You've probably heard of death by chocolate,

Happy Birthday, Lizzy.

It's birthday time again, so we all got together in Tsim Sha Tsui to celebrate Elizabeth's big day. We like to try a variety of different venues and this time someone, either Linda or Maggie I think, suggested The Cheesecake Factory in Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui. For me this was my first visit here.

We all agreed to get here early, as it doesn't accept bookings and it gets very busy later on, which isn't surprising, as the food is excellent and the portions are huge, and I really do mean huge.

I decided to arrive in Tsim Sha Tsui even earlier anyway, as I wanted to have a quick look around to see if there was anything interesting on. I walked along the edge of the harbour and saw a party boat. I'm not sure if this is something you can hire for special occasions or just a wealthy boat owner celebrating a big event. Whatever it was, it was certainly fancy, as the boat was totally bedecked in white, gold and yellow balloons.

Party boat.

The harbourfront was filled with tourists. I remember a few times in the midst of Covid being the only person walking here. It's good to see that things are much more normal nowadays.

As well as looking at the harbour, I decided to have a quick look at Heritage 1881, as I had read it was staging an exhibition called 'Naked Flowers'. I couldn't help laughing, as I waited to cross the road as there was one man up a ladder adjusting a tiny bit of foliage on the Heritage 1881 sign and six men at the bottom of the ladder, standing there watching and advising him. I'd love a job as a watcher advisor.

Up a bit, over a bit. No up a bit more.

For some reason I thought the 'Naked Flowers' exhibition was a free one, but in fact it cost HK$180 to go in. I didn't have enough time to go in at that point, so will keep this in mind as a possibility for later. I just photographed the displays advertising the exhibition instead. It's on until the 27th of October.

Display for 'Naked Flowers' exhibition.

People posing for selfies with the display.

Back view of the display. Giant books surrounded by flowers.

Closeup of the flowers in the display.

Closeup of the flowers in the display.

It was time to head to the restaurant. I entered Harbour City at the Star Ferry Pier. The restaurant was right at the other end. I hadn't realised just how big Harbour City is, it's absolutely massive. There were a couple of places where I could step outside and take pictures of the cruise terminal and harbour. There were no big cruise ships docked here that day.

Harbour and cruise terminal.

Harbour and cruise terminal.

Eventually I reached The Cheesecake Factory. It was still early, only around 5pm, so there were no queues yet. I managed to get a booth for six people. I knew Linda and Yang were well on their way to arrive, but Maggie and the birthday girl had only just finished work quite far away.

The Cheesecake Factory.

As I said before, I had never heard of The Cheesecake Factory, but I had a quick look online to find out its history. In the 1940's in Detroit, Michigan, a woman called Evelyn Overton created her own cheesecake recipe after being inspired by a recipe she saw in her local newspaper. Together with her husband, Evelyn longed to start up their own business, but they were soon too busy raising two small children. When their children were grown up, Evelyn and her husband moved to Los Angeles and used all their remaining savings to open a bakery where Evelyn made cheesecake for local restaurants. However, their son David was far more ambitious and decided to open a restaurant that specialised in his mother's desserts, so in 1978 in Beverly Hills, the first Cheesecake Factory was opened. It proved to be very successful and there are now around two hundred Cheesecake Factories dotted all around the world.

The inside of the restaurant looks really quite fancy and the place is pretty big.

Inside The Cheesecake Factory.

Linda and Yang soon joined me in the restaurant. As soon as I saw Yang, I knew I could rely on her to take over all the photography. Time to put my feet up. Then Lai arrived, looking super fit and healthy after walking a major part of the El Camino de Santiago in Spain.

The first four there. Linda, Lai, Yang and I.

Yang and I.

Lai and Linda.

We noticed the restaurant was offering Happy Hour prices on starters at this time, so we ordered some hot spinach and cheese dip,Tex Mex egg rolls and nachos. The portions were huge.

Bread arrives as soon as you sit down.

Hot spinach and cheese dip.

Tex Mex egg rolls.

Nachos.

Maggie was next to arrive. She had had a long taxi journey from Sai Kung.

Lai, Linda and Maggie.

Maggie and Linda.

And finally in walked the birthday girl herself, Elizabeth, who had travelled in from Tai Po. She was looking great in her lovely summery floral dress.

All of us.

All of us.

All of us with Yang in the mirror.

We were enjoying the starters so much, we decided we would not order main courses. We got a few more excellent starters instead. We ordered Buffalo chicken strips, fried macaroni and cheese balls and mini burgers. My personal favourite were the Buffalo chicken strips which were deliciously spicy and came with a lovely blue cheese dip.

Buffalo chicken strips.

Fried macaroni cheese balls.

Mini burgers.

Nonstop food.

In between stuffing ourselves senseless we caught up with all our news, set about putting the world to rights and discussed our plans for the upcoming summer holidays. Everyone has been very busy as schools near end of term time. It was really lovely to see everyone again.

I was stuffed senseless from all these nonstop starters, but it was dessert time. After all you can't come to the cheesecake factory without sampling the cheesecake. Elizabeth, Lai and Yang went off to choose from a mouthwatering selection of delicious looking cakes - a very hard task indeed. They opted for a slice of pineapple upside down cheesecake, key lime cheesecake and a chocolate tower.

Birthday girl making her choice.

It's not an easy task.

Cheesecake selection.Yummy!

I want that one.

The cakes arrived and the chocolate tower cake came with the words 'Happy Birthday Lizzy' written on it. We all sang Happy Birthday to Lizzy along with the wait staff who brought the cake. We gave Elizabeth a card and some vouchers for Decathlon, an excellent sports shop in Central.

Pineapple upside down cheesecake, key lime cheesecake and chocolate tower.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth.

It had been a lovely evening and great to catch up, but we were all stuffed senseless by this point. It was time to go home. We posed for photos outside the restaurant, wished each other a happy summer and headed for home.

All of us stuffed senseless at the end of the meal.

Outside the restaurant.

More photos. Linda said I looked like I was sick of photos in this one, though personally I think I was just stuffed senseless on cheesecake.

We were celebrating Elizabeth's birthday a bit early, so hope she has a great time on the day. Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!!