Greyhound Café (Hong Kong)

About a year ago, Thailand's Greyhound Café opened its first overseas outlet with much hype and fanfare in Hong Kong. I had dinner at the Harbour City location, after a long, long day of walking and shopping. I was quite surprised that the style of food here is more fusion, rather than the authentic Thai fare that I was accustomed to in Toronto. 

The Greyhound Iced Tea (left) is the signature drink here, so of course we had to try it. The specialty is that the ice cubes are chilled from iced tea as well, so the drink does not dilute as the ice melts away! It was definitely a very refreshing drink to have after a long long day of walking. We also tried their Iced Milk Tea (right), which was not as good.

The other signature item- Greyhound's famous fried chicken wings ($68) is also a definite must-try. The wings were marinated in fish sauce and halved before frying, and I liked this because it maximized the surface area for frying. Texture-wise, it was a bit on the dry side, so don't come here looking for juicy wings. However, as a whole, these wings were quite enjoyable and they would go great with a beer.

Another appetizer we ordered was mini pork ribs ($108), which was served with ginger, chilies, and lettuce. It was quite difficult to eat all the components together as a lettuce wrap because everything kept falling out. Overall, I found the dish to be overly dry, even with the lettuce.

We also sampled fried rice vermicelli with Thai braised beef and beef balls ($88), served with bush beans, dried shrimps, pork cripss, and chili sauce. I have to say that I was not at all a fan of all the accompanying sauces and condiments. It was all very overwhelming- the fish sauce was extremely salty and the chili powder was mindblowingly spicy! On a brighter note, the braised beef was super tender and delicious.

My favourite dish of the meal was the soft shell crab with squid ink spaghetti ($148). Perhaps there was nothing Thai about this pasta but the flavours all worked. I loved the crunch of the soft shell crab against the perfectly al dente spaghetti.

And last but not least, we had some fresh Vietnamese spring rolls ($88 HKD) with boiled shrimps, chicken, pork skin, and various fresh veggies. I thought they were not very remarkable, but it was nice to have some variety on the table. Altogether, I enjoyed my dinner at Greyhound Café and the food here felt very modernized. I'm not a big fan of fusion restaurants in general, but this was one of the better ones that I've tried.