Cafe Hong Kong

Pretty solid dinner at Café Hong Kong. I came here with a party of 15 one night to celebrate multiple birthdays. We had such a large party that they couldn’t seat us all in one table. We were split into two tables. Personally, they pack this place way too tight. My seat was facing the walkway and I was constantly told «excuse me», but there was no place to move my chair. I don’t think they should put seats in areas that block the passageway. It’s dangerous for the guest and for the servers carrying hot food.
The service wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t impressive either. They were attentive enough and we got our food in a very timely manner. The food was pretty good, a lot less oily than some of the other nearby restaurants (which is a plus in my book). Some of my favorites for the night: Baked Pork Chop w. Tomato Sauce, Signature Style Pork Chops and Eggplant in Spicy Sauce. I thought the Crispy Prawn w. Walnut in Cream Sauce, Chef’s Twin Egg Bok Choy and Baked Lobster were okay. I had a few other dishes, but I couldn’t remember what they were.
Overall, had a good experience here, but the crowded space is a turn off. I may or may not come back to this place, depends if I’m in the area.

My buddy and I grabbed a nice lunch here. The price is reasonable and the food is quite tasty. I had the baked Portuguese chicken over rice. Yum!

Really good seafood here.
Steam fish — 5 stars
Steam fresh oysters — 5 stars
This is my chef friend’s go to place in Chinatown, enough said.

I used to always come here before they moved. But once they moved to this new location I guess the chef is changed since the food is not as good as before. It is not a real Hong Kong café, more like a small restaurant. It’s a small place get packed very fast. Service was alright nothing special. Food is normal, not worth the price. Another bad thing is this place doesn’t have high chair for baby, they only have booster so it’s not baby friendly place.

My husband and I had a good dinner at Café Hong Kong with another couple.
You certainly wouldn’t say the restaurant itself was pleasant or charming. The atmosphere is rather loud and rambunctious. The service was satisfactory. But, the dishes were tasty and flavorful. I would go back!

This place is basically a Chinese restaurant that also serves some basic HK food, definitely not what you think a HK Café is. The service is also subpar yet they expect a huge tip (yes this is New York but you have to try a little)
Go to Cha Chan Tang down the street instead. That is a REAL HK café experience. It’s modern, cleaner, and the portion/​price value is MUCH better.

I’m giving this place a 5 star rating for their gracious hospitality! This place is absolutely fantastic for big groups! And when I say big groups I mean around 20 – 30 ppl. They have a banquet room you can reserve downstairs and the only requirement is that you meet a $ 500 minimum which is very easily done with a bigger group! Plus you can bring your own wine and hard alcohol! they sell beer here so beer needs to be purchased at the restaurant.
They have 3 round tables set up in the the room that seat 10 ppl comfortably. I went with a group of 23 people and we were able to squeeze into 2 tables. We ordered about 20+ dishes and some beers. Everyone was stuffed to the brim. Tab came out to like $ 25 per person including tax and tip! Wow you really can’t beat these prices!
Dishes are all pretty solid with some better than others.
Best part is that they have a karaōke machine set up in the room that they let you use free of charge! Yes you heard me folks, you can sing to your hearts content!
The owners were super accommodating with our group. They let us stay till we finished our alcohol and continue to sing even though they had closed the restaurant.
I know we will definitely be coming back here for birthday dinners and other events that require reservations for a big group!

I’ve always passed by this place and was always skeptical to come here but never did. Until a few nights ago for a family dinner. The menu offers small appetizers such as rice and noodle dishes as well as larger dinner sized dishes such as lobster and vegetarian options.
I came here with a party of 8 and we were seated at a fairly large table. We wanted to be closer together with the food in the middle so we requested a smaller table and they were cool with it. The service was okay. The servers only interacted with us when we were ordering and when they were ready to collect the money. As for the food, we settled for the chicken and salted fish casserole, double lobster special, satay beef, beef short ribs, a grouper, snow pea shoots and several other vegetarian dishes. The dishes themselves weren’t bad at all. Overall, I’d give it a cumulative average of ⁹⁄₁₀. I do however, question the cleanliness and hygiene of your average Chinatown restaurant kitchen. I found a hair on one of the vegetables. ³⁄₅ times I eat in Chinatown, I’m guaranteed to find a hair or toothpick or whatever in my food.
Would I come back? Sure. Price wasn’t bad either. Dinner for 8 people costed about $ 180 + tip for 10 dishes.

