No Signboard Restaurant, Causeway bay, Hong Kong

I first heard of No Signboard Restaurant was when I was in Singapore which started as a hawker stall. Everyone who has been to Singapore has either eaten at No Signboard or has heard of it. They are famous for their white pepper crab and my other favourite the salted egg yolk crab. I was shopping in Causeway Bay with the family one day and stumbled across this restaurant. They suggested we go check it out as we haven’t been to Singapore and they wanted to eat crabs.

No Signboard Hong Kong can be found on Patterson Street in Causeway Bay. It has a very minimalistic look, plastic chairs, white walls and the menu is very simplified to include only the top 30 or so signature dish. I left all the ordering to my parents but requested that we get the sweet and sour pork!

To be honest, I find eating crab very annoying – little satisfaction for a lot of effort! Hands get dirty and for what? A little chunk of meat? I don’t enjoy eating crab outside the comfort of my own home and with Dragon… well it’s just too much of an effort!

We started with the thousand year old egg – not everyone’s cup of tea but I love these! Creamy and delicious.

They ordered the Chili Singaporean crab – it looked quite decent but my parents thought that the one in Singapore was infinitely better. This lacked something, it wasn’t bad but they’ve definitely had better. I didn’t have any as I am still not eating shellfish due to breastfeeding and what I mentioned above.

You can’t have crab without these fried man tau (bread) – they glistened with oil (there goes my diet!) but seriously good. They are crunchy on the outside and deliciously soft and fluffy on the inside. You scrape the crab sauce with these delicious man tau, or like me, dip them in condense milk! YUM!!!!

The mushroom stuffed with minced pork and vegetables was good but nothing special I thought.

I don’t know why I always order sweet and sour pork but I am on the hunt for the BEST sweet and sour pork in Hong Kong. These weren’t too bad, the pork was tender and the batter thin. My aunt and I were fighting for every single last piece!

The mix hot pot was good but again nothing special. I do like tofu but this was a little on the salty side for me.

We also ordered a serve of vegetables which wasn’t too bad.

Service was a tad slow at times. Even though there were only 4 or 5 tables it was relatively slow. It wasn’t cheap either, I think the one in Singapore is slightly cheaper. Would I go back? Probably not but will definitely go to the one in Singapore when I am there next.

GA’s rating: 5.5 / 10.

No Signboard Restaurant

66-72 Paterson Street,

Causeway Bay

Ph: +852 2398 9959

Lung Mun Seafood, Lei Yue Mun, Hong Kong

Lei Yue Mun is just a boat ride away from Hong Kong island, very close from Sai Wan Ho, where we caught the boat from. It is one of Hong Kong’s most popular seafood venues, and has over a dozen seafood restaurant. My parents have been raving about Lei Yue Mun and the cheap seafood. ‘The Mother’s’ parents were in town and we thought we would take them there, walk around and have some seafood.

We rocked up at midday and ALL the restaurants were quiet! Our trick of picking the busiest restaurant did not work, we were told that dinner is probably their busiest time as everyone is still asleep during the day. Lung Mun Seafood is where we ended up, it’s been operating since 1967 and has more than 40 years of history.

We started with the razor clams which were served with vermicelli and lots of garlic. I love razor clams and these were delicious. However, in saying that, I think there was TOO much garlic for my liking!

Tender, succulent beef with shallots. It was good but nothing special I thought.

The sweet and sour pork was good but definitely not the best I have had. Thought the pork meat was a little hard, which is a shame.

The bite size salt and pepper tofu was delicious. It’s soft and pillow-y and delicious.

We also ordered steam fish which I forgot to take a photo off but it was delicious.

Service was friendly and good, however, we were the only customers. Not sure what it is like if it was busy. Thought the food was good, we didn’t order a lot of high end seafood but what we ordered was definitely tasty. I certainly wouldn’t mind going back for dinner.

GA’s ratings: 7 / 10

The Lung Mun Seafood

G/F, 20 Hoi Pong Road of West

Lei Yue Mun Praya Road West

Hong Kong

Ph: +852 2717 9886

Hung Kee Seafood Restaurant, Sai Kung, Hong Kong

Sorry for the lack of post! Just got back from a work trip in China. Did manage to eat at a few nice places so will post them later on. This post is a little overdue but I guess better late than never right?

