Kawloon Chinese Restaurant

This post has long been overdue.  Let me introduce you to our favorite restaurant - Kawloon Chinese Restaurant.  This restaurant is hidden behind the area of Choitram Khalidiya.  It does not look fancy nor and to be frank, its ambience is just one of those typical Chinese restaurants here in the UAE, meaning it is small, dark and crowded.

Let me tell you this, I usually dine not for the ambience but rather for the food and that is why this is our favotire restaurant.  The food tastes amazingly good at such an affordable price.  

Whenever me and my family go to this restaurant, we usually order these, from soup, appetizer to entree.

For the soup, we always order this Chicken Manchow soup with crispy noodles on top.  The soup is rich, thick and creamy.  The noodles also offer the kick and typically give the soup its kick.  It is not boring to eat compared to other soups, as there is something to nibble from this soup.

Chicken Manchow soup

Next is the fried dumplings.  I am not a fan of this, but my kids are.  They love the crunchiness of the dumplings; however, I say that the filling is lacking.  I thik that the wrapper is too much and the filling is too little.  

Fried dumplings

The egg fried rice doesn't have all the ingredients compared to the mixed fried rice; however we prefer to order this one because we will not appreciate the flavor of the other dishes if the fried rice to begin with is so flavorful.  We might end up eating just the fried rice :) 

Egg fried rice

The Singapore noodles has a distinct flavor compared to other oriental noodles.  I love the thickness of the noodles itself.  It does not taste typical Chinese.  It is spicy and crunchy that is why we always have this on our Kawloon table.  Oddly, it tastes better if you drizzle a bit of spicy vinegar on it.  

Singapore noodles

Their fried chicken is to die for.  I do not know what herbs and spices they are putting on this chicken, but I can finish a whole chicken if given a chance, hahaha!  My kids love this and always ask for it.  You have an option to make it spicier too, if your tastebuds are longing for something spicy.

Fried chicken

Lastly, this Kawloon special is made up of beef and brocolli but with a different sauce.  It is not the typical one with oyster sauce.  It is somewhat sour and salty to the taste, but the mixture was so good we ended up always ordering it whenever we're at Kawloon.

Kawloon special

If you are looking for great tasting food that is very affordable, I suggest that you give Kawloon a try.


Kawloon Chinese Restaurant
Zayed the First Street
Al Manhal, Abu Dhabi
Telephone number:  (02) 634-3436, (02) 634-3462

The Taste of Korea

Full House by Rain and Song Hye Kyo was the first Korean telenovela that I have watched and loved.  Since that telenovela, I have been fascinated and deeply in love with everything Korean, especially their food.  The only authentic Korean restaurant that we have been to here in Abu Dhabi was Hankook Restaurant in Muroor, Abu Dhabi.  Coincidentally, while we were looking for a pet shop in Khalifa Street, we passed by Eclipse Hotel and saw the signage of The Taste of Korea.  Of course, we got interested knowing that we have another place to go to once our Korean taste buds attack.

The Taste of Korea is one restaurant in Eclipse Hotel.  It is actually at the Penthouse of the hotel.  Eclipse Hotel is not a 5-star hotel, so of course one should lower their expectations when inside the hotel.  However, when you reach the restaurant itself, you will see and feel the very cozy ambience that you can usually find in high-end hotels.  I so love their dining table and chairs, which are very comfortable.  Also, when you leave this restaurant, you will not smell like kimchi (the smell of whatever's cooking at Hankook's kitchen is all around the place) or smoke (there's no separate smoking section at Hankook).  They also have a large LCD TV that features Korean shows to keep the guests entertained while waiting for the food to be served.

Inside The Taste of Korea

The table setting is typical Korean.  The chopsticks are there as well as the long handled spoon, which is not seen in this picture as my son was playing with it.

Table setting

I love their tabletop grill.  It is safer compared to the one in Hankook, which needs gas to operate.

Grill on your table

It is typical Korean to serve their guests with small portions of different types of side dish.  They served us eight side dishes to be exact.  Some are spicy and some are not, which is good because the kids loved their hotdogs!  We also had to literally ask the waitress to stop refilling our side dishes.  They were sooo generous in giving the side dishes in that once they see that one plate is empty, they will immediately pour over some more!  Isn't that great?

Side dish

We ordered this fried dumplings, which the waitress told us contain only very little meat.  I think she was wrong because the dumplings were meaty and full of flavor, which the kids loved!

Fried dumplings

This sort of (sorry I dunno what it's called) miso soup comes in when you order the bulgogi meal and that includes steamed rice, too.  For me, this was the only negative part on my experience with this resto.  The soup was bland, but hey it was free so wag na tayong choosy!

Miso(?) soup

Bibimbap is a rice dish with veggies, meat, egg and spices.  In Hankook, their Bibimbap does not have meat.  Just a tip when you order this dish, make sure that you will mix the ingredients right away when served or else the rice will form crusts (tutong) at the bottom.

Bibimbap

My daughter's favorite Korean dish is the Bulgogi.  As part of a meal, I can say that the serving is generous.  They said that it's enough for two, but I think even three or four people can enjoy a single serving.  The flavor was of course a 5/5!

Bulgogi

They also served us complimentary iced coffee, which surprisingly was very tasty!

Iced cold coffee

The Taste of Korea truly deserves its name.  Just look at the kids' faces and one can say that we really enjoyed our experience here.  We will definitely come back for more!

Kids lurved it!

The Taste of Korea
The Eclipse Boutique Suites
Al Markaziyah
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Telephone number:  (02) 6521013
Website:  www.eclipsesuites.com