Our hosts brought us here for lunch while we were walking around. Cantonese cuisine. Very crowded, pretty noisy. Lots of choices on the menu. Everybody ordered something, and then we did family style. Our hosts did it the traditional way putting stuff onto their bowl of rice and eating from there. I put rice and food on a plate and ate from there (easier for me).
I don’t recall all the dishes, but they were pretty good. I do remember I ordered the szechuan. I liked most of it. Service was reasonably quick, though it helps when your host speaks Cantonese (as they did… several times).
Another case where I’d like half-​star options in the ratings. I would probably go with 3.5. But they are better than «OK», so I have to go with four here.

Got there shortly after noon on a weekday, I waited by the cashier to be seated, the cashier and waiters totally ignored me. I would have walked out if my family wasn’t meeting me there. Finally got seated but waiter took forever to give us the menu, we had to flag him down to get one. Waited longer to place order, luckily we weren’t in a rush.
1 — Fish Filet with Corn on spaghetti $ 8 — More like crispy fish nuggets with thick cream corn sauce, good when eaten while it’s hot.
2 — Baked Portuguese Style Pork Chops on rice $ 8 — portion is huge with 3 pieces of large pork chops, the sauce tasted a bit like curry.
3 — Baked Chicken with Cream Sauce $ 8 — boneless chicken with thick cream sauce with a few pieces of cheese on top
4 — Soft shell crabs (small at $ 9.95) — Actually the 2 crabs are not that small, well seasoned with salt and pepper, the best dish out of the 4, highly recommended
Summary —
Food: 3−½ stars, soft shell crabs get 4 stars.
Service: 0 star
Huge portion, worth the money if you don’t care for service.

Went to pick up an order that my boss called in and the lady at the front kept giving me a hard time because I didn’t know the exact name of the dish that was called in. She rolled her eyes 3 times to her co worker because I couldn’t get the name right. I explained that my Chinese wasn’t good and it was a fish and a rib dish.
I understand the fact that they don’t want to give the wrong order to me but the fact that she rolled her eyes 3 times in front of a customer is unacceptable. I deal with clients on a daily basis and rolling your eyes at your customer is just plain rude. This will be the last time I will be dining there. 0 stars for customer service!

This place actually used to be on Elizabeth street, and I have always loved their garlic soy sauce chicken and snow pea shoots and eggplant chicken casserole and the list just doesn’t end. And recently went again, and the food still stands up, even though the name of the restaurant is different and its a block away from the original one we used to go to for years. P. s. Go with someone who can order in Chinese.

Okay, let me first start off that I have dined here multiple times without a reason to actually complain, yet for this review, if I could give zero stars, that’s what this place would have gotten. I also know that, unfortunately, this review will not have any negative effect on this restaurant’s practice.
We were a party of 4, and we walked in around 8:15PM. They seated us in the back, and gave us time to look at the menu.
We ordered a hot and sour soup, jellyfish, beef pan fried noodles, baked fish «filet» with corn over rice (we upgraded to iced HK milk tea for $ 1) soy sauce pan fried noodles, baked pork chop with tomato over rice, and a pineapple ice drink. AND we asked for 4 cups of water.
The jellyfish came out first, then the soup. Please be warned — this hot and sour soup is not like what we were used to. It’s light in color, with silky tofu, and very sour and not spicy at all… funny thing is that I tried this a previous time, and remembered I didn’t like it, but I still ordered it (why? –_​-​). The jellyfish was fine, as usual. Please be advised that WE STILL DID NOT GET OUR 4 CUPS OF WATER by this time. So I asked for water again, to have the server turn his back on me. K, great.
Anyway, the soy sauce pan fried noodles came out next, and then the beef pan fried noodles came out after that. This is where it went sour (hahahaha who knew it could be more sour than that damn soup!). There was a hair in one of the vegetables. When I say «in,» I mean that it was intertwined in its stalk. Ew.
A server brought the baked pork chop with tomato over rice, so I asked him to take a look at the hair. He said, «Oh, should I change that to a new one for you?»
Uh, is that even a question? …so I said, «well, of course.»
This server yelled into the kitchen but loud enough for everyone in the dining space to hear, «HEY, THERE’S A HAIR.» Mmmm delicious.
The fish filet dish came out shortly after, along with our two drinks. The pineapple ice was mediocre, seemed like it was made with canned pineapples. The HK milk tea tasted like regular powdered milk tea (I worked at a bubble tea spot, mind you), nothing like the actual HK milk tea that you can get at S Wan Café. So by this time, all of our of meals came out. My boyfriend asked a lady who appeared to be the owner for water (our third time asking at this point), who then told a server to get us some water.
Approximately 5 minutes later, the «new» beef pan fried noodles arrived. All 4 of us looked at this plate and knew that they just flipped the noodles onto a new plate, added some sauce, and called it a day. Disgusting!
I tried so hard to stomach this for 2 bites, but even my boyfriend couldn’t take it — charging $ 8.50 for this plate, and you can’t even do it right the second time? He flagged down another server and told him what happened in English, and he turned to another server and said, «what they sayin’?» in Cantonese. This other server listened to my boyfriend and took the dish back. At this point I didn’t even want to eat anymore, so we flat out told them we don’t want it anymore. This server just said okay and took it off the bill — thank god, because we would’ve flipped out if they didn’t do that.
So in the end, I drank my sour ass soup, and ate the jellyfish, while everyone else finished their meals. We asked for the bill around 9:45PM, and one of the servers was like, «Ah, the bill» with one of «those» attitudes. We waited and waited, and it seemed like he forgot about it, but at the last moment right before we were about to ask again, he brought over the bill. We noticed that they brought out oranges for other guests when they were given the bill, but not to us. I understand our situation at this point, BUT all the other times I’ve dined here, I had to ASK for our oranges. We definitely didn’t want to ask for oranges this time around … we feared for our health and safety.
Needless to say, I will certainly never come back. I know I’m just one customer, and they have a lot others, but one review at a time — I hope it will make a difference.

