Hong Kong’s Cafe

This is going to be a short review.
As I was just roaming around in Chinatown after a big lunch, I found myself in a mood for a drink. When I looked up, I saw this Hong Kong style café, which reminded me of the milk tea I used to have growing up in Hong Kong.
So that was what I ordered. Before I did that, I asked the waitress if this would be the «real» Hong Kong milk tea. She said «of course», thinking definitely I was not from this area. I took her word, and she did honor it. The aroma from it was pretty promising, and a small sip confirmed it.
It was rich and aromatic and looks pleasingly reddish brown (milk tea = red tea). I also ordered an egg tart, which I didn’t really have room for after a big lunch. But I did anyway. It was not right out of the oven, but it still tasted really good.
I’ll come by again next time I’m in Houston Chinatown.

This is hands down the best HK style café in Houston. Their baked dishes and drinks (milk tea, lemon tea, etc) are very good. Their breakfast combo is also worth a try, you get lots of food — two eggs, ham/​sausage/​spam, and macaroni/​noodles plus a drink for just $ 5.99! Remember this is a cash-​only restaurant so make sure you have enough cash before there.

Feel like home! Their food is authentic and the price is cheap. We had the Hainam chicken, baked pork chop and BBQ Duck with rice. They come in big portion. We also had wonton noodle and satay beef noodle, both of which are good. We also ordered eggy arts and fried noodles to-​go. Definitely recommend it!

This is the best milk tea by far that I’ve had in Houston. Yes, even better than House of Bowl and Ding Ding (I’ll need to sample Kung Fu next). My complaint with House of Bowl’s is that it can be slightly watered down. HK Café’s milk tea was strong, punchy, and rich. Really good.
I got the baked pork chop and fried rice. Pork was tender, soft, juicy, and the sauce was a great complement to the fried rice. Our friends were saying that all their baked rice/​spaghetti items were really good — the standouts.
Wonton noodle — OK, I’ve had better. The char-​siu (BBQ pork) was excellent though. I liked the fact that it came out on a separate plate where you can add in to the bowl, rather than coming out soggy.
Tomato beef over rice. One of my wife’s favorite comfort foods. Excellent. Beef was not rubbery. Sauce was savory. Everything was spot on.
This place is small, so prepare to be sitting right next to another person you don’t know (but then again, aren’t all good Chinese/​HK restaurants small? You’re always knocking elbows with someone). The only problem i see is the placement of the restroom door. Servers come out with full plates of food, and if you are not careful, you can open the bathroom door outward and slam into one of them (I was very close, but thankfully they saw it coming!). For the food, we’ll be coming here again.

Milk Tea: 5 of 5. If you’re tired of brown milk with a tinge of tea and desire the full body taste of tea. This is the BEST MILK TEA in Houston. I’ve had the Milk tea at Café 101, Tea House, Kung Fu and Bambu. Bambu is the only close flavor I can think of. Think of Bambu x4 for flavor.
BBQ Duck. 5 of 5. Came out hot and juicy. A bit on the greasy side but it was delicious.
Wonton Noodle Soup: 4 of 5. Nothing new here, just a solid soup.
Congee: It tasted exactly as it should. Very bland and sadly no Chinese herb smell. Wish I tried the Chicken Congee instead.
Fried Dough sticks (Dau chau quay?): 1 of 5. tasted like it had freezer burn or old oil.

Been coming here for as long as i can remember.
Friendly staff and fast service with good food.
I always order the spaghetti and Hk style milk tea (my favorite). Not only is the food good, but their prices are fair too. They have teatime (3 – 6:15 pm) in which they serve certain foods in their teatime menu for around $ 6 with a drink! Definitely one of my go to spots when I’m hungry!

This place is an amazing Cantonese restaurant! I usually come here for breakfast. They have a good deal for breakfast which comes with macaroni in a small bowl, two eggs, choice of 2 ham or 2 spam and 2 pieces of bread for about $ 6. The breakfast hours are before 11:30am. The tea time is around 3:30. I also get the beef stir fried flat noodle and the baked bolognaise with spaghetti. The price is a little pricy but it is worth it.

Best thing to get on the menu is the bolongnaise spaghetti and the popcorn chicken. I get these on a daily basis because I think they’re amazing and it comes in a big amount that will fill you up well!

Decent Hong Kong café, they got everything I need that I miss in Toronto like your baked rides/​spaghetti, fried rice, chow mein, bowl noodles and stuff and majority of their meals are under $ 10, portions are huge here but I just wished they wiped their chairs, when I leaned back my shirt was stuck to it because it was so sticky :$ but otherwise I’ll come back here if ever I miss my HK café food

I came here on Friday before my flight, I got the Satay beef noodles, it was great and fulfilling.
Free WiFi is a bonus

Love the milk tea at this place. I can’t seem to find any other place in Houston that have this kind of milk tea. Very unique.

