MSG150: Seattle International District Lunch Food: Chinese: Hong Kong

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Lunch #70: Hong Kong Bistro

MSG150's ever vigilant International District Intelligence and Observation Team spotted a "Grand Opening" sign last week on Maynard under the Hong Kong sign. The previous ID grand opening was the Crawfish King which is oddly and unfortunately not open for lunch and thus not subject to the MSG150 ~~shakedown~~ impartial review. Hong Kong Bistro is, however, a lunch spot and today MSG150 showed up with a crew of five lunchers to put it to the test.

Hong Kong Bistro, Seattle
Address: 511 Maynard Ave, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Hong Kong
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/19/2009 @ 11:50:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 7 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 55 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Likely, but the communication gap was too big ascertain definitively.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hong Kong
Number of tables: 28
Number of occupied tables: 5 (17%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (40%)
Number of "local" tables: 3 (60%)
Healthcode Score: N/A
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: As You Like, Pick & Choose with (b) Deep Fried Pork Chop and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles - $5.25
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Emmett's Review

From the looks of this place I was expecting another turkey like KC Kitchen or Pacific Cafe. They have a massive (and impressive) sign outside, advertising where, exactly, they're from. :) As you go in - the place is HUGE. We counted 28 tables. And on top, the menu is massive -- containing over 300 items.

Paralyzed by choice, I went with the aptly named "As you like it" with Pork Chop, Curried Fish Balls, and Chow Fun. I was expecting a platter of some kind but they came in a soup bowl with some broth, and some bok choy. This was a nice surprise, and the flavors commingled well together for a tasty meal. The pork chop was very thin, fried, and a bit grisly. The fish balls were pretty standard for what you get at these places. The broth and noodles were good. All told, it was good value for the price.

Nothing special, but they good selection and price, so I'll be back. They have some Stone Pot rice bowls that look worth trying.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: 58 - Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl - $6.25
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Adam's Review

I had no idea there was even a new place here! It just opened on March 2nd (there are still "congrats flowers" in the front of the restaurant). When we walked in at 11:50AM, there was only one other table of people there, but by the time we left the 2 person wait staff was being overworked. This place almost feels too clean and "corporate" to fit into the ID; I'd peg the interior as Dennys-esque.

I ordered the "Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl"... which translates into Super Rice Bowl with Thin Beef. This was a large scoop of rice with some slices of (not-so-thin) beef and grilled onions, covered in an overly sweet sauce. The meat was stringy and not very meat flavor-y. Neither the onions nor the rice were good, but that have been a function of the overly-sweet sauce.

With over 300 hundred numbered items on the menu, I'm sure something at this place has to be good... but the Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl isn't it. I liked the look of the Curry Fish Balls, and want to hear what Geary and Emmett have to say about those.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: As You Like, Pick & Choose with (c) Chinese Cabbage and Prok and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles - $5.25
Rating: 4 Chopsticks

Geary's Review

I recognized it as soon as I entered. It's another Hong Kong Tea Cafe or cha chaan teng. These seem to be sprouting up everywhere offering a mixture of Hong Kong comfort food and western bastardizations like the ketchup omelet or egg toast. Hong Kong Bistro is ambitious with a huge dining room and an even larger menu offering over 270 entrees plus drinks and deserts. After getting lost in the 150s somewhere I gave up and went with the aptly named "As You Like, Pick & Choose" with (c) Chinese Cabbage and Pork and (e) Curried Fish Balls. And I chose the Chow Fun wide rice noodles as my accompanying noodle (they do deliver in the choosing).

The place was almost empty when we arrived but traffic picked up during the meal. Service was fast and friendly. My soup (I wasn't sure what form the "As You Like, Pick & Choose" would take) arrived quickly and had a nice rich aroma. The large bowl was chocked full with broth, noodles, small bits of pork, purple pickled cabbage, crunchy veggies, and curried fish balls. It was an odd combinations but somehow all worked well together. The fish balls were not too fishy and had a treat in the center and a tasty curry sauce poured over top. The curry quickly mixed in and became one with the soup. The pork was tender and the pickled cabbage added a nice tang to the mix. My hopes were low but Hong Kong Bistro came through. Based on the size of their menu and my past experience with this particular cuisine I'm sure there are duds and even dead zones on the menu, but the "As You Like, Pick & Choose" was not one of them.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Beef with Chinese Chives Noodle Soup - $5.25
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Al's Review

Many tables, many choices: picture looked better than food tasted: 3 chopsticks.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup - $5.95
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Hong Kong Bistro Photos

Hong Kong Bistro

Hong Kong Bistro under Hong Kong Sign

Hong Kong Bistro menu

Hong Kong Bistro menu (17-57)

Hong Kong Bistro menu (58-117)

Hong Kong Bistro menu (240-312)

Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup

As You Like, Pick & Choose with (b) Deep Fried Pork Chop and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles

Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl

Beef with Chinese Chives Noodle Soup

As You Like, Pick & Choose with (c) Chinese Cabbage and Pr0k and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles

Huge dining room

Monday, January 12, 2009

Lunch #64: Pacific Cafe

Without a clear goal, MSG150 has spent the last few month going back to favorite spots and watching for changes in the ID. Soon after our Fort St. George review, Pacific Cafe, opened in the shell of a failed restaurant next to the sketchy bar on 5th and Main. About that time Brad Cassiday, a freelance writer for the Seattlest, found our blog and asked if he could join us for lunch so we invited him to try out Pacific Cafe with us. We showed up with a crew of six and met Brad at the door.

