Location Review:Ocean Park, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
海龍王餐廳 @ 香港海洋公園
Almost every time I visit Hong Kong, I end up making a visit to Ocean Park. I used to love going when I was younger, and to this day I still feel the magic. Think of it as an marine mammal amusement park. Lots of roller coaster rides, aquariums, animal habitats (including my favourite one -- pandas!), shows, and exhibits. I don't know why, but I'm just so captivated by observing and learning about creatures and their habitat. Reminds me that there is something more on this earth than just us humans. Oh, and then there's the food.
In many amusement park, you can't really expect to find gourmet food. A lot of it is fast food, and there is the occasional sit down place that doesn't provide much of a restaurant experience. Fully anticipating this, I was pleasently surprised when stepping inside Neptune's Restaurant.
Neptune's Restaurant is built surrounding the main tank of the Grand Aquarium. It is an astounding four-story high tank which is home to over 400 different species of aquatic creatures. Sharks, sting rays, you name it.
"Npetune's Supreme Fried Rice" 海龍王特式炒飯 - Scallops, Crab leg and Soft Shell Crab
"Deep Fried Grouper Fillet with Homemade Prune Sauce" 梅子脆斑塊 ($168 HKD)
Kids Meal
Seeing as children are the most prominent visitors of any amusement park, they also have a pretty extensive kids menu. Rob's cousin who ordered this gobbled it up in no time.
Overall, I really enjoyed Neptune's restaurant, but I can't say it was for the food. The quality of the seafood was decent, but most dishes were deep fried making it relatively heavy. I did enjoy the prune sauce from the Grouper Fillet though, I thought it was a tasty and appetizing complement. Despite the ordinary food, the surroundings more than makes up for it. Plus if you eat here, you can skip the Grand Aquarium as an exhibit, and spend more time elsewhere in the park.
After lunch, we roam around the park with all that it has to see and do. The weather that day was violently hot, and the scorching sun made it 10x worse. I swear I almost fainted from the heat! We decided to search for some drinks, and stumbled upon this vending machine.
****
Self Freezing Coke Machine
At first glance it was a normal Coke machine, but then closer inspection showed that these were self-freezing cokes! They were a little more expensive than the regular cokes, but it didn't really matter too much at that point.
Self Freezing coke
There are instructions on the bottle that tell you to tip the bottle upside down for a couple seconds, and then revert it back right side up after. As soon as you do this, you can hear the liquid inside fizzing.
Self Freezing Coke
Give it a couple more seconds, and you can see and feel the entire bottle of coke freeze up. Taste wise it was the same as normal coke, but the ice made it feel like a Coke slushie! A neat idea, and it became a lifesaver in the hot and humid Hong Kong weather.