The family and I borrowed my uncle’s car and drove to Sai Kung which is part of the Sai Kung District in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It is known as ‘Hong Kong’s back garden’ because of the beautiful hiking trails and beaches in the area. It’s not the first time that we have been to Sai Kung, ‘The Mother’ and I have hiked in Sai Kung and have eaten here a couple of times before.

We couldn’t decide where to eat, well more like we didn’t really know where to eat so found the busiest one which was Hung Kee Seafood Restaurant. There were many small tanks outside the restaurant which diners can look and pick.

Set menus are offered to diners, and from memory we picked one that was around about 700hkd for two people and add more dishes. The set menu consisted of razor clams, salt and pepper calamari, sweet and sour pork and vegetables. We added more razor clams and some prawns at an additional cost.

The razor clams I LOVE – cooked with black bean sauce and chili it was fresh, light and absolutely delicious.

The salt and pepper calamari were crispy and tender.

The sweet and sour pork was a little bit disappointing, the pork meat were a little hard and the batter soggy even when it first arrived at our table.

The steamed fish was excellent – you can never go wrong with steam fish, it was cooked to perfection.

The extra razor clams that we got was steamed, and cooked with garlic – even though this was good, I think I prefer it with black bean sauce.

The salt and pepper prawns were good, but I have definitely had better.

Service minimal, they over charged us, but thankfully we looked at the bill closely. They thought we had got a set menu for 4, which wasn’t the case. Thankfully after much banter, that was resolved but it took a while – so make sure you check!

Food was a bit of a hit and miss, which was a shame as I wanted some good seafood. I am sure you get something better on Hong Kong island or another island.

GA’s rating: 6.5 / 10

Hung Kee Seafood Restaurant

Shop 6 & 9 – 10, G/F

Siu Yat Building, Sai Kung Hoi Pong Square

Sai Kung, Hong Kong

Ph: +852 2792 1348

Roy’s, Hawaii

Our last meal in Honolulu with both Lobster Dynamite and The Professor was at Roy’s. There are six different locations in Honolulu alone, and we went to the one in Waikiki Beach which is a short drive from their place.

The chef behind this restaurant is Roy Yamaguchi. Born in Tokyo, he worked as executive chef at le Serena in LA in 1979, and by 1984 he opened his own restaurant in LA called 395 North. He moved to Hawaii in 1988 and open Roy’s. There are now 31 Roy’s including 23 in the US, 6 in Hawaii, 1 in Japan and 1 in Guam.

There were a few hiccups with our reservations, but thankfully we didn’t have to wait for long for our table, as we noticed there were a few people waiting. The menu looked wonderful, a mix of everything, ranging from raw seafood, cooked seafood, poultry and meat. Considering there was a lot of raw seafood that I could not eat, I thought I would just order separately from the group. Their food looked spectacular and yes, I was uber jealous.

We started with the edamame which was served with sesame oil and chili – just the way ‘The Mother’ likes it.

‘The Mother’ couldn’t go past the king fish tuna, it was the first time that The Professor had it and she enjoyed it. Lobster Dynamite also loved the freshness of the fish, it did look very very good!

The crab cakes were also delicious – full of chunky crab meat in a spicy sesame sauce.

The lobster roll was also a hit!

That was their entrees, for mains, ‘The Mother’ had pan roasted kona kampachi – big island clams, local vegetable minestrome, roasted garlic – the fish was pan fried, it was tender but yet firm at the same time.

The Professor had the sea scallops – butter wilted nalo arugula, fresh wasabi sourdough fritters, local orange, and seared scallops. I didn’t have any of this, but it looked absolutely divine and no doubt The Professor really enjoyed it.

Lobster Dynamite had the roasted garlic and sesame baked jumbo shrimp and indeed they were JUMBO shrimp!

I on the other hand couldn’t go past the pork belly with buns – tender succulent pork belly which was served with radish, and bao (buns).

They were seriously good, so good that I don’t think I offered anyone some! I could have happily eaten another half a dozen for my main.

