Restaurant review: Hello Kitty Secret Garden, Tai Hang - hardly worth the wait
We arrived at Hello Kitty Secret Garden at 2pm, thinking that we would avoid the lunch rush. But it turns out the new café is Tai Hang's worst kept secret and we joined a queue of two dozen girls and a few obliging boyfriends.
Living in Hong Kong, we are used to queuing for restaurants. But after an hour's wait and little progress, we decided to come back the next day at 11am to make sure we were at the front of the queue.
The narrow coffee shop has only four tables and an unused bar and there is no time limit, so customers can be left indefinitely. The "garden" is basically just plastic leaves stuck on the back wall.
The all-day breakfast (HK$98) comprised of a sad-looking kitty-shaped fried egg, bratwurst, crisp bacon, fried tomato, beans and hard cha chaan teng-style bread.
The mini pizza (HK$98) was undercooked — or in this case — under-microwaved. The base was doughy with a dry coat of tomato sauce and a pinch of grated cheese and rocket in the centre.
The portions are all kitty-sized, so we also ordered the two-piece quiche set (HK$88), which came with a tiny fruit salad. We had the quiche lorraine and the salmon and pumpkin quiche, which were both pretty good even if they weren't hot.
There are also sandwiches (HK$68), soup (HK$58), salads (HK$88) and a decent-looking burger (HK$98) on the menu.
The meal was slightly redeemed by the dessert. We shared a many-textured chocolate tart (HK$48) made from chocolate mousse encased in a thick crust, topped with chocolate flakes and a white chocolate kitty.
I can only recommend the cake, but even that doesn't justify the wait.