I’ve been here a few times, both with my family and friends. Not only is the setting nice, but their food is superb. Their tapioca and dessert is very similar to Hong Kong’s tapioca and dessert.
I haven’t tried every item on the menu yet, but their food is also good. The curry fried rice has enough curry in it that you can taste it, but it’s not overwhelming. The fried chicken is seasoned beautifully and you can taste a little something in each bite. And most of the stir fried dishes are done really well.
And in the times that I’ve been here, I’ve only encountered friendly staff members (:

I’ve been going to this place since the day it opened. The food is great. My favorite is the black pepper chicken combo, and I usually get iced coffee option for the drink.
The Hainan rice is excellent especially when served with the roast duck. The place has never disappointed me. Highly recommended.
Be sure you bring cash. They don’t take credit card as of now.

Must order: Manager’s special items with cold Milk Tea
Notable: BBQ pork, BBQ duck, pork chops, steamed chicken, house fried rice, hong Kong fusion dishes
It’s Chinatown, and it’s a cash only joint. Avoid the lunch rush if you can. Their waitresses are fast and friendly, and even the boss lady pitches in during busy times.
The milk tea is the best and I’ve been to many a tea House in Chinatown and we keep coming back to this place. They use real carnation milk, not those powdered creamers. You can see and taste the difference because they float the milk on top of the tea and you mix upon enjoying this refreshing drink, but its more than a drink. It’s memories and happiness from the first sip til the last… especially during those hot Htown days.
Bbq pork and BBQ duck are fantastic, although the price is a bit higher than your other BBQ places. Its worth it, roasted to perfection and glistening duck skin, ready to be devoured. You can also order these by the pound Togo :)

Service: I had 2 waitresses serve me for some reason, but either way, both were really rude and all together looked like this restaurant was the last place they wanted to be at. They hardly looked at us as we spoke, didn’t smile, and looked like they wanted to communicate as little as possible as though it was a heavy lunch rush, when really it was only my party of 4 and another couple opposite of us. When the waitress noticed we were getting ready to leave and gave us our checks, her personality changed completely and she actually started smiling when she talked to us. It was then that she decided to say, «Tips are not included in the check» with a little smile on her face. I took this as some sort of pawn ask for tips.
Food: When I asked for a cup of water, the cups were FILTHY! I could scrape off some sticky white stuff around the rim which was most likely whatever the last drink inside of that cup was. It wasn’t just my cup either. I came with a group of 4 friends, and all of their cups were dirty. Here’s the best part, one of my friend’s water had a SMALL DEAD ROACH floating in it. Unfortunately, we had all taken sips of the water before noticing these things. The food was mediocre and the water tasted weird. I ordered the smooth beef and egg flat noodles and I stopped eating when I ran out of beef (which was hardly any). The noodles were bland, and I probably had 5 small pieces of beef and a mountain of bland noodles underneath.
Pricing: My dish was around $ 8.50 and they only accept cash. Luckily, I had a $ 100 bill on me, which they accepted and gave me correct change.
Atmosphere: It seemed like a small restaurant with minor décor. Nothing super glamorous. Far from it.
I suggest you take your time and money elsewhere. It’s safe to say I’m never coming back to Hong Kong Café.

I only come here for the milk tea to go usually. The owner knows because when I walk through the door, she would say milk tea to go? And I would smile and say yes! No doubt, the HK style milk tea is quite good here. It’s tasty and has bold tea flavor, and every time, just every time I drink it, it wakes me up, and I think it manages to keep me up at night. So thus, people who need to study, you should try this drink!
My review today will be based on the last two times I visited. The last time I visited, I went with my friend to show her what an HK Style Café serves. I ordered the Black Peppered chicken with Spaghetti and also the fish curry noodles, while my friend ordered the half Hainanese Chicken and Duck. The black peppered chicken tasted ok, and the fish curry broth was good, but the fish curry balls had no flavor. I also thought the chicken and duck my friend ordered had little meat.
Yesterday, I went again after work and dined in. Of course I got my milk tea, which I was happy with. Then, I ordered the egg sandwich. The egg sandwich is pretty good to me, but the only gripe is that they gave me the spam and egg sandwich, and I don’t eat beef and pork! I told the waitress, and I just know the people in the back just took out the spam and gave it back to me because I got it back less than 5 mins. I’m not that picky that hey, it still had pork bits and touched the whole sandwich but nonetheless still annoyed because I wasn’t the one who ordered this in first place. Then I thought ok, might as well eat dinner here too since I was there. Judging from previous experience, I was hesitant because their entrees were just so so but I saw a shrimp and egg dish so I decided to give it a try. It could be offered in rice or flat noodles, but since I’ve had the rice version before at home, I opted with the flat noodles. When it first came out, the first impression was wow, this looks beautiful and got my mouth watering. However, when I actually taste it, it was disappointing. There was very less eggs, and the sauce was ample but tasted bland. The flat noodles were not bad but the sauce doesn’t give it any flavor so it was also bland in itself! Not a bad price for a large dish with shrimp in it, but just disappointed it wasn’t as good as it looks!
Pros are the dish gets served pretty fast and the milk tea. If you want a quick snack and don’t mind taste, this is the place to grab something quick. If you want a tasty entrée, then try something else. Cons are they are only ok-​tasting and it’s cash only. Parking is ample but don’t go during busy hours on weekends and evenings. It’s Chinatown, people kind of drive crazy in the parking lot.

