HK Foodie at M-City Monash – Clayton – reminds me of Hong Kong restaurants like Tsui Wah

HK Foodie reminds me of Hong Kong restaurants like Tsui Wah and Tim Ho Wan with their distinctive green borders and white background all throughout the restaurant. When I was in Hong Kong, I remember visiting both these establishments a few times and really enjoying my meals. There was an obvious mix of western and eastern cuisine at these Hong Kong cuisine establishments. As with most of these establishments, you can expect toast with condensed milk, fried rice with tomato sauce and Asian-style pork with spaghetti. It all works. HK Foodie brings those moments to Clayton, Melbourne.

Although it is a small restaurant, HK Foodie’s interior has a lot of interesting signs and photos of iconic landmarks in Hong Kong. It is worth having a good look at these when you are dining in. Some of the displays reminded me of Hong Kong’s street markets where you can purchase novelty street signs and car plates with funny Ching-lish phrases like “Make Love, Not Success”, “I’m Concentrate at my Work, Excpet [sic] Game Temptation”, “No Money, No Honey” and “No Smoking, I Will Crazy”. If you have been to Hong Kong, your memories will flood back. (Ah… the days.)

On the day, we had their Stir Fried Crispy Thin Noodles in Black Bean Sauce with Calamari for AUD$15.80. It came with a small amount of thin crispy long life noodles with a good mix of capsicum, broccoli, onion and calamari in a decent serving of black bean gravy. The sauce had a nice salty and airy flavor. The gravy did its job of softening the noodles just enough, while still allowing the noodles to stay crunchy.

We also ordered their Big Omelet Stuffed with Fried Rice, Spicy Pork, Luncheon Meat and Baked Beans for $12.80. The rice and texture of the ingredients was really tasty and I thought the baked beans were a nice addition, but odd addition to it all. It was a nice dish, but nothing to rave about. Like the time the first person invited fried rice, this dish seems like someone just throwing everything together and hoping it works. Fortunately the flavors work.

At the time, I thought the two dishes were on the smaller end but on reflection they are decent sized dishes.

On a different occasion for takeaway, I also ordered their Jumbo Rice with Popcorn Chicken, Tofu, Herbal Egg and Pickles for $14.80 and thought that was done incredibly well. The chicken was nice fried and battered. It was nice to enjoy because each bite of rice had a nice popcorn chicken. The exception was that I had to deal with the egg in the shell. (The peeling process wasn’t fun.) I was a tad disappointed with their Combination Rice with BBQ Pork, Red Sausages, Soy Chicken and Salted Egg for $16.80, because the meats were your typical fare Hong Kong style roast but done very so-so and they didn’t provide any sauces to add excitement to the meats. Who knows, it might be better as a dine-in dish.

My main gripe is that there are no photos of the food, so I have no idea what I am ordering until it arrives on the table. It would have been better if there were photos, because the text alone do no justice.