Hong Kong Express, Ryde
Matt and Cat's
favourites
This smart little Chinese restaurant is set out like a fast-food joint, and the name also suggests the kind of service you might expect. Tiled floors, bright lights, fast-food style tills and a serving bar all contribute. But wait! These crazy Hong Kong people simply don't seem to have grasped the basics of how a fast food outlet really works. The design of the place is stylish, understated. The tables are decorated with large, beautiful arrangements of fresh flowers. Everything is glitteringly immaculate, even the heavy cutlery and wine glasses. Yes, wine glasses. What's going on here?
Review continues:
When the hungry customer arrives at a fast-food joint, he expects to stand gawping at the menu and shuffling his feet until he gets to the front of the sullen queue. But here, smiling and friendly staff come out from behind the bar to greet you, and show you to a table if you so wish. Madness! Then, naturally enough, the customer expects to hang around for a while. That's the idea of fast food, right? But not here! No, they say 'express' and they mean it. Everything is produced within five minutes, more or less. So surely, it must have been raked out of a freezer and flung into a microwave? Not so. Once more, the Hong Kong Express really hasn't worked this one out. You can actually watch them cook this food with fresh ingredients right there and then. In five minutes!
So, finally, the downside has got to be either the food, or the prices, has it not? What sort of a fast food restaurant would it be otherwise? In both these areas, Hong Kong Express plays its trump cards. The prices are fast food level, alright - less than £5 for a main course, rice included. But the crowning glory of this delightful restaurant is the quality of the food - such delicious, fresh, and tasty fare can be hard to find even in the fanciest Chinese restaurants. Admittedly the menu is neither vast nor adventurous, but it does not need to be. Every dish is simple but splendid, a generous portion, attractively served and piping hot.
It may seem churlish to criticise but, hey, that's why you're reading this, right? Matt and Cat usually visit the restaurant in the daytime, but it's worth remembering that in the evening it is a bit of a fast-food hangout for those emerging from pubs. On a recent visit M and C found that the place was a bit cluttered up with scruffy hangers-on, who were not dining but sat around idling, and passing to and fro from the kitchen for no apparent reason. They may or may not have been delivery drivers awaiting orders, or just off-duty lorry drivers keeping warm. Anywhere else this would have gone unnoticed, but it seemed to jar with the stylish slickness of this place. Perhaps Hong Kong Express can invest in a couple of silk embroidered sheets to throw over these chaps when they are not in use.
You may not be too shocked to learn that Matt and Cat are regular patrons of this place. It does takeaway too, if you want it, but frankly, the eat-in experience is so positive and quick that it seems pointless not to just sit there and enjoy it.
UPDATE March 2006: Following an accidental fire and some major roadworks outside, this fine eatery seems to be closed at present. We hope it's just seasonal! There appears to be plenty of work going on inside so we expect them to be back soon.
UPDATE April 2006: Yes, they're back! Matt and Cat have been back to try their favourite Chinese within a few days of their reopening, and can confirm with great pleasure that the Hong Kong Express is firing on all cylinders again.
Visit the website: http://www.hongkongexpress.co.uk/
Published: 13th November 20054953 views
Categories: Restaurants, Take aways, We love!, Family friendly, Ryde, Chinese and other Asian
10 comments
My name is Graham page. I am a blind person so can't read the verification graphics for leaving comments so I am sending them to you instead.
I visited the Isle of wight for the first time for work purposes and got back today. I stayed there for a day.
Before going there I used your site to find useful places in Ryde so that I could ask how to get to them.
I am used to getting around as I need to visit clients' work places as part of my job. this could take me anywhere in the uk though it is often London and today it was Newport in Isle of Wight.
I chose to stay Monday in Ryde and a person I met on the hovercraft offered to drive me to the Abingdon Lodge where I stayed. I was hoping for a bar and food there but apparently the chef is off on Monday and this also meant the owner didn't want to open the bar either. The place only had 2 other people staying to be fair.
I therefore asked him for directions to the Hong Kong express and went in search of it.
I had Hot and Sour Soup followed by the Dragon Special with fried rice. It is really useful for me and many other blind people when restaurants have web sites so you can look up what you may want to eat beforehand.
The soup was not the most spicy I have had and compared to others I would say the bits were ground up small. It was impossible to recognise what kind of meat or fish I was eating when eating the dragon Special. This could have been the way it was cooked as chinese people do often steam meat or it could have just been very processed. Prices were reasonable however and there was plenty of food. Service was quick and the woman who helped me to a table didn't seem to know how to react to a blind person but she got used to it well enough as time went on.
After this first meal I would say the food was not Gourmet but you can't complain about the price and quantity, and it is freshly cooked.
The other eatery I tried was a newish kebab shop called I think the chervin Kebab House. I could not here what the person behind the counter was calling it as he had a strong accent and spoke fast. I have found reference to this in listings of restaurants, and I doubt there are 2 kebab shops on Ryde high street.
I had a mixed kebab which comes with chicken and lamb shish and the familiar Lamb doner.
Lamb Doner meet is made with rolled mince lamb and often includes added lamb fat or lard to bulk it out. It is often quite greasy and usually not of high quality. The Shish meat should be proper cubes of meat and this was certainly proper chicken and lamb well cooked. I personally think the salad should contain plenty of raw onion and cabbage. This one had these things but also had lettuce which I would rather not see. I would rate this kebab shop then as being of just above average quality. The shish kebabs are definitely worth a try. It's worth specifying what salad you want in a kebab shop, I just wanted to see what would appear by default.
My only other comment is that while wondering through Newport, following directions to Lugley street, I stumbled into what I found out was a church serving people orange juice and buns. it seemed full of old people from yourkshire (going by their acents I would say generally south yorkshire). none of them could tell mee where Lugley house was but they were all too keen to offer me barely diluted orange squash and biskets!
Over all people were extremely friendly and I would have no hesitation in going back there on my own knowing I could probably find my way from a to b and I look forward to trying out some of your other food recommendations.
Also, to the most recent comment, there are, in actual fact, two kebab shops in Ryde.
Matt and Cat respond: Thank you for your comment. We reviewed the Hong Kong Express, Newport in November 2006. Read our review here.
I have also created a facebook group for Hong Kong Express fans :)
Jo-Lei
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