Monday, December 28, 2009

Honolulu Cafe 檀島咖啡室, Central, Hong Kong

This cafe used to be a popular place for its coffee, egg tarts and certain local adaptations of western dishes, but it's no longer that popular due to the competitiveness of other cafe and restaurants.

1. The shop is 60% occupied. 2. Iced coffee HK$18 (as compared to other similar deco. cafe, iced coffee is at around HK$12-14). The coffee is quite ok though a bit bitter dry.

3. An old fusion food BBQ pork on spaghetti in "orange" color tomato sauce - HK$45. If you want something in the old time, this is the dish. However, the mushroom and the frozen veggie have quite a strong "frozen" smell. Supposed they should pan fry those longer to take away that frozen smell. 4. veggie/pork with noodle soup HK$35. The pork was marinated too long that the meat is like paper. The veggie/mushroom/fried tofu has some kind of "washing powder" smell. Really frustrating.
5. the egg tart - HK$6 (as compared to other cafes at HK$2.5 to 3.5. Even Tai Cheong's egg tarts are just HK$4). If you prefer a milky custard taste with a less butter crusty tart, this would be what you want. However, $6 is a bit over-priced considering what they put in the tart. 6. the menu.

7. when this cafe offered all-you-can-eat hot pot in dinner time, you would know what they are facing. They had better look into what they are serving, rather than giving more variety for more weakness to be exposed.

6 comments:

Thailand Club said...

wow Honolulu is a classic in HK, i like the egg tart, but HK$6 is really quite "too much", but still cheaper compare to Bangkok's

Stella said...

Hi SEA,
Is this the one you told me to try at HKK Int'l Airport? I cannot find this place at the Airport though.
The egg tart looks so shining and tasty.
Here this costs $1.20 US for one egg tart.

Anonymous said...

I think you should go to Wanchai Honolulu cafe. that one is better, and better to go there at 3:30pm because it is the time of egg tart.

in the sea said...

Yes, $6 is a bit too expensive and there are a lot better than Honolulu's now. SS, sorry this one is on the terminal 2 above the check-in hall. You need to exit the immigration on terminal 1 and walk across to terminal 2, but don't know why they drop their quality. So no need to try.

To Anonymous 4:55pm, I didn't try the Wanchai shop but will do that later.

Stella said...

Thank you SEA for the clarification. I also asked my HK friend tonight. She said this Cafe used to be very good and crowded. But she did not say whether it is still good now.
By the way, my HK friend highly recommended China Eastern Airline(HK via Shanghai to LA) for 2 big reasons(the good price and also one passenger can occupy 3 seats in average so her seat is like business class after taking 3 seats). She said the stewardess purposely asked them to take more seat for more comfortable sleep after the take off. Never heard of that airline.

in the sea said...

My other business friends said they tried some fare like HK$1k something for Seoul/Shanghai roundtrip from HK for two places. I think there are not too many people thinking about flying thru' China Eastern. 3 seats for a truly flat bed is cool. I tried several times back in the old time of Northwest and CX when they were not full. :) The most wonderful time is on NW that I took 4 seats in the middle section for a super 1st class. :)