The Pawn Restaurant

The Pawn
62 Johnston Road
Wanchai
Hong Kong

No. 62 Johnston Road is a building consisting of four historical tenement houses located in the Wanchai district of Hong Kong. Completed in the late 19th century, these tenement houses or “shop houses” were designed so that a business owner to operate his enterprise on the ground floor, and use the upper levels for residential purposes, either for their own family, or even more enterprisingly, to be rented. This particular location has been heritage listed and according to historical records dating back to 1899, the building was a pawn shop.

What more apt way to name a dining establishment, The Pawn, than after its historical roots? Well, actually the building houses two dining establishments – The Pawn (on levels 1, 2 and 3) and Ovologue on the ground floor.

Let us concentrate on The Pawn for the moment, as my wife and I had the hankering of some good old fashioned English fare. There is nothing like a good fish and chips and Yorkshire pudding to remind us of Hong Kong’s colonial past.

The Missus and I were dining on the terrace of the second floor, or The Dining Room. Surprisingly, this is a quiet night for Wanchai.

Who am I kidding? It was just a lull in the traffic on Johnston Road.

Anyway, back to the food. The Pawn offers a seasonal menu but it has some good staples such as the steak and Fish and Chips along with the traditional roasts.

For that night, The Missus and I opted to share a starter, two mains and then share a dessert. We kicked off with the endive salad, served with calamari, radish, fennel, orange, hazelnuts and an orange dressing. It was a rather colourful dish with lots of refreshing flavours and crunchy textures. The bitterness of the endive played well with the citrus.

The calamari was particularly tasty; simply boiled and cut into small bite sizes to provide a more subtle flavour so as to not to overpower the rest of the dish, and providing a nice contrast in texture.

And here we have another lull in the traffic.

Herself was craving meat (she does that from time to time) and ordered the striploin.

I, on the other hand, went for the Fish and Chips. The watch is for scale.

A quick community message: remember to look left. You never know what you miss if you don't.

The drink of choice for the eveing was :

It was good.

Does the lack of description of the wine frustrate anyone? Regardless, the meal was fantastic.

As I mentioned, 62 Johnston Road is a heritage listed building. Let’s do a quick tour :

For dessert, we shared the lemon trifle.

All that wine made me feel a little creative. Overall, the meal was wonderful. Both the steak and the Fish and Chips were well executed, and sometimes there is nothing more to really say about a dish than that. It is the level of consistency that makes The Pawn a good spot to visit. My only caution is to not order soft drinks / soda! They charge about HK$60 for it, which is an absolute rip-off. Also be aware that the servings are rather huge, so come with an empty stomach.

We decided to walk off our dinner. Here are a couple of building shots that I shot on our way home.

Thanks for reading!

Gaz.