North Point Hong Kong café, Cathays, Cardiff: review
On April 19, 2024 by The Plate Licked CleanNorth Point, named after the district the owners grew up, is Cardiff’s new Hong Kong-style café.
Husband and wife Anson and Claris were born there, just before the 1997 handover to China which ended 156 years of British rule. They moved, fell in love with Cardiff, wanted a new challenge, and here they are on Salisbury Road. North Point is their homage to the Cha Chaan Teng (literally, ‘tea restaurant’) style café-diner: informal, inexpensive, busy: open for a quick lunch and early dinner, a quintessential slice of Hong Kong. Somewhere for a quick bite, rather than somewhere to linger for hours.
A wall displays Claris’ photos of their former home, one of the island’s oldest neighbourhoods. From the small kitchen, music plays: she takes care of the savoury side of the small menu, while Anson’s background in baking is clear in the sweeter options.
They have created a quietly striking space: jade green walls, patterned tiled floors and black paintwork, with the menu spelled out in capitals on the wall. It’s the bilingual table versions which point you very much in the direction of the students and Hong Kong families who have quickly formed the bulk of their customers, with lunchtime tables filling quickly.
Service is warm and quick, the menu as slim as I was before I started this malarkey. With prices topping out under £12 it’s easy to work your way through much of what’s listed. Black tea is the base for their homemade iced lemon, lavishly iced and with a little jug of syrup to sweeten to taste. Try the salted 7-Up next time, Anson says: very popular back home, and there’s nothing else quite like it.
Prawn lo mein (with sauce but without soup) pairs handmade wontons- the wrappers delicate, the filling sweet- with noodles for a satisfyingly subtle soy and sesame hit.
There are those taut little fish balls, a Hong Kong street food staple (there’s a kind warning that it is ‘quite spicy’, with concern for us lily-livered westerners) but that tangy, sticky glaze is a welcome lift.
Pan fried chicken with scallion sauce with Indomie (the instant noodles popular to the tune of 28 billion packets annually) is sold out both times, which tells you how well North Point has been received, just as eloquently as the frequent sight of knots of impatient and expectant diners on the pavement corner outside.
The sausage roll bakes the meat into golden dough which manages to be thick and rich and light at the same time. It’s a nice piece of work, of sweet and salt.
Fish siu mai, made with a light touch and plump with basa fillet, come as a skewer of five. I missed out on my first visit- these sell out quickly, I’m told- and at just £3.20 these are extraordinary value.
Brisket is impressively tender, testament to its long, slow braise- five to six hours, I’m told- and unapologetically served with its rich fat. It could do with a touch more salt to lift it,: next time you’ve had a bad day, come here and order the beef brisket and rice. I promise it’ll make everything alright.
Even better, have the noodle soup version, where the chunks of mooli (daikon) soak up the broth for a comforting, sustaining thing. Lace it with the chilli crisp and its potent oil for a bracing bowl.
You’d expect sweet choices, given Anson’s years as a baker, with bolo bao (‘pineapple’ bun) popular. A pair of ‘classic Hong Kong egg tarts’ combine impressively short, delicately crumbly pastry work with a rich sunburst yellow filling which stays the right sight of over-sweet.
Second time around, I arrive after the lunchtime rush. It’s momentarily quiet, so we talk local restaurants (Anson loves Japanese and recommends Yukiyan on Woodville Road, and we swap notes on Ely’s Don Don Yatai, run by another Hong Kong family. Jianghu comes in for some enthusiastic praise and we agree on the Thai flavours at Malai and Moo Moo; he recommends Praya on Churchill Way, and inevitably I put in a word for Lahore’s punchy Pakistani spicing).
There’s an encouraging sense of Claris and Anson listening to feedback- the beef is better seasoned on my return, and a chef friend who nabs that fish siu mai before I do, tells me it is served cold. That’s rectified.
North Point is an intriguing proposition. Repeat custom will be crucial, and they clearly already have a foothold among the local Hong Kong community, but this deserves a wide audience. It’s important that you don’t come expecting a ‘restaurant’ experience: this is very much a café, easygoing and keenly priced, which wants to feed you well. More importantly: it makes this city that little bit more interesting to eat in.
North Point, 20 Salisbury Rd, Cardiff CF24 4AD
Monday 12–7:30 pm
Tuesday 12–7:30 pm
Wednesday 12–7:30 pm
Thursday 12–7:30 pm
Friday 12–7:30 pm
Saturday 12–7:30 pm
Sunday Closed
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