Place to Rest

Recently we became more conscious to bring our business to local and small shops around our city as our tiny contribution to support them. And it often led to pleasant surprises as we ventured out of what we are more familiar with and started checking out new places.

One of such places that we went and liked was Rest Coffee Gin, a small cafe/bar sitting at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade. Well we didn't stumble across the place by chance - our friend E was a part investor of the place so he invited us to go and try. The place was certainly not the most accessible of all - it's a good 20 minutes away from the nearest public transportation stop, and probably the same walking distance if you drive and park, but when we finally arrived, we were stunned by the magnificent view of the Victoria Harbor and the Hong Kong Island skyline right outside the restaurant with plenty of space for jogging, strolling, or playing with kids or pets.

The place was cozy, with a handful of small tables indoors, and on a good day, one could sit outside or even at the lawn in front of the restaurant. In the middle was the bar where drinks were prepared, while the food was prepared from the small kitchen at the back. The decor features a hip industrial look with concrete walls and counter, but then there's an artsy and cultural touch like the nice selection of tableware, or the indigo dyed furniture commissioned by local designers. I fell in love with the place already with the sight of all those ceramics cup from owner's collection from around the world.

During the day the place functions as a cafe with coffee served and at night, it's turned into a bar specializing in gin cocktails. Vincent and Wallace played as a team behind the bar, with Vincent more as a barista and Wallace the bartender, and this worked perfectly well as both were excellent in their respective field.

I asked Wallace and Vincent to fix me up with a few of their signature cocktails and all of them were outstanding. I started off with something lighter, a gin fizz mixed with Chinese phoenix dan chong tea. It's a perfect thirst quencher to start our evening with that refreshing aftertaste from that bit of tartness from the tea. Knowing tea and gin cocktails was something that they have been experimenting, I challenged them to show me another one, and this time it's the Darjeeling Negroni (or what they called “Stairway to Heaven”, using the gin infused with the rich black tea with a dash of vermouth and a brush of bitter chocolate on the glass. “Could you do me something with sloe gin?” I wanted to throw another curveball to Vincent and he immediately showed me this handcrafted sloe gin from Germany called Elephant he kept in the cabinet and made me a simple G&T served on a tall glass.

To be honest I didn't have much expectation of food coming from a cafe/bar but the dishes that we tried were excellent. The fried chicken came in huge portion - it's not those type with the crispiest skin but it's well brined and seasoned (think the KFC original recipe version but with a much better quality chicken) Don't know what kind of chicken they used but definitely not the frozen type. Fries were done well too, served fresh off the fryer and with truffle mayo on the side.

A lovely place to chill and do nothing over a cup of coffee or gin. Or just the perfect spot to hide away from just about everything. Next time I should go check out the coffee more – reckon that might work well with my own homemade cup for a bit of me-time with a book.

When? September 5 2019
Where? Rest Coffee Gin, Shop 04, Art Park, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong
Web: (Facebook) www.facebook.com/rest.coffee.gin