Dessert at Yuen Kee in Sai Ying Pun

I love, love love the super old school places in Hong Kong that look like they could be the setting for a Wong Kar Wai movie or that seem to have survived into modern day from the 1950s completely unscathed.

Such is Yuen Kee, a family owned dessert shop located on Centre Street in Sai Ying Pun.

How great is it that the desserts come in bowls perched on metal tins designed to capture any spills?  Brilliant.

 I ordered the almond milk with lotus seeds.  The almond milk here is very smooth, lightly sweet, and slightly velvety.  Just lovely.  They also sell black sesame seed paste, red bean soup, green bean soup, a red date herbal soup…no chocolate to be found here!

 Everything, I love everything: the old walls with no adornments… the tiny booths that sit one or two people (barely), the metal chairs, the fluorescent lighting, tile floors, drab interior… one would be hard pressed to say that Yuen Kee is trying to score high marks for interior design.  It is so devoid of personality, so ruthlessly functional, so very leached of all personality… that it ends up oozing old school cool in spades!  This must be their ingenious marketing strategy culled from fifty years' worth of experience.

Yuen Kee
32 Centre Street
Western District, Hong Kong
telephone: I wouldn't bother, I don't think they have one… wait, surprise, they do!  It is 2548 8687.  But I still wouldn't bother to call; judging by the surly old man's attitude at the cash register, they don't bother to pick up their phone any way!