Enjoying the food and culture in Central and Sheung Wan

I was pleasantly surprised that lunch at a hotel restaurant could be so casual and friendly. CharK and I happened to be in Central this afternoon and decided to try out Cafe Causette at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Even though it's a cafe they have a pretty large lunch menu of Asian dishes (like Hoi Nan chicken rice, Pad Thai, etc.), pastas, pizzas, burgers, and of course desserts. Since the cafe is located a hotel, I'd originally thought it'd be a stuffy place but the staff was friendly and seating was very open.

In a crowded city like HK, I often find it difficult to get a table at a restaurant without reservations, and usually I'm seated just two or three feet from the next table. So being able to sit back and not be in ear shot of the next table's conversation was a nice change.

A nice treat but this was probably the most expensive lunch we've had in HK (Photo: CathC).

I think the waitress was very surprised with our order: one main and two desserts. But both the apple and blueberry crumble and the passion fruit tart sounded so yummy that I didn't want to pass either one up. In the end the crumble was my favourite. It was gooey but not too sweet, and the vanilla ice cream actually had bits of vanilla bean seeds in it. The passion fruit tart was very fragrant but I didn't really like the strong taste of cream it had. The sherbet on the side was very refreshing though. I tried one of the beef sliders too and it was good--nice combo of pickles of bbq sauce with the meat.

After lunch CharK and I walked over to Sheung Wan to check out the antiques and the western market. The  area seems to be a mix of Chinese antiques, galleries, and cafes. I've never seen so many variety of vases, and metal trinkets/figurines.

Ladder Street really is full of stairs and the antique street market had lots of kitchen hood ranges being hammered out by hand still (Photo: CathC).

We then stopped by the Western Market (西港城) to see the oldest market in HK.The Edwardian style building is pretty interesting to look at from the outside, and has other unique architectural elements including a roof that's covered with Chinese pan and roll tiles.

The Western Market located at 323 Des Voeux Road, Sheung Wan (Photo: CathC).

The coolest part of this market was the whole first floor sells nothing but cloth. Every fabric you could imagine from wools to lace to Chinese silks were being sold here.

There's almost no walking room around these rolls of fabric (Photo: CathC).

Sheung Wan is a pretty interesting neighbourhood to walk around with lots to see. I liked browsing at all the antique shops, even though it was raining for most of the time. I'll have to come back one weekend to try one of the many cafes that are around.