Golden Oscar Cafe & Restaurant

I can choose anywhere to eat and I chose Oscar's, honestly. There are a few fine dining restaurants I have wanted to try for a while but I am not really in the mood to be disappointed these days. I only know of Golden Oscar because I came here in Grade.11 and it was my first official Hong Kong style cafe experience. I remember thinking, really? People just order one dish? You come here to eat fried rice and that's it? Why not go to the food court and get rice with a side of meat? Ughh baked rice or Chinese style pasta? What the…

I have tried baked rice dishes before and it is not my thing. I love cheese and can eat any amount of cheese in one sitting (except swiss, I hate swiss cheese), but there is just something about rice baked with cheese that I do not like. Ever since I started blogging however, I have tried a lot of restaurants that I normally would not ("dirty" Chinese restaurants, noodle shops, pubs, BBT food, tapas) and actually enjoy most experiences, so I decided to try Oscar's willingly. Well… confession, I came here because it was a weekend and to avoid a busy restaurant.

After bickering back and forth to my friend numerous times about how I hate HK style cafes, he explained this type of restaurant to me in the most simplest way. A HK style cafe is like McDonalds, you get a drink, soup and a meat dish.. like a drink, fries and a burger. Why does the second option sound so much better? So when I told him I wanted to come here, he thought I was joking. Oscar's is a clean restaurant, where there are booth seating arrangements and plenty of tables. I like that the waitresses seat everyone at the larger booths too, no matter if you are here with two or more people.

SOUP OF THE DAY, RUSSIAN BORCH.

Some of the set menus (or "combos) include an order of soup. The Russian Borch has a fairly rich tomato flavour and there is a fair amount of ingredients. There are bits of cabbage, carrot and tender pieces of beef.

OVALTINE, LEMON TEA AND HORLICK.

Every meal comes with a complimentary drink. The lemon tea is mine and I have never tried ovaltine or horlick, and have no to interest to (nothing wrong with them).

CURRY BEEF BRISKET ON RICE ($9.25).

The consistency of the curry is too thick, which makes the sauce dry up fast and the curry has a really heavy powdery flavour. A lighter curry taste would have been better. As for the beef brisket, the meat tastes tender but also chewy at the same time. The brisket is easy to pull apart, but is also very stringy and dry tasting. The beef also has an odd gamey flavour that I am not a fan of, but the potatoes tastes soft.

GRILLED RIBS AND PORK CHOP WITH GARLIC SAUCE ON RICE ($10.25).

The ribs and pork chop taste very tender, quite tasty and have a flavourful garlic gravy sauce. This is probably something I would have hated just in the beginning of the year, but I guess I am more mature and less picky now.

GRILLED CHICKEN AND PORK CHOP WITH GARLIC SAUCE ON RICE  ($9.50).

The chicken thigh is deboned which I appreciate and tastes tender, along with the pork chop. Moreover, the Garlic Sauce is the same as the above meaning it tastes like a flavourful rich gravy.

POSITIVES

- Cheap food

- Friendly staff

- Meats taste tender

- Nothing is too greasy or salty

NEGATIVES

- Small parking lot

LITTLE THINGS

- You know you are new to HK style cafes when you think every dish is supposed to be served on a hot plate LOL

- A lot of people really enjoy the food here, it seems like one of those restaurants where you need to know what to order

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 2.5/5