On weeknights this place is always brimming with diners, but on a Sunday afternoon this places was quite empty, and so we took the table by the window.

The assorted dishes were not particularly great, but they were good for those who are hungry and peckish before the mains arrive.

I chose the soft tofu stew from the lunch menu (soondubu jigae) which is essentially a spicy (think kimchi) stew with incredibly soft tofu, an egg and some assorted frozen seafood in a stone pot that arrives boiling hot. The rice accompanying it was nice - much like the Japanese pearl rice grains and when eaten with the stew it mellowed the heat out a little. The tofu was definitely the star of the dish, the seafood failed in comparison, and the soup pretty enjoyable itself.

Apart from a really angered diner who ruined our lunch time there with his insanely loud and scary voice, Han Ah Rum is not bad, and i might just consider returning for the grilled meats from the a la carte menu.

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  about $70pp at lunch.
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We've been planning this lunch for sometime and were excited seeing that it had received great reviews since its opening. The place is one of the newer restaurants of the Miramar Group and certainly excels in the ambience department.

We were given the lunch menu upon seating (no a la carte during lunch) and there was two options for starters and six for mains. The last course may be either a coffee/tea or dessert of the day.

I had the salad bar to start (for an extra $30) and apart from the house-made ricotta with caramelized balsamic shallots, nothing else was particularly great.

Between the six of us we sampled four of the lunch options (Anchovy pizza ($88), Roast stuffed chicken leg ($108), Poached Halibut ($128) and a chesnut flour fettuccine with yogurt truffle sauce ($148)). The pizza was the cracker kind, and when the became cold the cheese was rubber-like. The chicken definitely carried that frozen flavour, despite being tender and sufficiently moist. The cheese and ham inside made it essentially a chicken cordon bleu - a French rather than Italian dish. The fish could've been any white fish, over-poached and bland. The mediterranean component was a tomato sauce but was again watery and bland. And the plating was...unbelievably bad for a restaurant who holds itself out as being gourmet. Lastly, the truffle sauced fettuccine looked horrendous, and the pasta way too thick to be enjoyable - why use a chesnut flour if it doesn't impart any particular flavour?

To end the dessert of the day was a scoop of chocolate ice cream with an apple strudel.... Again, not sure how this is italian but at least it was enjoyable with the flaky filo pastry top and the moist apples and currants inside. The coffee option is also not bad.

So there our meal ended not too bad but this meal really disappointed. I'd say 70% of what you pay goes to rent and 30% for the quality of food - from the frozen proteins to the poor execution and limited options at lunch.

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  $175 at lunch
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I have heard through friends that BRAT does actually produce some awesome sausages. At around $100 per hot dog, this is no means cheap, but these gourmet sausages really are different.

Without the buns, two sausages with a side of potato chips, a condiment (we chose jalapenos) and a mustard to dip is around $140. We picked the Italian and the Vegetarian Italian to contrast and, for the sake of trying a vegetarian sausage. (note we were here for an afternoon snack after a 6-course lunch so buns were out of the question)

Whilst the real pork Italian sausage was juicy and everything you want a sausage to be, the vegetarian Italian (using gluten) had a really odd texture and wasn't too great.

Take-away fares much better value, if you know how to pan-fry some sausages - 5 for $200 is very reasonable by comparison - and I'd much rather do this as there's about 15 sausages to sample at BRAT!

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  About $75pp
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We visited La'taste for dinner one night. My last visit last year proved nothing too special but I wanted to give them another go. The Assorted Pho ($49) has chicken, beef shin and raw beef - the broth was pretty hearty and was better than I had last time as I recall. It was mildly beefy, not too salty and comforting. with a little chili and lime I was good to go. The noodles were not too soft and I liked the assorted toppings. My only gripe was that there was very little protein and the rare beef was put underneath the noodles so by the time the bowl arrived it was fully cooked!

Beef brisket curry pot ($62) with a side of rice ($12) was also another comforting dish. The curry is mild, and reminds me of the Hong Kong styled curries you get in places such as Tsui Wah. The beef brisket and tendon were amazingly tender (no effort required to chew), but the rice fell short as the grains were of different size and was way too soft.

The Viet style fried cambodian noodles ($68) was easily adapted to Vegetarian for my friend (no chicken, vietnamese sausage or shrimp) but with egg and vegetables. A little on the expensive side, but he was happy with it. The first bite reminded me strongly of Maggi seasoning sauce, and although I wonder how 'authentic' this dish can be it was again pretty good.

