Chinabites

Posted: Mar. 21, 2009

With a brand name that ranges from mildly to patently offensive depending on your sensibilities, The Flying Pan is a Hong Kong diner specializing in western-style breakfast with just a hint of cultural insensitivity.

At best I would say that it's not particularly generous to mock folks who speak English as a second language. People have voted with their dollars, however, so like it or not, The Flying Pan is at this point a Hong Kong institution, having opened three franchises in the greater Hong Kong area to-date.

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Chinese food in general. Chinese breakfast, however, is one area of the cuisine that I have not acquired a taste for despite six years of exposure. For this reason I am always interested in finding good spots to eat a Western breakfast. While international hotels invariably have a huge international breakfast buffet of some kind, they can be pricey and I tend to prefer diner atmosphere.

Having heard much about The Flying Pan's 24 hour breakfast, I selected it for a rendezvous with a friend catching an early morning flight out of Hong Kong. This particular friend also runs The Palateers, a restaurant review site that "deals in absolutes." I'm anxious to see whether The Flying Pan earns their coveted "Seal of Approval" or the inglorious "Mark of Aversion."

For Chinabites' part, I thought the meal at The Flying Plan was an excellent example of its genre. I had the biscuits and gravy breakfast with a side of grits and grilled tomatoes.

Grits are something that a diner can cut corners on and do very wrong. I'd venture to say that most diners I've been to in the United States serve bland and watered down grits quite unlike the rich buttery grits I was used to eating at home. The grits at The Flying Pan were better than the average but not up to home-cooked standards. The biscuits and gravy were excellent as were the sausage patties, eggs, tomatoes, and the (bottomless!) coffee.

My breakfast companion had the eggs champignon with his selection of two sides.

The Flying Pan had a huge menu of options to chose from. There were seven or or eight set breakfast meals featured, a huge varieties of eggs and omelets, blintzes, and pretty much every traditional diner breakfast that you could shake your chopsticks at. The bottomless coffee (ordered as an add-on to breakfast) was a very welcome touch. We'd say that if you can get over the silly name, this would be a great spot for a diner breakfast at any hour in Hong Kong.