Five out of Five!

If you've been following me for a while, you'd know that I love Outback Steakhouse... long before I even considered becoming a VIP member almost two years ago. Looking back now, I really gotta thank Julian for introducing the place to me in 2013! I've gone there more than numerous times since knowing about it (and it didn't help that one of the branches was located at Kornhill... sadly it closed recently) and even became friendly with the staff. Anyway, my two-year VIP membership is about to expire, and I've only just realised... I missed using all the offers that came with it except the 15% discount each time, LOL.

Every April comes with a free Bloomin' Onions appetiser (not pictured) available for redemption, so before the month ended, I invited my SIS girls to dinner at my favourite restaurant. And finally - five out of five of the us got together! When we met up for Butcher & Baker Café last month, Vikki didn't come, and Jacklyn didn't slow up when Janet came back to Hong Kong. It was so nice to laugh about our lame high school times again.

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When Two Kale Lovers Meet...

It's officially springtime in Hong Kong! The weather is so warm now I'd gladly take the humidity, despite my exploding frizzy hair. I can finally rock tshirts and shorts! Clar and I decided to meet up again since I owed her money from my iHerb haul so we went to Café Deadend - mainly because I saw in the photos everyone had been sharing on social media that there were pink blooming flowers, haha.

The last time I was at Café Deadend was... okay it was a month back for a cup of tea, but before that, when I actually went for food, was two years ago! The prices have gone up but otherwise, everything still tastes really good and the environment is priceless as always. The only shitty thing was the mosquito bites.

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Le Pain Quotidien Hong Kong

You've probably heard of Le Pain Quotidien. It's everywhere in Europe and is basically a staple brunch place for Londoners. Well finally, the Belgium café has made its way to Hong Kong! I think it's only been in operation for less than a month, but since its doors opened, I'd been dying to go there. I actually went once, but the line was quite long and my Dad didn't want to wait. And I did have my reservations about it, because just about every single review I read (and I've read a lot - trust me, Hong Kong people are huge foodies) complained about the bad service.

Clar had a day off on Tuesday though so I jumped at the chance to make a lunch date with her. To my relief, there were plenty of seats and we could even choose. Well, we did go on a weekday at 3PM, haha. The food was bomb (though quite expensive, but I do think it's worth a try), and the service was anything but bad. The waiters were super nice too (and good looking, may I add) and kept chatting to us! ...though that was probably because Clar is so pretty, haha.

I also tagged onto Clar's order from iHerb and finally got my first Huy Fong Sriracha! I'm so excited to try it.

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In Knead of a Sandwich!

I must be très chic because I discovered Knead only during the second week of its soft opening. It isn't even listed on Openrice - the top Hong Kong food listing site - yet, that's how damn trendy I am. I was just surfing through Instagram one night and I managed to stumble across this little café in Sheung Wan, so just a few days later, Pinky and I decided to try it out!

They serve DIY sandwiches and salads without service charge, have the friendliest staff and best of all? The minimalistic interior! Although we were probably the most un-architectural kids out of our classmates, we still liked architecture. And honestly, three vigorous years of sleepless nights is enough to drive passion into anyone. We spent 15 minutes just taking pictures of the café itself before we even ate our food, and even then we had to take a gazillion selfies, haha.

After we parted ways, I went to my first Cultural Journalism Campus meeting (read about it soon!). The next day, I wore the same outfit because I'm a lame-ass and went out for tea with Jason at Opendoor Café + Courtyard in Sai Ying Pun.

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Butcher & Baker Café & Summer Ice

It was a long due meet up with my girls! I'd met them here and there one by one, like with Vikki at Aberdeen Street Social, with Sarah at Café Inside and with Jacklyn at Granville Island (no blog post), but we hadn't had a huge reunion since December. Huge meaning at least four people. Vikki couldn't make it last night, but we finally caught up for dinner at the beautiful Butcher & Baker Café in Kennedy Town!

While the menu is nothing too special, the place itself was really nice! It was huge, for starters - there was even a play area and a free soft serve ice cream machine for kids. Butcher & Baker is different from other Castelo Concept restaurants in that they actually sell fresh bread, meat and plants there too. Definitely worth a visit just for the interior.

