There are two Yum Cha restaurants in Hong Kong and I have longed to visit this place for a long time! We’ve all see the vomiting lava sweet buns on Instagram and it was time to experience it in person. I met up with Kate (i am not a celebrity blogger) a really good friend of my sister whom I met at a blogger trip to Paris; and here we are in Hong Kong! First impressions; I thought they offered fusion Chinese food but they’ve stressed that the food is authentic Chinese with a modern presentation! I love their high ceilings and large pane windows for a lot of light to come through – making food easier to photograph in broad daylight Image may be NSFW.
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Kate and I picked out some dishes that sounds photographic and tasty!
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Spicy honey balsamic wings $79: 4 piece super glazed, sticky wings to share.
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I think these are the chilli pork dumplings 6 pieces $59 – tasty, soupy and authentic! Couldn’t resist a splash of soy sauce on these soft dumplings. Btw, they aren’t spicy despite it listed as spicy on their menu.
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On the Chef’s Specials menu we picked out the jumbo pork ribs in shrimp paste $99: they were jumbo for sure but I felt that they were a bit too tough and greasy for my liking. I like em meaty and there was a lot of “fry” around the pork ribs.
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BBQ piggy buns x3 pieces $49: I am a little disappointed with the presentation; they are popular yes because of these cute pink piggy like buns but due to the popularity of these I think the presentation has slipped and perhaps rushed. Nevertheless, I got to try them and they are tasty (as they should be) but I hope next time I will have 3 evenly shaped piggy buns!
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Sweet Dessert: the anticipated green tea custard molten buns x3 pieces $49: this is what’s all over the internet; the trend of vomiting buns on our plate! I know it’s tempting to spend forever taking the perfect pic but when they get cold the molten won’t be so runny and the bun itself won’t be so soft. You pierce a hole with your chopstick (it’s really rude to play with your chopsticks but this is an exception) then you press the bun down for the green tea custard to pour out. It made us chuckle for sure and we had 3 rounds to create a different vomiting look haha! Another thing I am annoyed about is that one of their eyes are burnt – the same thing I spoke about being rushed a less attention to detail here.
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I actually preferred the egg custard filling bun – it’s not too sweet but has a nice creamy texture. Molten buns are not new; they’ve been around for ages so whoever came up with this idea is a genius! The meal itself is reasonably priced and not over-priced by their novelty (which is usually the case). The restaurant has a great vibe but we struggled to understand why barely any of these waiters/waitresses spoke Cantonese (and English at the bare minimum). We had a bit of an issue with payment too when Kate wanted to pay with her card – we asked for the card machine but they took her card instead which made her nervous (and so she should be). When the waitress arrived to ask for her pin on the pin machine there was no bill figure so Kate refused to enter her pin as the instruction on there did not ask for her pin. The waitress then raised her voice that she had to enter the pin and I explained that ‘how can she enter her pin if we don’t know what she is paying for?’ She then further raised her voice saying something along the lines that the pin machine works and has the amount correct but it doesn’t show on the screen (which is not true because the machine was pending and looking for a connection before it is prompted to print out a receipt for Kate to sign). Once signed, the waitress all of a sudden calmed her voice with a smile to say thanks for dining with us – that was weird from raising her voice at us to a polite smile at the end of a transaction. I genuinely felt that customer service was a little lacked here – we had to keep looking around for their attention to make an order. I know there’s a lot of bashing here but unfortunately by observation; a lot of customers experienced a similar service. I really hope that the next time I come back (which I will – I want that doggy sausage roll) there will be an improvement because it’s a great place. You can see their full menu here.
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