Best one without a star

We hop to Juxing Home (聚興家) a few MTR stops away in Mongkok for lunch on Sundays every now and then whenever we have a bigger group and want something slightly more than just a casual meal. While the place is often packed with customers at nights (it's also known as a popular late night hangout spot for chefs), during the day it's much quieter and hence more comfortable (with the food just as good)

Ming Court Dinner

Our choice of staycation destination has always been driven by the type of places we wanted to eat, and this time at Cordis, the highlight meal was at Ming Court, their Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant. We haven’t visited the restaurant for a while so we were glad to come back for the special tasting menu prepared by Chef Li for the hotel’s 5th Anniversary celebration (and came as part of our hotel room package)

Late Night and Early Morning

There’s no better time to check out a few spots in Mongkok that open in odd hours – either late night or early morning – while “staycationing” in the neighborhood. In the area “that never sleeps”, there are plenty of those and here are two of my favorites. 

The Gentrified Neighborhood

Just a few weeks ago we bemoaned the closure of TAP (The Ale Project in full), one of the pioneer gastro-pub specializing in local brews, when the original lease was not renewed but glad to know they re-opened shortly after at a shop just down the street from its original location on Hak Po Street, which has been gentrified to a somewhat hipster block thanks to a few restaurants and cafes opening in the last few years.  

Extended Staycay

Turned out it was a great idea that we extended our weekend staycation at Cordis at the last minute thanks to a new room package with steep discount. We thought Mongkok is a somewhat familiar neighborhood to us but still there were much to see and do plus the extra day gave us more time for a much-needed break from the hectic life.

Green for a night

Last week I attended yet another Green Monday dinner hosted by Ming Court of The Cordis. It's not my first time trying the meatless menu prepared by Chef Li but this time I got to taste a few of the new dishes. And even better as they put us up in the private room for a more cozy setting.

Feast of Mushrooms

With pictures of mushroom dishes flooding my social media feed, I don’t need further reminder that late summer/early fall marked the prime season for Chinese mushrooms. And I had the first taste of them this year at a recent dinner at Ming Court of The Cordis, with a series of vegetarian dishes by chef Yuet-faat Li using many kinds of seasonal fungus imported from Yunnan Province, as well as plant-based “meat” Omnipork introduced by the Green Monday team in Hong Kong.

The Forgotten Recipes

It’s pure coincidence that I ended up with another outstanding Cantonese meal within the same week after our dinner at the Seventh Son just a couple of days ago. I was delighted to tag along with a small group of media people for the tasting of the special menu at Ming Court at Cordis Hong Kong. For the next couple of months, Chef Mango Tsang introduced a series called "The Forgotten Recipe", with "new" dishes based on classic Cantonese recipes and offered them in addition to the regular a la carte menu.