Happy Café
A joint venture of the former Happy Bakery and Shun King Restaurant, Happy Café brought together the best of Hong Kong’s culinary traditions in cha chaan teng meals. Being two in one, Happy Café has doubled down on the idea that 1+1 equals more than 2 when it comes to nostalgia. The business has certainly been met with great success since it reopened in 2023.
On a weekday morning I stopped by for a classic Hong Kong breakfast at Happy Café. At around 9am the restaurant was serving a full house. I heard someone asked, “are you guys busy?” And two staff members replied in unison, “not busy, we are fxxking busy!”
Both Shun King Restaurant and Happy Café were located in Wan Chai, as next door neighbors, in their former places of business. Both of those two shops had been running since the 1970s. The neighborhood diners were very disappointed about their closures. The two business owners then joined hands in creating the 2 in 1 Happy Café, in an effort to bring back the best that these two eateries offered.
The Classic Pastries of Happy Café
There are many classic Hong Kong pastries on the shelves of Happy Café. At the breakfast hour, there was a queue there for the pastries at the bread counter.
Prominently featured there are the cream cones, then of course the standard pineapple buns.
I opted for the red bean donut this morning. It was soft, fluffy, a little savory in the cottony red bean core, and plenty of sweetness with the white sugar coating. This might have been the only red bean donut I had in my whole life. Although the donut is quite common as a classic Hong Kong pastry, I had never had one with red bean filling.
From the menu I sensed a clear effort to carry on with the restaurants’ tradition in offering nostalgic food, as well as to create new variations that are based on their traditional strengths. An innovative item at Happy Café is the pineapple croissant. It is basically a “pineapple crust” coating (there is no pineapple in it) over a croissant, instead of the common bun. Otherwise, you can also order a traditional donut served with a scoop of ice cream at the Sheung Wan branch.
Photo: The cream cone is the epitome of classic Hong Kong pastries.
After having the donut, I came to a point of being half full but not quite satiated. I also wanted milk tea quite badly, so I ordered a proper breakfast set as well.
A Classic Hong Kong Breakfast at Happy Café
Being the reincarnation of the former Shun King Restaurant, the Happy Cafe serves up classic Hong Kong meals as well. I ordered the satay beef with ramen. I did not find it to be particularly good, but certainly meeting the standard of satay beef with ramen.
The satay sauce of Happy Café is a mixture of various sauces and the special house spices. The beef is fresh and marinated in this satay sauce. It does come with a peanuty flavor and it is thick, dark and creamy, as it should be.
The scrambled egg was very good, and I saved the pineapple bun for later.
The final milk tea was a little anticlimactic though. I thought the tea wasn’t quite dark enough.
There are other dishes served at lunch and afternoon time that are also Hong Kong styled. For example, the baked pork chop rice is very popular at Happy Café. Otherwise, at afternoon tea time you can order the deep-fried chicken leg featuring cumin. Chicken leg fans may also consider the Swiss sauce chicken leg with buttered pineapple bun.
Sources
Weekendhk.com, Happy Café Opens in Causewaybay (Chin).