Video
Telephone
6376 8270
Opening Hours
Today
11:30 - 22:00
Mon - Sun
11:30 - 22:00
Above information is for reference only. Please check details with the restaurant.
Frequent to Vivocity for my dinner, I discovered a pretty great Hong Kong style Restaurant – Central Cafe. The place was lively and crowded during evening, rather bustling pleasant. Authentic look and bright décor, old-style Hong Kong artist’s photos were visible on wall. Took a glance of their Menu, food was followed by photo. Hardly grabbed staff attention, it was obviously short-handed. The cup was uniquely adorable, Milk Tea served warm and creamy. Just a simple drink, taste was slightly sweet then bitter afterwards. Silky smooth, it gradually developed an intense tea aroma. Frankly speaking, I was quite disappointed for my order. Tasted like instant noodles, diluted soup was given. Added in pork meat, sausage, chicken wing and veggies, texture was too mushy. As if putting in all unrelated ingredients into one bowl, I was struggled to finish up the noodles. Savouriness was okay and nothing to complain about, but sad for noodles, maybe I preferred something bouncy flavoursome meal. Service charge and GST applied, pricing was slightly overpriced.
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Though a little pricey, I still occasionally purchase some items from Central's takeway counter for my tea break as I love how the ingredients have soaked up all the soup and flavours after being simmered in it for so long.The takeaway counter is located near the entrance of the restaurant, and you can see sticks and sticks of different ingredients simmering in the soup (original/mala). My favourites are the radish, and pig skin. Radish and pig skin are known to really absorb the flavours of whatever soup/gravy they are immersed in, just like a sponge! Hence I love how each time I bite into the radish and pig skin the soup will ooze out This time I also tried their sotong ball, which turned out to be average. They also have quite a number of sauces for you to mix in but I've never tried them as it's good and flavourful enough without any sauce.
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Stepped into Vivo's Central Cafe for a quicky lunch after spotting its quirky vintage exterior. Serving up simple cheap Hong Kong food fare, we enjoyed our visit as each item ordered delighted our tastebuds.Wanton Mee was soft and springy with ample seasoning and wantons provided. They didnt scrimp on the food despite the low prices so that is a huge plus point.Crispy duck rice wasnt too bad 2 eggs atop a bed of rice and a sprinkling of other ingredients.Well flavoured, this was a simple bowl of maggi notes with spiced pork cube and vegetables. Confort food which we kept teasing our colleague to pass us money to help her cook Maggi MeeNot a favourite Dan Fan Mian, this version was more soupy than peanut version which I like. The soup is soft and springy which makes it easily for slurpng it down. I wouldnt called this dan dan mian, instead Minced Meat Noodle soup will be more apt!Soft and packed with ample pork floss, this is a yummy starter before the meal.The thing I love most in this trip, is the Ying Yang which came in an old school design cup! Keep grabbing shots of it still my colleague want to whack me. Taste wise it is ok, but it would be better if it could be thicker.***VERDICTWith their cheap prices and yummy simple food, this is place where I foresee myself heading back to at least twice this year. Definitely worth a visit when you are down and about at Vivocity!
