Restaurant Review: 852 Hong Kong Café

852 HONG KONG CAFÉ 3040 Calgary Trail ~ 852cafe.ca Instagram: @852hkcafeyeg Co-Diners: The E.A.T Crew

Everyone is pretty familiar with so-called Chinese food (which is a pretty broad term, to say the least). Which is why I was excited to try a restaurant that specializes in something a little bit more specific. Opening in 2012, 852 Hong Kong Café is a restaurant that serves cuisine from this small area of China (which they're technically still a part of, albeit with a large amount of autonomy). What's with the "852" in the restaurant's name? That's Hong Kong's country code. Voted Best Restaurant South of the Whitemud by CBC Edmonton's Best Restaurants 2019, I was excited (and somewhat clueless) to try this Steinhauer (south end) restaurant. I visited on a Saturday evening and recognized the building right away as one of the old Tropika locations. It's a large, stand-alone restaurant with plenty of parking. Inside, I was pleasantly greeted with quite a modern and bright space. The tables are made of light-coloured wood, the chairs are light grey, and there are cute accents of green apples around the space. It feels incredibly fresh and easy-going. I liked the authentic decor items a lot but overall the atmosphere feels more updated and less like a stereotype. Seated at a comfortable booth, we began to comb over the (slightly scary) menu. First of all, the menu is written entirely in Chinese with the English translations underneath. I love this. I also adored the anime-style characters on the menu which added a lot of fun. But also, there seems to be several menus. There's a physical menu which got handed to us, plus a specials menu, plus a menu online which seemed to contain different items. This felt like a lot and I was worried that I would order the "wrong things." It was a little bit confusing. We were also promptly delivered complimentary glasses of jasmine tea by a friendly server.

Such a nice touch that I always appreciate. I also wanted to try the Hong Kong Style Milk Tea ($3.00) which can be ordered either hot or cold.

This tea was quite strong and I liked adding a bit of sugar to take the edge off. Milk tea in Asia fills me with joy and this version brought back some nice memories. At this point I was double fisting beverages and ready to make some decisions.

There are some things that surprised me on the menu and it's probably because my knowledge of Hong Kong-style cuisine is so limited. For example, the HK style borscht, which I assume has to do with China's proximity to Russia. But also the many spaghetti dishes on the menu. In the end, we ordered a bunch of different dishes and hoped for the best. There was a section of the online menu called "21st Century Hong Kong Dishes" and I found that most of the items that sounded the most interesting to me came from this section. Maybe these are considered more current versions of what the people in Hong Kong eat? From this section I found the Champagne Crispy Prawn Balls ($28.88).

These sounded fancy and I liked seeing that the plating was done with style and care. Eight golden prawn balls were covered in an ultra sticky-sweet sauce. These were very easy to pop into my mouth and I found the crunch of the batter to be very satisfying. The prawn inside was large and meaty. I'm not really sure how "champagne" was incorporated into the dish but I loved the flavourful sticky sauce. This was one of my favourite dishes because it was enjoyable to eat and suited the restaurant's vibe really well. If there was one dish that I did know to order, it was the Pipa Duck ($21.00 for half) from the "Traditional HK BBQ" part of the menu. This is the dish that most people talk about when it comes to this restaurant. I also loved that they have a window to the kitchen in the restaurant where you can see all of the ducks hanging, much like a shop window in Chinatown.

Served with the glistening, lacquered skin that this duck is so famous for, it's impossible not to want to devour every esthetically pleasing bite. However, one thing that I wanted to learn more about is the difference between Peking duck and Pipa duck. They seem pretty similar, although I did note the absence of the steamed soft pancakes that you get served with Peking duck. As it turns out, a pipa is a Chinese string instrument and Pipa duck is named for its resemblance to this instrument. Arguably crispier than Peking duck, Pipa duck is splayed open before being roasted which increases the bird's surface area and produces an extra crunchy exterior. Apparently only a handful of Chinese restaurants serve this specialized duck dish in Hong Kong, which makes it pretty remarkable that we can get it right here in Edmonton. Served with a thick hoisin dipping sauce, I began dunking my duck and marveling at the tender meat. The fat was rendered down wonderfully and of course the crispy skin was the star of the dish. Some of the pieces were difficult to eat if they contained bones or if the skin was just too hard. However, this duck seemed expertly prepared and I loved having the opportunity to try it. Most other tables in the restaurant were also eating it. Back to the "21st Century" dishes, I really wanted to try the Stir-Fried Clams with Garlic and Chili ($18.00) because they sounded very unique.

We were served a mountainous heap of small clams! (Of course I kept making jokes about how much I enjoyed eating steamed hams.) This dish is spicy, which should be visually obvious given the number of dried chili peppers tossed in. Full of big flavours, I enjoyed the heat and thought that the garlic really coated each little clam beautifully. Many of the shells were empty... But then we found all of the escapees at the bottom of the plate. I think that this was my favourite dish overall! Lastly, in the interest of not making a huge mistake, I asked our server for a recommendation. What's their most popular dish? What's the one thing that we should definitely try? He seemed a bit taken aback by this query but then did suggest the Sweet and Sour Crispy Berkshire Pork ($28.00), saying that it's one of their best dishes.

This item seemed somewhat similar to the prawn dish that we had ordered, with a familiar sticky sauce. However, I really liked the addition of juicy pineapple and bell peppers to the plate. It almost felt like they were going for a bit of a Hawaiian feel with the pork and pineapple together. Very crispy and perfectly fried on the outside, the pork meat was tender and juicy on the inside. Very easy to eat! Although you probably only need one of these fried dishes per meal. Overall, I had a great experience at 852 Hong Kong Café. I felt as if I was truly trying dishes that were new to me and I appreciated their expert preparations. I would love to return so that I can taste a few of the other offerings on the menu that caught my eye. This restaurant is full of wonderful authenticity and certainly worth a try for a great Hong Kong-style dining adventure.