Hong Cafe

The lunch trio stopped in at HK Café on Maunakea St because we received good reviews from a few co-workers and friends. HK Café took over the space previously occupied by Happy Garden, just North of Hotel Street. The menu is a single, double-sided plastic encased sheet; with different (lower) prices than seen on the menu for the Waikiki location. We tried the Beef Brisket and Beef Tendon Stewed Noodles, Seafood Laksa with egg noodles and the Curry Fish Balls (sorry, no pic). The menu cautioned that it could take up to twenty minutes to prepare certain dishes; it took nine minutes for the noodle dishes, almost twenty minutes for the laksa and a little longer for the fish balls. The beef brisket / tendon dish ($16) reminded us of a similar dish from Mini Garden but the soup is vastly superior. The laksa ($17) was spicy (yes!) and contained two large shrimp, two mussels and pieces of squid and fishcake. The dish that disappointed us was the curried fish balls ($11); it was hyped as a “must have” by an acquaintance … Uh, underwhelming was the group consensus. Final thoughts … excepting the fish balls, we liked what we ordered and would return. That’s about as good an endorsement as our group doles out for a casual dining spot.

It's a cute cafe that gives the Asian coffee house (kopitiam) vibes that I miss. The drinks were really flavorful and packs a punch (kaw). The food were mostly okay, I had the toast and seafood laksa. I've had better laksa and because I'm from Malaysia I hold any laksa to a higher standard so I'm not the easiest to please. All in all, a cute space if you want a light breakfast.

New and very clean. Food came out relatively quickly but we had to inquire about our you tiao which we had not received even though all the rest of our dishes had arrived. The broth for beef brisket and tendon noodle soup was really tasty! The congee was gingery and comforting, and the steamed flour rolls were so unique. The ovaltine toast was really cool but I didn't care for it. Looking forward to returning to try more menu items.

If you have ever been to Hong Kong and have experienced their Cha Chaan Teng then this place will take you back to those times. I love Hong Kong and this was the closest place to experiencing all of that from the toast to milk tea not to mention their Won Ton Min. This place really took me back to Hong Kong. The staff is great and the food is amazing. I would go back again.

Trying this is place out for the first time! Their hours are 8am-2pm during soft opening so we were happy that we were able to be seated at 1:45pm. Ordered the satay beef rice, black pepper pork chop spaghetti, ovaltine toast, and HK milk tea. Total price was $46.93. I was hoping for the baked spaghetti dish but it was served a different style. Everything was delicious! The order may have been mixed up as I was served black pepper chicken instead of pork but it was delicious nonetheless. The ovaltine toast was definitely the highlight - two slices of thick French toast with condensed milk and covered with Ovaltine. Highly recommended! I will go back for their breakfast set menu (7-10am) as it has a larger, more authentic menu.