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Living opposite vivocity, I often walked past Central at the basement because it is just opposite Giant the Supermarket. After having eaten at Hongkong cafes a couple of times, I know that you can get cheap and filling food, but no quality. Variety… maybe. Its more a marketing concept targted towards youngsters who wanna dine in a restaurant I guess. Anyway my bf wanted to try for once at last so here we are on a weeknight.I often saw people taking away these skewer things much like the ingredients of yong tau foo with szechuan spicy gravy so i had that on the side. It looked good and tasted very very spicy but as it was already 8 plus there were limited types of skewers left. Nevertheless they were good and I would most likely come to take away here some time!I chose a ngoh hiang kind of thing, a fish cake and the chinese radish. Actually the latter was the best! Its the cheapest item but it was definitely cooked for very long so it was soft and absorbed the full flavour of the szechuan soup. They also came served in 4 types of sauce- the brown is a sesame peanutty kind, the 2 red are spicy/sweet spicy and the white one is a horseradish one which taste a little like a milder wasabi. I liked the peanutty the best!The prawn dumpling soup is one of the better ones I had tasted in a HK cafe. They were huge and only came at $7 a bowl. Much bettet than the $6 one at the Food Republic on level 3. =P They each had like 2 prawns in each one! Soup was also very flavourful as well. The only bad thing is the skin is a little thick, but a great dish if you are hungry yet want something healthy.Angmokia didnt eat lunch that day so he loaded up on the Pork chop baked rice. It was also much better than Kim Gary… more flavour, pork chop was tasty on its own.. look how sinfully cheesy it is!And for fun we order the fried fish skin for appetisers.. these were alright.. but tasted a little like out of a packet.. not fresh like the ones at bosses.. but overall, not too bad as a snack. We were sorely disappointed they had no dimsum though… not even the most basic siewmai and hargow! Oh well, I guess we cant ask for too much since they already surpass our expectations in terms of quality..
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I have patronised this restaurant for many times and every time we choose to have our dinner here is because of convenience and is not very crowded. And of course, the price is considered quite reasonable.They renovated the restaurant and now compared to the previous look, more Hong Kong style restaurant type of ambience. They play Cantonese songs too. Everything looks so retro. Their wall and floor tiles, decorations and even their chopsticks holder.Takeaway CounterYou can choose to dine in for more variety of food in their menu or there is a takeaway counter where you can grab a bite from a limited selection of fishballs, beancurd skin, pork meat balls and so on. And if you are dining in, you can also pick your choice from the counter and they will serve up to you. We picked a stick of fishball, porkmeat ball and beancurd skin each. The sauce plate contains 4 different types of sauce for you to mix with your food. Chilli, sweet sauce and so on. Price is about $5 for 3 sticks. You can choose any one of the sticks, I guess. This choice of sides is still okay if you are just grab a quick bite. The taste is quite average. I probably think that they should use those steamboat type of fishballs rather than the fried type. The soup base be it curry or some others, it can absorb the taste better.DrinksI ordered a YinYang Pearl Tea ($2.80) for myself and a hot Ginger Milk Tea ($2.00) for my boyfriend. Actually both the taste are so-so. Nothing to pick on. But I was so into their cup and not their drinks. It is so cute and makes me wonder where I can get them. Snap quite a few shots of their cup.Crispy Duck Meat Rice $6.90My boyfriend had this and it worsen his mood. The rice is below the egg. Sunny side-up with a light soya sauce on top, a typical food which we can cook at home. Initially I thought is some fried rice but actually is not. Just plain white rice. The duck meat and vegetables are not fresh. The duck meat are harden, taste like those leftover from yesterday. And the looks of those vegetables simply turn you off. The only thing that is fresh will be the sunny sideup and luncheon meat, which of course must be cooked on the spot. Definitely not recommending this.Sichuan DanDan Noodles $5.00I had Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles and when they serve up this noodles, first thing that comes to my mind is why the soup so diluted and not red enough? My impression of Sichuan food is spicy and so the soup base should be like red hot chilli in colour. So disappointed. There are only strips of cucumbers and minced meat. And yes the taste is spicy but I don't know why the noodles taste bland. The noodles used should be those for ramen. But really for one thing, the noodles did not absorb that soup taste. Not enough at all. The taste is so separate. Totally nothing to rave about. I'm not gonna recommend this too.The final bill is $19.66 which is reasonable. However after so many times of patronising this restaurant, the food taste never change or I should say no improvement. Only the restaurant look improved. Maybe it depends on individual because you still see customers flowing in on and off. Had tried some others in their menu previously. Still average taste but I guess this time round, our picks worsen the impression we had for their food. Maybe if you are not picky, go for the simple Noodles with luncheon meat and sunny side-up. Yes we can cook that at home too but if you are lazy and want something light, can choose that. At least it meets my very minimum expectation on noodles. For full review and more photos, please visit http://mingmingisstella.blogspot.com/2013/07/food-review-central-restaurant-at.html
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