One of the things I’m grateful about is that there are so many restaurant choices in Sai Kung.  We especially enjoy Cru, Jaspa’s, Anthony’s Ranch.  I think the food at Firenze isn’t bad.  We are saddened by the loss of Indian restaurant Dia, replaced by some sort of “Japanese fusion” thingie.  We’ll do seafood on the waterfront for special occasions.  And there’s lots of tiny, hole in the wall joints that provide nice Asian fare.   There’s still dozens of places we haven’t tried after a year and a half!

But without a doubt, our favorite restaurant can be found a few kilometers down the road at Pak Sha Wan aka Hebe Haven.  It’s called Hebe 101.  It has been there for about a year and a half, occupying the village house that used to be home to the Portuguese restaurant Pousada.   We’ve eaten here many times and have never once been disappointed.

Last night I wanted to go out for a Thanksgiving dinner and decided to ignore my current HK$100 per person budget.  Since I had to be up at 7 the next morning, I wanted something close by.  So we went to Hebe 101.  (There are some nice photos on their web site that show how the ground floor bar area has these huge over-stuffed leather sofas and what seem to be antique steamer trunks for tables.  It’s an incredibly welcoming and relaxing set-up.)

Got there, asked if they were doing a special Thanksgiving menu and was greeted with a blank stare.  Okay, no problems with the regular menu.

We shared a salad as a starter and the salad was terrific.  A prawn salad that cost HK$128 but was the size of a main course, it included about a dozen boiled small-to-medium sized prawns.  And also roasted zucchini and aubergine, fennel, sun-dried tomato, 3 or 4 different bits of lettuce and crumbled goat’s cheese.  The cheese had a strong, creamy flavor that more than made up for the lack of any dressing.

At 8 PM, they were out of roast pork loin so my gf went with her second choice, a seafood pasta ($128).  Several kinds of seafood, cream sauce (“the cream is sooo nice!” she said) and a broad noodle.   Me, on the other hand, I splurged and went for the Australian ribeye steak ($228) – which may not be turkey but was perfectly grilled and full of the kind of flavor you’ll never find in those $100 local steak specials.  I also ordered their herb mashed potatoes (sorry, forgot the price – either $28 or $38?) and don’t ask me what kind of herbs they put in but it was nice, and even better when I dipped a forkful into the mushroom gravy that I got on the side.

We were way too full to even think about dessert – we almost always get their apple crumble, which is a proper crumble and big enough for a family of 4.  Luckily for  my diet, they haven’t worked out a way to do this to go, since it’s baked and served in the same dish, otherwise we’d probably stop there every time we pass by and get one for later.

It was nice to sit at a table outside because the weather was clear and beautiful last night.  Unfortunately, while they’re only a couple of dozen yards away from the water, the “spectacular views” they mention on the web site are only really seen from the rooftop bar.  Our view was limited to the carpark and the cars passing along the main road.   But it was still relaxing to sit there and we agreed that this was the best dinner we’d had in a week or more.

So among the things I had to be thankful for yesterday was the company of my gf and a really nice dinner in a comfortable place.

I hope all of you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving as well!