Friday, July 3, 2015

Yuen Long Plaza: Chao Inn

The curry place is an option…

So is the Italian, when I'm feeling pizza…

Sushi is more my cup of tea during the winter…

Yoshinoya?

McDonalds? 

Maybe Vietnamese food would be a nice change?

Perhaps...Starbucks….?

There are quite a bit of places to eat at Yuen Long Plaza and Chao Inn is one of those options.  It's the Chinese restaurant that sits at the top floor of the Plaza and is also the place where we are most likely having dim sum on Sundays.



A year ago, or so, this place went under major reconstruction…for the better!  Now it's quite the hip trendy little place to dine. 




Upon sitting down, the waitstaff ask what tea that you'd like to have, which is probably the most welcoming thing about eating Chinese.  Each table also gets their own jug of boiling hot water to refill the tea pots throughout the meal.


Chao Inn has a pretty diverse menu.  Most of the time, I try sticking to the dishes that I know (the lobster noodles, sweet and sour pork, or the four season beans!), but I feel like I can really expand my repertoire when I eat here.


We started dinner off with the chicken soup, which is pretty tasty and definitely a comfort food!


The second dish we got was a duck and taro dish.  This was, by far, my favorite of the dinner.  It had the fried-ness that I love about my foods and an element of healthy stuck in there with the taro.



The second main dish that we got was a cheese and corn sauce draped over pieces of fried boneless chicken.  This was all right.  I'm glad I got to try it.  Chicken isn't one of my favorite things in the world, but it was nice to try.


The third dish we got was a vegetarian dish of mushrooms, rice noodles, and greens.  This is always a nice incorporation into any dinner.  It's always good to have a meat dish and a veggie dish at meals, I think.


We also ordered some PBR.  I don't know why I was impressed that Chao Inn had Pabst, but I was.  This took me back to the ye ole days of college.


The final dish that we got was actually something that I normally order when I eat at Chao Inn.  It's the fried noodle pancake, for lack of a better name.  It's a simple dish that comes with a side of sugar and vinegar.


The idea is that each person takes a little triangle of the fried noodles, sprinkles a bit of vinegar over the top (I prefer drenching my noodles with vinegar), and then sprinkles a bit of sugar on top of that (again, I prefer drenching my noodles with sugar)…  It's definitely one of my staple comfort foods since moving to Hong Kong!


Though I do like supporting smaller businesses, there is definite perks about eating at Yuen Long Plaza:

A Guaranteed Great Time!

Yuen Long Plaza has a lot of restaurants that I know are going to be delicious and the environment is always quite jovial (as most people seem to eat out in our area).  Dinners in Hong Kong are always such a wonderfully normal event.  It's something that I definitely love about this City…eating, drinking and being merry with friends and family!