smooth on the inside while savoury and crisp on the outside – very pleasing to my taste buds. The vegetarian spring rolls were some of the better spring rolls I have had in Hong Kong – deep fried but not overly greasy and lovingly filled with succulent vegetables. The crispy vegetarian goose was my least favourite of the dishes, firstly because I couldn’t understand where the chef got the idea that it was similar to goose from. It was as similar to goose as night is to day. Mushrooms encased in a thin layer of tofu and deep fried; not a terrible dish but the name might need rethinking.

Now, I’ve had red rice, I’ve had brown rice, I’ve certainly had white rice, but something I have never before tasted is purple rice. Until Thursday night. We ordered the Ganoderma Lucidum mushroom fried purple rice. I’m not exactly sure what that means but it was a species of yeung chow chow fan (special fried rice), except with rice which was interestingly very purple and, much like brown rice, purple rice has more of a bite to it. Apparently it is very rich in antioxidants, more so than blueberries, and is ideal for people suffering from asthma or even some types of cancer. This dish was a highlight, although in my opinion it did need a little bit more flavour. It went perfectly with the cucumber with garlic sauce which was deliciously moreish.

Ganoderma Lucidum mushroom fried purple rice

We asked our waitress at the beginning of the meal if they served any wine. She didn’t understand us, so asked the ladies on the table next to us to translate, after which, said ladies and the waitress proceeded to laugh at us. No, they do not serve wine, or indeed any kind of alcohol, although they do have some delicious, freshly made iced teas to choose from. We had one apple iced tea and one lemon and cumquat iced tea, both containing real fruit and served in fun little cardboard boxes. You could always nip down to 7-Eleven to buy some vodka to sneak into your iced tea, but seriously, who does that?!

The service was fair, although as previously mentioned, the waiters barely speak English. We were the only ‘gweilos’ in the whole restaurant which was surprisingly busy. One of my theories is that if a Chinese restaurant is full of Chinese people, they must serve great food, so clearly Slim Taste is doing something right. We ordered more than enough food for the two of us to decline dessert (the steamed red bean cake did sound appealing) and the bill only came to $237. Admittedly it is a bit of a strange place with an even stranger concept, but we did have a highly entertaining evening so I would definitely recommend it if you’re after some fairly healthy, reasonably priced Chinese food with a difference.

Slim Taste

9/F Stanley 11
11 Stanley Street
Central
Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2530 1199

Date visited: Thursday 2nd June 2011

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Gyotaku

14 May

Yet another restaurant in the amazing building on Stanley Street which I often refer to (I am slowly completing my task of trying them all – I think I have perhaps another 3 or 4 to go. Any takers to help me out?), Gyotaku serves, in their words, ‘sushi creations’. Put plainly, it is Japanese food with a twist, although they still offer the classics too.

Very simple on the eye, Gyotaku offers nothing in the way of decorations, apart from a row of hanging lights – these seem to be in fashion in many of the restaurants I have visited on my Dim Sum Diaries ventures. When this is the case, you walk in thinking that, as they put no effort into the décor, the food must be brilliant.

Having unfortunately never been to Japan (it’s very high on my list of places to visit and, yes, most probably because of the amazing food), I always get somewhat confused by Japanese menus. Confused does not mean to say scared-off, as in fact it is quite the contrary: I have no idea what anything means so I want to try everything in order to find out.

The a la carte menu offers endless lists of rather strange, yet very intriguing dishes, such as scallop sushi with cherry tomatoes, Parma ham and basil sauce, wagyu beef sushi, foie gras sushi or duck breast sushi: a fusion of Japanese and European cuisine. As most of these are priced per unit and don’t come cheap, we figured this was perhaps a little too extravagant for lunchtime. I do fully intend on coming for dinner one day, however, to leave my taste buds wondering where on earth I have taken them.

The lunch menu offers a selection of more classic dishes ranging from $110 to $220 each. All come with a salad, rice or noodles, miso soup and pickles. As I often get food envy, we decided to order a set lunch each and share them in true Asian style. (‘Sharing is caring’ happens to be one of my most used phrases, particularly when it comes to food – usually other peoples’ food over my own; my emergency chocolate drawer tends not to abide by this rule). We had one Negitori bowl set (fatty tuna with spring onions and chili on a bowl of rice – delicious), one Grilled miso cod fish set (exactly what it says on the tin - perfectly cooked and, again, delicious), one Sliced beef komiyaki in teriyaki sauce (very thin slices of beef cooked in rather scrumptious teriyaki sauce with sesame seeds, onions and bean sprouts – a few fatty pieces but we still polished it off) and one fried shrimp set (huge tempura prawns, always a winner). We also had one 10-piece Omakase sushi to share between the four of us. This offered none of the above fancy sushi creations, but rather the usual suspects of prawn, salmon, tuna and so on – all very fresh and very tasty.

