Date of visit: 11th July 2010
Orchard Garden Cafe @ Mong Kok
Original plans to try out Tim Ho Wan went down the drain, so we ended up at Langham Place mall for a small dinner and then ended up here for dessert.
Luckily some diners had just left so we were seated almost as soon as we arrived... We were given a menu that was seriously extensive, but we only wanted dessert so we looked at the dessert menu, which was also vast. As far as I can remember, there was one page on just 'snow mountain' desserts with loads of variations, one page on variations of waffles, one on parfaits/sundaes, one on crepes, drinks and so on... Every single item available is printed on picture too, which meant decision-making was even harder!
After much debate, S and I settled for the following two items to share:
Fresh Fruit Cinnamon Duet
This comprised of three triangles of plain waffles and three of chocolate-flavoured waffles, with a small scoop of chocolate ice cream, assorted fruits with cinnamon infused syrup. I think my description sounds better than the taste! The waffles were soft and quite light but not airy like I hoped. I preferred the chocolate ones to the boring plain ones. The ice cream was definitely nestlé, not a premium variety which would have been so much better =(. The fruits were okay, but could have been more generous with the serving. What did make it better was the cinnamon infused syrup which made everything smell and taste better!
We then wanted to choose one from the parfait page - I would have hands down chosen to try the green tea parfait but seeing as S is not such a big fan like I am, we settled on a
Strawberry Waffle Yogurt Parfait
This parfait had (from top) fresh slice strawberries, whipped cream, small scoop of strawberry ice cream, four triangles of waffle, natural plain yogurt and berry compote / sauce.
The waffles were essentially same as the previous Fresh Fruit Cinnamon Duet, the plain ones. Ice cream was again a disappointment (honestly I would prefer Movenpick given a choice to top-up or something, or even Dreyers' for God's sake, but nooooo). The next layer down was the plain yogurt - I recognised from the taste that it was Nestle's (white and green packaging) natural plain yogurt, but wasn't sure until I saw a waitress preparing one as we were finishing up, which I can now confirm is Nestlé. Now Nestlé's plain yogurt requires an acquired taste. It isn't smooth, but grainy, and doesn't taste anything close to acceptable without the addition of other mix-ins. Moreover, here it wasn't served cold enough, but the berry compote / sauce did save the yogurt after we mixed it. It turned a nice pink colour too!
All in all, the waffles here I think are not so great. Most were soft without any crispness or that airy texture that I love. They could use a new recipe for their batters for sure, and adopt other brands of premium ice cream, even if this means increasing prices.... I mean, given a choice I would rather pay more to be satisfied.
I was however, impressed by the amount of japanese-western food that was available on the menu for a restaurant that isn't huge in size. I would definitely try their savoury dishes some time, but for now I'll pass on the waffles here.
Food: ♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$
Orchard Garden
1/F-2/F, 24-26 Argyle Street, Mongkok,
Kowloon (MTR Exit D3), Hong Kong
(other branches also)
Tel: +852 2699 3002
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