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| - With the opening of Red Onion, Hong Kong Bistro Cafe is no longer the only HK style western cafe in the Chinatown area. And this is a good thing. While 2- years ago, Hong Kong Bistro Cafe used to be the go-to place for such dishes as baked pork chop on rice and baked seafood rice, times have changed and there are many much better cafes in other parts of the city. Unfortunately, until Red Onion opened, those of us who visited Chinatown had to suffer through the mediocrity that is Hong Kong Bistro Cafe.
Red Onion is far from perfect, but it is good. The portion sizes are good and the dishes are generally quite flavourful. We ordered the salted fish and chicken fried rice, baked shrimp on rice with cheese, baked pork chop rice, baked spaghetti bolognese with pastry on top (a weird combination), and salt and pepper squid. The food arrived piping hot and was well-seasoned. Service was friendly. Prices were appropriate. Between Red Onion and Hong Kong Bistro Cafe, I would choose Red Onion any day.
A few things can be improved about Red Onion:
- the shells were left on the shrimp in the baked shrimp dish. While I understand that the idea was that the shells were fried softly to allow them to be eaten along with the flesh, I did not prefer this taste.
- the menu is more limited than most other HK style western cafes. Notable absences from the menu: Hainan style chicken, portuguese-style chicken curry, baked ox-tongue rice. There was also no drinks section on the menu and so I was unsure if they served the usual favourites - HK style tea, lemon with warm coke, lemon with warm honey water...
In conclusion, a good HK style western cafe in this part of town. I am glad we gave it a try tonight!
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