Hopers' Base — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

食物好好味，環境，服務麻麻

At 2 PM today, the temperature was 34°C. My friend and I walked into the shop—it wasn’t crowded, so we casually took seats right in front of the BBQ chef. I ordered the honey Canadian lean char siu with pan-fried double eggs and rice, plus an iced lemon water with less sugar. My friend ordered steamed pork patty with lotus leaf rice and an iced lemon tea, also less sweet.

When my char siu rice arrived and I started eating, I was already sweating profusely. Halfway through the meal, I couldn’t take it anymore and asked the waiter to turn up the air conditioning. But the first thing the waiter said was, “It’s already on full blast.” I looked up at the vent above my head—it wasn’t even one centimeter wide! I asked them to open the slats more, and the waiter did try to widen them, but the unit kept automatically snapping them back shut. I was boiling with frustration.

Right then, I messaged them on Facebook to complain that the A/C was totally useless. Maybe the boss saw my message, or for whatever reason, the A/C unit near the entrance on the other side suddenly started blowing stronger, sending a breeze our way. So clearly they could turn it up, but they had just lowered it because there were fewer customers. Even when they saw a customer wiping sweat with a towel nonstop, they did nothing until I spoke up. If they want to save electricity, they might as well not let customers sit in that section—just have them sit elsewhere!

Honestly, no need to visit this place in summer unless you’re fine with a street-stall level of comfort. The staff’s attitude was poor too—always chatting away. They messed up my order even after I clearly said I wanted my char siu with two fully cooked eggs, and they gave me half-runny ones. In the end, they had to take it back to the kitchen to redo it. The staff were so busy chatting, I waved for what felt like a thousand years before anyone noticed.

Anyway, the char siu was delicious, the soup was light, sweet, and full of ingredients, and the lotus leaf rice was incredibly tasty—the diced mushrooms inside were aromatic and crisp. The food quality is truly top-notch.

Would I go back in the summer? No way. But in the winter?...

Read the review where it was rating so high - The best char siu and roast goose in town....but I was very disappointed with their char siu and roast goose. I was quarantaine 14 days in the Hong kong hotel. Could hardly wait to get out and grab my first proper meal - the best roast goose and char siu. I bought 2 take away lunch boxes with char siu, roast pork and roast goose in rice. The meat were terribly chopped up into tiny pieces. Only see tiny pieces of skin and bones. Sorry, it was the worst char siu & roast goose I have ever eaten, they look like from the left over. Rice has no sauce inside. And the price is far too expensive from what I should got. I was the first customer, 5 mins too early before they open the shop but they were kind enough to let me wait Inside because it was very hot on the street. I waited quite long time for my 2 lunch boxes of roast meat, I guess the roast meat and goose were not ready yet, that's why they gave me all the left over pieces. Please don't serve the food to your customer if the kitchen is not ready. I rather wait for longer time till the meat are ready roasted then instead paying the price to get what was shouldn't inside...

I tried to go in for dinner on Saturday without a reservation but they were fully booked. They offered takeout as an option but I decided to come back the next day.

I showed up at 4pm on Sunday and I was seated right away.

What I ordered:

Char Siu (Polish Pork Belly with soy beans) The meat was so thick and juicy and the portion was generous. This was better than anything I've had in the States. The soy beans were a nice touch.

Sautéed Pork Spare Ribs in Pineapple Bowl The fried batter was incredibly light and crisp. It surprised me how great it was when I bit into my first piece of pork. The pineapples were well glazed and juicy.

Goose Fried Rice I can't just not have rice with char siu. The goose fried rice was pretty good but not as impressive as the other two. I don't regret ordering it but if I came here again I'd be exploring other rice dishes.

The service was polite. The portions sizes were generous and total cost came out to 443 Hong Kong Dollars (57 US dollars).

Overall this has been one of the highlight meals of my trip. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a special meal to get some...