Ocean Empire Congee (海皇粥店), North Point
Since we first stayed in the Kowloon Harbourfront hotel, which provided complimentary breakfast, we went out for breakfast for the first time in North Point. We looked for places that served breakfast and the first place that we saw, leaving from the Grand View hotel, was the Ocean Empire Congee (海皇粥店) with its distinctive red-white restaurant sign board. It is a congee chain restaurant with affordable prices around HK$30-40.
We ordered the 大滿粥早餐 (in English: Fulfilling breakfast set), which is a bowl of congee and a side dish for HK$33. Three people had the thousand year egg & shredded pork congee (皮蛋瘦肉粥), which is my all-time favorite congee flavor.
One person had the Blood jelly "Sam Pan" Congee (豬紅艇仔粥). Blood jelly sounds and looks worse than it is, but the taste is like a very soft jelly textured liver. A "Sam Pan" is a kind of boat, on which they used to serve this congee with all kinds of ingredients like squid strips, fried peanuts, pig skin, minced beef, and green onions.
As side dishes, we got fried rice noodles (炒米粉), mini dried shrimp rice rolls (蝦米腸粉), and fried noodles (炒麵).
The three others ordered the Sampan Empire congee (艇皇粥) for HK$32. For just HK$1 more, they got a lot more different ingredients, such as fried fish skin, pig skin, shrimp, minced beef, fresh fish slices, and squid strips.
As side dishes, we ordered the Chinese oil sticks (aka Youtiao, 油條, 油炸鬼; HK$10), fried noodles (HK$17), and rice rolls (HK$14).
The youtiao were crunchy on the inside and airy in the middle. They were great to dip in the congee.
I actually wanted to order the fried rice noodles, as they are more flavorful despite the lack of color, but the fried noodles were good too.
Unlike the previously ordered mini dried shrimp rice roll, these regular rice rolls (齋腸) have no ingredients. That's why we added lots of sweet sauce, peanut sauce, and sesame seeds to it.
What do I think? Affordable rice congee, which isn't super silky and a bit watery, bland of flavor, but reasonable. Take more ingredients to make up for lack of flavor. Great traditional Chinese breakfast side dishes. Really recommend the rice rolls, Chinese oil sticks, and fried rice noodles. In the afternoon and evening, they also serve value lunch and dinner sets.
We ordered the 大滿粥早餐 (in English: Fulfilling breakfast set), which is a bowl of congee and a side dish for HK$33. Three people had the thousand year egg & shredded pork congee (皮蛋瘦肉粥), which is my all-time favorite congee flavor.
One person had the Blood jelly "Sam Pan" Congee (豬紅艇仔粥). Blood jelly sounds and looks worse than it is, but the taste is like a very soft jelly textured liver. A "Sam Pan" is a kind of boat, on which they used to serve this congee with all kinds of ingredients like squid strips, fried peanuts, pig skin, minced beef, and green onions.
As side dishes, we got fried rice noodles (炒米粉), mini dried shrimp rice rolls (蝦米腸粉), and fried noodles (炒麵).
At your table, you can find three kinds of sauces that you can use over your rice rolls: peanut sauce, sweet sauce, and hot chili sauce.
Don't be afraid to put as much sauce as we did, as the flavors aren't super strong. I haven't tried the hot chili sauce though.
I got the Dim sum set A as my side dish and I was supposed to get pan-fried Korean chives dumplings, shrimp siu mai (燒賣), and a small portion of fried noodles, but they were out of dumplings, so I got a larger portion of the fried noodles instead.
The second time that we went to the Ocean Empire Congee shop, we wanted to try other flavors than the two choices in the value breakfast set.
I just couldn't let go of my favorite thousand year egg & shredded pork congee (皮蛋瘦肉粥), so I ordered a three choices congee (三併粥) with the same ingredients, but with fresh fish slices as extra ingredient (HK$31).
The three others ordered the Sampan Empire congee (艇皇粥) for HK$32. For just HK$1 more, they got a lot more different ingredients, such as fried fish skin, pig skin, shrimp, minced beef, fresh fish slices, and squid strips.
As side dishes, we ordered the Chinese oil sticks (aka Youtiao, 油條, 油炸鬼; HK$10), fried noodles (HK$17), and rice rolls (HK$14).
The youtiao were crunchy on the inside and airy in the middle. They were great to dip in the congee.
I actually wanted to order the fried rice noodles, as they are more flavorful despite the lack of color, but the fried noodles were good too.
Unlike the previously ordered mini dried shrimp rice roll, these regular rice rolls (齋腸) have no ingredients. That's why we added lots of sweet sauce, peanut sauce, and sesame seeds to it.
Ocean Empire Congee (海皇粥店)King's road 408, North Point, Hong KongOpening hours: 06:30 - 23:00
