Day 5: Cafe De Coral- Admiralty, Hong Kong & Can-teen- Admiralty, Hong Kong

One of the highlights of the trip was trying Cafe De Coral, a fast food style restaurant that I have always seen during past trips but have never tried. We were finding a place to have lunch and a snack that day, and luckily, our local friend was there to answer my questions about the shopping centers in Admiralty-- yes, there is a rooftop restaurant/food outlet on top of one of the shopping centers/Admiralty Garden; the location is also where I got the picture above). We also found out that there actually is a Cafe De Coral in Admiralty, so off we went.

Cafe De Coral is a fast food style restaurant; menu options and payment are at the front counter, and after payment, one transitions to another counter where the food can be picked up. I liked watching the employees create each plate with precision-- they were quite efficient!

Being a fast food restaurant, the prices are not too expensive. Our items altogether cost around 10 USD, a decent price considering what was given to us in return!

We all ordered Hong Kong style milk teas, each about one U.S. dollar. They come already slightly sweetened, and the two sugar sachets that come alongside are purely for your preference. Not adding any sugar, the tea was smooth down the throat and flavorful, if not bold in terms of tea flavor. Unlike the United States however, there are no refills, so we slowly savored our cup of tea.

 

(Vileroy and Boch's New Wave style seems to have caught on in Hong Kong! This of course is just a replica and not actual Vileroy and Boch dinnerware)

We only ordered two entrees (both were around 3-5 U.S. dollars), the first of which was a "Vietnamese" chicken noodle soup. It is classified as Vietnamese, but it is not Vietnamese; this is a somewhat common practice in Chinese restaurants to highlight that the taste has an inspiration from the country it is referring to. In this case, there was a chicken broth, shreds of chicken, flat rice noodles, and raw onion rings and red peppers. A reference to pho ga? Maybe, but it was still tasty if not on the lighter side. We also found the chicken quite dry.

I on the other hand decided to go with a barbeque item- white cut chicken on rice. Cafe de Coral enhanced the flavor of the chicken by adding some sweet soy sauce on top of the chicken as well as adding ginger and scallion oil on the side. Having not eaten a lot of food in the past days, I finished this plate clean, even if the proportion of rice to the chicken and sauce was favored much more towards the steamed rice. Still, I found the chicken delicious, tender and concentrated with chicken flavor. The sweet soy sauce muted the savory flavors slightly, and the ginger and scallion oil was great by itself on rice. Each component of the dish went well along with the rice and was great by itself. Well done for fast food-- this plate was actually tastier than some of the white cut chicken dishes I have tried in the U.S., but I don't think I should be surprised.

Overall, we had a great meal Cafe De Coral; it serves its purpose as a quick and convenient option quite well and the freshness and quality of the items are quite well done!

Crossing over the ocean to Tsim Sha Tsui, we walked quite a while, enjoying the sights and sounds and purchasing some products along the way. Dinner however was spent back at the hotel, buying food at Can-teen (operated by Maxim's) instead. Like Cafe de Coral, it was decent; our luncheon meat and egg sandwich and beef and turnip noodle soup were all "made"/ assembled to order and were quite inexpensive. Likewise, the lemon tea was enjoyable with plenty of lemon and strong tea!


Cafe de Coral
Shop A5, Upper G/F, Far East Finance Centre,
金鐘夏愨道16號遠東金融中心
16 Harcourt Road,
Admiralty, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2861 2852

Can-teen
1/F, Shop 85-93 Admiralty Centre,
金鐘海富中心1樓85-93號舖
18 Harcourt Road
Admiralty, Hong Kong 
Tel: +852 2865 6955


Find the rest of the posts in this series at this trip's TRIP INDEX.