Kiko Café

3000 Highway 7, Markham

Please do not visit this HK café if you can avoid it. I don’t even know how to put a positive spin on the food and my experience at this restaurant. I have been to this place once before last year when it first opened, but nothing special about it that would make me visit again. 

The (only) reason I went back a couple weeks ago was because I happen to be in the area and they have been advertising themselves extensively lately (didn’t think their food would be that bad).

Normally, when I go to try a new HK café I would start with their afternoon tea menu because if they can’t get that right, then the rest of their menu is just downhill from there. Also, any good HK café should be able to make a decent cup of tea 
(milk-tea 奶茶 or coffee with tea 鴛鴦).

 We ordered a Pork Bun Sandwich. It claims to be a pork cutlet and it is not, but I am ok with that because the original found in Hong Kong or Macau is not. The pork chop was decent where the Ciabatta bread was hard and hollow, the kind of bread you buy in the supermarket lacking any sense of fibre and a lot of leavening agent.

And the fries as expected is re-fried, it shouldn’t be re-fried but I will accepted it in HK cafes knowing only a short time is given for orders. The fries were only lukewarm (meaning temperature of fryer was not turned up) so not acceptable at all. As for the iced lemon tea accompanying the meal was overnight hot tea, so it gives an illusion that it’s strong, but the lemon was starting to rot as a result being frozen too long.

Now, the Pork Cutlet with Nissin Instant Noodles in Cheese Sauce was horrid. It was nothing more than cheap instant noodles (not Nissin) with a soggy piece of breadcrumbs crusted pork chop slapped on with a bland roux-like paste (no cheese flavour whatsoever).

Lastly, my biggest complaint I have with Kiko Café is their “coffee with tea 鴛鴦” because how can you call yourself a HK café when you cannot even make a decent cup of 奶茶 or 鴛鴦. It’s like a coffee shop that can’t brew coffee.

The “coffee with tea” was served warm, not hot (imagine brewing coffee with warm water; it was exactly like that). I was puzzled as to why it tasted so awful then I figured it out, it was because they kept the coffee/tea burners off (I guess to save on the energy bill). 

*I find it very problematic if the owners of a restaurant are frugal with hot water (we should save water, but not like this), then they should not be in the restaurant business. Also, if you take a closer look you will notice none of the servers at Kiko Café smile, which is reflective of how the owners treat their employees.