Bring cash!
This place is usually packed w/​people on the weekend for lunch, you’ll definitely get the authenticity of a Hong Kong atmosphere w/​people mainly speaking in Cantonese here. They do also have breakfast options and happy hour specials, differing in the variety of food, some options even offer a free milk tea w/​order!
We usually come here for the HK style milk tea that you can get cold or hot — its really one of the most authentic HK milk tea that we can find in terms of taste and sweetness. Their lemon tea also brings me back to Asia where I first had one. We get the rice option that comes w/​options like roasted BBQ pork, roasted duck, or chicken that comes w/​a ginger sauce. The dish is basic and simple, but its really the experience of a real HK café that makes this place. The rice is covered with a nice duck sauce (we actually ask for an extra side of it cause we like all the rice w/​that flavoring). They have a variety of items from wonton soup to congee to pan fried noodles to eggs and toast and much more. The other thing we usually get there is their baked options. They have options like pork chop or fish filet baked over fried rice or spaghetti with a sweet tomato sauce w/​a bit of cheese. It’s worth trying!
This is really a HK canto comfort food place, so come here for an authentic feel, not necessarily for «amazing» food.

I love Hong Kong Café. Here are some of the things I have tried:
1. Pork chop baked tomato rice: This dish is incredible. The pork chop is baked in tomato sauce over flavored rice. The meat is juicy and the rice explodes with flavor. Definitely one of my favorites.
2. Spaghetti bolognese: It’s not your traditional spaghetti – definitely hong kong style. It is sweeter but definitely worth a try. If you get this don’t expect it’s marinara sauce. Rather, it s a sweet tomato sauce with peas and corn that is also full of flavor.
3. House special fried rice: one of my favorite fried rices I’ve had in Chinatown. If you love carbs and some roast pork in your rice this is the way to go. Very typical Hong Kong style.
4. Satay beef over fried noodles or rice: I have had both. Definitely more a fan of the satay beef over friend rice noodles. I think it’s a great dish to start with if you have never been here before. It is a little spicy and has great texture in a brown sauce. Try it with plain white rice if you are feeling more straight forward that day!
5. Lettuce with garlic: I know most of us are not used to cooked lettuce. But garlic stir fry lettuce here is very solid and makes a great side dish complement.
I also cannot rave anymore about their drinks! Try the coffee (half coffee half sweet lemon tea) is amazing! You can also try their lemon ice tea on a hot day. It often comes with the meal.
Highly recommend it! But do note it is CASH ONLY!

I feel like everything from here is good. I always order the baked spaghetti. It’s my favorite but I try stuff that other people’s food. I feel like the milk tea is very different from other milk teas I’ve tried. I think I heard they use red tea? This place is cash only. So keep that in mind when coming here

I’ve only been to this place twice but I’m glad I found a place that makes delicious HK milk tea! Great tea flavor! Definitely must order with your dish. The HK coffee sounds delicious too so I might have to try that next time.
As for food, I’ve tried the fish ball noodle soup (as well as curry fish ball), chicken nuggets, spaghetti bolognese, and lobster sauce noodles.
I love fish ball noodle soup! It’s so simple yet I can’t seem to make the perfect broth. Glad to know Hong Kong Café will pick up on my failure. I think I enjoy the regular fish ball noodle soup over the curry as the curry seemed to get salty after a while.
I’m not really a fan of the spaghetti bolognese. It was a little sweet in my opinion and I rather have tasted some of the tomato flavor. However like all spaghetti, it was delicious the next day as leftovers! I also wasn’t a huge fan of the chicken nuggets. I’ve had better so it won’t be something I’ll be coming here for.
As for the lobster noodles, I’m not a huge fan of lobster, but these noodles had a delicious wok taste! Definitely something my bf enjoyed, but I’ll probably stick to my fish ball noodle soup.
Remember: This place is CASH ONLY.