If you're familiar with Singapore, you will know that Katong is a neighborhood west of Downtown,…read moreknown for their laksa. I didn't know that until I visited Singapore last month as I tried Katong Corner in July. We ordered the Hainan Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow, and Beef rendang. The chicken was delicious! But my qualm is the rice that accompanied the dish. You can taste the chicken in the first bite of rice, but for some unknown reason, it had a very strange plastic-y kind of after taste that did not sit well on my taste buds. I tried to mask it with the soy sauce, chili sauce and ginger condiment and it only mediated that odd after taste ever so slightly. The Singaporean-style Char Kway Teow came with a large prawn in the center. It looked very impressive, but how did it taste? It was a solid plate of noodles, with a variety of thick and flat noodles, but the prawn was overcooked. After tasting this dish, I realized that I preferred the Penang-style CKT with a little spice kick and fried egg. To each his own. On the other hand, the Beef Rendang was very tender. If I return, I'd definitely order this again. We were served four large beef patties and the rendang sauce was 5 stars! Probably best in HK that I've tasted. I can't wait to try their other dishes, especially their Laksa and Singapore chili crab.

They have a great lunch special, a Hainan chicken rice set lunch is only $88, including a free…read morebarley water drink. There are other varieties such as laksa, beef rendang, nasi goreng and char kuay teow. No wonder it is so packed at lunch time, we waited almost a good hour for a table. The hainan chicken comes with three sauces. The chicken is good but not tender enough - I think it's more to do with the breed of chicken then the cooking. The bak kut teh (rib soup) comes piping hot on a stove, and has a rich herbal flavor and lots of ingredients in it. I love the laksa noodle has a strong flavor, and the satay are tender and juicy. The lunch set comes with a barley drink, which is so delicious, I managed to drink half of it, to the brim of bursting my belly. Overall, good quality food for at a fair price, fast service.

This is one of two places I go for my authentic Singaporean chicken rice fix... The other being…read moreCafe Malacca @ Hotel Jen. While the chicken rice there is arguably [marginally] better at Cafe Malacca, Old Town wins out for location (in the heart of Central), portion size (generous) and quickness of service (I don't think I've ever waited for more than 10 minutes). The chicken rice is as authentic you would expect, right down to the gelatin between the skin & meat. The winter melon soup is great and the soup bowl they serve it in is a nice touch, though not exactly conducive for easy scooping into mouth. At $98 for the regular set and $116 to top up for a thigh meat portion, it certainly ain't cheap, but I am sympathetic to restaurants having to pay super high rents in Central. A couple of tips: - Come during lunch or dinner and get the regular chicken rice set. The teatime chicken rice set is cheaper but you are getting less proportionally per dollar. - Top up an extra $18 for thigh meat. Totally worth it. - They have some amex discounts. I believe if you pay your bill on weekdays before 1245pm you get 12% off your bill. - Upgrade your drink to a coconut. They are always cold and fresh.

I came here for lunch with a friend on a weekday…read more Food: I'd heard that their Hainan Chicken was good here and was excited to try it. The Hainan Chicken Lunch set ($98 + 10% service fee) was good and I felt pretty full after. It had several pieces of boneless chicken, a melon soup, rice with the chicken oil (not too oily and pretty flavorful), and 3 sauces to go with the chicken. The sauces were a sweet one, ginger, and a soy sauce like one. Overall, I feel like it was a good portion size and food was tasty. All sets comes with a hot or cold barley water. I got the hot and found it to be the right amount of sweetness. FYI: They also have a Hainan Chicken and Laksa set for $128, if you like Laksa as well. Wait for table: For this building, there is a line outside to get into the building via the elevator, but the line moves relatively quickly. On arrival at 12:30, we had to get a number, and waited half an hour for 2 people, so it's best that you go earlier. Promotion: They give you 15% off your bill if you pay your bill by 12:40pm so if you can go earlier, you not only get a deal, you can beat some of the later crowds. Service: Food came quickly as you are requested to tick off the items you want on a sheet of paper to pass to the waiter when you are seated. They were also quick to give us the check when we were done eating. And we didn't feel like they rushed us either, which was nice for chatting up and catching up.