After, we went to Summer Ice, a dessert place that forced us to get one thing each when their desserts were not single portion sizes. Ridiculous. It's supposedly really famous though, because we lined up more than half an hour to get seats, and when we left at 11PM the line outside was even longer. The desserts themselves... eh. Although I did have a really good time laughing nonstop with the girls. And the quote of the day at Summer Ice:

"Is this cream or ice cream?"
"I think it's just really cold cream."
"Oh my God, it's real ice cream." 

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Goodolddays

Sorry, only two pictures for this post but... Clar and I originally met up to work on Maisie and Whitney's birthday presents, but since we'd tried to meet but were unsuccessful for two weeks, the sole purpose of getting together slipped our mind this lunch date. We hadn't even decided where to go, I only knew that Clar was in Wanchai doing community service work again, so I randomly found a café that also sells vintage furniture called Goodolddays on the outskirts of Causeway Bay which we went to. The atmosphere is quite relaxed and their prices aren't bad too!

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Bao Buffet at Café on the 1st, The Excelsior Hong Kong

What a huge number of buffets I've been having recently! My God... feast after feast... no wonder I'm gaining so much weight. One minute it's Christmas, then it's New Years, then it's Chinese New Year... sigh. In fact, the last time I went to a buffet was at Palette in Hotel sáv with my Bao family too! (And the meal RIGHT before that? Christmas Day dinner buffet at Mr. Steak Buffet à la minute.)

After work today, it was Tony's bao rice at Café on the 1st in The Excelsior! Seriously felt like heaven to feast nonstop after a full day's work. Had so much food, but I must say, it was pretty much the worst hotel buffet I've ever had. They even stopped refilling the dishes halfway. Not what I would expect from a high class hotel. You need to up your game, Excelsior. Would not go back at all.

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Clar's 23rd Birthday at WaaLAH

Every time it was one of the N's Girls birthdays, we'd celebrate as a group together. It's been like that since Year 2. But this year, Cherry, Maisie and Whitney were all doing their masters degree abroad, so it was only Clar and me in Hong Kong. I suppose at least I still have her! I still remember for her 22nd birthday last year, we treated her to a meal at Café&Meal MUJI, a session of karaoke at Red MR., and a lovely cake from Smile Yogurt & Dessert Bar. Obviously I didn't have the budget to do all that myself, so I just decided to surprise her with lunch at WaaLAH.

I specifically told her not to eat, but the stupid girl had a community service event in the morning where she cooked for refugees. So... she ate. In the end I had to eat alone and I treated her to a drink. However, I did manage to surprise her with a cake (well, meringue) which she totally wasn't expecting! :)

Oh and if you're wondering about WaaLAH, I definitely recommend it. They have Asian dishes as well as brunch on the weekends. The service was great, the location is convenient (Causeway Bay!) and the prices are not too bad either.

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Aberdeen Street Social

Every time I'd go to PMQ, I'd pass by Aberdeen Street Social. I never even considered eating there because the setting looked so high class, and it was always filled with expats chilling and drinking wine. I just dismissed it as an expensive restaurant out of my budget. I don't know why, but one day I was curious so I decided to check out their menu online. Turns out their all-day dining - available during day time on the upper floor and all day on the ground floor - prices weren't bad at all! They were your typical brunch price standards in Hong Kong.

In fact, when I met up with Vikki to have catch up there, the portions were really big and the food tasted really good. Not to mention, the ambience was chill as hell and I felt like a rich expat myself. Definitely worth it, 10 out of 10, I would go again in a heartbeat!

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Zi 只

Hong Kong experienced the coldest day in nearly 60 years... on a day I had planned to wear a dress. It was down to 3˚C and it was torture. I don't know why I did what I did - okay, I do know, I wanted to take pretty pictures in pretty cafés, stfu lol. But I braved the cold anyway (to be fair, I wore a lot of jackets and changed to jeans in the evening) and met up with Pinky, who I last caught up with when we went to Healthy Chicken.

This time, I brought her to a little café I'd been meaning to check out for ages by the name of Zi 只. It was pretty hard to locate in Tsim Sha Tsui as it was an upstairs café and the entrance of the building it was in was super hidden. The service was really good though - run by young people who looked our age - but it was seriously way to cold to really enjoy ourselves.

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