Updated: 11th Dec 2014; This restaurant is closed.

Everyone in the whole family loves HK Style Cafes.  We thought that we had been to all of the HK Style Cafes but there is one that was completely not on our radar.  We only found out about this reading Wendy’s post on Eat N About.

We had passed by Bauhinia many times before.  We thought that it was just a fancy and expensive Chinese restaurant never thinking that could have been a HK Style cafe.  You see, HK Style Cafes are not supposed to be this nice looking.

Bauhinia is located on Granville and St Albans.  Parking in front of the strip mall while plentiful, is always a challenge because there are two very popular restaurants located in the same row.  Many people may not realize that there are parking too around the back of this strip mall which you access from St Albans.

Bauhinia is certainly more cleaner and organized than most other HK Style Cafes.  They are upscale HK Style Cafe as evidenced by their pricier menu.  There are a lot of items with the words steak and lobsters in it.

Even the customers here dress up better than you see in places like Lido and Kam Do (where it is not uncommon to see customers with uncombed hair).

Service was polite and very Cantonese.  We spoke in English and while the waitress understands English perfectly, she spoke mostly in Cantonese.

It was Father’s Day when we visited here … it was MY day and the boys said that the lunch is on them!

Like all HK Style Cafe, there is the common Milk Tea.  Maybe it is my perception that this place is more upscale, I swear that Bauhinia’s Milk Tea is richer and stronger than other similar places.  Hot Milk Tea comes together with the meals we ordered but it costs $1 extra for cold ones.

I never quite figure out why it would cost $1 for cold milk tea.  I mean, it is just adding ice cubes to the glass and the volume of milk tea in the glass is just a little more, if not the same, with the cup.

Suanne ordered the Seasoned Prawns with Curry Rice.  The dish alone is $15 but we ordered the Combo version ($18) which included soup, dessert and a beverage.

The presentation of the dish is very nice with a pleasing balance of color.  The center piece of the dish has to be the 8 big prawns arranged around the plate.  The prawns were flavorfully seasoned with curry powder and tasted fresh and springy.

The yellowish curry powder flavoured rice is additionally flavoured with pieces of ham and raisins.

The creamy orangey curry sauce is pretty good.  We can taste the distinctive spices in the sauce.  Normally, HK style curries are bland.  We got to give it to them … this is one of the best curry rice we ever had in a HK Style Cafe.

We also ordered the Baked Half Lobster Termidor with Charbroiled Lamb Chops.  This dish is offered as a Weekend Special at $25 which is quite pricey.

What I like about the lobster is the oven-browned cheese crust.

But I do think that the lobster is kind of small.  Lobsters are over-rated for the price as far as I am concerned, anyway.

There are two generous pieces of lamb chops which I asked that it be made medium rare … and it did come medium rare.  He he he … often in Asian restaurants, they will ask you how you want it done … but they are asking for show because it will often served well done.  Here  it was meaty and nicely done medium rare.

Similarly with the spaghetti … it was done just with the right level of firmness in the texture.  We had a choice of spaghetti or mashed potato or potato puff.

Included are two sliced of toasts with some orangey spread that we could not identify.

Last but not least, it also has soup.  We tried all of the available soup.  They were both pretty good and creamy.

Even the Chinese soup was rich and has proper meat pieces in it.

The Salted Cod and Shredded chicken Fried Rice costs $8.  I was expecting this to be like premium fried rice consistent with their pricier menu but thought that $8 is “cheap”.  We could smell the fragrance of the salted cod when they brought the fried rice to the table.  The salted cod looks and tasted like regular salted fish to us.

I am not sure why this is so expensive.  The Spicy XO Seafood Stir Fried Udon Platter is $14.  Even though they gave us generous amount of seafood (clams, squid, prawns and mussels), it was just normal udon except that it is served on a hot plate.  This dish includes drinks and soup … but still, it is expensive.

We found out that Bauhinia is actually part of the Pittsburg Group who also operates the Pittsburg HK Style Restaurant in the Crystal Mall in Burnaby.  I remember seeing the familiar Pork Knuckle Special I so wanted to try.  This looks like the kind of meat I love … we’ll go back one day to try this.  Only on Thursdays.

The free Dessert is Lychee Jelly.  We ended up with a lot of left over food and had them to go.

We had never spent this much at a HK Style Cafe before for the four of us.  The meal was good except that we have not accepted the idea that there is such a thing as an upscale HK Style Cafe.  Unlike most other HK Style Cafe, they accepts credit card … not only that, they even uses one of those wireless machines where you could sign for the credit card from the table.  Fancy!  … Upscale!