As long as your expectations aren't of authentic Vietnamese but simply just good-tasting food, La'Taste can be great. Service could definitely improve though. None of the waitresses looked like they wanted to be there.

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  About $75pp for dinner.
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On a Sunday 3pm this place was still brimming with diners. We were quickly seated and I had the all-day set (scrambled eggs, ham, un-toasted buttered bread, macaroni with bbq pork) with Iced coffee. The scrambled eggs were smooth and soft, and on top of the un-toasted bread it was soft-on-soft and satisfying. If you like a textural contrast, have it toasted. The macaroni was nothing special but of course it's just a filler. The iced coffee is worth mentioning, seeing that we agreed that my drink was better than the milk tea my friends were having. It was sweet, but strong and smooth, reminding me of the Nestle Gold a little.

The corned beef sandwich is great, possibly my favourite item here and better than the plain scrambled egg one, as the beef lends a little saltiness.

For dessert I prefer the milk custard - just set so as you slurp it in it disintegrates in your mouth easily. The egg custard is set a little harder, and tastes more eggy, good in its own way, but for those who like milk-flavoured sweets will probably prefer the milk custard.

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  About $45pp
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We were here for tea and to go with our coffee/tea, we picked a couple sweet treats.

Or Noir ($36)- chocolate songe with white and dark chocolate mousse, and cointreu and crispy surprise. The layers were distinct, crispy but insanely dense feuillantine base, a layer of dark chocolate mousse, a thicker layer of white chocolate mousse and a tiny round of liquor-infused sponge. Overall however, not too sweet, just insanely rich for me.

Matcha-Azuki ($32) - Black sesame cake, crispy almond heart, green tea cream. This must be the oddest cupcake I've had. Not only was the overall cake not too sweet, the black sesame base was...salty, more so than sweet. With the name as matcha-azuki, we naturally expected there to be a good dose of red bean but there wasn't. The green tea buttercream was good, it was only slightly sweet and you could taste the subtle green tea flavour.

For a place to chat or use wifi for a while Coco is not bad, I just hope the other cakes which I have yet to try are better.

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  $90 for a drink + cake.
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My meal at Pierre involved great service and food that was somewhat fund but taste-wise fell a little short.

As amuse-bouches we received many tiny dishes, but whilst the amuses were definitely quirky and fun they failed to please the palate... save for a couple the others were just lacking substance - the fried tiny clams were soggy, the second amuse with banana on seafood and cream was simply not a good match.

I went a la carte and for my first course i had the "lobster and murex" ($690), which was split into three different dishes.
On plate one, down the middle was a blue lobster salad with ginger, aloe, walnuts, cebette, lime and olive oil. On the right was a lobster consomme jelly and on the left was a cream cheese-yogurt sauce. Although each component was tasty on its own right when put together it was surprisingly fantastic and refreshing. The lobster was so sweet and perfectly cooked as well. On the side with this first dish was their lime, ginger, aloe, olive oil, walnut 'salad'.

Second was lobster quenelle in zezette broth (part 2): light and fluffy quenelle of lobster and egg white in a rich bisque-like sauce.... yum! That sauce was strong in lobster and would definitely make an awesome soup.

Third was lobster enrobed in bisque with shiso leaf, and carrot underneath: llast component of the lobster course was this. Again, the lobster meat was sweet and the carrot puree was a great match.

Before our mains we received a rose champagne granita with pink grapefruit, limed celery and cucumber, burrata: This palate cleanser was refreshing but the burrata cheese was a little misplaced in the sweet and tart icy granita.

Veal Fillet with Foie Gras on squid rings, red pepper sauce ($680): My second /main course was veal fillet with foie gras on squid rings - everything was perfectly cooked, though i personally didn't like the soft foie on tender meat... lose the foie and it would've been a perfect 'surf and turf' dish.

Eggplant ratatouille was one of the sides which came with the veal; and morels and shallot in cream sauce was the other. Although potatoes were originally accompanying the veal, i asked for something else to substitute the (only) starch i detest. So in place of the spuds i received lovely morels in a earthy creamy sauce, in a pretty glass bowl. Morels are a pretty rare find in Hong Kong so the substitution was a nice surprise.

