I can't believe I haven't blogged about this one yet, but it's about time!
Lido is a place I've been to several times now and if you've heard of this place, you will know the main reason for coming here, this:
But more on this later!
This place is an HK Cafe style restaurant, and one of the more traditional types. They're usually very busy, so expect a wait if you're there during lunch/dinner times.
The decor is very traditional to HK style cafes, as can be seen in the photos below.
The walls are covered in Chinese character prints, advertising for various menu items at the restaurant. Notice the lack of English words here, as you will find very few English menus at this restaurant. The ones that do have English aren't the best either, but generally get the idea across.
They did not used to have English versions of all of their menus, so it was a surprise to see them this time. I normally had to have a Cantonese buddy translate for me and order on my behalf, but this time I was able to use a combo of English and the Canto words that I know to make my order.
I ordered the Pick any 2 Kinds $9.95 from the above menu and chose the Russian Borsch soup.
Reason for picking this over the Chinese Soup $1.10 is partially because of the extra $1.10 cost, and also because I don't find the Chinese soup to be that much better than their Russian Borsch, if at all. It's an ok soup, but nothing special.
My drink was my usual Cold Lemon Tea, $1.55 extra for a cold drink.
Nothing much to say about the lemon tea as it was basic. Not the best lemon tea I've had, but not the worst either.
For my 2 items, I picked Japanese Style Chicken Steak and Ham & Eggs.
This does not look as appealing as other HK Cafe style restaurants' "Pick 2 items" deals, as can be seen in our various other posts, so let's see how it tastes. The Japanese Style chicken is just basically chicken steak with teriyaki sauce. The flavour is just all teriyaki sauce, and the chicken itself does not taste that great. The ham and eggs are basic. The ham looks like the processed packaged ham as it is shaped in that rounded square you find at Superstore. The eggs are actually 2 over easy eggs fused together in one. They taste ok, just about what you'd expect for ham and eggs. The pitiful clump of veggies you see is just sad. Other cafes would at least fill the rest of the space of the plate with veggies, but Lido only gives you what can only be described as a spoonful. Overall this dish was very average and boring.
Now onto the main reason anyone comes to this restaurant, the item I substituted instead of rice, spaghetti, fries, butter bun, or garlic bread, Pineapple Butter Bun/Bolo Yao $3.00!!!!!
These heavenly buns are so simple in their composition, yet so deliciously satisfying to eat! I have not tried these to go yet, but eating them in the restaurant seems to be the only way to enjoy them properly as they come fresh from the oven with a slice of butter in between. The pineapple buns have perfectly crispy crusts and the inside is super soft and fluffy. The slice of butter slowly melts away as you eat this beautiful treat, and the only way I eat it is like I would a sandwich, holding it in my hands and biting into it from the side. One could use a fork and knife to eat it, if your utensils weren't dirty already, but our buns came late into the meal, as you can see our half-eaten main dishes when the buns arrived. My colleagues ate theirs with a fork and knife, but I found that to be an insult to the buns, as their utensils were soiled with the sauces of their main dish items, and would therefore contaminate the pure flavours of the pineapple bun and butter! This bun was euphorically satisfying to the very last bite! It is a must order every time I visit this restaurant as it should be yours. I would actually visit this restaurant for the sole purpose of eating the buns, and not ordering anything else.
One of my colleagues ordered the Curry Beef Brisket and Japanese Style Chicken Steak.
Now you know all about how we LOVE the curry beef brisket from Mui Garden, so we often tend to not order it anywhere else, as we believe Mui Garden has the best version of this dish. This proved to be true here, as his exact words were, "Never order this again, nowhere near Mui Garden!"
My other colleague ordered the Japanese Style Chicken Steak and Deep Fried Chicken Wings (4 pcs).
He got 3 good sized wings and one small one, which he was not happy about. His comments on these wings were that they were regular Chinese style chicken wings, nothing special.
The service here is what you'd expect from a traditional HK style cafe, lots of yelling and loud talking between staff members from across the restaurant, and pretty average service for the most part. This particular visit however, was slightly better! Our server was very polite and friendly (shocking!) and she was very prompt in taking our order and bringing us the drinks and food. Every time she brought something to our table, I would thank her (as I always do), but she actually responded with the Cantonese version of "you're welcome" every time! I was so shocked by this and was very impressed! This left a very good impression on me for their service this visit that I would give it a 4 out of 5 on our rating scale!
Overall the food here is for the most part, pretty average or below, EXCEPT for their almighty Pineapple Butter Buns! The service is average to good here, with the exception of this one visit, which was very good! I will always come back to dine here specifically for the Bolo Yao's, but if I was hungry and wanted an actual meal, I would probably head elsewhere as there are many great options nearby.
Food:
4/5
Service:
4/5
Price:
$-$$
Overall:
4/5
Thanks for reading everyone, munch on!
- Phil
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