Safety Stop

I walk past Safety Stop on my way to HKU every day and have always wanted to try it (despite the bizarre name). The restaurant is one of the few places where you can get Kopi Luwak coffee - and at much better prices than I saw at Four Seasons. Apparently, this restaurant used to have an old location in Sheung Wan with quite a large fan base! Glad it moved so close to me :)

The set dinner menu has a wide variety of Western dishes including pastas, fish and meat courses:


We ordered two dinner sets to share - the tiger prawn and seafood risotto ($98) and the honey pummery roast french cut pork rack ($108). We also opted for an additional appetizer - smoked salmon, mozzarella and tomato salad ($88).

First, bread and soup!


The homemade bread was really good, nicely toasted in their oven before being served to us. Mmmm carbs.

They told us the soup of the day was vegetable soup which I wasn't too excited about. I thought it would turn out like those watery cabbage broths you get in Chinese-Western restaurants. Luckily, this soup was delicious. It was more like a pumpkin soup with quite a thick consistency. I happily lapped it up with my bread (of which we got double portions! yay gluttony).

vegetable soup

I was debating whether or not to get fresh live oysters from Australia. The menu has prices quoted for both a half dozen or a dozen, and the owner was kind enough to accommodate my request for just three. However, in the end I decided that the mozzarella salad would be plenty of food:

smoked salmon, mozzarella & tomato salad

I was a bit disappointed by how little salmon we got, but the mozzarella was pretty decent and they gave a lot of that! :) Also liked that they included capers! Made me really want a smoked salmon cream cheese bagel - which I happily got the following day during brunch at Oolaa.

Mains -

tiger prawn and seafood risotto

I was a bit nervous about ordering the risotto. I find that a lot of restaurants do a very poor job of it in Hong Kong - especially Basement on Gough Street. Luckily, this risotto was cooked well. The rice maintained a nice chewy al dente bite, and I loved the creamy texture. It was a tad on the salty side though, and I wished they had given an extra prawn! Though for the money we paid, I guess I shouldn't be too greedy!

pork rack

Wow. This was sooo juicy for such a thick chunk of meat! Was really impressed by this - the meat was cooked so well it didn't need any sauce. They do add a bit of mustard which gave the dish a nice kick. I liked the potatoes too, lightly seasoned with a hint of salt. Simple and delicious.

I was already pretty stuffed by that point but we couldn't not order their molten chocolate cake!

molten chocolate cake ($48)

Mmm, I absolutely demolished this before my partner got more than a forkful in haha. Chocolate cake and ice cream are always a winner combination! This dish made me feel like getting out the Betty Crocker mix and baking myself some fudge brownies ;)

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of food here, especially given the price. The total bill came up to something like $370 for two, and we had a three-course meal! The service was really hospitable, and I'll definitely be back to try some of the other dishes (rib eye!) They even gave us coupons for our next visit! Do however make sure you always get your credit card back after paying the bill because despite how nice the waitstaff were, they did forget to return us this :\ Lucky I live so close!

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Safety Stop
L/G, Wai On House
39 Water Street,
Sai Ying Pun