Lastly, I skipped the dessert menu and instead shared Pierre's Grand Dessert Platter with my brother who had ordered the Tasting Menu. There were two rounds of small plates of desserts. From the first one round I only enjoyed the lemon meringue which used jellies, meringue for a tangy delight. From the second I really liked the rich chocolate mousse with crispy dark chocolate curls on top. The other desserts were odd and just not satisfying like desserts should be.

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  About $1000-1600pp without drinks.
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On a Monday lunch hour Doppio Zero was quite empty. It was blazing hot outside and the first thing we ordered were two icy cold drinks, for me, an iced coffee that was actually quite delicious and for K, a lime soda. We then started to go through the lunch options and decided on the following:

"Fritti"
This dish had assorted battered seafood, including shrimps, calamari and a piece of sole fish. The seafood were all perfectly cooked on the inside and on the outside, a crunchy light batter. The green sauce is a malt vinegar and parsley dip, quite pleasant in its own right. If only this dish were my main I would've left a happy happy customer...

"insalata"
With red onions, fennel, mixed greens in a lemon-parmigiano dressing.

"Ricotta Gnochetti, Caprese" ($125)
with basil, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella slices
This dish was pretty disappointing. The gnochetti were so soft they required no biting or chewing whatsoever. K, who had this before, tried it and agreed it was softer than the one on her last visit. The sauce was bland, mostly tasting of mild cheese (mozzarella) and mild olive oil, and there were hardly any fresh tomato flavour to resemble the caprese salad. Without any acidity, the dish just felt too heavy...

"parpadelle, verdura"($125)
with grilled vegetable cherry tomatoes and supposedly ricotta salata, but it looked more like grated mozzarella...
I had a little to try of K's pasta - whilst much better than mine, the pasta itself was so wide and thick it was clumsy to eat, though the grilled vegetables were nice.

Without the lunch rush that many other restaurants get, I do think the pastas should've been well-executed. Generally though, I do think they could improve on their home-made pastas.

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  About $140pp at lunch.
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On a saturday Sushi Hiro was packed full of diners. From the lunch menu, I picked the 16-pc sushi set because the 9-pcs set had a lack of options and the fishes weren't the more premium ones.
With the exception of the salmon (cut badly) and the yellowtail (not fresh), the other seafood was reasonably fresh (for lunch) and some even sweet. The rice under is a fairly small lump of rice compared to the other sushi lunches i've had (sushi kuu, saikou, tenzen) but rightly so, since 16 pieces of sushi is not an easy feat. no i wasn't able to finish even with the others, but i tried...!

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  About $360 at lunch
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I arrived to find a mini queue to be seated even though there were clearly empty spaces inside. That was ok I thought, maybe they're just not used to crowds just yet. Soon enough, we were seated and gave in our form in which we specified our order: Two white hide (orig tonkatsu) ($75) with lean(er) char siu (thin pork loin), 'hard' noodles plus an additional soft-boiled egg for $10 ($5 for half of one).

My friend L got particularly frustrated with the efficiency of serving of the noodles. Ramen joints, she says, are supposed to be speedy. Here, they took their time indeed, and our noodles came more than 15 minutes after being seated. Time issues I was willing to overlook...

Our bowls of white hide came with relatively thin wheat noodles, chopped wood-ear mushrooms, spring onions, char siu and our order of egg in a Kyushu-style (or so they call it) tonkatsu broth.

Rather than milky-white, the broth was rather dark.. grey almost, with a thin film of fat. Looks aside it had a very strong pork flavour to it, but not too salty or so strong that I couldn't drink, like my recent MSG/salt-laden version at Butao.

The noodles were floury white, though I could detect a fair amount of kansui like the ones at Yachiyo. They were slightly hard as they arrived but because of the thinness of the noodles they quickly soaked up the broth and about half way through they were officially soft. Not bad, but I prefer slightly thicker noodles - the ones here were thinner than Butao and Ippei-An which both serve the white floury type ramen.

The toppings were fair, but the amounts were relatively stingy. A bowl of ramen itself does not include any eggs, just a couple thin slices of char siu that was tender enough. Our added egg (well, half for L because they messed up her order) was perfectly cooked, albeit lacking the sweet and salty taste marinated eggs usually have on the outside.

We left very full, but not quite satisfied... our quest for the perfect bowl (in HK) will have to continue... With time, I hope Hide-Chan improves because they seemed under-trained (if at all) for a ramen joint in terms of speed and service.