For mains, roasted half chicken, Asian herb thai chili, and mac-nut relish, kobacha spaetzle and oxtail cassoulet. It was a rather large serving, larger than anyone else’s on the table. It was rich, the chicken was tender, the spaetzle and oxtail I loved but it was a little on the rich side. It didn’t help that I was full from the buns.

We shared dessert, upside down pineapple cake which was served with vanilla bean ice cream.

The pineapple cake was a bit rich but incredibly delicious.

The chocolate soufflé was another wonderful dessert, it oozed with chocolate, and wow… what a perfect way to end the meal.

It was a wonderful meal with friends. Service was spot on, and food delicious! Would definitely recommend this place but reservations are highly recommended.

Thank you to both Lobster Dynamite and The Professor for your hospitality! We look forward to our next trip together in Vegas! Vegas baby, Vegas!

GA’s ratings: 8 / 10

Roy’s Hawaii

226 Lewers Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96815

Ph: +1 (808) 923-7697

Shaved Ice at Matsumoto and Kalua Pork at Ola, Honolulu, Hawaii

On our first day in Honlulu, we went for a drive with Lobster Dynamite and The Professor. We drove to Oahu’s North Shore, walked around and stopped at possibly the most famous Shaved Ice place in Honolulu – Matsumoto. Matsumoto has been around since 1951 – opened by both Mamoru and Helen Momoy Matsumoto.

It is located about 10 minutes drive from the Dole Plantation site on the Northern side of the island, a scenic drive into North Point. We drove past looking for parking and the line was incredibly long! So many tourists, wanting to try this shaved ice, including ‘The Mother’.

It’s a tiny store, I didn’t go in as there were just way too many people. They have a multitude of syrup flavours – anything you can think off they had – strawberry, pineapple, lemon, coconut, banana, coconut cream, pinacolada – you name it! The list just went on and on. You can have the simple snow cone or be super indulgent and add on a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the bottom of the paper cone, or even add a generous scoop of azuki beans. Both ‘The Mother’ and Lobster Dynamite had neither; they just wanted a simple cone.

The shaved ice was HUMUNGOUS! I don’t think the photo really justified it! Huge shaved ice drizzled with syrup – from memory, ‘The Mother’ had melon, lychee and coconut – weird combination I thought but it seemed to work. It was just one sugary / syrupy drink! It was good for a warm day but talk about sugar over doze. I don’t know if I would have lined up for more than ten minutes though, it was good and I understand the fascination but I probably wouldn’t have gotten one on my own. ‘The Mother’ seemed to have enjoyed it but I could tell towards the end he was pretty much over it! lol

I can’t remember what Lobster Dynamite had, but I did prefer the colours on his ice than ‘The Mother’s’!

We drove around the island, stopping at Laniakea to look at the turtles. I think the boys really wanted to go snorkeling, however, weather was just too horrid and I don’t think they had their snorkels with them. Definitely next time… there will be a next time!

Next stop was definitely lunch – Ola at Turtle Bay Resort. The resort looked amazing, we didn’t really get a chance to walk around as our main focus was food! It was past 3pm when we got there, so the restaurant was closed, but they were still serving bar food which suited us fine.

‘The Mother’ and Lobster Dynamite both ordered the Ola slider combo with fries – Kalua pork slider with guava bbq sauce and from memory a cheddar cheese burger.

The Kalua pork slider was absolutely amazing; the pork was incredibly tender and the spices – fantastic!

Thankfully I ordered the kalua pork nachos – not what I expected what nachos would be. Five large thin and crispy corn chips all topped with generous amount of kalau pork and cheese with guacamole and tomato salsa on the side.

These babies were fantastic! The pork, the guacamole, the crispy corn chips – DELICIOUS!

The Professor wasn’t overly hungry, so opted for the cheese and fruit platter which looked very healthy and very tasty!

Overall it was a lovely meal – I really enjoyed the nachos and the pork sliders were fantastic.

Deliciously full, Lobster Dynamite drove us back to Waikiki, whilst I had a quick snooze in the car.

GA’s ratings: Matsumoto: 6.5 / 10

66-087 Kamehameha Hwy

Haleiwa, Hawaii, 96712

PH: +1 (808) 637-4827

GA’s ratings: Ola: 7.5 / 10

57-091 Kamehameha Hwy

Kahuku, Hawaii, 96712

Ph: +1 (808) 293-0801