Hong Kong is known for its diverse food scene, boasting restaurants offering authentic cuisine from all around the world. In this article, I will be reviewing La Paloma, a Spanish restaurant in Sai Ying Pung (1/F, Soho 189, 189 Queen’s Road West), so prepare your knives and forks, palettes, and most importantly, an empty stomach!

La Paloma is a peninsular Spanish restaurant whose central mission is to bring traditional Spanish cuisine to Hong Kong. It is run by a chef from Spain named Alex Fargas, and serves many famous Spanish dishes such as paella, croquetas, and churros.

The restaurant’s design is very sleek; it uses a variety of materials that have similar colours to each other and different lights like candles and lanterns facing the entrance. The wall is decorated with Spanish words which, when translated, actually compose the restaurant’s signature recipe for their paella, containing all of the steps and ingredients needed to make the dish.

The first dish I tried were the croquettes, which are fried mixtures of breadcrumbs, vegetables, and/or meat. They are steaming on the inside and salty to the taste, whereas the outside is crunchy and satisfying to eat.

Another tapa that I ordered was the suckling pig, which is essentially a baby pig roasted upon a grill. The pig itself was cooked to perfection and was extremely juicy. After that, I tried a neat platter containing different varieties of cured meats, like salami and ham, topped with a few slices of cheese.

For the main course, I had multiple dishes that were surprisingly cheap considering the quality of the food. The first dish I had was garlic-roasted potatoes with cheese and spicy oil. The potatoes were cooked perfectly, had a cheesy flavour, and the spiciness of the sauce balanced out the saltiness of the potatoes—a great balance.

The second dish that I ordered was La Paloma’s signature seafood paella, which is made of different crustaceans and fish sourced locally off of Hong Kong’s coast. The stock was made from lobster shells, and the flavour of the rice itself was incredibly rich from being bathed in the broth. The seafood was also cooked perfectly due to the chefs adding ingredients in proportion to how long they cooked the rice for.

While eating, I had a glass of sangria—a cocktail made with alcohol and soda water. However, as I am not yet of legal age, the alcohol was replaced with grape juice, with different fruits such as oranges, apples, and grapes added within the drink. The sweetness was then balanced out with a squeeze of lime.

For dessert I opted for the churros with chocolate sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Churros are fried dough sticks made with butter and water with flour, which are then squeezed into a stick and fried. The churros at La Paloma were very crunchy and the hot chocolate sauce added alongside it made it incredibly sweet, while the vanilla ice cream balanced out the heat of the chocolate sauce.

The second dessert I ordered was a cheesecake with mixed berry ice cream on top. The cheesecake was smooth, whereas the berry ice cream was incredibly rich. It may have been the richest ice cream I have ever eaten—although the sweet flavour of the berries was a little overwhelming to my palette.

Overall, I had a great time dining at La Paloma. Although it makes use of traditional Spanish recipes, elements of Hong Kong cuisine are also influenced into its menu. I would recommend this restaurant to foodies who are interested in trying new dishes from different cultures, or people who enjoy a spicy touch to their food.