I'm a huge fan of Malaysian food, so I always look for Malaysian restaurant anywhere I travel to…read more During our holiday in Hong Kong, I was so excited to try Cafe Malacca located on 2nd floor of JEN hotel by Shang ri-la. We came during their lunch service without reservation. We were really lucky to get seated immediately before they got super busy. They have an amazing menu and lunch set menu, but I preferred à la carte. I wished I could order every single item on the menu to try tho because everything just looked so good. My husband always loves the roti canai, so he got both the fish and lamb. I got the Mee Siam, and Hainanese chicken rice. My little one got the fried chicken (excellent, didn't taste like fast food). For desserts and drinks we ordered Teh Tarik (of course), soursop soda, coconut jelly, cendol and durian pudding (their signature desert using Musang King- must try). Everything was delicious and authentic. We all had food coma afterward. Nice, clean and chill vibe. Service was friendly. We'll definitely gonna come back when visiting HK again. Highly recommended!!!

On a recent trip to Hong Kong, after a couple Chinese meals my wife was craving Southeast Asian,…read moreand so we researched and saw this place being known for being the most popular and authentic Malaysian Food. The restaurant is on the Second Floor for the Hotel Jen. There is a pretty large and open dining area. We got there at 11:30am, right before the lunch rush came in, and it filled up quickly. We had different dishes and found them to be flavorful, I'd recommend their Rojak which is pretty spicy, their beef satay and Char Kway Teoy. We saved room for their Malaysian shaved ice with ice cream (Ice Kacang) which was really good. This place is better than a lot of the Malaysian food we could get back home in the Bay Area, CA, so I'd highly recommend this place and we'd likely return next time we're in HK.

We were tired of walking and randomly stumbled upon this restaurant that's sort of hidden in a…read morebuilding with little foot traffic. The decor is quite shabby and the walls are cluttered with reviews, magazine covers, and newspaper clippings with headlines ranging from "top voted Malaysian restaurant" to which celebrity has visited and endorsed its legitimacy. It was also a full house on a week night. So without further ado, we asked for a table for four. The wait was extremely short and we quickly realized why. Their efficiency is marked by the delivery of food which typically occurred within minutes of ordering. Coming from the Midwest, I would say these portions are relatively petite. It worked in our favor because we typically prefer to order a variety and would rather not have leftovers since we're tourists. We shared the satay platter, Singaporean curry noodles with shrimp and egg, char kway teow with shrimp, Hainan chicken, and tung choy. Everything was good but the noodles and chicken stood out the most. The Hainan chicken is deboned and goes perfectly well with the rice which is prepared with the chicken stock and fat that was generated from cooking the chicken. The Singaporean curry noodles are different from the ones I usually have. This one is wetter and the curry flavor is more subtle. If you can handle more heat, then the char kway teow is for you. It's wide noodles stir fried over high heat with a soy sauce and chili base. That was my favorite dish of the night. The next time I come back, I'd give that chai tau kway a try!

No frills eatery in the back left corner of the 1st floor of the Houston Centre in East TST. With…read morea dozen tables in the "main" restaurant, there are other dining rooms across the hall for when it gets busier. The Chai Tau Kway (radish cake) was AWESOME, full of smokey flavor. That dish along is worthy of another trip to TST alone. Ironically, we didn't think that the satay was particularly good (least favorite of our 3 dishes). I probably would try the Fried Kway Teow next time instead of ordering the Sambal Beehoon Goreng (noodles) again. And would definitely try the Chicken Rice, especially after seeing the recommendation on CNNGo travel site.... Next time

Great value for the price. Try their Seafood Lassa or their homemade Thai fishcakes or shrimp…read morecakes. Conveniently located right on Ladies Street behind the shops. Refreshing selection of soft drinks too.

I had "Australian beef with soft boiled egg", with some hot sauce it was OMG so good!!!read more

Chatterbox Cafe has closed early every time I have tried to eat here. Posted hours are 11 am to 10…read morepm daily. However, when arriving around 8:30 pm, they are already closed and refusing to serve dine in or take orders for takeaway. That's over an hour before their posted closing time! It's been pretty disappointing.

As a big fan of chicken rice, a lot of people suggested this place as having the best one in Hong…read moreKong, so I knew I had to check it out. Despite being tucked away in the basement of an upscale mall, it was easy to find. The inside was spacious and well-decorated. They offer a diverse menu of authentic Singaporean and Malaysian dishes. I ordered the signature chicken rice set as well as a pandan latte. Both of them were super delicious, and the quality of the chicken rice is high. The chicken oil rice was very tasty and aromatic, and the chicken meat was tender with a slight crunch to the skin. Pricing is definitely on the higher side, would not fathom paying $100+ for chicken rice if it wasn't for all the glowing reviews. I'd ding a star based on the really high price point, but overall worth it for the quality and ambiance.

