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.

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.

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.

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. Stir-fried water spinach (RMB 32) was simply refreshing and flavored with fermented bean curd, which brought some umami flavor to this dish.

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

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Photos: Tracy Wang