If you’ve ever wondered what a fast food joint in Hong Kong looks like, this is it. Formerly called the Café de Hong Kong, this brightly-lit, functional space (all tiled floors and wood veneered booths), it’s spread over several floors, each with HK-pop piped overhead, and is deservedly popular with Chinese students – or, in fact, anyone with an eye for good value.
Typical dishes such as soup with just-added instant noodles, or HK tea (black tea brewed with condensed milk) are here for the truly nostalgic, but the vast menu offers plenty more besides.
We enjoyed a generous portion of sticky steamed rice came topped with two kinds of barbecued meat: slices of sweet roast pork and chunks of gamey, fatty, moreish roast duck. Equally excellent – and equally ample – was a bowl of soup noodles, where slippery ho fun in a delicate garlicky broth came topped with bouncy hawker-style fish balls and a couple of juicy fresh pork and prawn wontons.
The drinks list, which is almost as large as the menu, runs from exotic juices (honey melon, red bean) to on-trend bubble teas (papaya milk, taro), and traditional Chinese teas (oolong, jasmine, green) – though our chrysanthemum tea, served pre-brewed in a tall glass, was on the strong side.
Service is fast, and by London Chinatown standards, fairly friendly.