Supposedly this place has been around for decades and is one of TST's most well known, classic SE…read moreAsian restaurants. There are a lot of Malaysian / Singaporean / Thai spots nearby, but I've yet to see one that was exclusively Indonesian till I came here. Truth be told, I don't know much about Indonesian food. I just know that whatever I eat here, I end up happy and stuffed. The name (印尼餐廳 aka "Indonesian Restaurant") couldn't be more original. A no frills establishment that sports two levels, the upper of which is the main dining room. It's pseudo reminiscent of a Dim Sum hall, but smaller and darkly lit. The decor is appropriately SE Asian themed, outlined with templetastic table cloths, purposefully placed bamboo decorations, and a funky ceiling pattern to keep things interesting. A mix of date-like groups and family parties are the general make up here, which means it's about as versatile for just about any group size to satay it up together. Speaking of satay, that was the first thing I ordered here. A collection of chicken, lamb, and pork skewers lightly marinated and perfectly cooked. I didn't even need the accompanying sauce or the cold cucumber slice to complete the bite. They were delicious all on their own and were the one item every table seemed to have. The other dishes reminded me of things I've eaten in SE Asia, such as their Mee Goreng and Nasi Lemak, both of which were actually quite mediocre. Lacking flavor and generally bland, I also felt the same for their Jado Jado salad and Egg Curry. These tend to be popular items to order, but I would recommend going another route. Beef Rendang is one option, Gado Gado and Sayer Lodeh are a couple of others. Their version of Chicken Curry and Fried Chicken are worth the hype. These dishes provided the most kick and the coconut rice was a nice addition to the mix. I think a proper drink, some satays, and another noodle would suffice for a solid meal. The wait staff is a variable mixed bag; some are super nice and hospitable while some others seem to be hard to flag down and could care less. The manager / owner is friendly guy, I wish he were the one greeting and waiting on certain tables instead of mean mugging set of waitresses I tend to deal with. In the end, it's impressive to watch them switch up the Cantonese and Indonesian, certainly not something you see every day.

Craving something different and hard to get in the US, Tim M. targeted Indonesian Restaurant for…read moredinner. Some people in our group were a little uninterested in trying this cuisine, but in the end, we were all very happy we did. The meal was delicious! The decor inside kind of makes you feel like you're in someone's dining room. It feels nice and homey. We had a few different waitresses while we were there; they seemed to be rotating around the few groups while we were there. They were mostly attentive, though we had a bit of trouble getting the check at the end. No big deal, though. We ordered four dishes, which were perhaps on the smaller side but still very satiating and delicious. On the menu, there isn't much description, but what we got each tasted very distinctive and delicious. Our dishes were on the richer side, but they were not too heavy. I'd definitely recommend checking this spot out! There's a lot to choose from.

It was always told to me that Nam Ah (South Asia) was the standard when it came to…read moreIndo-Malay-Singaporean cuisine in Kowloon. It makes sense after all, Nam Ah has practically outlived most of the businesses on Ashley through 50+ years and might have the roomiest interior, along with the nicest decor of the bunch. But after a couple of recent visits, it occurred to me the flavors were decent at best, not enough to warrant an immediate return. That's not to say things at Nam Ah were bad per se, but it hasn't won over my group of dining companions and I for the times we've gone. The menu is understandably catered to the Hong Kong and western palate, which includes random dishes from Portuguese Chicken to Borscht. The staff was sadly not in tune with a lot of Southeast Asian choices (such as roti canai, mee goreng, etc.) because they actually don't exist on the menu. Thankfully, through a myriad of random choices, we were able to convince them to create something similar to it. The end result showed it wasn't their strong suit, so it's hard to fault them for that. So instead, we focused on things they were known for. Hainanese Chicken ($85 for a quarter, $138 for a half), Pork Satay ($70), Char Kwayteow Noodles ($75) and a bowl of their Seafood Laksa. The reactions all around were shoulder shrugs, but being that we were hungry enough we still ate most of everything for the benefit of the doubt. I've had better Hainan Chicken at smaller, less distinguished places, but at least the presentation was on point. I would like to think Nam Ah has had better days or perhaps the times have changed in a way where this cuisine has become more accessible than ever. While I'm not opposed to a return visit, I'm really hoping they'll revamp their selections to where not only all of SE Asia is represented in some way, but tastes like it too.