Restaurant review: Artisan Room, Shek Tong Tsui - pricey coffee, tasty snacks
Pride of place in this newcomer to a fast-gentrifying area goes to a metre-tall machine that takes 8 hours to brew a HK$60 cup of coffee. The food, such as sandwiches and quiche Lorraine, is good
In Shek Tong Tsui, which gentrified quickly following the opening of the Kennedy Town MTR line, a coffee shop, Artisan Room, has recently opened, giving the hipster crowd another place to hang out.
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Enjoying pride of place in the middle of the coffee shop is the metre-tall coffee machine called Gothicism, a Korea-imported slow-drip cold brewer fashioned from aluminium and glass tubes. There are three kinds of coffee beans on offer every day, with the Italian Costadoro being the staple house brand and the other two changing every week. Two examples include Catuai from La Paz in Honduras and the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, a great variety appreciated as iced coffee because of its soft and pleasant fruity and floral aroma.
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We were impressed by the shopowner’s enthusiasm. To promote coffee appreciation, customers are given tasting cards alongside their cup of coffee, listing the country of origin of the beans, the variety, estate, processing method and other information.
After putting ice, water and ground coffee beans in the glass tubes on the top of the machine, 36 drips of coffee are made every minute. It’s a slow process. After eight hours of dripping, the coffee is refrigerated overnight and served the next day.
The alfresco dining area is a spacious spot where coffee connoisseurs can sip the aromatic brew and watch how it is prepared through the floor-to-ceiling glass panels fronting the shop.
Artisan Room, 8-12 South Lane, Shek Tong Tsui, Western District, tel: 2656 3198
Open: 7.30am-7.30pm
