Hong Kong’s Tom Yum Noodles offers taste of Thailand for under US$12 – but dishes are too salty
- Restaurant captures the Instagrammable Bangkok vibe well, but some of the broths did not pack the aromatic punch we were after
- Insta-famous rose Thai milk tea hit the sweet spot
With its chic design and a glowing logo, Tom Yum Noodles adds a young and Instagrammable Bangkok vibe to the heart of Hong Kong district Tsim Sha Tsui.
We went there on a Tuesday in the early afternoon and were seated on a pink bench across from a plant-covered wall with colourful neon light decorations. Soon, the place was packed with office-goers in search of a quick lunch.
The lunch menu offers Thai noodles with a choice of soup bases, toppings and noodles.
With the restaurant’s name in mind, we ordered the tom yum broth. We went with rice noodles and seafood toppings (HK$98). The noodles arrived in an orange soup base, with a great variety of seafood – prawns, fish balls, squid, shrimp and mussels.
While the menu said that Thai noodles were famous for their aromatic soup bases, our dish did not hit the spot. It was sour and spicy, but lacked essential herbs such as lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. It tasted, at best, like a bowl of spicy tomato soup. The seafood was average, and we would have preferred less of it, but of better quality.
We were intrigued by the Ubon Ratchathani soup base, named after a city in the east of Thailand.
So we ordered one with fish balls, beef brisket and Thai noodles (HK$65). We weren’t sure what it should taste like, but what we were served was bland, with a strong aroma of sweet basil. The fish balls were bouncy, but the beef brisket was tough.
In addition to noodles, the menu offers traditional Thai rice dishes. We picked one of therecommendations, the fried minced meat with holy basil leaves served with rice and a fried egg (HK$62), but it was far too salty.
Craving a taste of street food, we ordered one dish from the à la carte menu: pan-fried egg with baby oysters on a sizzling pan (HK$78). The crispy egg and baby oysters came with bean sprouts, and again, this dish was far too salty.
We liked the drinks. Young coconut (an extra HK$28 on the set lunch) was cold and refreshing. The insta-famous rose Thai milk tea (HK$38 on the à la carte menu) was not as millennial pink as the pictures we’d seen on Instragram, but had a strong rose aroma that went well with the sweet milk tea.
Tom Yum Noodle, Granville Building, 12-16 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 3598 3022. Open: 11.30am-11pm
Other new cheap eats in Hong Kong
