<The Movie Club>

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe Cineleisure (Food)

Published Monday, August 06, 2007 by The Movie Club | E-mail this post

This Hong Kong Café has named itself quite aptly “Xin Wang”, which means ‘new’ and ‘prosperity’ when you look at the two words separately. Indeed, when you are forced to walk past level 2 of Cineleisure, you would almost notice queues every weekend.

They know who their target crowd is. You often see young executives or students hanging out with their friends for light supper or leisure tea and desserts after a movie upstairs. The environment is very conducive for youths to chit chat till wee hours of the night. They have big red circular booths suitable for small groups from four to six, and cushioned seats which are cozy comfort for their customers.

With over 200 items on the menu, their four main sellers include the Cheese Baked Dishes, French toast, Snow Ice Series and ‘Hong Kong-Style’ Western food. My friends and I ordered a Fried noodles ‘Macau style’ ($6.90), Pork Chop Cheese Baked Spaghetti ($8.90), Fried noodles with Black Pepper beef ($7.90). Ham and Egg (originally $5.90 but came as a $1 promotion), and some appetizers.

Since I am very particular about Hong Kong tea, let’s start with the tea. Some may describe it to be an innovative attempt of selling tea in army-like metal mugs, while others would call it army-style tea-flavoured water. I swear that the three-in-ones taste better.

The Fried Wantons we had were sadly over-fried and shriveled. The interesting thing was the waitress came over and pointed out that their wantons were… 'different' the moment she served it. She was friendly enough to replace them with another plate, less burnt but equally shrunk.

If you are wondering what ‘Macau style’ noodles are, let me enlighten you that it is the same version of what you will get by frying instant noodles with cai xin, mixed peas, carrot and corn, two deep fried luncheon meat and ketchup-like sauce. The point is: I can also fry this at home.

The Pork Chop is extremely Hard with a capital ‘H’ and be ready to make full use of your utensils. The fried beef noodles were the best choice that night, tasty but just a tad too oily.

Although there has been general complains that the service staff who come from China has to be better informed of their menus, brush up their English, and smile a lot more, the waitress who served us was quite prompt and courteous. If anybody do not understand your orders, use numbers or just point!

Despite all I have said, I am still a frequent customer of Xin Wang because of the convenience and environment it provides. Their target market which are the youths hanging out at Cineleisure probably do not mind the quality of the food that much as well. With more branches opening, this new kid in the block can only get more prosperous.

Food: 2/5

Ambiance: 3/5

Service: 2/5

Value for Money: 2/5

Overall: 2.25/5