Sawali Club, Hong Kong – Review

Apart from the travel for work that Ms. Buddha and I do, we’ve also been told that we actually travel a fair amount – which frankly we are both very fortunate to have jobs that can fund that. When we’re not traveling, we tend to like to visit our regular dinner spots – I’ve mentioned about Petite Oyster in Sheung Wan, but the other place we really enjoy is Sawali Club in Wan Chai.

The place itself is a humble Thai restaurant that is situated on the second floor of an unassuming building, when you arrive, you’re either sent to the left side of the building or the right – the service itself is very basic – but overall – they don’t bite!

The menu is very varied, although Ms. Buddha and I tend to revert back to our favourites, with the most incredible one being the Raw Prawns – the prawns are really fresh (have to be if you’re eating them raw) – and accompanied with very strong chilli and fresh garlic (to kill any remaining bacteria) – make sure you have each prawn in the single bite – you will not be disappointed.

The next to our go-to is the fried oysters – which comes with a good does of crunchy batter – the oysters’ softness pairs really well to the batter on a texture sense and the flavour is excellent without being too overpowering – that said, the sweet chilli sauce can do with a stronger chilli heat.

Next is something that we only have every now and then, but the pork neck here is delicious! The meat they get is always really flavourful and in most cases, pork neck has a very good mixture of fat and the muscle from the neck gives it a nice firm texture.

Last but not least is a dish that is critical to me – rice! And the mince pork with chilli fried rice is probably one of the better ones around the Wan Chai/Central area. The rice has an excellent dry texture while being soft on the inside – the only improvement that I’d suggest is to make the chilli punch even stronger – because I love love chilli!