Gongau Cha 港究茶 Wongtee Plaza 皇庭廣場店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I have promised myself to come back for the butter toast at Gongau Cha Wongtee Plaza (港究茶  皇庭廣場店) after my first visit and finally, I got to keep my promise. 

I had a very nice time here enjoying their silk stocking milk tea tremendously last week. The only thing I didn't like was the long waiting time. It was again the case this afternoon as I waited more than 15 minutes for my kaya toast with butter.

This came in a very small packet. Once I broke the package wide open, there it was, the kaya toast divided into four tiny pieces.

I have very high standard for kaya toast and this was clearly a fail any way I looked at it. The toast wasn't very nicely done and the amount of kaya jam was disappointingly far and few. 

Yes, I better stick with their milk tea from now on.

Price: ¥¥

Address: Shop No.66, Level 1 Wongtee Plaza, 118 Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华三路118号皇庭广场 L1-66铺

Closest Metro Station: Convention & Exhibition Centre (會展中心)

Tel: +86 (755) 18718325762

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 11:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/cd/02Ki

 

Harbourside at Regent Hong Kong (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After a few years of not really celebrating my birthday (during the pandemic), this year felt a little different already. I was greeted with my first birthday wish early in the morning by little nugget. It was nice to have my birthday on a Saturday for a change and although I still needed to go to my office, I finally gotta enjoy a birthday dinner set up by none other than Jelloman herself. Unlike the previous years, she's the one picking tonight’s dinner venue and not surprisingly, she decided to check Harbourside at Regent Hong Kong off her list.

As one of the most luxurious buffet restaurant in all of Hong Kong, Harbourside had a facelift during the hotel's year-long renovation and came back with an equally luxurious price tag. Though its name consistently came up, I have never had the urge to try this place out myself cuz I’ve never been a buffet kind of guy. I always prefer quality over quantity so to speak but since someone is picking up the bill tonight, I’m just going to enjoy the food and view this time.

Little nugget led us to our table which was hidden at the back of the restaurant. 

It didn’t have a harbour view, not even a partial one (we were kind of facing the museum) but at least we were not sitting next to the food counters like a few others. Let’s just say that the restaurant was a little cramped.

Like everybody else, we started things off at the seafood counter first. There were prawns, tourteau crabs and Japanese sashimi highlighted by the fresh scallops which were huge in size. 

I also liked the salmon gravlax which was absolutely dusted with dill (hidden behind the crab there).

The uni sushi was so small! And I thought the tuna with all those tendons was also disappointing. Only the scallop was worth an encore.

I didn’t really spend much time at the “Hot dish” counter myself. The braised abalone with cabbage and fish maw highlighted a few noteworthy Chinese dishes but none was good enough for a second dip.

Of course the highlight of the meal were the “made-to-order” lobsters. They're always a crowd pleaser in a buffet. 

There were also “made-to-order” Peking duck and we didn't even need to get our hands dirty. The chef did it all for you by diligently placing the duck skin and condiments onto the pancake, spray it with hoisin and wrap it up nice and clean. This was OK.

Like most upscale buffets, there’s a small section reserved for roasted beef and ham. I had the ham myself and it was pretty chewy. Not great.

Dessert probably deserves a bit of love. I decided to pass on all the nice looking pastries including tiramisu and matcha chiffon cakes, and put all my money on the mango pudding, egg tart and macarons. Sadly, the mango pudding was a little bland; the egg tart had a pretty nice, custardy egg custard but the pastry wasn’t nearly flaky enough.

As it turned out, my birthday chocolate tart was the best sweet treat of the evening.

It was rich in dark chocolate flavors with the raspberry ganache in the middle doing a nice job cutting through the richness.

When they said “Hong Kong style milk tea” on the drink menu, my first reaction was “Really?”. But after taking a flyer on it, I could now confirm that it’s indeed as strong and silky smooth as any pantyhose milk tea out there. I’m glad I made the right choice.

I had just enough room for one single item before calling it the night and decided to get myself some pan seared foie gras. This came with a ton of balsamic reduction on top. Pretty nice.

Many thanks to Jelloman for organizing this and special thanks to my little boy for singing the birthday song again for his old man. I would say, this was a pretty good birthday dinner albeit the poor value-for-money. 

   

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$$$

Address: G/F, Regent Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui / East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2313-2313

Opening Hours: 12:00pm – 2:30 pm, 5:30pm – 11:00 pm daily

Nishiki Yakitori 錦 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I had Friday afternoon off to catch little nugget's live performance at his school play. It's his last performance and I was all too happy to attend it following a turbulent week at work.



With an hour and a half left before the show, I decided to come back to Nishiki Yakitori (錦) for lunch just for nostalgia's sake. Nishiki Yakitori came to the rescue of Hongkongers when the city was without an authentic Japanese yakitori restaurants decades ago. There has been some staff turnover in their kitchen over the past years and as seen today, it is now run by a couple of Asian chefs.

I was first started off with a small salad and pickled burdock.

As I often like to do here, I ordered a bowl of udon soup with seaweed and egg. This always mesh well with the skewers.

Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs) – A little smaller in size comparing to the hay days but the flavors remained the same. The meatball was very delicate and I could still taste the soft bones inside which was a very nice touch.

Chicken wing – I've always enjoyed the wings here. This was very tender with some nice smoky flavors. 

Bacon oyster roll – My last skewer before settling the bill. 

This was again nicely executed with the crispy bacon hugging around the oyster that was slightly charred outside but remained soft and fresh in the middle. The briny flavors were well matched with the savory bacon and salt. Having tried three of my favorite skewers here, I can honestly say that they are still a very reliable option when it comes to Japanese skewers in Hong Kong, despite all the changes personnel-wise.

I managed to arrive at the play a little ahead of schedule. What I like most about this theatre was that we couldn't get any phone signals around. That means no phone calls or messages from my office! I could finally sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Little nugget didn't expect to see me this afternoon. In fact, he rarely saw me this past two weeks with all the trouble from work so he was overjoyed to find me in attendance. That moment when he ran up to me and gave me a bug hug, it was priceless! Of course, I was proud of the little kid who used to have butterflies in his stomach whenever he stepped on the stage. Now, he looks like a seasoned veteran to me.

The last two weeks of work had me thinking a lot. Maybe I've worked this job well too long that I have worn out my welcome. Yes, I have high expectations on myself so naturally, I have the same hefty expectations for people surrounding me. With all the things happening in the office, I expected everyone to step their work up a notch (maybe two). I don't exactly know what happens after this year. I really don't. There are a lot of sacrifices that comes with our duties. I don't really get to see my son much. I don't get to celebrate my birthday cuz it's always in the middle of our peak season. And I don't get to spend a long summer holiday with my family except the last two weeks in August. At this moment, I'm just confused. 

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$
Address: 1/F, Regal Kowloon Hotel, 71 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2723-8660

Opening Hours: 12:00pm – 2:30 pm, 6:00pm – 10:30 pm daily