Pacific Cafe, Seattle
Address: 416 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA
Cuisine: Chinese: Hong Kong
Average rating: 2.9 chopsticks
Lunch date: 9/12/2008 @ 12:00:00
Time taken to be seated: 3 minutes
Time to take order: 5 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 30 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 75 minutes
Chopstix quality: Fork
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hong Kong
Number of tables: 11
Number of occupied tables: 11 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 6 (54%)
Number of "local" tables: 6 (54%)
Healthcode Score: N/A
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: #9 - Sliced Beef with Onions - $5.95
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Emmett's Review

Happy 2009. We ate at this restaurant back in September 2008, when the Seahawks still had a chance at not sucking and Lehman Brothers still existed. We got lazy and started watching our fortunes dwindle, and we hosted this thing at Hing Hay park, which turned out to be a fun filled evening.

Our bud Joey apparently knew somebody who knew somebody who ran this place, and it looks real pretty on the outside, so we were totally psyched to go in. We found a table in the back, and joined up with some blogger guy who writes about Football and wanted to do a Pre-Game Football Food article or something. My choice this day was #9 - the Sliced Beef with Onions, which I guess appeals to my German Midwestern roots in some way. It had lots of black pepper on it, was very saucy, and it sucked. Alright it didn't totally suck. I mean it looked good on the outside, and like You, Me, and Dupree, it had all this potential. But then it just wasn't good, and I wanted to leave.

Service was slow, food was unremarkable, I'll probably never come back even though our new office is a block away.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: #2 - Singapore Style Fried Rice Noodles - $5.95
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Geary's Review

Pacific Cafe is clean and has a modern feeling. There is a big flatscreen TV over the service bar broadcasting beautifuil photos of menu items toward the folks waitng for tables in the small entry way. As we sized up the menu we noticed that nobody was using chopsticks. It's strckly forks and knives at the Pacific Cafe.

I went with #2, Singapore Style Fried Rice Noodles. The H&SS starter was marginal. It was bland and neither sour nor spicy. The noodles were passable, but nothing really outstanding. The dish consisted of wide rice noodles with shrimp, small bits of BBQ pork, and a few veggies tossed with a dry curry. It was certainly no better than the $4 Singapore noodles on the Golden City lunch menu.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: #1 - Shanghai Style Stir Fried Noodles - $5.95
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Adam's Review

A new restaurant? Awesome. It's good to have my eatin' shoes back on, and it's time to review.

When you see a lunch special menu like this one, it's hard to determine what to get. A great method: pick something from the beginning of the list, they must be putting great things at the front. I was following this method to the extreme when I ordered: "#1 please."

The Shanghai Noodles were pretty delicious. You can't really go wrong with a dish like this. Loaded with lots of tasty ingredients and cooked to a nice consistency.

The restaurant is clean. They give you forks (not chopsticks). And there isn't hot sauce on every table. This isn't your standard Chinese restaurant. Not quite a 4 for me, but it's close.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: #47 - Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms - $5.75
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Rob's Review

When I picked the Tofu and Shiitake Mushroom dish from the hundred or so lunch options, the waitress asked, "No meat?" in order to make sure I would not be disappointed when a meat-less meal showed up. Points to them for looking out for their customers. On the menu was one other veggie option, plus a couple of fish dishes, so there you go. The restaurant was packed, and it took about three hours for our food to arrive. Well, it felt like three hours because I was hungry and lots of other patrons were eating, but it was really about half an hour, and the wait staff apologized for the inconvenience. But still, a long wait for a pile of rice, veggies and tofu. The food was fine, but nothing great. The sauce was light and tasty, the tofu was the usual deep-fried stuff, the mushrooms and whatnot were decent. So yeah, it was a lunch. I'll have to make sure to go early or late next time to get faster service.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: #43 - Shredded Pork with Vegetables on Rice - $5.75
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: #11 - Sliced Beef in Tomatoes Sauce - $5.95
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: #19 - Grilled Pork and Chicken Steak - $6.50
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

VIP Luncher: Brad from Seattlest

Lunch: #3 - Sliced Beef with Stir Fried Flat Noodles - $5.95
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Brad's Review

The noodles were really good, and it made me realize that I don't eat noodles nearly enough. Especially with fall coming, the noodles were a big hit for me. The beef was better than average and the scallions were crispy. Kinda surprised the server didn't push drinks more, since that's were the profits are. The place was packed and the location is perfect. The porkchop for $6 is a steal.