Café Deadend

A little hard to find but its a hidden gem. Original twists on old favorites. We ordered the soft boil egg Danish and the sliced egg with crabmeat. The Danish was similar to an eggs beney but the yolk was not runny and was on a croissant with a side of berries.
We had an order of po’s sweets which was basically 2 chocolate cookies which tastes like left over stale cookies. Very disappointing considering the rest of our breakfast.

Super disappointing. And angry, might I add.
Got there at 1pm, got a table and ordered a kale salad and sandwich; they said it’ll be around 25 minutes. 30 minutes, we checked with the staff at the counter and they had forgotten our order. They said I’ll be another 15 minutes.
20 minutes later, my friend’s sandwich comes. I’m still waiting for my friggen salad. I ask the waitress why have I been waiting for 55 minutes for a simple salad. She apologized and told me the same thing, that they messed up the order.
I paid $ 105 for a salad I can make in 10 minutes max and 1 hour of wait. What the F right?
No apologies from the manager and certainly no free coffee for the both of us.
The salad had cold onsen egg, which means they only had to crack it open. Nothing else in the salad was at all complicated to make. It wasn’t particularly busy and they had SO many staff but they can’t even make a simple salad? I finished my tiny salad in 5 minutes.
I was left angry and still hungry. Totally overpriced and overrated.

I remembered when Café Deadend first opened its doors it generated so much media hype it was impossible to get a table without waiting in line for hours. That’s enough to push a lot of people away and/​or make any decent food lost its taste. Luckily they are located in a «deadend» so unless you are a determined foodie, regular people don’t come here: P
The media hype has since died down and there is no longer the ridiculous queue. In fact, I am glad this place is still around (as many don’t). The food and coffee is still as good I remembered and it is still a cash business. However, without the grumpy (and hungry) eaters staring at you waiting eagerly for your table, I found my experience very enjoyable.
I should come back more frequent now :)

For a café in the SoHo vicinity, I expect nothing less than 100% hipster – and that exactly describes every component of my visit to Café Deadend: brunch items with liberal use of runny eggs, crafty photogenic pastries, a posh ambiance that looks like a Tumblr photoset in real life, a whimsically obscure location, limited seating that gets crowded easily, Instagramable latte art, a paper menu that looks seasonal, coffee campers with shiny Macbooks, and unfortunately, a slightly marked-​up pricing for the complete hipster dining experience.
[THE GOOD]
The highlight was definitely the apple tart – somehow they came up with the ingenious idea of taking a whole apple and building the tart around it. It comes out horizontally sliced (and thankfully de-​seeded) in a unique presentation and a nice, strong apple taste that goes great with the caramel sauce, pistachio topping, and vanilla ice cream.
[THE MEDIOCRE]
I got the steak salad because I always find myself vegetable-​deficient and craving salads when I’m in HK. It was quite good and the portion size was okay. My friends got a BLT and a ham sandwich with which they were generally satisfied.
However there was nothing particularly special about the food and it was wayyyyy pricey. At first it seemed rather normal to me coming from the exalted San Franciscan standard of living, but for this price in SF at least I would get local/​organic/​fair trade/​etc etc and mind-​blowing quality, but Café Deadend turned out to be rather mediocre. My friends also reminded me of how expensive HK$ 80+ sandos and sandwiches are when there is in all the yummy and cost-​effective glory of HK food.
[THE BAD]
A bunch of my friends developed mosquito bites after our lunch here :/​Not sure if it’s something in the café or from the semi-​wilderness of the Mid-​Levels neighborhood.
[THE VERDICT]
If you are into hipster things, this is your natural habitat.
If you are looking for good food, try the apple tart.
If you are looking for cost-​effective food, Café Deadend might be a bit of a dead end.

Loved the poached eggs and prosciutto on toast and the Café Mocha! Really nice little spot. Clean and simple atmosphere, friendly staff, yummy food!

This little café at the end of Po Hing Fong is so crowded with people every weekend. Last time sitting inside it was a bit too stuffy, therefore I sit outside this time which is much better. The chocolate terraine is sweet and nice but the coffee is so-​so.

This place is just too cool for school. It is so cool that I can’t even see a name on the front. I honestly thought it was part of Po’s Atelier bakery, but apparently Café Deadend is pretty much a «speakeasy» café. Love it. The clean modern feel is great and on a crisp fall morning it really is quite relaxing. I ordered the Bacon Egg Breakfast sandwich and to be honest, it was one of the best breakfast sandwiches I have had in a long time. The bread was amazing — soft and fluffy. Perfect for hangovers. The coffee was also great and the barista is this super cool dude with some really cool tats.
All in all, come here on a lazy weekend morning, especially if you are a hipster.

Café Deadend! I couldn’t eat here last time with my friends because it was super packed — no seats available. But! I was finally able to experience you today for a Saturday brunch with my cousins. :)
I was first to get here out of the three of us and decided to look up Café Deadend on Foursquare to see what others recommend and liked. Hot chocolate was one of the items, thus I ordered it. But… After I got it and tried it myself, the hot cocoa is very… ordinary and blend with nothing special. While it’s pretty, it was definitely small and tasteless for $ 50.
There weren’t many vegetarian friendly options at Café Deadend. In Hong Kong, sometimes you find yourself with a menu with endless amount of options that leave you overwhelmed and /​or confused with what you should order. For Café Deadend, they do a great job of keeping the menu SUPER small and limited — it is great but difficult for the same time for vegetarians as their «vegetarian» options have buffalo mozzarella and parmesan cheese which I just found out recently is not actually vegetarian due to calf rennet. :’(!!
Anyways, I ended up getting their B.E.L.T. — basically a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich without the bacon, since I can’t eat bacon. I was surprised to find a yogurt with grapes next to the sandwich, but the highlight was definitely the bread! I liked the sandwich, it was quite interestingly. I wouldn’t say it was amazing, but it was better than normal (as having a good /​right kind of bread has tons to do with a sandwich!). The bread was pretty good, with the sandwich was a good balance together as a whole. I wouldn’t say it was really great /​amazing /​out of the world, but it is better than a normal sandwich. I would recommend trying it for yourself to see whether you like it or not. My cousin and I got this — she got it with the bacon, I got it without. ;)
If you plan to come here, be sure to prepare yourself for a wait time. There is a high chance that you will need to line up to try this place!

A cute little café tucked away on a side street off Ho Ping Fo. Inside is a combination of bar seating, tables & chairs and outdoor space. Take your pick.
The main draw for me here is the quality of the food. So far, I have opted for the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel and the spiced apple pie. From my vantage point at the bar, I could see the degree of care that was being taken over both dishes and this attention paid off. Both were wonderful.
If I was going to choose one dish, it would be the apple pie which came with a luscious caramel sauce. Just what you want as a mid afternoon snack.
The coffee lets the side down a bit. Adequate rather than exciting. Still, the food more than makes up for it!