I’ve always been curious about the food at Café Hong Kong as I’ve heard good things about the restaurant from my mom and sister since they are frequent customers here.
My family and I came here for family dinner one night. The restaurant is clean, simple décor, and seems more like a family-​style restaurant. We had a large table since it was the eight of us and it was comfortable. The waiters and waitresses here are pretty friendly and attentive too. So we ordered the following —
Fresh Oyster on the shell — My dad ordered this since he loves eating fresh oyster as does my big sister and my brother in-​law. It looked like it was prepared well, but honestly I am not a fan of oyster.
Deep-​Fried Soft Shell Crabs — My parents ordered this since it sounded really good. The deep-​fried soft shell crabs were fried to perfection and looked extremely crispy. I didn’t eat this either since I am somewhat allergic to crab.
Chicken with Salted Fish and Eggplant Casserole — This sounded and looked really well and had good color. I was a little disappointed because I didn’t taste any salted fish and that’s the best part. This casserole didn’t have much taste to it either.
Shanghai Bok-​Choy — This was a simple and basic Chinese vegetable dish and I enjoyed it. It had a nice crunch to it and was cooked just right. There was a light garlic sauce underneath the sauteed Bok-​Choy too.
Braised E-​Fu Noodle w. Mushrooms (Yee Mein) — A popular Chinese dish and definitely one of my favorites too. I really like this noodle dish because it’s simple yet very delicious.
Snow Pea Vegetables (Dao Miew) — I really like this dish too. The dao miew was cooked just right and was a beautiful bright green.
Deep Fried Crispy Chicken — Another dish I really liked. The chicken skin was real crisp and crunchy and the dark meat was just perfectly moist.
Deep-​Fried T-​Bone Steak — I wasn’t a huge fan of this dish because the T-​Bone steak was deep-​fried. I like it just normal and regular.
Overall, I liked the quality of most of the dishes we had at Café Hong Kong. It was just the right amount of food for the 8 of us and we were happy with the food, service, and quality. I would like to come back again with my family and try out other foods.

Surprisingly good! On a recent trip to New York with my parents I had the idea of taking them to trendier places, sadly Joe’s Shanghai and Prosperity Dumpling had lines out the door as a result of winter break. Discouraged, we just headed into any restaurant that looked like it had good business. We stumbled upon Café Hong Kong and their clay pot casseroles were definitely a hit. The fish bean curd and the beef stew casserole were very well cooked and fresh. The serving size was also generous and more than enough for the three of us to conquer.
The service was also friendly, mostly college aged men that were very attentive and friendly. Food also came out pretty quick even though the entire place was seated. Would definitely recommend!

