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2017-02-12
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When I first moved to Hong Kong about 4 years ago, I ate Thai food much more often than I do now. I had been to a handful of places in Central/Western district, but after a certain point I just stopped being impressed by it. The standard dishes all just started to blend together in a mash of lemongrass, fish sauce, and mediocrity, so Thai food in general isn't often tempting for us. Eating here though was a welcome exception to what I'm used to. I was thoroughly impressed by the food---but *onl
The shop itself is somewhat odd: it sits right next door to its older brother, the Thai skewer take-away shop, the Grill, that proudly displays its kitchen so passers-by can see the magic happen. What's odd about this is that the Grill next door dwarfs the actual Thainan restaurant where we ate. This wouldn't be an issue except for that the interior *feels* small, even for Hong Kong standards. The stools and tables are cramped, especially for a tall foreigner like myself. This would be less of a problem if it wasn't for the restaurant's odd policy of requiring the customers to walk to the front counter to order, so if you want to get some extra BBQ goodies if you don't think your dish is filling enough, you have to shimmy your stool and make your way up front to ask the one server for it. Another nit-picky thing: the overhead lighting is obnoxious and uncomfortable. It's like eating under a spotlight, and it makes for crap picture-taking.Granted, there is no service charge at this place, but I found the combination of the cramped-ness and inconvenient ordering policy to be excessive at any rate. Of course, this place is just the younger sibling of the Grill next door, but these little oddities add up to give the place an indecisive feel. Is it a restaurant? a cafeteria? a take-away place? From the inside, it's tough to tell.
Now for the food:
We were surprised at about 3:30PM to be greeted with the lunch set menu, which runs until 6 o'clock. I'll admit that at first glance, it looks relatively unimpressive---so much so that I began to mentally prepare for Hong Kong Thai food mediocrity at its most mediocre, but it was all for naught. What stands out the most on the lunch menu, however, is the price: $60 is impressively low, I think, for a lunch special. I ordered the roast meat lunch special, while my wife ordered the beef in green curry. From the grill next door, we also ordered the roast fish cakes, squid, pork neck, beef.
Roast meats and fried rice combo
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The first thing I was impressed by was the satay sauce, which is atypical. Satay sauce often just strikes me as salty peanut butter goop. This stuff was good though. It wasn't too salty, and the chunks of peanut nicely accented the otherwise smooth sauce. Nor was it at all gritty like some of the other satay sauce I've been subjected to. Well done.
The BBQ beef was exquisite in ways I did not expect at first glance. It looked exactly how most roast meat does: charred and crispy on the outside, but probably overdone and without any especially exciting flavors on the inside. My eyes they did deceive me though. The meat was soft, tender, and full of the sweet flavor of the marinade they used. Maybe I just don't get out enough, but that was the first time I can recall being so thoroughly impressed by the flavor of roast meat. The chicken and pork skewers were also surprising in the best possible way. The chicken was tender, moist, and had a lovely subtle sweetness from the marinade. Well done.
The lemongrass fried rice was the second dish to thoroughly impress. It had a *serious* spicy kick to it that I hadn't ever gotten from other the other Thai fried rice I've had in Hong Kong. Even more pleasantly surprising was how it was neither over-salted nor over-oiled, which are two things that often ruin fried rice for me. Again, well done.
Green curry with beef
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Roast beef, Fish cake, and squid
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The BBQ seafood was exactly what I expected: mediocre. The squid was nicely charred but dried out, the way I'm used to it, and the BBQ fish cakes are exactly what you would expect: BBQ fish cakes on a stick. These dishes, I think, were the most underwhelming of all. Not bad, but not memorable.
Overall this place was a nice surprise, but I think their food is best enjoyed somewhere else, like home. I would definitely return for their lunch specials, particularly the two we ordered, but I would not be surprised if the other two specials, the cold chicken and the papaya salad were also impressive.
I give it 4 stars for taste, but that's only because of the mediocre seafood and the confused vegetables. The other stuff was five star taste. Decor and service get 2 stars because of how uncomfortable the place is and it's awkward ordering policy. 4 for hygeine because it's definitely clean, and 4 for value because of the 5 star lunch special value and the 3 star grilled items.
張貼
