Zzue Creation is an outdoor furniture store that is definitely at the upper end of the price scale…read more The products they offer are fantastic, genuine, and of the highest quality. However, you may need to remortgage your house to afford them. The store offers general outdoor furnitures and accessories, such as outdoor "sofa" seating, tables and chairs, sun-brellas, awnings, gazebos, storage units, lights, fire torches, you get the idea. All the products are imported from places like Italy and Germany, are the genuine article, and have lengthy warranties. As such, you will pay a premium for them. You could buy a similar item from elsewhere for much cheaper, but these will be the Chinese knock-offs, which carry no warranty, no return policy, and may last anything from 100 months to 100 minutes. Most of the products (certainly the furniture but excluding the accessories) require ordering, as there are usually fabric and other finish options. Turnaround times are a bit longer (due to the import time?) at 6-8 weeks. Also, not everything is on display. In fact, compared to the product range that they actually have on offer, very little is displayed. Ask the staff to see brochures and pictures, which are plentiful and available. If you are feeling flush and are interested in buying, ask for Emily. She is one of the sales supervisors, but is incredibly knowledgable about the products and services. She also knows what is available on display at the other stores, so if you really want to look at something, she will direct you to the right location in HK.

Ikea, located in the Causeway Bay area, was downstairs to the hotel that we had stayed at (Park…read moreLane Hotel). This review can only comment on the food bistro section as we opted to grab a few treats during our stay in HK. The food bistro at Ikea is located on the basement floor. They are completely cashless where you do have to order from a kiosk. Once you finish ordering from a kiosk, you bring your receipt to the food pick up area and staff will prepare your food for you. What was neat was that Ikea in Hong Kong serves breakfast items, lunch, as well as desserts. Their soft serves also often change from time to time and we were lucky that they were offering a triple pistachio sundae during our time in HK. There is a small space (standing only) with tables where you can enjoy your food items as well. We stopped by Ikea on a weekday afternoon to grab some triple pistachio sundaes. What was frustrating was that we did have cash we wanted to use, however, the food bistro is cashless only where there was not even a cashier where we order from. We were forced to use the kiosk and pay by card. After paying I wasn't sure how it worked with picking up our sundaes but I figured that we would need to go to the food pick up area. Once we gave our receipt to the correct staff, she made our sundaes quickly. The pistachio sundae was delicious and full of pistachio flavour. A nice treat on a hot HK day for sure!

IKEA is literally right downstairs from the Park Lane Hotel where we stayed, so we made a point of…read morestopping by for ice cream--because that's kind of our thing. In Taiwan, we really loved their black sesame ice cream, which was rich and creamy, so we were curious to try it in HK. Here, they offer the "yuen yeung" flavor, a split of Hong Kong-style milk tea and coffee. You can also order either flavor on its own, but we went with the mix. Unfortunately, the milk tea side was quite weak--very subtle in flavor and more icy than creamy. The coffee side, on the other hand, was much stronger and more noticeable. It cost HKD 8 (a little over USD $1), which isn't bad for a unique flavor, especially for those who haven't tried it before. We didn't explore the rest of the store this time, as we were really just there for the ice cream.

If you're into contemporary, eco-chic furniture, Tree will be your jam…read more They have an outlet in Soho, but if you really want to see their inventory, their flagship store at Horizon Plaza is where it's at! They take up the entire floor, and there's tons to look at. True to their name, they have a lot of wood furniture that uses oak, teak, or walnut; great if you're in the market for a new table, headboard, or TV stand. Their sofas are beautifully designed, and you can definitely find a few that are discounted. I was hoping they'd have some stuff for babies, but no luck; just a small section that catered to older children. When I visited, they had an ongoing sale with lots of pieces going between 20-40% off. As this is in an outlet mall, I'm unsure if this is perpetual, but either way, it's definitely worth a visit to see their full inventory and hopefully get a great price!

Rapee-Living is an interesting store. It specializes in home furniture and decorations, of a…read moredifferent variety. It's great because It offers something other than the typical Ikea or Price Rite choices, products that can make a home unique instead of "oh... yea I was going to buy that in Ikea, but I bought something else in Ikea." Before I moved to Mui Wo I was on the look out for a few things to fill up the new flat. Naturally I wanted to travel as short a distance as possible, which led me to Rapee-Living. It's a small store with a big bed in the middle taking up most of the room. What attracted me most about it was the colorful toys, and small decorations that set it apart. They even had a electronic picture frame/ video frame that I thought was pretty cool. I was not allowed to buy it. We ended up getting a couple of stripy bed sheets, a pair of matching pillows and a little toy that seems to be their mascot. The stuffed toy is everywhere around the shop in different designs and colors but its cute all the same. The prices weren't bad either and I can see myself building up a little collection of those stuffed toys (for my girlfriend, not me!) over time. In general Ikea has everything I need, but not everything I want. It is the shops like Rapee-Living that help add a pinch of spice to an otherwise boring apartment. I've noticed that there are a few other RLs around town and I'd definitely have a look in one should I pass by.

