Man Mo Café - Fusion East-Meets-West Dim Sum

The Price: $$$

Cravingness: ★★★☆☆1/2

Among the vintage and nostalgic stalls on the Upper Lascar Row of Cat Street lies a cosy restaurant Man Mo Café. Named after our beloved temple Man Mo Temple, Man Mo Café is not a cafe serving coffee but a fusion dim sum restaurant offering innovative East-meets-West dim sum.



Bringing fusion dim sum to a city filled with traditional dim sum options is quite a thing, so Man Mo Cafe naturally stole the spotlight. The owner behind this idea, a Swiss born Chef Nicolas Elelouf who love and lives in Hong Kong for seven years, decided its time to take a stake and revamp the traditional dim sum into something fun and innovative. With his powerful team of chefs who have worked at Robuchon and Din Tai Fung, the quality sounds very promising.

I thought the presence of the contemporary furnished Man Mo Cafe would look awkward sitting among the nostalgic stalls nearby, but it actually fits in pretty well and made the neighbourhood more interesting. The furnishing is kept sleek, painted in white with work of arts painted on dim sum streamers adorning the walls. The noise level is minimal, it feels like you can spend hours dining here without being disturbed.

The one page long menu is not extensive but good enough to include basic items such as dumplings, buns, fried goodies and desserts. You can find the traditional items here but the ingredients used are something you would not expected, which I will go through later below. The dim sum comes in two or three pieces which is very considerate for small group diners. The dim sum is priced high end, so order wisely.

Unlike the typical dim sum restaurants where each table gets their own pot of tea, Man Ma Café serves each diner their own cup of tea. The idea to personalise the tea experience behind was good, but it is rather pricey for everyone on the table to get their own tea especially when each cup costs HKD50. Nonetheless, I actually love the teas offered at Man Mo Café. Get the Thai Tcha, that is good!

Coffee are also served in traditional Chinaware.

Utensils are classy blue and white Chinawares and yellow chopsticks. Instead of the usual XO sauce and spicy sauce, Man Mo Cafe servers salt and pepper to complement the natural flavours of the dim sums they offered.

The first dim sum arrived was the Burgerbun - HKD68, a typical looking Cha Siu Bao but was filled with minced beef, lettuce and tomato instead. A cute little bottle of thousand island sauce was served alongside the bun for adding flavour. The bun literally tasted like a burger, I particularly enjoy the juiciness of minced beef.

Next comes Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao - HKD130/3pcs, and bewarned, it's jus bursting! The jus was actually foie gras oil excreted from the foie gras during steaming, so it wasn't as pleasant to drink as typical Xiao Long Bao where the jus is soup. I suggest taking the whole piece in one go. The skin was at acceptable thickness, and the filling was bold in flavour. The xiao long bao was delightful to enjoy.

The Truffle Brie - HKD85/3pcs is one of my favourite at Man Mo Cafe. Every bite of this was filled with wonderful truffle and Brie flavours. Both of the flavour was rather mild though, so salt and pepper were definitely needed for this dumpling! The dumpling skin was kept thin and it was pan fried to give a crisp and smokey bottom.

The Shrimp Spring Roll was nicely fried to give a crisp skin. It was not too much different in taste from the typical spring roll though.

Another Xiao Long Bao dish, this time we had Scallop Xiao Long Bao - HKD130/3pcs which carried tangy broth inside the dumpling. However this was just an average dish as the scallop filling was chopped. I feel liked chopping it is a waste as I could not taste the scallop fully.

The Tomato Mozzarella - HKD70/3pcs is another excellent creation with piping hot tomato broth and melted mozzarella cheese wrapped in a pesto flavoured dumpling skin.

Next we moved on to the dessert. The Nutella Ball - HKD20 is a twist on the traditional Chinese deep fried pastry where nutella was filled instead of lotus seed paste. This was a very chocolately dessert and best for chocolate lovers.

The Bun Tatin - HK26 played on the traditional custard bun but caramelised apple was filled instead. Yet this was just an average pastry, I prefer my oozing custard bun more.

The HK Egg Lemon Tart - HKD26 was a playful combination of HK egg tart and Western lemon tart. I love how tarty the lemon curd was and the soft caramelised meringue on top. The cookie based tart was fine, it would be nice if it was more buttery.

The Kung Fu Creme Brulee - HKD26 was my favourite dessert here at Man Mo Cafe. The extremely crunchy caramelised top was lovely. The King Fu custard was smooth and carried a strong tea flavour which was absolutely addicting. I couldn't stopped myself eating spoons after spoons!

I actually like the dim sum Man Mo Cafe offers, but unlike the traditional Chinese dim sum, I am not sure if I would want this every weekend, The dim sum at Man Mo cafe is rather pricey, so we were a bit shocked when the bill came. Actually If you consider the qualities of the ingredient they use, it was not THAT pricey. Just that the HKD$350 per person meal at Man Mo cafe can easily feed a family of four at many other local dim sum joints. Man Mo Cafe to me would be a try-once-only kind of dim sum place, but if you have not tried them before, I would recommend you to go at least once.

Rating
Food - ★★★★☆
Service - ★★★☆☆
Ambience - ★★★☆☆
Overall - ★★★☆☆1/2


Man Mo Café

Address (E) 40 Upper Lascar Row, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Address (C) 香港上環摩羅上街40號
☏ 2644 5644
Opening Hours: Tue - Sun: 12nn-3pm | 6pm- 12am
Reservation Available? Yes
Walk In Possible? Yes


Bill in Total (lunch inc Beverages) - HKD1650 for 5
Bill Per Person (Dinner inc. Beverages) - HKD330

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