The service was very good. Our ever-smiling waitress was there to explain every dish to us (albeit in very broken English which I couldn’t understand at the best of times) and even offered us a free dessert each. This was a layered mango cheesecake with mango coulis which tasted so fresh as if it had only just been put together. As I possess a very sweet tooth, a free dessert, and a yummy one at that, always scores highly on my chart.

During the month of May, Gyotaku is offering a promotion of no 10% service charge, which again scored them extra points. Most restaurants in HK impose a service charge and most of them definitely don’t deserve it, so it’s very refreshing for somewhere which does deserve it to give you the option (of course we gave it to them anyway). With our discount, total bill came to $866 – pricier than the average set lunch but it’s not every day that Mummy Wilko is here to accompany me on my Dim Sum Diaries trips.

Gyotaku

12/F Stanley 11
11 Stanley Street
Central
Hong Kong

Tel: +852 3902 3813

Date visited: Wednesday 11th May 2011

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Shakey’s Pizza

28 Apr

I knew this place wasn’t going to be amazing, but there was something about it that had been trying to draw me towards it for some time, not merely because this branch of the chain with other restaurants across North America, Mexico, Japan, Philippines, China and of course Hong Kong, also resides in Stanley 11 and I have made it my mission to try every restaurant in that building. I have gone past it in the lift a few times and for some reason am always intrigued by it. I’m not sure if it’s the diner-style look, the greasy looking pizza, or the fact that it is always buzzing with people, but I have been talking about trying it for a while now.

Today, one of my colleagues stated that she wanted pizza. I concurred but said, however, that I didn’t want anything overly priced, so the decision was made to try Shakey’s Pizza.

We arrived just after 1.30, so the restaurant (if it can go by that name. It definitely is more like an American diner) was starting to empty out. We were still made to wait a little while for them to clear a table for us. While we waited, I thought I might as well start having a look at the set lunch menu, but before I even managed to glance at it, it was snatched out of my hand by our miserable waiter who led us, sour-faced, to our table at the back of the restaurant and we were not given the set lunch menus again until I had to ask for them.

We wanted to have a couple of pizzas and appetizers to share between five of us, but the same sour-faced waiter told us that we could not have a 12-inch Parma ham pizza (even though there was a 7-inch one on the set lunch menu). Surely if they can make a 7-inch one, they are capable of making a 12-inch one, but my favourite word, ‘cannot’, came into play once again and that was the end of that argument. So we settled for one of the Parma ham ‘gourmet’ (really??) pizzas, a 12-inch ‘Shakey’s Special’ pizza (featuring everything but the kitchen sink, but we specified no pineapple. Why do people think it is a good idea to add pineapple to pizza?), the famous ‘Shakey’s Special Mojo’, and as there was pretty much nothing else on the menu which tickled our fancy, we decided to leave it at that, and save space for a dessert.

After a very long wait (by which point we were one of the very few tables remaining so I’m not sure exactly what we were waiting for), we did not receive our appetizer (I’m sure this is usually served first, right?!) but our ‘Shakey’s Special’ pizza. Having been disappointed by the service and the menu, I was expecting to be disappointed by the pizza, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. We had opted for the thin as opposed to the hand-tossed crust which meant it was not quite as greasy nor heavy as I had anticipated. I will admit here that I actually only began liking pizza around four years ago – prior to this I had always been forced to eat Pizza Hut or Domino’s pizzas which never agreed with my bread-sensitive stomach and on several occasions even made me sick. I’m sure some of you know my brother’s nickname for me? This stems in part from my former dislike of pizza. I still, therefore, remain a bit of a pizza snob, but this one wasn’t too awful. Next up, we were served our gourmet pizza (still not sure what part of this pizza qualifies this name but perhaps the fact that it is rectangular rather than round) which was, again, better than anticipated but very salty. Finally our ‘mojo’ was served. I frequently use the term ”better late than never,” but actually on this occasion, perhaps not: slices of fried potato, still dripping in oil, smothered in sour cream, cheese, onions and tomatoes. Sounds like a dream but very disappointing and so small that, had we wanted more, we could each only have a couple of slithers.

Those measly three dishes, divided by five, still came to $80 each, and a combination of the unwillingness to give Shakey’s more business for the poor service they offered and the fear of being disappointed by their ice cream sundae, we made the decision to leave without dessert and go to Holly Brown in the opposite building for ice cream/fro-yo/coffee.

