Tai Wo Tang Cafe — Restaurant in Kowloon

Formerly a traditional Chinese medicine shop opened in the 1930s, Tai Wo Tang has now transformed into a cafe where old meets new and east meets west

Stepping inside, the vintage herbal medicine cabinet backdrop instantly transported us back in time and the framed documents hanging on the wall offered a rare glimpse into its historical glory

Having visited a few years ago, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the menu had a new look and feel, but almost everything including the signature items and prices remained exactly the same!

[Caffe Rose Latte] Accidentally ordered the caffe version of the rose latte, so there was a slight bitterness to the subtle floral notes, but the cup was definitely a work of art

[Tai Wo Tang Latte] We also ordered their signature drink, which was a remake of the classic yuen yeung using earl grey tea (instead of the HK style milk tea) to mix with coffee and honey, giving it a more delicate and refined flavor.

[Full English Breakfast] This was a hearty yet standard all day breakfast, full of sauteed mushrooms, half a roasted tomato, two sunny side eggs, two pork sausages, one strip of bacon, baked beans, potato cubes and two pieces of sourdough toast.

[Chicken and Egg] A playful combination of local and Korean comfort food, the homemade egg waffles (gai dan zai) were a bit soggy with the ginger syrup, but luckily the crispy fried chicken saved the dish

[Crab and Avocado Salad] The healthy salad was quite refreshing with the light citrus vinaigrette dressing and had a variety of ingredients, such as crab meat, avocado, apples, pears, cherry tomatoes, croutons and butter lettuce.

[Verdict] Although not easily accessible, it’s still worth the visit for the unique timeless vibes and local quality coffee!

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Bad service: Waited in queue for an hour. Saw two other groups of guests took the outdoor seatings and the staff didn’t offer the option for the people in queue. When it’s our turn, the staff offered two separate tables for us 4 and said they would arrange for us to sit together when there’s table available. When the guests at our adjacent table left, the staff didn’t arrange and let other guests took the table. We asked and they could not give a logical explanation and of course didn’t apologize. And we didn’t get to be re-arranged the whole time we spend there. The staff did not keeping their promises, period.

Bad coffee: We ordered the signature Yuen Yeung and Fe Jau. They were both very diluted and had no coffee smell. Definitely not worth the price ($4x each) and we had to go to Lazy Creatures afterwards to get another round of decent coffee to compensate.

Average food for a high price: You may as well cook this at home and have it presented better and tasted better. We ordered the avocado toast ($9x ) and burger ($1xx). Very expensive for one piece of avocado toast, with no sides. Burger was fine, but the tater tots were over cooked, dried and oily. (Yes, they could not even make decent tater tots...)

The space maybe arguably the only relatively good thing about the whole experience. But not really that special.

Haven’t written a long review for a long time because I haven’t been this disappointed in any restaurant for a long long time.

I would give zero...

Tai Wo Tang was once a Chinese Medicine Clinic and now it has converted into a coffee shop so you will see those typical wooden drawers etc. I liked the modern and historic contrast as you are sitting in this Chinese Med Clinic eating modern fusion dishes. As I was late, I was joining some friends who had ordered some food because I secretly had some satay skewers at Lan Ying nearby as they are closing down. They were tucking in this American inspired chicken waffle but with a Hong Kong twist as the waffle was replaced with an eggette. The fried chicken was quite dark and Hongkie style, a mix of sweet and savoury flavours in play if that's your thing. Also had the chocolate bavarois which was beautifully presented in this Chinese tea cup. The chocolate was rich, strong and decadent. Finished with a cup off coffee which was the best because it was aromatic with a thick foam cap. Friends had the signature floral tea which too rosy for my liking as I just hate roses. On the contrary I think they should gang up with this restaurant nearby which serves this meat patty that contains grounded Chinese medicine and gojiberries served in a wooden bucket and the menus are hand written Chinese calligraphy which would really suit this place. However, it won't attract the young hippy crowd as people are just looking for instaworthy food more than...