To my knowledge I only know of two stores on Mui Wo that specialize in Furniture. May Art Furniture…read moreDecoration Co. is the more budget friendly one. It's across the road from my apartment so when I first moved in it only made sense to give the place a visit, after all my home as naked of furniture. I walked into MAFDC with a set budget, eager to see how I could fill my living room and roof. I thought, by judging the stores outside, that I could get a couple of things, a table and set of chairs at least. The phrase, don't judge a book by its cover springs to mind. The store offers a decent standard of furniture with nothing (that I saw) under the $500 apart from the odd chair or stool. It's a long store with leather couches filling along the entire way. On either side the walls are lined with shelfs, cupboards, drawers, and a sign reading "custom made!", which I assume just means adding another 0 to the price for a choice of color. I walked from the entrance to the far end where the counter is and asked about outdoor furniture. The lady behind the counter simply pointed to a catalogue filled with all sorts of things. Primarily I was going for a parasol. They had one going for $650 with an average delivery time of 15 days, I have no idea if that's a good price or not, but I figured I'd need a table to eat on first before worrying about pimping up my rooftop! I asked her about her cheapest table and chairs, or if she had any discounts. She obviously wasn't used to dealing with customers like me and I highly underestimated the standard of the store. I left but promised myself to research the price of parasols... I probably should have put a time limit on that promise.

Aloha Outdoor Furniture is (believe it or not) an outdoor furniture retailer. Located in Horizon…read morePlaza, Ap Lei Chau, they stock a good range of furniture and accessories, mostly made locally in China. The store is large and spacious, with the products sensibly laid out and displayed, and enough room to move around each staged piece. The staff are very attentive and quickly on hand to help, but sometimes a bit too attentive. If I wanted to be followed around everywhere, I'll get a puppy. The products themselves are mostly made in China, but unfortunately, the price does not reflect this, with many of the items pitched around the midway point between the expensive imports, and the cheap Chinese copies. These same items can be bought in a shop 4 floors above for 30% less. And with all Chinese products, they lack the quality and assurances (warranties, returns) of goods made elsewhere. What this store does very well is the Rubbermaid plastic storage solutions. None of the other outdoor furniture stores in Horizon Plaza sell these plastic clip together units (the Garden Gallery gardening store does sell similar), so if this is what you are after, you will probably have to buy here. The Rubbermaid products I am talking about range from wheelie bins and beer coolers, through to storage benches and full size sheds. Look, they're not the nicest looking things in the world (quite frankly they are the warts on the face of your lovely garden), they're not cheap (being imported from the US) but they are practical, and 90% waterproof. For the outdoor seating sets, and tables and chairs, I would probably go elsewhere, but for plastic sheds and storage boxes, this is your place!

Decently priced (by my American/Californian standards) but I kinda wished it was cheaper since it's…read morein Hong Kong. Kinda reminds me of Daiso but with a few other things like beddings, pillows, etc and not as cheap. It's different in how its messier and doesn't have as cool stuff as Daiso.

If you have five minutes to get a gift for a friend and price isn't a concern, I would suggest…read moremaking a run for Papyrus. Whether you're after a picture frame, a paperweight or a fancy stationery kit, they've got it. Papyrus is a gifts galore, but a pricey one at that. Papyrus has the most gorgeous photo albums. Do people still use photo albums anymore? It's been a while since I've even said the words 'photo album' ever since we've embarked on this digital age. But an oldie is a goodie, and my family is still very much into photo albums. They've got something for every theme out there - a baby girl, a wedding, a graduation... the list goes on! My mother recently bought a gorgeous photo album for a family friend who just gave birth to a baby daughter. The album is a subtle baby pink and has an adorable bear in metallic silver on it - too pretty! Besides photo albums and frames, they also do simple gift items like small animal figures and fancy ballpoint pens. They have a great selection of cards too, some of which are even 3D or musical cards! If you are looking to send out cards in mass, they have sets of cards in boxes too. Perfect for birthday or wedding invitations! One thing that gets me about Papyrus is that I've always found the store a little cluttered. The placement of items is cramped, making the store look a slightly messy and overwhelming. Papyrus is also quite pricey - if you plan on getting anything here, you better be willing to splurge!