Banking on a good meal? Make your way to HSBC
A tad pricey but worth every mouthful, a foreigner relishes his “hot and spicy” experience at a restaurant with a rather interesting name.
By Andrew Headspeath
It’s not often that restaurants are named after banks. HSBC bucks that curve, laughing at copyright and wafting its ‘hot & spicy Bangsar cuisine’ in the direction of confused passersby.
Run by an Indian family serving hot and spicy cuisine, this establishment defies logic in many avenues; why the name? Why so many menu choices? Is there even such a thing as ‘Bangsar cuisine’?
Officially no, but for a foreigner like myself, I couldn’t care less if it suffers an identity crisis; this venue’s heart is in the right place, and I can’t help but fall for its charms.
Situated on the fringes of gentrified Bangsar, HSBC channels its namesake, requiring customers to fork out a tad more extra cash to reap its tasty benefits.
HSBC has a menu large enough to rival a best-selling novel, but it is an easy read, offering different meat in repeated cycles of sauce. When ordering you’ll be asked if you want normal or ‘vegetarian’ meat (essentially tofu), before a steaming bowl of cutlery in water is plonked on your table.
In jovial spirits, I opted for lemon chicken, Pattaya rice, garlic broccoli and tofu ‘in salty fried fish’, in hopes some magnificence would result from the chaos.
The Pattaya rice, served in an omelette blanket, was delightfully moreish, with generous chunks of chicken running through it.
The tofu with salty fried fish was sharp and tangy (if a little squelchy), providing crisp textures that worked well with HSBC’s crunchy garlic broccoli.
Served with a refreshing lemon ice freeze drink, this restaurant offers customers oodles of benefits should they wish to invest in their mealtime.
HSBC can be found at 84 Jalan Maarof, Bangsar.
Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram