Hong Kong – Prawn Noodle Shop (Laksa)

Restaurant: Prawn Noodle Shop
Cuisine: Malaysian/Singaporean
Last visited: April 12, 2010
Location: (2 locations) Central, Hong Kong
Address:
MTR: Central Station or Sheung Wan Station
Shop 201, 2/F, Grand Millennium Plaza, No. 181 Queen’s Road Central, Sheung Wan
上環皇后大道中181號新紀元廣場2樓201號舖
Price Range:$36-60HKD/person about $5-8CAD/person

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3.5
Overall: 4
Additional comments:

• Popular/famous for laksa
• Busy/long lines at lunch hours
• Limited menu – just soup noodle bowls
• Offers 3 kinds of broth – 2 spicy, 1 non-spicy
• Clean and comfortable
• Quick, casual
• Attracts business crowd at lunch
• Popular to locals
• Afternoon tea set available
• Good for individual dining
• Menu in English and Chinese
• Budget friendly/cheap eaats
• Seats 50
• Cash only
• No service charge

**Recommendations: Spicy Prawn Soup with Seafood Noodle, Spicy Curry Laksa Seafood Noodle, Calamansi Juice

Prawn Noodle Shop is a Malaysian and Singaporean restaurnt in Central, Hong Kong. They specialize in home made soup noodle bowls and actually only serve just that. Since it’s located in the business district the line ups are long and the restuarant is packed during lunch times. They actually have another location in Wan Chai since they have created such a strong following.

The bowls are perfect for individual servings so it’s a great place to grab a quick casual bite. It’s low maintenance and reliable especially with such a focused menu. It’s a simple place with a simple menu. You chose from 3 soup bases (2 which are spicy), the noodles, and then you select the toppings. It’s almost like a ramen place in Vancouver.

It’s very popular to locals and although it is known as a Malaysian restaurant, I found it more Chinese Malaysian. The food is good, but not authentic Malaysian. I would come back for the food, but it also wasn’t the highlight of my dining adventures in Asia.

On the table:

**Calamansi Juice – 4/6

• Hot $12HKD – about $1.60CAD Cold $14HKD – about $1.80CAD
• I ordered this hot.
• This is a very typical drink served in Malaysia and Singapore.
• Calamansi is a Filipino fruit. It’s an acidic orange and it looks and tastes like mini limes.
• It tastes like a hot lime juice and it’s very aromatic and slightly sweetened with a simple sugar syrup.

**Spicy Prawn Soup – 4.5/6

• Prawn with fish cake noodle $35HKD about $4.60CAD
• You get to chose your noodles and I chose buckewheat noodle because they had ran out of mung bean noodles, which are those clear round thin noodles.

• It’s spicy, but bearable. The broth is actually delicious. It has a very shrimpy flavour and it almost seems slightly tomato based.

• They simmer it in lots of dried shrimp and shrimp shells so it has a wonderful seafood broth and it’s very flavourful. It’s savoury, sweet, spicy, and slightly tangy. You can see the dried shrimps and chili flakes in the soup too.
• I’m not sure if this is traditional Malaysian broth, but I think it’s original to the restaurant.
• They served it with different kinds of fish cakes. Fish cakes are almost like fishballs but in patty form.

**Spicy Curry Laksa – 4/6

• With sliced chicken noodle $42 HKD – about $5.80CAD
• This is another spicy soup noodle bowl. I ordered this one with vermiceilli noodles.
• It was very different than the traditional laksa I tried in Singapore from Terry Katong Laksa. This laksa was more Cantonese Malaysian style laksa.

• It had quite a strong curry flavour, but it could have used more herbs like the one from Bo Laksa King in Vancouver, BC. I could definitely taste coconut milk and lemongrass in the broth though and it was very tasty.
• The broth was sweet, nutty, creamy and good, although I’ve also had better. I found it spicier and richer than the spicy prawn soup.
• It was more similar to the laksa’s I’ve tried in Vancouver. It came with half a boiled egg, bean sprouts, deep fried tofu puffs and sliced chicken.
• The chicken they use is dark meat with the skin on because that’s how the majority of Chinese people like it.
• If I’m going for curry noodles in Hong Kong then I would rather go for Kau Kee’s beef brisket noodle soup bowl.

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