Hearing that there was a new Hong Kong style cafe, we could not wait till the weekend to go and try. This new place is in the same shopping centre complex as the recently opened Hakataya Ramen branch.
“Cha Kee” falls into the Hong Kong Style Cafe category, which is typically a cheap, casual eating place frequented by people who live locally. In Hong Kong, you can typically find one of these at every corner filled with loyal locals. Sort of like western coffee shops. “Cha” means tea and “Kee” means “Mr” (usually named after the owner) or a “place” like “-ya” in Japanese. In this case, it is more likely to be the latter, as we doubt the owner is called Mr Cha or Mr Tea.
Upon entering we were served promptly and politely taken to the table (Good job!). We were presented with the menus (The words on the menu were a bit small). Typical of Hong Kong Cafes, there is usually a daily lunch special – an option of two different mains including drinks. These options change every day. They are usually labelled as meal set “A” and meal set “B” for ease of ordering. The daily specials on the day were:
A: Beef in Curry sauce with rice
B: Chicken Fillet in Black Pepper Sauce with rice / spaghetti. (The rice or spaghetti part might sound weird, but believe me it is very common in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong you can also have macaroni in soup for breakfast)
When ordering you would usually say either “Meal Set (A/B) and (your drink preference) please!”. Therefore in our case, we said “Meal Set A with a Cold lemon tea”. Cold drinks usually cost an extra 50 cents, so be mindful : D. Iced Lemon Tea is a favourite of Hong Kong regulars and is a good test of a good Hong Kong style cafe. We also ordered a House special stir fried vermicelli.
It took a long period of time for both the mains and the drinks to come out – at least 40 minutes. One of our mains was served to the wrong table and therefore we had to wait another 10 minutes for it to be remade. Seeing as they had only recently opened, we could tell there might be some operational issues that might need to be ironed out : ). The lovely lady was very apologetic about the situation so we did not mind waiting. We were entertained by the beautiful interior and the shows on the TVs at the back of the shop.
Like we were saying before, the Iced Lemon Tea is a good test of a good HK styled cafe. The Iced Lemon Tea arrived and it tasted great – fresh sliced lemon with a deep brewed tea. We liked it. The tea had a good “gip” taste which is great.
The mains arrived:
First to arrive was the “Beef in curry sauce on rice”. It was presented well with generous beef slices. It was above average, but the dish did not really have any “wow”. We found the curry to be a bit too bland and runny. It was different to the typical HK curry as well. Chinese cooks usually tenderize meat by either using baking soda or an egg-white/cornstarch mixture (velveting). Unfortunately, in this case the beef had been over-tenderize to the extent where it did not taste like beef anymore.
The dish above is the House Special stir fried vermicelli. While waiting, we were wondering whether it was going to be stir fried properly or was it going to be a braised style imitation. When it arrived, we were pleasantly surprised as it was stir fried perfectly. The noodle was not soaked in sauce and it tasted good. We found this dish to be better out of the two, however again the meat in the dish was over tenderize. There is something wrong when you cannot tell whether the meat in the dish is chicken or pork : ).
Service is very welcoming and quick but missing some minor things – some table water would have been nice. Other than that, the experience was above average. We see the staff at this place willing to improve – continue to work hard and hopefully we come back to an even better place. We rate it a 6.5 out of 10.
We will definitely return again and look forward to giving a higher score.
6.5 / 10
MOO MOO Eats ... 