30 May 2013

New Hong Kong Cafe ~ Dixon Street Chinatown

Perched high above Dixon street is a whole new world of luncheon meat sandwiches. Welcome to the New Hong Kong Cafe.

A new joint has opened in what used to be the Malaysian restaurant Nonya, upstairs at No 1 Dixon St. The retail space in that block is a strange mix of small clothes shops with kooky Japanese and Korean stylings or phone shops. The New Hong Kong Cafe (as opposed to the old one) perches upstairs on Level 5 with views of the street and the twirling roti makers in Malay Village below.

Like Hong Kong this cafe has set dishes, at the moment they haven't translated the daily specials menu into English so you could point and pray or just get a friendly waiter to translate. We saw lots of folks chowing down into spaghetti or cracked pepper beef all served with that HK cafe special soup 'borscht' and a bread roll.

While this doesn't have the 1980's ambience of the Ching Yip Coffee Lounge, it's an option if you are up the other end of Chinatown and crave that uniquely Hong Kong cafe experience of strong tea and coffee, chinese style soups, english style sandwiches and nowhere like Hong Kong spaghetti.



Once upstairs it's a big bright space with either booths or tables, there's plenty of room for groups. BYO balloons.

The service is really snappy and efficient, just like Hong Kong. But unlike Hong Kong the service here is very friendly and smiley.



Grandma bean curd with pork mince and chili - $13.80. Mapo tofu with peas and mushrooms. You can also get a serve with a smaller portion and rice on the one plate for $10.80.

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Hong Kong Style Baked seafood with rice with creamy white sauce - $13.80. (other sauce options are napolitana, black pepper, Portuguese, or creamy sweet corn sauce). Steamed rice grilled with some plain white sauce with some a couple of prawns, some squid, fishy bits and a mussel. A simple western dish that isn't art but homely and well cooked. Far nicer than it should be.



Deep fried chicken drumstick noodles - $9.80. Crisp fried chicken with a bowl of Chinese soup with egg noodles on the side. A simple flavoured broth and decent crisp skinned chicken. The name of this dish sounded far more exotic than just 'noodle soup with fried chicken', ah the power of marketing.



Stir fried bean sprouts with Chinese anchovy - $10.80. We order this for the curious name. It turns out to be simply stir-fried bean sprouts with a subtle fishy note, but not a lot of fish. Again sucked in by the name and surprised with the result.



Our all-time Hong Kong Cafe favourite dish - the luncheon meat (think Spam) and egg sandwich. Complete with soft white-trash bread with crusts cut off. So much fun and far, far tastier than it should be. $5.



Another Hong Kong Cafe favourite of ours is condensed milk on toast. Pure genius.



The congee here is thick and gluggy, we're not fans. Maybe we just got them on a bad night. They're generous with the fixin's though, the classic pork and preserved egg congee ($8.80) came with big bits of egg and swine rather than the usual slithers. The seafood congee ($9.80) also came with big hunks of fish, squid and prawns.



You gotta have some Chinese cruller ($2.50) with your congee. The light, crispy deep fried dough makes up for the low fat, fairly healthy congee.



Hong Kong style milk tea and Hong Kong Coffee - $3.50. Hong Kong tea and coffee doesn't agree with our Western tastebuds, to be perfectly Frances we hate the stuff, yet Mr Shawn is compelled to order it, just to see if it is authentically yuk, and it is. According to Wikipedia, Hong Kong milk tea is black English style tea boiled for several minutes, which explains why it is so strong and bitter. We reckon Hong Kong milk tea is nicer than Hong Kong coffee, which is milky and murky, tasting more of evaporated milk than coffee. Apologies to everyone from Hongkers from bitching about the national beverage...


New Hong Kong Cafe Menu - click to enlarge...


New Hong Kong Cafe Menu - click to enlarge...


The New Hong Kong Cafe is at Shop 88, Level 5, 1 Dixon St Haymarket. Ph: 02 9283 7022

New Hong Kong Cafe on Urbanspoon

11 comments:

  1. Love Hong Kong cafe food, will have to check this place out. Also want to visit Carlingford, there's a Hong Kong cafe there that seems to have quite a few fans. Too many good restaurants, too little time haha.

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    1. Yeah we've been recommended that Carlingford joint too, sounds great.

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  2. Another place i didnt get to eat at despite staying just above them and enduring their ruckus for weeks!

    Mmmmm condensed milk on toast....the ones they serve here are too thin!!!! Those i get here are at least 2inches thick

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    1. Don't taunt us with your access to thick toast, kaya and eggs on demand. You are a cruel, cruel woman!

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    2. Muahahahahahahahaha....

      Seriously the ones served at the HK styled cafes here are 2inch thick with warm gooey peanut butter and condensed milk....sooo good

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  3. Lol, no offence taken on the HK milk tea comments. I love them! Though I think the iced version tastes better than the hot version =D

    Will be drinking my fair share and eating white sandwiches and toasts when I go back in Oct!

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    1. Mmmmm - iced HK milk tea - I can see that working - must try...

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  4. Oh well in that case you must try the iced versions!!
    I make HK milk tea flavour macarons too and they are one of my favourites.

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  5. Until I went to Hong Kong I stuck up my nose at the Hong Kong Cafe joint in Sussex Centre as well as other Hong Kong cafe joints, ignorant me thought the Western style food was just an attempt to pull white people in, kind of like how some country Chinese restaurants offer things like fish and chips. But since i've been to Hong Kong and eaten at real cafes in Hong Kong i've started eaten at these types of places in Sydney and grown to love the wacky food on offer.

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    1. We had quite the same experience. Before we went we never really 'got' Hong Kong cafe food, now we love it!

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  6. Btw they do delivery to the city people too now! I also learnt they walk faster than I do ;)

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).