Cafe Chronicles: CHARLIE BROWN CAFE in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

I have always been in the hunt for themed cafes, most especially when I travel out of my country.  Winter time early this year, 2017, I had the optimal odds to proceed on the search for uniquely conceptualized cafes in Hong Kong.  First stop: CHARLIE BROWN CAFE

I am not a fan of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang but the thought of zoning into a playful childish realm with all things cartoonish makes my heart fluster and ignites an excitement of rekindling with my younger self.  Since my visit to the Hello Kitty Chinese Cuisine and the Snoopy's World on September 2015 in Hong Kong, you can see my blog post HERE and HERE, I have been itching to explore other spots in Hong Kong where I can get to mingle with the latter fictional character.  After thorough research on the internet, I enlisted CHARLIE BROWN CAFE in our itinerary for our winter 2017 vacation to Hong Kong.

Fast Fact on Charlie Brown via the Wikipedia:

Charlie Brown is the central protagonist of the long-running comic strip Peanuts, syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American archetypes and a popular and widely recognized cartoon character.

Searching for the cafe was a breezy feat since it was located a block away from the guest house that we settled to stay in.  This life-size statue of Charlie Brown greets you upon entry into the cafe.  From the facade of the cafe, you can already appreciate how keen they are with every inch of the interior designing.

The main cafe is located on the second floor.  After several steps on the wooden risers coupled with awe and mystery along with my strides, we were finally welcomed with the sight of that picture above.  The colors were more of Earth tones but the saturated contrasting hues brightly surfaced which made my heart skipped more and more beats.  Oh, the kid in me got so enthralled!

When ordering foods in a new restaurant or cafe, I always opt for the BEST SELLERS or the chef's recommendations.  At Charlie Brown Cafe menu, those dishes with Charlie Brown's face on it are the recommended foods, spot his face on the menu.  And they claim to be MSG-free, what a healthy bonus!

The menu is presented in simple laminated colorful sheets with the names, descriptions, prices, and photos of the dishes. You can see full menu HERE.

The cafe is partially self-service in the sense that payment of your orders is done in the cashier area by the customers.  You cannot call on the waitresses for your bill.  The customer/s have to stand up, approach the cashier and make their payments there.  The waitresses were there to take your order, serve your food and clean-up the table after your meals.  

Started the meal with the SOUP OF THE DAY.

We can never skip something green for our meal. My forever travel-food buddy always yearns for a FRESH GARDEN SALAD.

We ordered the STARTER PLATTER under their Snack menu which also doubles as Appetizer.

And for the Main Dish, I ordered for the dish which optically represents the cafe's theme:

Say Hi to Snoopy in this SNOOPY RICE BOLOGNAISE SAUCE dish.

Since I was in a themed cafe, I ordered for an iconic dish. I was ecstatic to see Snoopy on my plate and I ate Snoopy!

Remember my previous trip to Hong Kong when I dined at Hello Kitty Chinese Cuisine and finally had Hello Kitty's head on my plate! You can see it HERE.

For our beverages, we opted for the frappes.  They called it Frappa.  I am a lover of chocolate frappes, without second thoughts I went for the CHARLIE CHOCOLATE CHIP FRAPPA, which was a cafe's recommendation.  My forever travel-food buddy decided to try their CARAMEL COFFEE FRAPPA since he needed a caffeine boost from travel fatigue.

My forever travel-food buddy loves dining at a nook with full view of the outside environment of any restaurant.  I also began gravitating to this corner of a restaurant or cafe since it is visually refreshing and not forgetting to mention the overfull provision of natural light that illuminates my sight to my foods.  That seemingly white signboard actually lights up during the night where you can appreciate the illustrations of the colorful sketches of the Peanuts characters.

While waiting for our foods to be served, I roamed around the cafe to check out the details.  I was entertained by the memorabilia figurines of Peanuts characters, delectable cakes and pastries of anything Peanuts and collectible merchandise to take home as souvenirs.

Here's a detailed review of the foods that we have tasted at Charlie Brown Cafe:

Soup of the Day - Cream of Mushroom Soup

Price: 

FREE as part of their promotion every Mon-Fri, see HERE

It was a Wednesday when we dined at the cafe.

Soup Taste Comment:

I love soups since they keep my tummy warm and this kind of soup is always acceptable to my taste buds.

Soup Taste Rating:

4 of 5

Soup Serving Size vs. Price Rating:

2 of 5

Fresh Green Salad with Prawns, Lemons and Olive Oil Dressing

Salad Taste Comment:

I am a lover of fresh salads and the prawns are a bonus.  The dressing was a perfect match.

Soup Taste Rating:

5 of 5

Starter Platter 
(Onion Rings, Potato Wedges, Chicken Wings, Garlic Cream Cheese Bites & Cheese-Stuffed Jalapeno)

Price: 118 HKD

Taste Comment and Other Comments:

Everything appeared so brown; I love the potato wedge the most, all else were just so-so

Taste Rating:

2.8 of 5

Serving Size vs. Price Rating:

3 of 5
Taste vs. Price Rating:
1 of 5

Snoopy Rice Bolognaise Sauce

Price: 95 HKD

Taste Comment and Other Comments:

If not for the Snoopy-shaped rice, I could have ordered a richer in protein dish.  This was my first time eating a supposed "spaghetti" sauce with rice and some vegetable chunks.  I was hungry so the sauce somehow was palatable.

Taste of the Sauce Rating:

2 of 5

Serving Size vs. Price Rating:

3.5 of 5
Taste vs. Price Rating:
2 of 5

I was dressed in a peplum-hem sweater dress with the famous Mickey Mouse as the focal point of my ensemble.  My white quilted Guess sneakers came in handy and a fit for my black quilted BCBG Max Azria bag.

My Ratings:

Cafe Concept = 10 of 10 

Menu Options = 9 of 10 

Food Serving Size = 8 of 10

Overall Food Taste  = 7 of 10

Restaurant Lay-Out and Interior Designing = 9 of 10

(every detail seen was consistent to the concept)

Size of Restaurant = 8 of 10

Restaurant Lighting = 9 of 10 
(nature light was abundant since we dined there at high noon) 

Ambiance = 10 of 10 

Services of Staff = 7 of 10 

Money Value = 8 of 10

 (another cafe ticked off the bucket list!)

OVERALL RATING = 85% Recommended

CHARLIE BROWN CAFE  is located at

Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Granville Rd, 58-60號Fortuna House

Opens every day from 11:30 am - 10:00 pm

This post is just first from among the themed cafes that I took pleasure during our winter 2017 vacation in Hong Kong.  Do keep coming back for more!

If you want to check out SNOOPY'S WOLRD, click HERE.
To see more of my Hello Kitty Cafe Chronicles, you can see it HERE and HERE.

Eat good food, every day!