Street Eats: A Taste of Hong Kong at Senzaiji, U-Town

U-Town is gradually becoming a big canteen, not just for the working bees near Chaoyangmenwai, but also for the mall's hungry shoppers. Aside from Guizhou-style street food from Wawa, and the affordable Taiwanese hot pot at Xiabu Xiabu, we found a Cantonese restaurant, Senzaiji.

You can also learn some Cantonese while waiting

Opened by Hong Kongese actor Sam Lee – who most famously starred in the movie Made in Hong Kong – Senzaiji is hidden in the basement of U-Town Shopping Mall. The place couldn’t be more street eat-style: It has a dozen booths for four, some tiny tables for two, the open kitchen is in the back, playing loud ‘80s Cantonese pop songs, with a humble counter at the front for ordering and paying.

Clay-pot sausage rice (RMB 36)

Similar to most of the cha chaan teng (茶餐厅, literally "tea restaurant"), Senzaiji specializes in affordable dishes commonly found at restaurants in Hong Kong – soups (RMB 15-38), a dozen clay-pot rice dishes (RMB 34-68), steamed chicken (RMB 85), different vegetables, and tong sui (sugary soup, RMB 13-15), such as sweet potato soup, and steamed milk custard.

Stir-fried water spinach

The daily special dish is just RMB 18 if you order another full-price dish. We opted for a small clay-pot sausage rice (RMB 36), which took just 15 minutes to serve. This hearty and normally time-consuming dish was flavored with soya sauce, the sliced sausage was sweet, and the rice was cooked to perfection. Even though the chopped ribs were a bit boney, the dish was delicious and authentic. The stir-fried water spinach (RMB 32) was simply refreshing and flavored with fermented bean curd, which brought some umami flavor to this dish.

Hong Kong-style milk tea (RMB 16)

As for drinks, they only offer milk tea, a drink with carrot and water chestnut, and beer. The Hong Kong-style iced milk tea was sweetened with condensed milk, but was nevertheless strong enough to keep me wide awake after the usually food-coma-inducing meal. Food can be a bit salty here, so take it easy with the sauce. If you've eaten food from the hawkers in Hong Kong a lot, this loud place won’t be strange to you. Service is mediocre, but it doesn’t stop Senzaiji from being a highlight among the other lunch venues nearby.

Senzaiji
Daily 10am-10pm. B1, U-Town Shopping Mall, 2 Sanfeng Beili, Chaoyang District (8562 6988)
森仔记煲仔饭：朝阳区三丰北里2号悠唐购物中心二期B1层

Photos: Tracy Wang

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