Introduction
Ho ho ho, we are back again! Wow, we have been away from this dessert review site for almost a year now! Terrible stuff. As our first of many upcoming installments, we bring you the latest in comfort (shall we say, restorative) desserts from Hong Kong. Enjoy!
The ultimate all-in-one layered cake @ Stone Nullah
- ☑ Dessert adventure: American
- ☑ Location: GF, 69 Stone Nullah, Wanchai
How bad can you get? This must be the most ingenuous dessert creation we have ever come across. You want creme brulee? Tick. Chocolate mud cake? Tick. How about red velvet cake too? No problemo. How about New York cheesecake and chocolate mousse too, for good measure? Located in a gentrified part of Wanchai, trendy bars and restaurants a short spin away from raucous local meat, vegetables and herbal markets, Stone Nullah makes for an ideal weekend chilling session. Of the amazing sharing American style menu, the yum-factor-defying fried chicken that isn’t really fried chicken is a must-eat, as well as the smoked cauliflower salad. But really, with its radiant birthday candle, it’s the “Fat Kid Cake” that steals the show and redefines the meaning of the phrase “one size fits all.”
Hot chocolate cookie in a pan (!) @ Beef & Liberty
- ☑ Dessert adventure: Gourmet burgers
- ☑ Location: 2/F, 23 Wing Fu Street (Star St Precinct), border of Admiralty and Wanchai
Sometimes, nothing quite feels normal in life until you bite down into what may constitute half a mini-cow. You dream burgers, you read burgers, you see burgers. Hmmmm…burger cravings triggered. One of the best places in Hong Kong for burgers (the other being Blue Butcher), Beef & Liberty is also one of our favourite weekday lunch spots. Don’t mess with the classic we say, with a side of sweet potato fries and an all-American dessert milkshake. If you really want to go waddling out of here though, then order the chocolate chip cookie served hot, gooey-chewy in a pan. The waiter will theatrically pour warm cream over it….oh it’s so very very good.
Flaming brownie and Toffee Banana Crumble @ Brick Lane
- ☑ Dessert adventure: British
- ☑ Location: 4/F, Citic Tower, 1 Tim Mei Avenue, Admiralty
With HK’s hectic, fast-paced lifestyle, a restaurant or a cafe with a terrace is an instant draw-card. Hidden away in a corporate prison, the urban-chic outdoor terrace of Brick Lane makes for the ideal middle-of-the-week (or day) slump. The British repertoire of big breakfasts served all day and quintessential British fare such as shepherd’s pie and fish and chips, talks directly to the souls of overworked HK-ers. For us Dessert Correspondents however, the pulse and heart beat re-starts upon one bite of the “Salted Toffee Banana Crumble” or the huge slab of the “Flaming Brownie,” chocolate walnut brownie made seriously boozy with the waiter literally setting it alight with rum. The weekend just came quicker!
The “Ridiculousness” @ the Restoration
- ☑ Dessert adventure: Creole / down-South American
- ☑ Location: 1/F, Wyndham Street, Central
Sometimes, we think lived a past life in the deep South. The ideal restaurant menu, in our eyes, should always feature, fried chicken stacked in a tower, racks of BBQ ribs smothered in sauce, Creole jambalaya accompanied with pots of hush puppies. The Restoration is one of our favourite HK restaurants for two reasons: a) the menu is a veritable dream come true ,and b) it utterly lacks the pretentiousness of many other all-hype/no-substance restaurants far too pervasive in HK. If you are still hungry after such a hearty meal, then look no further than the “Ridiculousness”. Two slightly-hard chocolate chip cookies sandwiching a very large ice cream orb. Although it would be the perfect meal epilogue if the cookies had been of the chewy soft, perhaps this is but a pedantic personal preference. We’ve had many a memorable meal at the Restoration. Highly recommend.
Dessert Correspondents 