Yuemicka 魚米家

Yuemicka is one of the newer restaurants following the trend of making noodles in fish broth with various toppings. To be honest I didn't expect much when I stepped in for the first time, since I thought it was just another wannabe Chinese cafe. But I was surprised that they offer a wide range of food items including bubble waffle (雞蛋仔), waffle cake (格仔餅), maltose crackers (麥芽糖餅), tornado fries and bubble tea.

We ordered 2 different noodle combos ($7.50 each), one with original fish soup (原味魚米家魚湯) and the other with pepper spicy soup (胡辣). Both were good with the fish soup being milder in flavour and the pepper soup more piquant and appetizing. Each noodle combo comes with a choice of 2 toppings. I especially liked the fish puff. It had several layers of minced fish meat inside, giving it a chewy and contrasting texture.

All meal combos come with complimentary milk tea or coffee. I just love HK style milk tea. I didn't like the fact that the hot drink was served in a cheap plastic cup, but the milk tea was one of the best I've tasted. It was smooth and creamy with a strong tea flavour that wasn't bitter at all.

There's also an option to add up to 2 side dishes to each combo at a lower price. Since we had 2 noodle combos, we added 3 side dishes. This dish of choy sum (菜心) is $4.95 at regular price, but is only $2.99 with the combo. There are 3 sauces to choose from: oyster sauce, preserved bean curd, and fish soup. I chose fish soup because I wanted something milder. I wouldn't order this again not because it wasn't good, but because it was not much different from home-cooked veggies. We just got it so that we would have some greens to balance our diet.

One of the waiters said the curry fish balls (咖哩魚蛋) ($1.50 with combo) are really good and full of flavour. I enjoyed them, but didn't find them particularly impressive. Besides even the special price of $1.50 is a bit high for 4 fish balls.

What I liked the most out of the 3 side dishes we tried was the grilled chicken wings. There are 3 different types of seasoning including black sesame, black pepper and garlic, and lemongrass. I opted for black sesame chicken wings (土匪雞翼) ($2 with combo) since the other 2 flavours are pretty common. There were 3 rather large wings and they were very fat and juicy. But I heard from a family friend that she got tiny wings when she visited, so I guess it depends on your luck.

The major highlight was the waffle cake (格仔餅) ($3.75). It's a very popular street food in Hong Kong along with bubble waffles and curry fish balls. The interesting thing about the waffle cake is that it's a Chinese version of the waffle, but the ingredients are all Western ingredients. The filling consists of peanut butter, condensed milk, sugar and butter. The waffle was soft like a fluffy pillow and the ingredients in the filling blended together perfectly. I don't even like peanut butter and I loved this.

I know it doesn't look too appealing, but it's really good!

The service was pretty good for a Chinese restaurant. The staff actually tried to make conversation and asked for feedback. One thing I noticed is that the food is better during dinnertime. This is because they have different kitchen staff for lunch and dinner. There are even some dishes like the Chiu Chow sweet taro (反沙芋) that are only available at night because the chef that makes them only comes in at night. I have to try that next time!