Quite nice noodles @ Peking Handmade noodles

This restaurant has been around for a while, but it dosnt look tempting to go in, the outside isnt appealing to me, especially the type of dishes they do, I assumed they were the ordinary chinese noodles.
Before you go in, there is a manager pacing back and forth at the entrance smilng to himself I think, and not many customers inside, so i assumed the food probably isnt that good.
Anyway I decided to go in without expectations, I was attracted because they had purple rice noodles.
On my way to be seated I noticed some bottled rice drinks at the counter that are sold at QQ Rice, so I suspected they had some partnership with QQ Rice, especially since they offer purple rice noodles.
After checking them out on the web, I found that they had a website:
http://www.pekingnoodles.com.hk
and QQ Rice (http://www.qqrice.com.hk/address28.php) is one of their subsidaries, and the other two are
1- slim noodles http://www.slimtaste.com.hk
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=23359
unfortunately this has now gone out of business
2- 39 degrees bakery http://www.39cbakery.com/
All their websites are pretty cool and has English as well! So well done!!
The sofa seats were worn off and flakey, so I had the impression that they had great customer flow, so it changed my expectations, I was now beginning to think the food would taste better than expected if there was such a big turnover in customers.
The dinner set ranged from $58 - $62, it consists of a choice of starter, noodles, drink and a dessert.
For the starters there is a choice of chicken in sesame sauce and mung bean sheet noodles, black fungas and burdock, and preserved egg and peppers.
The dessert was sweet potato sprinkled with coconut.
As for the drinks it was honey with green tea, peach tea or milk tea..
For all the noodles there was a choice of handmade ramen, purple rice noodles and the normal noodles.
In the end picked the preserved egg and mung bean sheet noodles as starters, then purple rice noodles with spring onion and noodles in pork broth and pork chops.
The dessert was the first to arrive, it was pieces of sweet potato slightly glazed with coconut sprinkled on top.
I have never tried this before, so I didnt know what to expect, but it was quite nice.
The sweet potato was quite firm and sweet due to the flavouring, and the coconut shreds, I felt that it was Taiwanese and not from Beijing.
Drink was a bit too sweet, so I diluted it with the water provided.
For extra desserts I ordered black sugar mochi for $8, there were six pieces, other flavours were taro, green tea, and grapefruit.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Preserved egg with peppers
This tasted how it should, and the sauce beneath the preserved eggs made it more appetizing, although the sauce was fiery and made of chili, the cucumber shreds made it quite refreshing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Sesame chicken and mung bean sheets
The noodles were covered in lots of rich thick sesame sauce and sprinkled with lots of sesame seeds.
I didnt really like the chicken as it wasnt that fresh, but the mung bean sheets were lovely.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Pork chop with spring onion and noodles
The soup base was very strong, hence the noodles were fully flavoured.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Noodles with spring onions
Although this was the cheapest set, it tasted the best, for the choice of noodles I chose the purple rice noodles, but they were not that purple when served.
The purple rice noodles before being cooked were reddish brown, hence they dont look purple after the sauce was mixed added.
The noodles tasted very nice with the dried shrimps and crunchy spring onions.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Sweet potato topped with coconut
This dessert tasted like candied sweet potato rather than fresh sweet potato, it was slightly hard, but tasted ok, slightly too sweet.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

black sugar mochi

 

black sugar mochi
This was ordered as an extra for $8, but it would have been great if you could choose a combination of two flavours rather than one flavour.
It was very chewy but tasted ok.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

drinks
Ordered honey green tea and peach tea, the honey one was very strong in jasmine and honey.
The peach tea was slightly lighter but had a fake taste.
In addition to that, they have a kid's set which looks really cute on the menu, and a marshmallow chocolate drink too!!!
Pity I forget to take a picture of it.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

 

Good customer service depends on what time you go @ 北方餃子源

After reading the reviews, it was considered lucky if the waiters did not treat you with a bad manner.

Knowing that, I went on a weekday during off peak hours late in the afternoon but just before dinnertime started.
It was on Queen’s road near the blue house, the outside of the restaurant looked very old.
When I went in, the interior and everything was old too, there was only two customers when I arrived so I sat down on one of the tables because there was no waiter there to tell me where to sit.

 

It was really good because they had an English menu and I could take my time deciding what to order.
Usually HK waiters’ rush you to order, but since it was off-peak hours, I had to wait for the waiter to finish his duties before I could order.

I wanted to try this place especially because of the donkey meat, fish dumplings, shredded chicken with vegetable rice and the spring onion sauce.
They didnt have the fish dumplings so I ordered: sliced donkey meat, lamb and spring onion dumplings, Hawthorn drink, shredded chicken with vegetable rice.

I do not know who the famous bad tempered one is, but the one who served me was smiling.

The food arrived fairly quick and was served in the typical blue white chinaware.

 

The bowl of rice was huge which was enough for two people, I have never seen a big blue white china bowl in that size before.

massive china bowl, regular size on top corner

 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
Sliced donkey meat
The donkey meat was flavoured by the so-called Chinese Five-spice powder.
Five-spice powder is basically a mixture of five spices star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds.
The texture of the meat looked and tasted like Pastrami, however it was sliced thickly, the gelatinous layers were thick too, and there was some jelly on the edges as well.
I was expecting it to taste gamey, but it wasn’t, it tasted exactly like pastrami.
I think it would also taste good with western mustard sauce.

donkey meat

 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
Lamb and spring onion dumplings
I wanted to order the fish dumplings as well, but the menu has changed.
The lamb was good as well, the lamb was not gamey and the strong spring onions complemented it. The spring onions were not over cooked and had some crunch to it like raw onions. The skin was just right and not too thick.

Spring onion n lamb dumplings

 

 

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
Hawthorn drink
Just tasted like Chinese Ribena!
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
Vegetable Rice with shredded chicken

 

I was not expecting the portion to be so big but it was enough for two people, luckily I did not order too much. I was originally going to order the fish dumplings but it was not on the menu.
Anyway it was fairly big pieces of chicken on top of rice mixed with chopped Chinese choy sum.
The chicken used was thigh meat.
On the side there was some finely chopped spring onion sauce, which I had been longing to try.

delicious chopped spring onions, garlic n chili

 

The rice and chicken accompanied by the chopped spring onion sauce was really nice.
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

 

Overall the food was good, and I'll be back if I happen to be around during non-peak hours.