Chinabites

Posted: Mar. 04, 2009

Part of daily life in Hong Kong, I am assured by veteran expatriates, is bargain hunting. Time-sensitive discounts, micro-value up selling, and all manner of garden-variety nickle and diming have long since graduated from marketing tactic to full-fledged way of life for businesses of all stripes. Restaurants of course are no exception to this rule. Every menu you encounter in Hong Kong contains a dizzying variety of two dollar add-ons, special deals with special exceptions, and almost always the previously reported upon afternoon tea set.

The tea set is almost always priced below lunch in an effort to get any kind of business during off-peak hours. Taking a tip from the locals, I have begun giving lunch a miss and opting in to afternoon tea on an almost daily basis. Today I had one of the best afternoon tea sets yet at Red Ant a Hong Kong chain restaurant with a branch in a small side street off of Times Square in Causeway Bay.

Hong Kong cafes are often very cramped and low-atmosphere affairs. Space is often so limited that it is common practice for restaurants to seat strangers at the same table. To compensate for this inconvenience the cafes provide relatively inexpensive meals. Red Ant was a rare find in that it provided a much more pleasant atmosphere with minimal price mark up.

This afternoon I had the shitake and pickled cabbage soup with thick rice noodles (河粉). This was one of the better bowls of noodles I've had in Hong Kong. The tender rolls of fresh tofu skin provide a variety of texture,

The afternoon tea set was a steal at HKD 28. Noodle connesuiors will delight at four different noodle selections, four soup base selections, and seven or eight different types of meat all for patrons to mix and match to create their perfect bowl of soup. Tea or coffee comes with the meal at no extra charge. This place is worth a return visit as I spotted a curry noodle soup on the menu that I'm curious to compare with the Vietnamese curry soup at Yuenan Zai last week.