Greyhound Cafe - Hong Kong

Date of visit: Wednesday, 25 June 2014

My neighbourhood mall underwent a massive renovation this year. There was a change of layout and an injection of new blood. It was hard bidding farewell to shops I grew up with, but when I knew "Greyhound Cafe" was opening in a quiet corner of the mall, I was excited!

I had always wanted to visit Greyhound Cafe. So in the opening week, we decided to give it a try. My dad went in person to make a reservation. Apparently Greyhound was "fully booked before they even opened". Wow, OK... Then, my mum, ignorant of my dad's failed attempt, went to reserve a table too. She was told they'd stopped take bookings but several tables would be available for walk-ins. When my mum asked for the best time go for a table, the smug manager said "forget it, I'll put your name on our list" while making it sound like he'd just done us a big flavour. Seriously, Greyhound, making it difficult for your customers isn't going to make you a better restaurant.

After all that drama, it would be interesting to see if Greyhound lived up to its own idea of being an elBulli reincarnation or the new NOMA.

Who doesn't? You aren't that special, Greyhound Cafe.

Spaghetti Cha Cha Cha ($128) - not gonna lie, this was really good. Squid ink spaghetti cooked "to the tooth", a generous amount of seafood (relatively to the amount of spaghetti). I like that there was green peppercorns. And it was spicy, I love spicy.

Mini Pork Ribs ($108) - while this might resemble leftovers from Chinese family meal the night before, it was actually pretty good, especially with the tiny lime and ginger cubes. Presentation issues aside, the portion was... small. The last time I checked lettuce was still cheap. Nevertheless the fermented tofu pork rib was a joy to eat on its own... or maybe I was just really hungry?

Fusilli Phad Thai ($98) - I like to think I'm an innovative cook. One of my weird creative ideas is to make pasta the Asian way, like Shanghai fried pasta. This dish reminded me why I never actually cooked up an Asian pasta - it wouldn't work... nor would overcooking your pasta help. The fusilli in this dish was too soft and didn't blend with the phad thai flavour at all. Kids, when you think you've got an ingenious original idea that no one's ever thought of, there may be a reason why it isn't already out there in the market.

Greyhound Famous Fried Chicken Wings ($68) - their signature dish, also the reason why Greyhound Cafe opened in Hong Kong (Deborah, Nicolas Tse's mother, was so impressed with these wings she decided to introduce Greyhound to HK). Normally I'm not a fan of chicken wings, but the meat of these wings fell of the bones cleanly. The fact that they had been previously deboned (or semi-deboned because only one of the two bones had been removed) made them even easier to eat. Question though: where do they source chicken wings so tiny from?

Rating: 1.5/5

In a nutshell: Truth to be told, the food was above average (avoid the Fusilli Phad Thai though). But portion size was strikingly small and I could get food of the same quality in more satisfying quantity for less money. I'm also spitefully docking 1 star for that ridiculous reservation incident. Go for the hype if you really want, but I doubt you will make a return.


Greyhound Cafe
Shop 007, G/F, Cityplaza,
Taikoo Shing
Hong Kong


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