Favourite Hong Kong restaurants of Candice Suen-Sieber, restaurateur
Director of company behind Triple O’s, Grom and Yo Mama tells us where she gets her fill of beef soup noodles, radish salad and uni pasta in Hong Kong, her favourite Vancouver restaurants, and where she takes her kids for pizza and xiao long bao
I’m a casual person, I like to enjoy my food and have a good time with friends. I don’t like a lot of “fluff”.
I really like Nadaman. I go to the one in Pacific Place (7/F Island Shangri-La, Two Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, tel: 2820 8570) because I rarely cross the harbour. It’s [my husband] Kape’s favourite – he normally doesn’t eat much, but he does eat there. It’s so reliable. We both love the radish salad – it’s just very thinly sliced radish with sesame dressing. They add a bit of frisée – normally I can’t stand frisée, but I eat it anyway.
I also love Crystal Jade – it’s so satisfying. I get the beef soup noodles, made with beef shin, and the Beijing dumplings. The kids love it – my stepdaughter, Elisha, eats five baskets of xiao long bao to herself – that’s a lot, because she’s only seven.
Normally I go to the one in IFC (shop 2018-2020, 2/F IFC, 1 Harbour View Street, Central, tel: 2295 3811) but if that’s busy I go to the one in Queensway (shop E01-E06, 1/F Lab Concept, Queensway Plaza, 93 Queensway, Admiralty, tel: 2529 9908).
Of course I like my own restaurant, Ciao Chow (California Tower, 30-32 D’Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, tel: 2344 0005). Everybody goes there for the pizza, but I love the kale salad.
My son Lucian – he’s 18 months old – loves the margarita pizza. Every time I ask him what he wants to eat he says pizza.
Then there’s L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (shop 401, 4/F Landmark, 15 Queen’s Road Central, tel: 2166 9000). I like the uni pasta, and always get the jamon. Lots of places serve jamon – but theirs is so good.
In California, I like Adamson’s French Dip (806 West El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, tel: +1 408 830 9024). It’s a little hut and all they do is prime rib French dip – I’m a sucker for au jus. They do just that – well, they might do other things but I don’t know because I don’t look at the menu.
In the same area, there’s a restaurant called Arcadia (San Jose Marriott, 100 West San Carlos Street, San Jose, tel: +1 408 278 4555). It’s a Michael Mina restaurant. I eat the lobster pot pie, and for dessert, the root beer float.
In Vancouver I like the Cactus Club (several locations, cactusclubcafe.com). I eat the hot wings – they’re bright red, and very Tabasco-ish. They sell them by the pound and they come with blue cheese sauce, but I don’t eat that. They also do these dry ribs – they cut them really small, and they’re not served with any sauce.
In the same city, I go to Phnom Penh (244 East Georgia Street, Vancouver, Canada, tel: +1 604 682 5777). Everyone is crazy for their chicken wings but I love the butter beef. They serve it super rare – I normally don’t like it that rare, but this is so good. It has butter, some vinegar, and a lot of coriander – if you like coriander, it’s king.
In Paris I like Apicius (20 rue d’Artois, Paris 75008, tel: +33 1 4380 1966). It’s a house in the middle of Paris, on the Right Bank. It’s very frou-frou with tables in these little rooms. It’s so yummy, and I go whenever I’m in Paris – which isn’t often now that I have kids.
