Cafe De Tropika

Nowadays, I find myself going to the southside more and more for its wide variety of restaurants. The most recent place I’ve checked out is Cafe De Tropika, a Hong Kong style cafe. It’s very modern and clean on the inside and their menu has many different options to choose from, whether you want Chinese food or steak and pasta. Pricing was alright, I wouldn’t say that it was cheap but it wasn’t overpriced either. The atmosphere of the restaurant seems to cater to everyone, from families to dates to groups of friends. 

Who said that dessert always has to be last? I started my night off with a red bean and grass jelly dessert for $4.50. This is one of my favorite Asian desserts but if I came back here, I would probably order something else, such as their strawberry crepes!

The egg and scallop fried rice was such a hit at our table that we had to order a second plate. The rice had pieces of scrambled egg, shredded scallop, peas, and green onions with a bit of pepper on top. Although it was a bit oily (but again, what Asian dish isn’t?), I would recommend this dish if you want to try one of the fried rices at Cafe De Tropika! It was nicely flavoured and different from the average bland fried rice at other Asian restaurants.

I didn’t try this dish but we ordered the stir fried noodles with beef, which is a typical item seen on the menus of Asian restaurants. This dish features thick noodles with bean sprouts, beef, green onions, and garlic stir-fried in a light oyster sauce. 

Half a BBQ duck – it was a good size and the skin of the duck was delicious!

I always seem to order tossed noodles with wontons and oyster sauce ($8) whenever I go to a HK style restaurant. The dish had egg noodles and included green onions and broccoli as well. The oyster sauce was a bit salty but still delicious when combined with the noodles and wontons. 

Of course we had to try one of their baked dishes. We ordered baked ham, shredded chicken, and cheese alfredo on spaghetti ($12). I highly recommend this dish! The alfredo sauce wasn’t too creamy and it was baked to the right amount. The portion was big so it could be a meal for one person or a dish for a few people to share. 

Dessert #2 of the night was Hong Kong style French Toast for $4. I knew I couldn’t leave the place without trying out one of their toast dishes! Served with a slice of butter and powdered sugar on theh top, and maple syrup on the side, the HK style French Toast was amazing. I honestly think that it’s better than regular French Toast! It was very soft on the inside but the outside texture wasn’t too chewy or crispy. 

The last course and third dessert of the night was mango pudding. Cafe De Tropika was kind enough to offer us mango pudding because they had forgotten one of our orders (baked seafood on rice). We were a bit happy they didn’t remember though because we were too full for another main dish. The mango pudding tasted like fresh mango and it was topped with whipped cream.

Even though Edmonton does have a few Hong Kong style cafes around the city, Cafe De Tropika is worth checking out if you’re around the southside area. Another bonus for them is that they open later than most places if you want to grab a late night snack.