Mido Cafe, Hong Kong.

March 8, 2009 at 5:00 am · Filed under Eating Out, Food, non-halal, Travel

I am sorry I am taking forever to come up with my food adventures in Hong Kong (HK). Who would have thought a week off work would see so much backlog? Even the total unpacking of the suitcase had to wait. But better late than never eh? And here I am. Starting off with something that’s totally old school Hong Kong. This place has been featured often in TVB series and was not actually something on my list but we met up with Lissie’s friend and it was he who brought us here. He did the ordering so I have very little idea about the dish names.

Just at the corner of Temple Street, where one of the many famous HK night markets are, this place is easy to locate. There’s a retro feel to the interior of this cha chan teng, where booth seats line the windows and we chose the corner one where the table looked like some triangle off my trigonometry books. I loved that I could peep out and see men busy setting up their stalls. A glance around and I could spot some old items that probably have been there since the shop opened – an old cash registry, the antiquated ceiling fans etc. Felt surreal to be in HK somehow where things seem so familiar just because we have seen them almost everyday on telly.

Once you’re seated, glasses of hot chinese tea are plonked down in front of you, as per the custom of HK coffeeshops. The menu is sometimes wedged under the glass table for easy reference, but there are also recommendations on the walls.

Our first dish was this Stir fried Hor Fun with beef slices. I noticed that the eating places in HK like to serve mustard as a dipping sauce with meat and this place was no different. The Hor Fun (河粉) is thicker than the ones we’re used to, but smooth nevertheless. As for the beef slices, flavourful and tender to bite, was probably due to meat tenderizer being used. And the mustard does add a certain kick to the overall blend of flavours.

The next dish was apparently a special one, recommended on the wall menu by the name of 錦卤云吞 featuring of wontons and a sweet & sour dish consisting of various ingredients from tomatoes, bell peppers, ham chunks, cauliflower florets, chicken chunks, pig stomach, to shrimps. The way to eat this was to dip the deep fried wrappers and dip them into the sweet & sour gravy. It was honestly an interesting dish that I have never heard of before. But the taste takes some getting used to as the gravy was a tad too acidic for my liking. Very intense.

This vegetable dish however scored thumbs up from all of us. It also had a lot going on with baby bok choy, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, lettuce, bean curd sheets etc. But it was a nice combination.

It was quite a enjoyable meal, with great company and the english speaking boss was actually quite friendly, contrary to what they say about HK people. Heh. Menu’s really extensive and apparently web reviews suggest that their Baked Spareribs rice is the thing to try. Even though we didn’t try a rice dish, overall what we had, I liked. But this cafe is worth visiting for the ambience alone, if not for the food.

Mido Cafe 美都餐室
63, Temple Street,
Yau Ma Tei,
Hong Kong.
Open : 8:30am-9:30pm

other reviews;
– the simplest aphrodisiac
– Greg & Nee on the Go
– tasting hong kong

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