Escaping the HK Hustle Bustle....

A friend of mine once said to me....
'Omg Leo, Hong Kong is such a Hustle Bustle place...'

..naturally my reply was....
'WTF does Hustle Bustle mean?'

Of course growing up in this fast paced city, I never really knew how intense the city could feel. But even Hong Kong people could feel how stressful the city could be on the body, especially if they spend the day in the densest populated district in the world...Mong Kok.

Sometimes you wish for a peaceful place for you to sit down, escape the rushing crowd, and avoid the steamy sauna summer heat. With a help of HK magazine, I managed to find a small cafe tucked away in a run down apartment building in the heart of Mong Kok.

Full Cup Cafe, which naturally rhymes with its chinese name 呼吸咖啡茶館, meaning 'Breathing Cafe', I guess its a smart play on words as the cafe give locals a chance to catch a breath of fresh air, away from the smog-filled busy city streets. Of course the place is a little hard to find, and it tries really hard to hide itself, relying only by word of mouthadvertisments. The entrance is hidden a dirty wet side alley between the old apartment buildings of Mong Kok, soaked with air con water dipping form the apartment next door.
The two-story cafe has a nice vintage design, walls are littered with old movie posters, shelves of old toys, a projector showing clips of European commercials and a mix of odd looking chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. And it was surprising quite, an odd tranquility sensation you will never get in MK. According to HK magazine, the Art Director for the film 'Lust and Caution', Lai Pan, calims that Full Cup is the only cafe that can give him inspiration and a creative enviornment for him to work.

Anyways, enough about the place, how is the food?

The cafe claims to serve everything homemade, from the cheesecake to their coffee beans, so they charge a slightly higher prices than other coffee shops. They charge exceptionally higher prices for their 'specialty' coffees...This is my awesome looking Japanese White Mocha.....which turned out to be a float as well. Topped with whipped cream and a little stick of frozen coffee....it was Fatty McFatty in a cup. A little to sweet for my liking...but very nice coffee.Arvin's Chocolate Banana Coffee, I personally don't like it too much because I am not a banana person, it made the coffee taste slightly bitter. Arvin loved it though.Moeha and Aldric's Mint Latte. You can actually see the green mint syrup on the bottom of the cup. They loved it, it had a good mix of mint and coffee, not a drink you can usually get at a normal coffee shop.
Oh...and don't get their cheesecake. It was ridiculously small and pricey. We even used an iphone for size comparison. Even though it tasted wonderful.......its not worth the $40HKD.

Final Verdict: A nice escape from the city. Good coffee, relaxing environment, and its a nice change from Starbucks. Anyone around the neighborhood should definitely give it a try.

http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=12537