The service is pretty good for a Saturday night. Came here with ten people and we ordered eight dishes which came out one after the other piping hot and all quite delicious. There was a wait time of about 20 – 30 minutes to get in though due to the fact that it’s a mid sized restaurant. Clean up was snap. I even commented to one of my companions dining that the waiter cleaning up has skill piling up all those dishes like he plays the game Jinga on his spare time.
Like I said the food was all very good, well made, hats off to the chef.
Besides the tea, what came out first was a small square plate of spaghetti which tasted good being that it was simply mixed in with some ketchup or simple tomato sauce. Not sure why the dish was so small though and to add to that only one small bowl of tomato-​veggie soup came with it a few minutes later, who out of the ten people gets a tad bit to share of these small dishes, lol
One person also got a free drink.
Let’s describe each dish as simple as the sauce on that spaghetti dish:
–The Sizzling Casserole in the middle was a lamb and bean curd kept sizzling hot due to the flame kept on through out the entire meal, we finally had to blow it out close to the end, it had good flavor. The lamb was a bit chewy but the fat content on each piece made up for the couple that I had.
–The Garlic Chicken was very flavorful. I could taste a burst of the garlic when I bit into one. With the very good flavor, the chicken was also tender and very soft, not over done.
–Steak, I didn’t order but the steak was also good, not sure which one it was, I think it was the Salt and Pepper, sure wasn’t the T-​Bone or Filet Minion. Cut up, I didn’t eat each piece, only a few piece of it since the meal was family style. Yes, pretty tender, lightly chewy, 2 inches thick and good on flavor with that gravy pour from a separate sauce bowl.
–The Fried Shrimp with white sauce and crisp candied walnuts and broccoli was okay, the shrimp could have been better. The broccoli and candied walnuts came out better.
–String Beans were fresh and very good
–Broccoli was included in about four of the dishes, I guess they wanted us to be healthy or something or had an overstock of broccoli in the fridge :] Not complaining as all greens were cooked well.
–I have no valuable input on the Buffalo Fish for it was hiding on the other side behind the center piece of the flaming Sizzling Casserole. Though I had a little piece and I thought it was good also. The same goes for the Hong Kong Pork Chops soaked in that red sauce. This is where I say they need that rotating glass tray in the middle where you can spin the dishes your way instead of getting up or counting on someone in close proximity to the far other side to get you some food.
–There was a combo dish I forgot the name of but it included a stir fry mix of veggies and seafood and scallops which I ate the most, I also thought this was delicious and very flavorful.
I had not complaints, even to the very end where the blood oranges were served.
All in all, the price was reasonable. You’re looking at around $ 12-​$ 20 more or less a dish, with family style everyone eats a bit of everything. I saw on the menu to go that there is a private room for Karaōke?
I am not a cheap tipper.

What can I say… This place serves food that you grew up eating in Hong Kong… The taste of home… That’s how I would call it. So my mom had dinner there before with her friends and she decided to take me to this amazing restaurant. I am very glad that she did.
You will probably be one of those people who judge the book by the cover… I know the restaurant doesn’t look anything fancy or cozy or even have a nice ambiance, but trust me. Their food is amazing.
The night I went with my family, it was around 7:30pm and the restaurant was pretty crowded. They do have a basement level when the ground level is fully seated. However, you will need to exit the restaurant and enter from another side door to the basement area.
I was lucky enough to be seated shortly after approximately 10 minutes of waiting. You will notice most of the menu list posted on wall are in Chinese. If you can read Chinese, you will find out many of those posted wall menus consist of seafood dishes. I glanced both the wall and the regular menu and they have a big variety of selection of food. From authentic Chinese food to Hong Kong style mixed with western fusion dishes.
We ordered authentic Cantonese style food (Food that non-​Chinese might not know it exists), such as stir-​fry bitter-​melon in black bean sauce, stir-​fry 4 season string beans (this is purely my own translation according to the Chinese name of the dish), steamed chicken with a special sauce, steam fish and steam scallops.
Not that many people truly understand how Chinese cuisine should be cooked, when the dish is actually stir-​fry, you can taste the difference. They call it the «Wok-​Aura», meaning the dish has fully absorbed all the amazing taste from the wok that they use for the stir-​fry under tremendous amount of heat. It is something hard to explain in English, but having these stir-​fry dishes with such amazing «Wok-​Aura», I couldn’t be any happier. All the dishes were amazingly cooked and were served quickly! It probably took the chef a matter of 5 to 8 minutes and the dish has already been made. Talk about efficiency!
One special note about the steam scallops: they are having a promotion of $ 2 scallops and we ordered 4, which totals to $ 8. You get to pick what kind of sauce you like to cook with, which includes garlic & black bean sauce. We ordered garlic but the kitchen made a mistake and brought out the scallops with black bean sauce instead. Our waiter apologized and said that he took the correct order from us but the kitchen made a mistake. Nonetheless, we didn’t want to wait so we proceed to eat the scallops. I have to say the scallops were so fresh and it tasted really well with the black bean sauce! Each scallop were big and for $ 2 that is such a great deal!
Near the end of the meal we ordered 2 glasses of red bean ice-​cream drink, which is a traditional Hong Kong style dessert-​drink. I didn’t like it too much because it was way too sweet for me.
On the service side, the kitchen made a few mistakes including not putting the sauce for the steam chicken on the side as we requested, and gave us the wrong order of scallops. Our server did apologize but he wasn’t too attentive. We had to wave and get his attention in order for him to check on us. I couldn’t complain too much because that’s the traditional Hong Kong style restaurant service that you will experience as well in Hong Kong (Unless you go to a really fancy restaurant) which I am pretty much familiar with, so there goes my one star for this restaurant.
I seriously recommend this restaurant to anyone that is interested in trying authentic Cantonese/​Hong Kong style cuisine! It is superb delicious and authentic, the best one I tried thus far in Chinatown. However, remember this place only accept cash! So bring your cash with you if you’re going to dine there!
P.S: I also ordered a beef stir-​fry ho-​fun (beef with flat rice noodles) to go. This dish is a very famous Hong Kong noodle dish and usually you can tell whether the chef of the restaurant is a good cook just from this one dish. I had it the next day and I have to say it was amazing. I will definitely return in the future for more delicious authentic Cantonese food!

