A hidden find somewhere in the west! The google ratings were high and we’ve seen plenty of praises for their food going around on social media. We were naive to think that the queue would be manageable (or in fact, no queue) given how ‘ulu’ the place is. We arrived at 7+ pm and were greeted by a queue - we ended up having to leave our number on the waitlist. It was a 45mins wait before it was our turn!

I went for the charsiew don which interestingly came served with Italian spiced rice. I couldn’t quite identify the spices used in their special homemade blend (secret blend that’s closely safeguarded I guess!) in the rice - every grain was nicely infused with the aroma of the spices. It wasn’t thyme, oregano or anything close to the spices you’d find in pastas. It was subtle, and not exactly herbaceous. I’m clearly not a spice connoisseur and I can’t quite pin point to any, except that it’s perhaps sth yellowish that gave the spiced rice a light yellow hint. It was rather addictive and I polished off all my rice! My husband who’s used to finishing my leftover carbs was actually quite impressed!

The Italian-asian fusion turned out surprisingly well. The poached egg was more ‘done’ than I’d expected. It wasn’t onsen; wasn’t at all slowly-gooey-runny and perhaps it was intentionally done so to avoid clashing in taste with the Italian spiced rice (?) That’s just a wild guess on my part.

I also loved the charsiew - clearly a signature item on their menu. At the time of order placement, the staff had to do a quick run to the kitchen to confirm that there’s still charsiew leftover. Apparently, it’s one of the cafe’s signature item! While some may complain of the charsiew being sliced too thinly, I think they’re in the right thickness in this Italian-Asian fusion (it’s fusion! Not your typical HK char chaan teng kinda charred, shiny, thick cuts with generous sweet marinate doused over it!) Think of it like a kurobuta pork don - it’s the same concept here, except it’s char siew!