Hong Kong – Hui Lau Shan (Healthy Dessert Restaurant)

Restaurant: Hui Lau Shan
Cuisine: Chinese/Dessert/Healthy Dessert
Last visited: May 2, 2010
Location: Multiple locations in Hong Kong… everywhere!
Address:
I visited:
MTR: Causeway Bay (at the opposite corner to Sogo)
2-6 Yee Wo Street
Price Range: $15-40HKD – about $2-5CAD

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

Food: 5.5
Service: 2.5
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 5
Additional comments:

• The most popular and famous dessert place in Hong Kong
• Dessert chain ‘restaurant’
• Healthy desserts
• Fruit desserts (focus on mango)
• Extensive menu
• Specializes in fresh mango desserts
• Traditional Chinese desserts (that are good!)
• Quick, casual
• Busy/crowded/line-ups
• Affordable
• Small selection of savoury snack foods
• English and Chinese menu with photos
• Somewhat self-serve
• Eat in/Take-out
• Cash only
  

**Recommendations: Sago in Mango Juice with Extra Mango and mango ice cream, Sago in Mango Juice with Pomelo extra mango and mango ice cream, Mango mochi, Mango pudding with Hokkaido milk & yogurt filling

This is one of my must visit places when I am in Hong Kong. I have to visit Hui Lau Shan at least once… if not, even once everyday. This time I wanted to try other places and I was also introduced to Tong Pak Fu desserts so I had the shaved ice cream more often than Hui Lau Shan. I would prefer the shaved ice cream, but they’re completely different desserts so it’s not comparable.

This is their to go menu. When you eat in it’s the same thing, but served in bowls.

Hui Lau Shan is the most popular restaurant in Hong Kong for quick and healthy desserts. It’s a massive chain restaurant and they’re everywhere. There’s even one at the Hong Kong airport. It’s very casual eats and it’s more of a sit down and eat in 15 minutes kind of place. They’re so busy all the time that it’s common to share table with other diners. This is almost the only place serving Chinese dessert that I like, and that’s because it’s barely Chinese at all.

Hui Lau Shan  focuses on fresh fruit, especially mango, and sago or tapioca. They do offer some red bean, grass jelly, and black sesame traditional Chinese desserts, but it’s not their main focus. Hui Lau Shan is a great place for any time of the day. They have an extensive menu so it will take you ages to get through it, although it’s almost all variations of mango and sago.

On the table:

**Sago in mango and coconut juice with pomelo and mango ice cream – 5/6

• I think $38HKD about $5CAD
• It’s been a while and the menu is a bit confusing so I actually ordered the wrong thing.
• My all time favourite is actually the sago in mango juice with extra mango and mango ice cream.
• This was still delicious and refreshing! It’s loaded with tons of fresh fruit, sweet mango, and it’s just so flavourful.
• Pomelo is an Asian grapefruit. It’s not as citrusy, less bitter, and more floral in flavour. I think it’s a better tasting grapefruit.
• Sago or tapioca are little round clear pearl, almost like bubble tea pearls but much smaller. It’s often seen in chilled coconut tapioca you can get at Kirin Restaurant in Vancouver, BC.
• It’s naturally sweet from fresh mango, slightly citrusy with the grapefruit and slightly richer and more aromatic with the added coconut milk.
• Whatever you get make sure you add mango ice cream. the mango ice cream here tastes like frozen mango pulp! It’s the best mango ice cream ever. Don’t miss out!
• The only thing similar to this in Vancouver, BC is 8 Juice at the Aberdeen food court in Richmond, and it comes nowhere close to Hui Lau Shan.

Mango Sampler Platter – 4/6

• probably about $45HKD – about $6CAD
• This is a good idea if you want to sample other items. It comes with these 3 standard desserts so you can’t chose. If you know what you like here, than there’s not point on ordering this because they have better stuff than what’s on this sampler platter.

• Mango with Mango Juice and Glutinous Rice Balls – 3.5/6
  • They don’t water down the mango juice here. It’s so delicious and rich in mango flavour. Hong Kong has very sweet mangoes.
  • I just didn’t like the glutinous rice balls. They’re almost like the black bubble pearls, but they’re starchy and not as flavourful. They’re denser and harder mochi balls with nothing inside.

• Crystal Jelly with Mango and Mango Ice Cream – 4/6
  • I really like this, but I still wouldn’t order it separately because I prefer the sago instead of crystal jelly.
  • Crystal jelly tastes like a slightly sweetened and relatively neutral tasting jello. combines with the mango it tastes almost like mango jelly. You end up barely chewing the crystal jelly because it’s so soft and chopped up.
  • The mango ice cream is NOT TO BE MISSED! It’s pretty much pure frozen mango pulp! You can taste the frozen fibrous strands of real mango and it’s awesome! It’s almost like sorbet and more icy than it is cream based. I don’t even know if there’s dairy in this actually. It’s creamy from the mango, but not creamy with dairy.

• **Mango Mochi with Fresh Mango – 5/6
  • I actually love the mango mochi here. It has a very soft and squishy mochi skin that’s rolled in coconut. You can order these mochi in 3 or in 6. They skin is chewy, but also very soft that it doesn’t require much chewing. I actually liked it better than the authentic Japanese mochi from Japanese Deli Sweets Mochi Cream.

• • Inside the mochi is filled with fresh pureed mango! It’s so good!  Even the mango skin is made from mango.
  • It’s just a creamy bite of sweet mango in all of it’s wonderful textures.

This is one of their limited of time offers. I wanted the mango pudding with Hokkaido & Yogurt filling, but they sold out.

Peach Pudding with Hokkaido Milk & Yogurt Filling – 2.5/6

• $15HKD about $2CAD
• This is not my favourite. I had high expectations but it didn’t really do anything for me. I just think they have better stuff.
• I have heard great things about this “Hokkaido Milk” which is Japan’s highly prized milk from a little town called Hokkaido.

• The peach pudding didn’t really tastes like peach. It was too fake tasting for me and tasted like a milk based fake peach flavoured jello.
• The inside was the Hokkaido milk yogurt filling. It’s actually quite thick and creamy, but not that sweet. Hokkaido milk is supposed to taste like really strong milk that’s very smooth. This one was mixed with yogurt so it’s thicker and has a slight tang. It’s not as thick as custard, but actually quite neutral in flavour. I was expecting more, and compared to all their other mango desserts, this one was just bland.

Walnut and Black Sesame Soup – 2/6

• I think this is around $22HKD about $3CAD
• It’s one of their newer features. Again, I would stick to ordering their fresh fruit/mango specialties.
• You can definitely find this dessert better elsewhere, however it’s not common to see it served half and half. Usually it’s walnut soup or black sesame soup.
• This dessert is a traditional Chinese dessert and it’s served hot. I am not a fan. This one was also quite bland.
• The walnut soup is made from walnut paste and it’s quite thick and rich and slightly starchy in texture. I love walnuts, but not this way.
• The black sesame soup is very popular to locals and it’s made from black sesame seed paste or sometimes black sesame powder. It’s creamy, rich, nutty in flavour and has a slight bitterness to it.
• Neither were too sweet, but just very mediocre for what they are. It was a bit gummy in texture and seemed somewhat artificial and not as flavourful as I’ve had them before. It tasted very packaged and premade. There’s better out there and that’s coming from me (someone who doesn’t really like either).

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