'Ah, Excuse me! There is a fly in our milk tea'*Waiter throws the cup into a bucket and grabs for a new one*
'Here is your new CUP!'
*SLAMS cup hard on table*
*I looked at Kelvin and giggled*
'Oh my god, do we owe him money or something.....'
Welcome to 金鳳茶餐廳, Wan Chai's 老字號 cha chan teng. It's probably one of the oldest in HK and keeps its forumlas practically the same for the past couple of decades.
How can we tell its old? Well for starters, all the waiters themselves looked like a relic of the past, all looks like they have been alive for at least half a century, they even kept the old HK 'G' attitude towards customers (example above). Dining here feels like no better than being stabbed in the streets. Every word said is a word of caution.
Secondly, the menu.
Notice the difference between the meal sets? Me neither. 早餐 = 午餐 = 快餐...? Ahahaha. Now I get the McDull joke.Thirdly, the interior design. The old flourscent light that bleaches the place into blue and white. The menu placed under the glass table. Those tiny ass booth seats that say its for 4 people but could only fit 2. If I sat in the 2 seater booth, half of my ass cheek will hang out.
For only $26 HKD, I got myself a Satay Beef Noodle meal set (which is also 早餐/午餐/快餐/常餐/.....).
It comes with an apprectizer of a very HK style 菠蘿油/Pineapple Bun with butter and two eggs. This arterty clogging goodness comes freshly baked from the oven. The bread is soft and sweet like fluffy mashmallows, with a nice crispy 'pineapple' top.
Here is our main course, Satay Beef Noodle. I usually get this as my HK breakfast, but since they serve this after 11, I might as well order. The funny thing about HK is that instant noodle is commonly conceived as an inferior good around the world, EXCEPT for HK. In fact! They charge you an EXTRA $2 for having instant noodles.Why? Because HK people craves not only flavour, but texture in our food. Instant noodles, when cooked right, gives off a chewy texture to the noodle base. That is why, oddly, HK has the highest breakfast consumption of instant noodles...i think.
Also notice that we got cold milk tea/ lai cha, which is 金鳳's self proclaimed speciality. When we entered the joint, we were greeted by this fridge next to the door way.
I was reading an article about this before, most cha chan teng usually makes cold milk tea by pouring freshly prepared hot milk tea in ice. 金鳳 prepares it milk tea before hand, then pour inside empty coke bottles, milk cartons & cups and placed into the fridge for cooling. This is to avoid the melting ice in diluting the tea when it is served to customers, 金鳳 also tempers with each cup's sweetness as they found that cold drinks requires a different level of sweetness than hot drinks. The boss proclaims that cold lai cha is harder to make than hot lai cha. Kind of hard to imagine how 金鳳 turned a simple drink into an art form.The final result. One of the smoothest, creamiest, coldest cup of lai cha i ever tasted. The level of sweetness was absolutely perfect, and it didnt have the coarse tea aftertaste that amature cha chan tengs have.
Final Verdict: This is as local HK as HK gets. The food itself is not mind blowing. But it is the cha chan teng that I think represents HK the most. From the traditional menu, the hustle bustle dining crowd, claustrophobic seating and the 'I-am-Meaner-Than-Compton' waiters. 金鳳 is honestly a must try for anyone looking for the perfect HK experience.http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=1549
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