Tag: Bath

Hong Kong Bistro Noodle Bar – Bath City

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
So after touring around the Roman Baths it was off to find food!! Miss Pinky and I were both starving as we hardly had anything to eat during that morning on our way to Bath and Stonehenge. We went to investigate the food areas, and I knew Miss Pinky really wanted a beer and a meal, but we couldn’t see a pub, (however we did see loads afterwards!). It’s not hard to get lost in the city centre of Bath but it is hard to find a good place to eat.
Some restaurants looked ok, but they were not what we wanted. Some were just the same as London, so we didn’t opt for those. In the end we ate Chinese food at Hong Kong Bistro Noodle Bar. ¬,¬”” How comes we always end up eating Chinese food? This is the reason why I have started to eat alone on some occasions as you will see in the next few blogposts…
Hong Kong Bistro Noodle Bar
May I just point out that Bath has A LOT of Chinese students most likely studying at Bath University. Plus they have a lot of Chinese tourists too, probably to look at the Roman Baths.
Anyway, we were handed two menus. One long one written in English, and then the shorter one was in Traditional Chinese and English. The menu cover was in Simplified Chinese, and I was telling that this place might not be authentic Hong Kongese style as some Chinese restaurants out of London tend to be managed by Mandarin speaking Chinese… However I was wrong! I admit to that!! It was run by Cantonese speaking staff, although I think the waiters/waitresses spoke Mandarin and probably needed to practice on the Cantonese side (otherwise my Cantonese was bad… ¬,¬). Blah.
I was having a hard time to choose as I didn’t know the quality of this restaurant, although it seemed like the popular choice amongst the Bath Citizens and also the Chinese students / residents.
In the end I chose the fried dumplings and curry beef brisket and rice! ^_^ Good choice I think! I also chose to have a bubble tea… Yay! (whilst Miss Pinky opted for Coke).
Miss Pinky doesn’t know what bubble tea is!! Shocking!!
The dumplings were nice and hot when they came out. I was very happy because they looked big and juicy inside. Ultimately one of the best places to have fried dumplings. I am salivating right now…
Fried dumplings
The curry beef brisket on the other hand was good, but the beef was a bit tough – it needed a bit more brewing time. Sauce and rice were brilliant, and they even added some radish into it. Never had radish with curry beef brisket before… Well big pieces of it anyway…
Curry beef brisket and rice
Miss Pinky ordered the duck and char siu noodle soup… Unfortunately it didn’t mention that it had prawns in it (she’s allergic to prawns). Miss Pinky was so lucky to have checked her food beforehand – she has to double check all the time when it comes to Chinese food!! It was very hard to get the staffs attention even with me holding up my hand for some service was quite difficult…! In the end Miss Pinky had to take her bowl of hot noodle soup to the front and ask for a new bowl… Miss Pinky sat there sad faced looking at me eat my food. 😦
Duck and char siu noodle soup… can you spot the prawn? I can!!
However she did have nice starters! Fried squid and crispy fried lamb! These were wonderful I have to say. Good texture and good flavouring.
Fried squid
Crispy fried lamb

Eventually Miss Pinky’s fresh bowl came. It had no prawns in it this time round…

We were both full, Miss Pinky couldn’t move, heheheh… Total price came to around £35, I think (it was over a week ago, and it was definitely less than £40!). To me the prices on the menu looked expensive compared to the pricesI get in London China Town. But because of the portion sizes, I think it was definitely worth it in the end.
My geeking rating: 4.5/5 (service and the prawns gave this place a lower mark, otherwise it would’ve got 5/5 because of portion sizes)
Good points:
– Good portion sized food
– Nice starters, really liked them
– Spacious restaurant
Bad points:
– Slow service
– Need to indicate ingredients in the dishes
– Expensive (but worth it)

