Restaurant review: Red Pocket Cafe in Wan Chai – US$9 cart noodles disappoint, but other lunch dishes delicious
- Cart noodles in beef brisket soup with curry fish balls, fish skin dumplings, mushrooms and turnips were an overpriced letdown
- But baked smoked duck breast rice with peach in tomato sauce and the fish fillet burger were tasty and good value for money
Among the shops and restaurants on bustling Jaffe Road in Wan Chai, Red Pocket Cart Noodles Cafe stands out for its vintage Hong Kong-style storefront.
We arrived at noon when the shop only had a few customers, but within half an hour, it was full. The cafe has a nice, homely atmosphere and friendly staff. The walls are decorated with a fortune cat holding a fork and a bowl of cart noodles, Japanese style prints and small trinkets on circular wooden shelves.
We ordered two lunch sets and a bowl of cart noodles, so called because they were once served from pushcarts on the city’s streets. Unlike traditional cart noodle joints, the Japanese-style fusion cafe offers unconventional noodle options such as udon and ramen.
The base price of the cart noodles is HK$30. Basic toppings range from HK$10 to HK$18, while premium ingredients like lobster and abalone set you back HK$38. We chose oil noodles in beef brisket soup with curry fish balls, fish skin dumplings, mushrooms and turnips, which came out to a total of HK$70.
The fragrant fish balls had a springy texture and a drizzle of curry sauce on top. The fish skin dumplings were delicious, but the turnips were too soft and lacked flavour. The mushrooms were also too sour.
Compared to other cart noodle shops in Hong Kong, the prices are quite high and the flavours are not the same. But the shop redeemed itself with other dishes and drinks. The baked smoked duck breast rice with peach in tomato sauce (HK$69) tasted like a healthier version of Hong Kong-style baked rice dishes.
