FOOD STOPS: Hongkong Roast

Hongkong Roast

Bagtikan st., Makati City

In the busy city of Makati, it would be nice to get away to have a nice chinese lunch or dinner to Hongkong. Now its possible by going to Bagtikan street near RCBC and Sacred Heart Parish. HONGKONG ROAST is proud to be hav authentic Chinese food providing you a taste of Hongkong.

Owned and operated by Mary Chan, Hongkong Roast Food Express of HKR is her new business aside from  her already-successful printing business. For business purposes, Mary found herself travelling frequently back and forth from Hong Kong and China. Armed with a Hotel & Restaurant Management Degree from Dominican College and a love for food, Mary discovered the true recipe for asado, or barbecued pork as it is more commonly known overseas. A cook herself who trained under Chef Gene Gonzales as a college student, Mary decided to bring “the taste of Hong Kong” to Manila, with a strong focus on asado.

made of different noodles, the texture makes the flavor swirl around it

The recipe for asado is apparently a trade secret, which explains why only the Chinese chefs who work for Manila’s fine dining Chinese restaurants are able to copy the true Hong Kong asado well. Nevertheless, Mary felt the need for a restaurant that emulated the true Hong Kong dining experience – excellent food, fast service, unfussy surroundings and affordable prices. Therefore, she and her chef trained with Hong Kong and Shenzhen chefs to perfect the recipe, which is now one of the best-selling dishes at HKR.

Other notable dishes include the roast chicken, whose texture and flavor are reminiscent of Causeway Bay roast duck; the appetizing salted baked chicken; and the Black Chicken Sesame – which you will only find at HKR. The dish uses the silk chicken, a type of fowl whose skin is completely black. In China, dishes with silk chicken are usually consumed twice a day post-pregnancy to bring the mother back to health. In HKR, the dish is cooked with ginger to eliminate unhealthy gas and acid from the system. The taho and soy milk are manufactured completely in the restaurant. For an interesting salve to the sweet tooth, try the French Toast with sesame filling – a popular dish among gentlemen, Mary notes with surprise. Perhaps one reason why the food tastes so much like authentic Hong Kong cuisine is because a lot of the ingredients are imported. For instance, HKR’s milk tea is such an accurate representation of its Hong Kong cousin because only Black and White Evaporated Full Cream milk is used to create it – one of the two brands used by Hong Kong restaurants to craft the beverage. HKR delivers to the immediate vicinity and uses only environmentally-friendly packaging made out of corn pulp to house the food.

HKR is the only restaurant that claims to have authentic Hong Kong food but does not have a Chinese chef on the payroll. Whereas this may raise some eyebrows to the restaurant’s faithfulness to the original, Mary believes that her patrons visit her to sample the excellent and affordable food, and not to watch a Chinese chef cook. Furthermore, her own enculturation in Hong Kong and Shenzhen cuisine, coupled with an eye for detail and careful management of her restaurant, lend HKR all the authenticity it needs.

Chinese style chicken is also a win

This hidden gem is truly Hong Kong. Run by a Chinese lady with considerable experience in the culinary arts both here and abroad, serving dishes that are genuinely Causeway Bay café in taste and quality, HKR is a veritable little Hong Kong in the middle of Makati City.

Beef noddles, a contender for highly recommended

French Toast

Coffee Jelly

Just like the ad, don't mind the characters, The pork asado ihas earned Fud fyt's approval of Highly Recommended for food lovers. This Chinese specialty has indeed preserved the Chinese flavor which Hongkong Roast would like to be known for. As we are used with asado on our Siopao, this asado would leave you filled and perfect with fried rice. 

We also considered the Beef Noodle as it's a great combination perfect for the rainy days. But  to represent the perfect dish for the restaurant itself, Asado still tops the list. 

So when in Makati, don't forget to drop by Bagtikan street to escape into Hongkong Roast!