Less than 48 hours: 1 Emergency Room visit, 2 doctors visits + aggravation with O Dummy Health care system… I needed Cantonese comfort food.
With a party of two we ordered noodle soups. They do not carry the staples of Dim Sum but noodles, and rice entrees. I came here on a Saturday afternoon for lunch around 3:30PM and was seated immediately within mere minutes. Service is attentive and fluent in Cantonese. The noodles were one giant lump stuck together in thickness as it did not appeared fully cooked to be separated. I ordered ham and egg noodle soup with vegetables while my family member ordered beef tripe. It was served piping hot and within five minutes after we placed our order.
Plastered on the wall are adorned with old black and white Hong Kong photos pre– 1940s era during British rule. Café Hong Kong is a family style Cantonese dining café. Café Hong Kong was formerly South China Garden.

Asian cuisine with a Western twist in Chinatown.
A friend brought me to Café Hong Kong almost a year ago and the one detail I still vividly remember is the fact that the portions are HUGE. It doesn’t look it from the outside, but similar to many Chinatown establishments, you can get a full dinner for $ 5 a plate. However, if you choose, you can order plate after plate of fresh seafood and have a feast.
I’ve had a fair share of dishes over my last few visits. Their rice dishes are the biggest bang for you buck, while entrees have a little more flair but are pricier.
The fish fillet with vegetable is a favorite of mine: 8 – 9 pieces of white fish stir fried in a light garlic sauce with Chinese broccoli over a bed of rice. For only $ 5.50, it’s a dinner by itself.
The beef casserole ups the game in presentation and shareability: for a beef tendon dish, the meat was surprisingly tender. Also, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s all meat; there’s a bed of bok choy on the bottom that inflates the volume. The flavors are a little sweet for my tastes, but the anise comes out nicely.
Their casserole dishes aren’t bad either. It’s been a while since I’ve had one, but I do remember the pork chop with tomato sauce were a little too deep fried for my tastes. Also the tomato sauce has a weird flavor, especially since I’m pretty sure it was flavored with ketchup.
I always regret not ordering the fresh fish, especially when I see it on almost every other table. I usually stop in when I’m in a money saving mood, so I’ll definitely need to come by when I’m more in the mood to splurge.

Takeout only –
So, let’s be serious here. There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, but finding one that does good lunch is quite hard. I don’t mind paying for a good lunch, as long as the price reflects how good the food is.
Café Hong Kong moved from Elizabeth to Bayard street and it’s actually better than ever. Their menu is larger (includes Cantonese and Cantonese «Western» type of food) and they do really good lunch boxes. I’ve ordered from them quite a number of times and each time just gets better. Their lunches are around $ 5.50 which includes rice and soup, and the lunch boxes are on the hefty side too. I’d definitely recommend anything with eggplant because they make it just right, not over or under cooked.
They have 2 lunch specials on their menu, one that is $ 5.50 (which I’ve mentioned above) and another one that is $ 6.95. Both gives you rice and soup but the $ 6.95 is a larger portion, rice and side are in separate containers, and is only from 11am-​4pm while the $ 5.50 is pretty much a whole day kind of thing.
The location of Café HK is quite convenient, you can get bubble tea and dessert all on the same block. And just to mention a few places — Bubbly Tea, Vivi Bubble Tea, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, Beautiful Memory Dessert… and the list goes on.