cafe balencia, hong kong

Cafe Balencia is restaurant chain part of the A-1 Bakery group. They have several other cafes attached to their bakery business all around Hong Kong. We walked past Cafe Balencia many times while we were in Hong Kong but never thought to try it out on our second last night there.

cafe balencia:

Next door is their bakery which sells a variety of quick bites and pastries. They're fresh and most of them are tasty. I tried many of their pastries for breakfast and the buns were soft and moist. However, there was one bun I was unhappy with. I was most intrigued by their purple sweet potato bun so I tried it and to my disappointment, it was pretty much a soft bun with purple frosting - no sweet potato flavours at all.

daily soup (10HKD):

To start off the meal, we ordered the daily soup, which is served with bread and butter.

tomato sauce garlic bread (33HKD):

Often with Asian restaurants serving western fusion or western dishes, you'll find that your entrees might be served during or after your main course or even dessert during your mains. Be wary of this if you're super particular with the order of your food (like my brother). Luckily for him, Cafe Balencia does it right and brings out everything in order. The tomato sauce is more of a marinara sauce you'd get on pizza or pasta.

baked indian style beef keeman curry with rice (68HKD):

My dad orders the baked Indian style beef curry with rice, which is served in an extremely hot iron pan. He says it reminds him of Japanese doria and that the curry was great but because there's so much cheese and not enough vegetables, it does get slightly difficult to finish towards the end of the meal.

mentaiko with squid spaghetti (59HKD):

The mentaiko spaghetti had a creamy sauce with mushrooms, plenty of chewy calamari rings and spicy cod roe. I love Japanese spaghetti - the noodles are almost never overcooked. The creamy sauce is thin and with the help of the dried nori, it didn't feel heavy at all.

sea bream fettucine in mushroom cream sauce (64HKD):

My brother opts for pasta with sea bream. He says that while the fish was fresh and everything was cooked to perfection, in terms of flavour, the mentaiko squid spaghetti was better.

black truffle paste, portobello mushroom stewed rice (72HKD):

My mum is not a fan over heavy dishes but she says the mushroom risotto was perfect for her. The truffle shavings and truffle paste had a distinct and almost pungent aroma. The grilled portobello mushroom gave the dish a unique nutty taste with the pine nuts added texture to the soft rice.

Overall it was an extremely pleasant meal and I just wished we tried it earlier so we could come back and try out more of their other dishes. The meal cost around 340HKD (including a 10% surcharge) which is just under $50AUD.

Cafe Balencia 
Shop No. M08, Ground Floor
Grand Century Place, Mong Kok
t: 2628 - 3686