Address: 33 Southgate St, Bath, Avon BA1 1TP

Telephone: 01225 318500

    • Stonehenge and Bath

    On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
    Time for another trip across the UK!! ^_^
    Miss Pinky was being a clever woman. She emailed me one morning with a Groupon offer for Stonehenge and Bath for £32.50 with Premier Tours! Yeah!! I’ve wanted to go to Stonehenge and also Bath for a very long time. Well done Miss Pinky for spotting this offer!! The original price was £65 but cut down to 50% with this offer. So lucky. ^_^
    Miss Pinky and I met up at a bus stop and made our way to Victoria Coach Station. We got there too early – well at least we wouldn’t be late. 😉 So we sat and talked as if we haven’t seen each other for a very long time… Just before it was 8 am, it was a bit chaotic as there were several tours going on at the same time. But anyway we managed to get onto the coach… In the email I was sent it said I did not need to print off my Groupon vouchers but I was asked for them for the tour guide… So definitely print those vouchers off…
    Our tour guide was very good indeed who gave some very good history, unfortunately some of the travelers were talking too much, and I think it got on some people’s nerves. Lots of London history I already knew about. Miss Pinky was also pointing out buildings that she works on. She was still in work mode on a weekend!!
    Some people got some shut eye for a good hour. Unfortunately I can’t sleep on coaches. 
    Our first stop was Stonehenge! Woohoo (or not so woohoo). I have always wanted to go to Stonehenge, and our tour guide gave us some really good history about it. All I can say is that I think it was definitely used as a sundial for farming. What do you think?
    Stonehenge Visitor’s Centre – which is 2 miles away from the stones!!

    If you get there early, then you will be lucky. Best thing is to queue up for the train or the little buses that go up from the visitor’s centre as soon as you arrive. The train is slower than the bus by the way!! Unfortunately we were a few meters away from the site and we couldn’t go and touch the stones. 😦 To be honest I was fairly disappointed at the site… I was thinking it will be grand. That was not so.

    Slow train service

    Stonehenge ^_^

    From a different angle

    Old rock

    Stonehenge from a distance

    So back to the visitor’s centre via the slow train again. Miss Pinky and I were quite lucky as it started raining. 

    We walked around the visitor’s centre, and what do you know… we came across the alcohol section! We tried a bit of the wines. The one I like was the Ginger Wine. Woooow. It felt like a whisky going through me. Strong stuff, so I bought one. Might review it later!
    The shop

    Testing out the wines

    Ginger wine tastes like whiskey

    Just want to point out, Stonehenge has no cash machine, so bring some cash if you’re not using your card.

    Before the wine shopping we had looked into the display part.
    Into the exhibition

    Is this how they transported the stones?

    They are so heavy!!

    Building a wooden village

    And then the canteen, which was very expensive!! So Miss Pinky and I headed back to the coach with 15 minutes to spare. We were very lucky as it started raining with hailstones. Phew!!

    Back to the journey…

    And now we were heading towards Bath City. I have always wanted to go to Bath City mainly just to visit the Ancient Roman Baths. (I can’t believe this still exists!)… When we got to Bath, there was a small traffic jam along the way because of the floodings in the West Coast, we got to see Jane Austen’s (the 1700-1800’s English author) front door. ^_^ Did she despise Bath I wonder…?!

    Jane Austen’s Home… Number 4…

    With this tour we were given a small discount to the Roman Baths, so if you haven’t bought a ticket yet, then make sure you purchase one on the coach!! Now off we went into the Roman Baths…

    We were in Bath City 😀
    Entrance to the Roman Baths

    You would think it was going to be absolutely massive, but no, it’s actually the size of a swimming pool. Not sure how deep it is, but looks pretty deep. Bath is the only city in England to have a hot spring. A rare find indeed! Well done to the Ancient Romans!

    From the top

    From the side

    Ancient…

    I want to go for a dive too!!

    Miss Pinky and I were enthralled with the history that we spent almost an hour in there… I also touched the bath water. It was lukewarm!

    Museum section

    Getting closer to the baths

    Lady dressed in Roman clothing

    Glass floor

    After a quick tour, we went off to find food. We looked around, and I did say to Miss Pinky to turn into a different street to find a pub. (She didn’t listen to me, and kind of got upset on the way back that I blamed her for not listening as we had little time left after eating). Well, we ended up eating in Hong Kong Bistro Noodle Bar, which I will blog about separately from this post.

    Hong Kong Bistro Noodle Bar

    Next it was time to do more sightseeing. It was very short as we only had 3 hours in total to have a look around before we went back to London… We had ONE HOUR left! So we walked quite quickly. Take pictures, snap, snap and snap. 😦

    Streets of Bath

    Radley XD

    By the river… Apparently this was used in the film of Gladiator

    Rugby match going on in the distance

    And then we finally had about 15 minutes to spare. So went back to a sweet shop to buy more sweets and chocolate (it was our second time in this shop)…

    The Bath Sweet Shop

    Gosh it was a long journey, but very enjoyable indeed.

    On the way back our tour guide was giving us more history for another 30 minutes or so, I think some of us were too tired to listen.

    And now to say thank you Groupon and Premier Tours for this offer!! ^_^

    Website: http://www.premiumtours.co.uk/
    Website: http://www.groupon.co.uk/