I believe that the decision to go to Holly Brown was, for me at least, a worse decision than Shakey’s Pizza. I ordered frozen yoghurt with Oreo, one of my favourite combinations. For $38 (outrageous) I was given a cup of not very tasty fro-yo with one, yes ONE Oreo, broken into about five pieces on top. I looked at it in disbelief, asked the lady (politely) if she was serious, if that was really it, to which I received a scowl and was told that if I wanted more oreo pieces I would have to pay. I did not step away and accept her ridiculous answer, but told her that that was unacceptable, that every other fro-yo place in HK gives a generous helping of oreo pieces for a cheaper price and that I would not be returning. She continued to stare at me, said nothing and walked away to serve the next poor customer. Note to self: stick to Yo Fresh on Caine Road.

Shakey’s Pizza

2/F Stanley 11
11 Stanley Street
Central
Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2525 3083

Date visited: Thursday 28th April 2011

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The Night Market

27 Apr

I’m afraid this post goes slightly against my plan to only try out restaurants I have never previously visited. There is a reason for this, however: every Lent, I like to challenge myself by giving up something (food related of course) which I love. I’ve done the clichéd chocolate before and (I can’t believe I’m saying this) it isn’t actually that hard once you’ve managed to get past the first four days or so (in these first four days, believe me, you see chocolate EVERYWHERE). Last year I gave up cheese which was torture. This year, living in Asia, I thought it most fitting and even more of a challenge to give up Asia’s staple diet – rice. Aiyaaa it was hard! I would even dream about rice. With frequency. Most people thought I was crazy: “How can you give up rice when you live in Hong Kong? What on earth do you eat?!” The most difficult thing about it was that it wasn’t just rice, but all rice-related foods; so no rice noodles, no cheung fan. In fact I had to miss out on several dim sum classics. Nightmare.

The first time I tried out this Taiwanese restaurant, The Night Market (also located in the amazing building on Stanley Street that is almost completely dedicated to restaurants, which by the way I still haven’t completed my task of trying every single one, so if anyone fancies helping me, please do get in touch), was a few days after Lent had started, and pretty much everything on the menu involves rice or rice noodles! Fortunately I was with a girl who speaks Cantonese, so she explained my situation to the waiter who arranged a special dish for me with egg noodles. It was fine, but the whole table around me, or in fact the whole restaurant around me was eating rice and I cannot deny the serious food envy I suffered.

Needless to say I made a vow to come back once Lent was over. I don’t think I can explain my excitement without once again referring to the child-like state I revert to on Christmas Eve. My stomach was howling, my eyes were bulging and I had a ridiculously cheesy grin I just couldn’t wipe off my face. I had already decided (am I predictable?! Just a little bit) what I was going to order: the dish that caused me to suffer the most food envy on my previous visit, which also happens to be one of the house specialities - stir-fried fillet mignon in sha cha sauce.

The lunchtime set menu offers a bento-box with your choice of main dish served on a bed of rice (yay!) and three little side dishes (which you can’t choose). On this occasion they were: tofu with spring onions, grilled aubergine, and a kind of scrambled egg with tomato. All a little oily but at least they don’t use any MSG. Other mains include fried pork chop (a little plain and the fact that it’s fried in batter might make it less appealing for some. My friend devoured it though), three cup chicken (cooked in equal measures of rice wine, sesame oil and soy sauce – also apparently a success as my other friend didn’t even offer me any!), stewed pork belly and spicy sweet and sour kung pao prawns. My fillet mignon was perfectly tender, without a trace of fat and the sha cha sauce with lots of ginger, chilli and yummy chinese vegetables was delicious, although, again, very oily and left me feeling uncomfortably full all afternoon. By no means gourmet food, but (as suggested by the name of the resto) they are aiming for the kind of food which is typical of Taiwanese street markets. I have never been to Taiwan, let alone a Taiwanese street market, so am not sure how near the head they hit the nail, but it works fine for a simple lunch.

Decor-wise, The Night Market is fairly minimalist, with bare wooden tables and unfinished clay pots on the 6th floor, whilst the 7th floor is brighter, with aqua-coloured walls and more stylish lighting. The one interesting design point on the 6th floor is the lamp-shades: above the long tables hang huge lampshades made up of bits of rolled up magazines. Interesting to look at and a great way to recycle methinks.

Service was basic and they served each meal a five-minute interval from the next. Fortunately mine arrived first but unfortunately I’ve been brought up not to start until everyone has their food. Damn you, manners! Our meal, including a drink (a selection of several different types of tea, the signature being the Taiwanese bubble tea) came to $105 each including a charge for the basic service. I can now cross it off my list of places to try (or try properly) but it will stay on my list of places to go back to for a simple, hearty lunch, particularly when I’m craving rice.

The Night Market also offers an a la carte menu in the evenings and has just started a delivery service for those lazy evenings when you don’t want to move from your sofa.

The Night Market

6-7/F Stanley 11
11 Stanley Street
Central
Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2810 1121

Date visited: Wednesday 27th April 2011

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