So, the new Hello Kitty restaurant in Hong Kong is the new rage globally and a big hit on social media, so how could I miss the opportunity to visit and write about it – and build more social equity around it? I am fortunate and grateful that I still have sporting gourmet friends who were willing to sacrifice their sleep in on a Saturday morning to get in line in the humid summer to get a queue ticket.. and then eat not so great food. Thanks V for the enormous sacrifice!
Crispy fried tofu – these were great and no surprises there. And below… a mutated Hello Kitty face? No matter, there’s a ribbon on a stick to save the day and encourages imagination. These charsiu (BBQ pork) pastries were good.
So, was it worth the one hour long queue outside in the hot Hong Kong humidity? No. Was the food good? It wasn’t bad food, but certainly not worth the calories and not somewhere you’ll go expecting a nice dim sum lunch. I was excited to give it a go as a gourmet blog I follow closely said the food was actually worth a second trip, clearly we were not having a consistent experience. We actually sat in the private dining mentioned in his post and the restaurant actually wasn’t full, and I think part of it from a marketing/PR perspective is having the public see the long queues of people taking selfies outside, a perceived notion that the restaurant is crazy packed and very busy. Well, it was busy, and with its no reservations policy, people are forced to get in line. The diners ranged from families with little children – clearly there as avid Hello Kitty fans, then there were women and girls from their late teens all the way into their late 30s.
This beef horfun was alright, nothing to write home about, but good enough to eat.
Right by the door, there’s also Hello Kitty paraphernalia, including Chateau Berthenon sparkling rosé and wines. Or bring your own at 150HKD corkage fee.
And here we have the lotus seed paste buns – note the snort colour – not pretty, not tasty. The other larger buns were the liu sha bao which is suppose to be filled with a piping hot salty, sweet running custard, but these rock hard few day old buns sure had some fillings, but it was runny nor anything like the liu sha bao we know.
Also known as snort buns below!
The glutinous rice dish, lor mai fan. odd with the bed of raw veggies and mushrooms. Zero points for effort and apart from the tomato bow and kitty head shape. Not worth the calories.
Lots of thought clearly went into the branded experience – walls lined with calligraphy painting styled Hello Kitty from Chang’er lookalike on the moon to Hello Kitty in a Tang dynasty costume playing a Chinese musical instrument. We were ravenous, hot and bothered by the time we got a table and ordered almost everything on the menu. Everything that didn’t look remotely like Hello Kitty was pretty alright, like the stir fried beef noodles, the fried tofu with no element of Hello Kitty, and a snow peas dish with overcooked prawns with a poor effort at creating a Hello Kitty silhouette. The charsiu (BBQ pork) puff pastry however was good and we ordered two portions (6).
All the dim sum baskets were laser cut with logo
So cute I could poke your eyes out.
An eye for an eye, having a face off with Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty pirate.
Felt rather cheated that only 1 shrimp dumpling (hargau) had a face in a steaming basket of four. If i was a little girl, I would have cried. Zero points for effort here.
Smudge wasn’t very impressed either by these very hard buns.
T having a heady time with Hello Kitty.
All in all, it wasn’t worth our while, but we were glad we checked out the hottest place in Hong Kong at the moment. As we over ordered, our bill came up to 250HKD each, I think you could definitely eat for something like 150-180HKD per person. I don’t know what they put in the buns and the rest of their food, but there’s definitely plenty of gluten in it and all sorts of colouring because I was bloated the whole weekend after.
Shop A to C, Lee Loy Mansion, 332 – 338, Canton Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
I think the easiest and shortest way to get here is walking from Austin or Jordan MTR station. We got there just before 11am to get a queue ticket and waited an hour to get a seat.
Tel: +852 8202 8203
Opening Hours: 11am – 11pm Daily (Queue tickets issued till 3:30pm and 9:30pm. 4pm cleaning hours. 10pm last order.)
