[Hong Kong] Elephant Grounds Coffee + Kitchen

Elephant Grounds is best known for its seductive ice cream sandwich flavors that changes weekly but they are proving that they are more than just coffee and ice cream with its new branch in Wong Chuk Hang! Compared to its original shop in Sheung Wan, the outlet on the up and coming southside is much bigger and brighter with more dining area, couches to chill in, an outside patio with full frontal view of the MTR construction, and merchandise for you to take home. Best of all, they also serve savory food and ice cream sandwiches here on weekdays so for those of you who can't wait until the weekends to grab your ice cream, here's the place to fulfill that craving on weekdays while getting your grub on! Thanks to Elephant Grounds for inviting me to come check out this branch as well as the opportunity to make my own ice cream sandwich!

The first thing I did was check out its coffee offerings. They offer all the standard espresso drinks and more with a La Marzocco espresso machine.

If you are more of a black coffee kind of person, they use brewing methods like the Chemex which is a manual pour-over style glass container with propriety coffee filter that is thicker than usual and thus removes most of the coffee oils and results in a different taste.

The other brewing method utilized here is the Siphon which is very popular in Japan. It is a very cool-looking and complex method which requires delicate skill to stir the ground coffee with the hot water. 

We then got to try 8 different savory items from the kitchen with the first being a Torched Salmon with onsen egg, konbu daikon and ginger cucumber over rice. The salmon was fatty and tender which was further enhanced after mixing the onsen egg yolk in. 

I was excited to try its Bahn Mi with chicken, pickles, coriander but I felt that it would have better if the bread had been toasted beforehand. 

The (Om) Curry (Veg) with roasted vegetables, cabbage, furikake and omelette was satisfying to eat as a comfort food with a rich and sweet curry. 

My favorite item of the night had to be this Fried Chicken with BBQ and spicy Korean sauce! With crispy skin and juicy meat, the fried chicken was finger-licking good especially with the sauces. 

Getting our green on with this Charred Romaine Caesar with kale, Parmesan cheese and croutons.

I liked this Shio Char Siu Ramen a lot too as the char siu was soft and tender while the broth was deliciously rich and flavorful.

The Karaage with fried chicken and onsen egg could have used more sauce and seasoning.

Gotta love the sweet and tart sauce in the Yakisoba with bacon, veggies, bonito and bean sprouts.

After all that food, the perfect ending is a sweet ending with Elephant Ground's famous ice cream sandwich! I got the chance to make my own with cereal milk ice cream, oatmeal and gingerbread cookies, dehydrated raspberry and yogurt bits plus some cinnamon dust on top. It was harder than I thought it would be to get the toppings to stick to the ice cream - the most effective way ended up being to dunk the entire sandwich into the bowl of toppings and roll it around!

* By Invitation

Elephant Grounds Coffee + Kitchen

1/F The Factory
1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang
Tel: 2562 9000
Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-6pm
http://www.elephantgrounds.com/

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