Where To Eat

If one wanted to fill up a goodly part of one’s stomach with half-cooked and/or raw pig fat, then, The Fat Pig of Causeway Bay, Hongkong Island, is the restaurant to visit. 

At this restaurant, one is able to attempt to ingest as much of this indigestible stuff as one has the stomach (excuse the pun) for it. 

The Fat Pig is one of the restaurants, owned and managed by publicly listed Classified Group (Holdings) Ltd, Code: 8232, The Growth Enterprise Market of The Stock Exchange of Hongkong Ltd. 

TARGET (泰達財經) visited The Fat Pig on Saturday night (September 10, 2016) at about 6:30 pm, having reserved a table for three people. 

The first surprise that was forthcoming from one of the waitresses was that the restaurant does not serve any imported, bottled mineral water, but, instead, it offers two kinds of potable water for patrons: The Fat Pig Still (free-flow) and The Fat Pig Sparkling (free-flow). The cost for the water is $HK5 per person. 

Following an interrogation of this young lady who served TARGET’s trio, she admitted, grudgingly, that both types of Fat Pig waters were straight out of the tap ‘but they are filtered. Really!’ the young lady assured TARGET’s reviewers without knowing who we, really, were. 

This reviewer, then, ordered a bottle of Kronenbourg 1664 beer, only to be told that stocks of this German beer had been depleted.  

Another waitress recommended Brooklyn Lager, from The United States of America, as an alternative. This beer turned out to be quite refreshing.  

Having studies the menu carefully, the following dishes were ordered for the evening: 

Seared Tuna, Avocado, Pickled Radish and Sesame
$HK98 

Onion Rings
$HK40 

Barbecued Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs, Spiced Honey
$HK348 

Pork Belly, Wholegrain Mustard Mash, Sage and Apple Glaze
$HK238 

Local Sea Bream Fillets
$HK298 

Belgian Waffle
$HK118 

Passion Fruit Tart
$HK58 

Green Tea Ice Cream
$HK20 per scoop 

The Food 

The seared tuna turned out to be a mixture of avocado and raw tuna. It was doubtful that the tuna had been seared, but this medium is not willing to argue the point. 

The concoction was slightly spicy and, as such, the sharpness of the chili powder, used to spice it up, overtook the bland flavour of the avocado. 

All in all, it was a pleasant dish to start off the meal. 

The onion rings had been deep-flied in pigs’ fat and this was very obvious by the taste. Nevertheless, they were tasty, too. 

As for the sweet and sour pork ribs, they were, in a word, ‘terrible’, or, in the vernacular of the Brits: ‘Bloody awful!’ 

What the kitchen had done, in this medium’s opinion, was quickly boil a very large slab of pork ribs, pour some honey over the top of the slab and, then, place it in a very hot oven until the honey partially infused the top, first layer of the pork fat and, by so doing, the honey hardened, somewhat. 

When the pork ribs were placed in front of TARGET’s reviewer, to be sure, the dish looked very appetising although there was precious little odour, emanating from the dish. 

But, on the first bite, the medium was shocked to discover that one had a mouthful of honeyed, raw pork fat – only. 

Digging down deeper into the slab, hunting for the meat, close to the bones, it was discovered that it had no discernible flavour, at all. 

After all, how could boiled meat, partially covered in some sweet sauce, have much taste? 

As far as TARGET was concerned, this dish was completely inedible; and, it was sent packing (again, employing the vernacular of the Brits). 

With regard to the pork belly mash, it looked very nice when presented at the table, but, on close inspection, the dish was, at least, 30 percent, pork fat. 

And, once again, on searching for the meat, when discovered, it, as with many of the dishes, was insipid. 

Some people might enjoy eating pork fat, but not this reviewer. 

Yuk! 

As for the sea bream fillets, they were fine: No complaint, at all. 

The desserts were, as described on the menu; one could not fault them. 

The Ambiance 

The Fat Pig has a very pleasant ambiance, generally, although the piped music was not of this reviewer’s liking, but not everybody enjoys TARGET’s taste for music, too. 

The restaurant can seat about 230 people and, by and large, the serving staff do their best to accommodate patrons’ requirements. 

The one exception was the young, unkempt male who delivered the food to the table. He was, clearly, untrained and had little to no idea as to his duty. 

(Somebody might like to suggest to this young man to comb his hair after getting up from his bed.) 

On a very negative note, TARGET could not help but watch two young, Chinese males, rolling dough into small balls on a table, onto which a thin layer of flour had been sprinkled.  

They were using their bare hands for the job, and, to this reviewer’s shock and dismay, they were not averse to using their thumbs to wipe their dribbling nostrils when the flour irritated their probosces.    

Is this acceptable in any restaurant in Hongkong? 

This reviewer shall never revisit The Fat Pig because, among other things, the food is extremely unhealthy.