The craze on Hong Kong Cafes had certainly died down these days, no more newspaper features or new entrants into the market. First thing first, I feel that none of these cafes are actual replicas of those in Hong Kong, more of modified variants that had been suited to local tastebuds. Despite knowing that, I was still curious enough to check out what this one could whip up!
Located at Orchard Central, the cafe is a casual eatery operated by the Crystal Jade group. Decor was modern and vibrant, furnished with colourful seats and gleaming lights, while the booth sides had splendid unobstructed view of Somerset Road and beyond. You could self-service and tick on the paper menu yourself, or the efficient waitresses would gladly do it for you too.
Iced Milk Tea ($3.90)
The things they do to glam up a humble cup of milk tea! Served in a tall flask with dried ice smoking from the hole, you would then pour the milk tea into a slanting shooter for drinking. I thought that it did has the wow factor initially, until you got tired of pouring and tempted to drink straight from the flask instead!
Gimmick aside, the milk tea itself was of rather good quality, nothing less than what I would expect of Crystal Jade. Then again given the above-average price, you were probably paying more for the effect than the tea!
Club Sandwich ($7.90), Deep-fried Mid Wings ($5.90)
Now that's something I would agree with for afternoon tea! Double-decked ham and cheese fillings with refreshing tomato and cucumber slices, heaps of hot fries and a bunch of in-house salad. You could even share this as a side!
It was my fault that I thought it was coated with their signature prawn paste, but the usual wings were nonetheless nicely done with crispy coating and juicy meat.
Steamed Rice in Lotus Leaf ($8.80), Seafood Baked Rice ($10.90)
Both dishes used fried rice with egg as base, a good change from the plain ones. While the Chinese sausages, mushrooms and pork ribs were nicely marinated, fragrance from lotus leaf was clearly lacking. The baked rice to put it bluntly, was just run-of-the-mill.
Bill for three was $53.20 after taxes. Hits and misses, I would probably return if I were in the vicinity for teatime, with my verdict on local HK cafes remain unchanged. Maybe I will bring my own extended straw to sip from that flask too!
Crystal Jade Hong Kong Cafe
#07-05 Orchard Central
Tel: 6509 3118
Taken with Nikon D70
3 comments:
love that milk tea flask...:)
Very strangely, I was having a HK cafe food crave yesterday. I really miss C Nai Hong Kong cafe. They used to have an outlet at Novena just next to Wee Nam Kee, but now there're only 2 outlets in the east, super inconvenient for me.
Call me strange too haha, but I do actually quite like foods from hong hong cafes lol. I miss HK cafe's french toast with peanut butter, milk tea & homemade ice lemon tea. The ice lemon tea was really one of the best I've tried here. Used to eat their french toast every week.
Another 2 HK cafes I like are Xin Wang & Kim Gary. Xin Wang for thick toasts & Kim Gary for french toast & baked rice. Try Prosperity Kitchen at Mhd Sultan Rd Daniel, their foods are less gimmicky, leaning more to real HK fare. French toast is yums.
Loraine: Haha, makes you feel as if you drank many shot, but its just a regular cup quantity!
ice: Seems like you prefer having tea snacks/breakfast in HK cafes rather than proper meals!
I have to agree, toasts in Singapore are pretty decent, with the better ones being more liberal with rich butter slabs and honey drizzles. Then again its one of the easiest and back-to-basic in a HK cafe kitchen.
Giving up on mains, the first thing that I look out for is their quality of milk tea, so far the ones that passed (Stringent tests from mom and local Hongkongers, haha) were Crystal Jade, Kim Gary, C Nai and Old HongKong (Novena Square2). Not easy to have a good one, as few bothered to blend different types of tea leaf to achieve that desired flavour.
I got a family friend who makes awesome lemon tea by brewing her own tea, paired with a small cup of sugar syrup, add lemon slices and poke them in tall glasses. Love that when she pop by for afternoon tea with my mom. haha
Prosperity Kitchen, I will keep that in mind! =)
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