Modern Cantonese Cafe with a Hong Kong Cafe sway. And in my area where I lost many of my Cantonese faves/staples because restaurants don't stick around as long as they once did, this one fills a very timely void.
I haven't tried any of the HK specialties (yet), but given how I'm confident in this kitchen, I totally wouldn't mind trying. Even though I find the Italian fusion in Chinese culture to be quite strange/amusing. I have tried their warm Milk Tea ($6) and it is legit. Just basic strong black tea that is smooth and made even smoother with some condensed milk. I never find a warm milk tea this solid from any boba shop.
Beef Stew Noodle Soup ($13/4*) Broth pretty good, not too dark but still still heavy with beef viscosity. Tons of thin egg noodles, almost too much. Very tangled and clumped so you have to do a lot of fluffing and separating of noodles. The noodles also had a weird aroma to it, I couldn't put my finger on it, and was my only big knock on this bowl.
The beef was ALL connective tissue like zero muscle meat. The good is when simmered properly all that connective tissue becomes very tender albeit gelatinous, just like tendons. I don't think an average American will really order this, but Asians like this type of texture for stewed meats. I did for sure.
Salted Fish Chicken Fried Rice ($17/5*) I think this has become one of my favorite fried rice preps. I'm not sure what the 'salted fish' is really, but it is an umami bomb. I like many things fermented like shrimp paste, black bean paste and kim chi and this has a real similar effect. Too strong for American palates as I brought this into work one time and a couple of Americanized palates stayed away from this. Lol. But the rice is perfectly fried with a coating of oil onto each grain and little chicken pieces are all juicy and flavorful.
XO Chow Fun with Pork Cheek Meat ($16/5*) Loved the noods, totally wok'd hard for that wok hei flavor and their sauce totally absorbs. I think I like thicker chow fun noodles as this was a bit thinner, but at least they don't make it mushy. And I've never seen pork cheek meat for this dish and it was legit, nice and chewy with a good bounce. Pork jowel meat is now one of favorite cuts of pork.
Beef with Bittermelon ($18/5*) This has become one of my favorite Cantonese beef stir-fry dishes. Again not suited for Americanized palates as even the owner/server warned me about the bittermelon. Lol. But the beef was perfectly velveted, big chunks of bittermelon and green bell pepper added great vegetative texture and flavor and all tied together with a balanced black bean sauce. This will be an anchor dish for me here.
Bay Fung Tong Fried Rice ($16/4*) I had to ask what exactly this was as I don't really see it on other menus. It definitely is a fried rice prep that I've never really had before, and I liked it. First off there is a definite curry flavor that is really noticeable in the first few bites. But after about the 5th bite or so I totally couldn't sense it anymore, like my senses got used to it. The protein chunks were pork nicely marinated in soy and rice wine so it had this unique flavor to it. And tiny chunks of spam, which didn't excite me at first but between the marinated pork and the spam, they both took turns at diversifying the hits. And there were the perfect amount of thinly sliced jalapenos to give this a great zing. A little oilier than the salted fish fried rice, but I would definitely get this again.
I came twice, once during a weekend lunch and another time on a weeknight dinner and the food comes out way faster on the weekend trip. But both times the food came out super nice with some skill. To that, even though they've been around for several years, they're gonna be incorporated into my local rotation. I love symbiotic relationships. read more