Welcome to part two of my coverage of the cha chaan teng phenomenon that in recent months has set the foodie community abuzz.

This week I headed to the aptly named HK Café in Chinatown, which exemplifies the style of casual cafés that popped up in Hong Kong, southern China and Macau post World War II, when the Chinese developed a taste for Western cuisine and British afternoon tea taken with milk. The cafés specialized in a mix of Chinese dishes, spaghetti, cheesy gratins and milk teas.

I was most excited to get my fix of condensed milk toast, which can be enjoyed as a breakfast entrée or as a dessert. The restaurant’s owners consider it more of an appetizer. If ordering it as dessert, I recommend finishing your meal before placing your order so it arrives hot and full of milk. They don’t call it “leaking milk” for no reason.

There are two options available, the malty, chocolatey Ovaltine French toast ($9.99) and peanut butter French toast ($8.99). Which you pick simply comes down to how much you love Ovaltine powder or peanut butter, with its drier, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth, small-kid-time quality.

My whole experience felt like a trip down memory lane with nostalgia for these flavors, especially when it came down to drink choices that included Horlicks-flavored condensed milk ($5.50 hot, $6.50 cold).

Now that was a name I hadn’t heard since childhood. Horlicks tablets were my favorite candy that suddenly disappeared, leaving me bereft. I loved its malted milk flavor and now am addicted to this drink (note: it’s not gluten-free).

While I would love to one day try the house milk tea ($4.50 hot, $5.50 cold) and black currant-flavored lemon Ribena ($6.50), I don’t know when or if I will ever get my fill of the Horlicks milk.

While the food at last week’s cha chaan teng Yi Xin might be characterized as bold and strong, HK Café’s cuisine is best described as clean and fresh. My favorite dishes had the most depth of flavor and included old school Chinatown classics such as shrimp wonton soup ($13.95, $12.95 with noodles) and satisfyingly chewy and toothsome beef chow fun ($13.95).

I also loved the curry flavor of deep-fried chicken wings ($12.95), which set it apart from just about every other chicken wing in town.

A cornerstone of the menu are Hong Kong-style thin omelets over rice ($15.99), which come topped off with your choice of shrimp, sliced beef, chunks of char siu or chicken, and slathered in either mild curry, fresh tomato or black pepper sauce. The black pepper sauce is great with the beef. The sauce itself is mellow, with less of the spice associated with this Cantonese classic.

You’ll meet up with the tomato sauce in a dish of pork chops over rice or spaghetti ($14.95). It’s one of the few casual restaurants that starts with fresh tomatoes augmented with just a bit of tomato paste for extra oomph. For locals with a palate for strong flavors, it may be too delicate to appreciate, but I love its fresh, clean appeal.

The same might be said about the restaurant’s Malaysian laksa with seafood ($16.99) including shrimp, mussels and ika. I’m of the firm belief that the further a dish travels from its place of origin, the more watered down it gets, and a lot of shrimpy pungency got lost en route from Malaysia to Hong Kong.

I once was talking food with a person of Malaysian descent and expressing my love of Singaporean cuisine. He was not impressed, stating, “Singapore food is nothing more than watered-down Malaysian,” taking a dim view of the fusion of Chinese, Southern Indian and Malay sian cuisine.

The laksa here has been cleaned up for the Western palate, with less of the fermented, briny quality of a Malaysian laksa and more of its clear, clean coconut curry flavor. The broth itself is delicious, though there are those who likely would prefer a grittier, malodorous version.

Soup noodles and stir-fried noodles ($10.75-$13.99) round out the soft opening menu, and the restaurant has plans to add more dishes. I will definitely be back to try them.

HK Café

1113 Maunakea St. Ste. 101, Honolulu
Food: ***½
Service: ***
Ambiance: ***
Value: ***½
Call: 808-200-5757
Hours: 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays to Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursdays
Prices: About $50 for two

Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).