Hahaha-Shrimp Catching & Bbqing Restaurant
Haha! It’s no laughing matter, but rather the name of shrimps in Cantonese is “Ha 蝦” and the name of a shrimps catching and bbq restaurant in Hong Kong. Look no further if you want to catch live shrimps and cook them at Cooking Haha restaurant in Jordan, Kowloon.
In Pic: Us enjoying our "fresh" meal
Seafood Options
Cooking Haha restaurant is an all-you-can-eat indoor barbecue restaurant. A curiosity is the live shrimp tanks located next to all the tables. You’re supplied with tongs to pick up the live shrimp and freeze them in an ice bucket. Once the shrimp stops squirming (wait about 5 minutes), you are ready to barbecue them at your table. At the restaurant, there are also other seafood such as fresh abalone, scallops, fish, razor clams, cockles and geoduck. For the fresh abalone, the wait staff recommend cutting off the shells before grilling them as they will pop in high heat.
In Pic: Choice of Seafood galore
Meat and Vegetarian Options
For those who are meat lovers, the restaurant also provides all-you-can-eat sausages, lamb chops, pork skewers, chicken wings marinated in garlic, beef satays and fish balls. There is also a variety of vegetarian options such as grilled zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, sweet potato, sweet corn with butter. Our go-tos are the mini sweet potato skewers and garlic baguette freshly grilled at our tabletop barbecue.
In Pic: A variety of meat options also available
Our Experience
My family and I went to Cooking Haha restaurant in Jordan recently to check out whether it lived up to its 4-star reviews on Chinese websites. The restaurant was easy to find as it’s near the mtr station and the Temple Street market. Wait staff greeted us warmly upon our arrival (a rarity in local restaurants nowadays where restaurants are short-staffed). They gave us instructions on which utensils and gadgets to use for catching the shrimps in tanks and separate ones for grilling. They also set out some salt-marinated shrimps and Japanese mirin flavoured eels for barbecuing at the outset. After careful grilling of the eel skewers, it was a mouthful of joy to bite into the crispy skin with melt-in-your-mouth unagi meat. Be sure to ask the wait staff how long it takes to cook before lifting them off the barbecue.
The Highlights
We each found our highlights from the restaurant. I enjoyed the eel skewers and shrimp catching part, though it was not a fair fight as the shallow tanks allowed us to catch any of the frisky shrimps we wanted. Our son enjoyed the grilled waffles, sweet potatoes and garlic bread. All the cheaper options at the buffet but that’s why restaurants charge less for kids. Grandma enjoyed the ice cream options and had two cups of ice cream. My husband also enjoyed the eel skewers, chicken wings and the garlic bread. We tried and decided to skip the cooked food section as it looked and tasted dismal.
In Pic: Shrimp Catching without having to go to the sea
Restaurant Details
Name: Cooking Haha Restaurant
Address: 1/F, Ever Rich Mansion, 10-24 Parkes Street, Jordan
Price: Around HK$380/ adult, HK$230/kid
Website: https://www.facebook.com/cookinghaha.hk