Restaurant review: Rosie's Cafe, Sha Tin - pancakes hit the spot
Japanese-run cafe serves sweet and savoury pancakes as well as pasta and rice dishes and pizza. Stick with the pancakes
in Sha Tin, run by the Tokyo-based food and beverage company Cafe Company, mainly serves sweet and savoury freshly made pancakes, along with pizza and pasta and rice dishes.
The interior, with colourfully decorated walls and potted plants, evokes a warm American family home setting. The restaurant is spacious and tables are not placed too close to each other — perfect for a relaxing chat with friends and family.
Our favourite dish was the Okinawa sweet potato pancake (HK$87), which comes straight from the oven in a black baking pan. Crispy on the outside and soft inside, the pancake is topped with a purple paste made from mashed sweet potatoes, and small bite-sized black beans soaked in Japanese honey. It comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a small bowl of black sugar syrup on the side.
Also worth trying is the savoury special pancake (HK$85). It is topped with chunks of tomatoes, Parma ham, a ball of cream cheese and a generous helping of rocket. The combination of sweet Japanese pancake with salty Parma ham and cream cheese was interesting and delicious.
Unfortunately, the pasta dishes we tasted weren't as good as the pancakes. The Sakura ebi and mizuna mentai cream carbonara (HK$92), with a half-cooked egg mixed in a spicy mentaiko sauce, was a bit watery. Crab and cabbage pasta (HK$92) lacked both flavour and crabmeat.
The cafe offers a range of drinks, including cocktails, milkshakes and iced teas. We liked the rose lemon tea (HK$53), which was refreshing and not too sweet, with a pleasing rose flavour.