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  About $80pp at lunch
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Isola is always full.... given the harbour view and the fact that its in IFC, there's no doubt why it shouldn't be. I finally got the chance to try out Isola but was quite underwhelmed with our dinner.

There were five varieties in the basket, and though we couldn't finish we were asked if we wanted a refill...of course, we wanted to save ourselves for the mains so we declined. On the left is a pot of pumpkin spread, and since I love pumpkin anything I quite enjoyed it.

Prosciutto, rucola e scaglie di parmigiano ($198): Parma ham, diced tomatoes, mozzarella, arugula and parmigiano on a thin crispy base, which tasted a lot like crackers. The dressing of the pizza did however mean by the time it arrived it was cold, and the once melted cheese was no longer stringy. Whilst I appreciated the generous portion of parma, part of me was missing the yeasty flavour from thi-crust Roman base pizzas. That said, the cracker base at Isola is not bad, its just a personal preference thing. I think the popularity of this pizza comes from the fact that they do use very fresh ingredients, from the shaved parmesan to the finely chopped tomatoes.

Homemade Square Spaghetti with Sicilian Red Plums, Shrimps Zucchini in Cherry Tomato Sauce ($248): This item was on their specials menu and it sounded good so we thought we'd try it. To our disappointment the house-made pasta was square shaped all right, but the dough was so dense the pasta after cooking was almost 'hard'... not in an undercooked kind of way... it was edible, just not very pleasant. The shrimps were tiny, not fresh at all, and the zucchini was sliced so thin and small you could hardly taste it under the tomato sauce. The only redeeming quality was the fresh and rich tomato sauce, but this you can get in a lot of restaurants.

This experience was sort of a blow to my expectations. Although the parma pizza was quite good, at the price they charge, I think I'll go to elsewhere for a yummy well-executed pasta.

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  About $300pp without drinks, for dinner.
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Summer in Hong Kong really is ridiculous. If its not raining, its blazing hot and this day was no different. It had been raining during the day, so at night there was a period of clear air and skies. During this period, we visited the older Kwan Kee at Wo Yick Mansion near Centre St to find a mini queue, and without thinking twice we trekked over to Kwan Kee on Des Voeux Road to find ourselves being seated at their last available table.

The second branch is noticeably larger with better air-conditioning - much more suited for a summer day!

To begin with, a hearty tureen of tofu and fish soup with mushrooms and baby bok choy ($45): The stock was great - mildly sweet from the fish and very homey, comforting. Soups like this take hours to make and so I really love ordering Chinese soups when I know theres a good one. We had bowls after bowls of this whilst we awaited our claypot rices and this was only possible because of its lack strong seasoning (read: MSG) and salt. My only issue was that the vegetables and mushrooms were far too crunchy - undercooked as my guess is they\'re only added to the soup after each order.

white eel on claypot rice ($55): Clear favourite of the night - this white eel had little bones and the sauce on the eel was so delicious we were raving about this one. The hint of chilli, the black beans, the chopped spring onions worked together very well in this beauty of a dish. Not to be forgotten was the rice. It was hard to pick whether the rice or the eel was the star, but I'd go for the former for sure. The grains had been cooked with less water in them so they had a bite and the crust at the bottom was only lightly golden but still very crunchy/crisp with a slight chew. The rice had been flavoured by the eel and sauce on top (of course, you need to mix it a little), and was great without the addition of soy sauce. Definitely a must-try!

chinese mushrooms and chicken on claypot rice ($55): As we sampled this after the white eel one, this fell short in comparison. Have some water / liquid between and you will taste the really fresh chicken with a hint of ginger. The sweet soy accompanying the dish added a sweet-salty flavour to the otherwise barely seasoned toppings. The rice and bottom crust was just as good as the eel claypot - that's quality control for you.

spinach in their homemade milky white fish stock, fried garlic ($40): to round off our meal some very fresh spinach in their addictive milky-white broth. So good that a man on the table nearby asked for a full bowl of it to drink on its own.

So there - for me, this restaurant is one of the best i've sampled in the Western District. The long menu makes your every visit different, never boring, and only repetitive if you want it to be. I eyed the stir-fried prawns on the table next to us and made a mental note to try that next time!

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  $75 pp at dinner
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I've been to the one in Harbour City before, but never to this one, a much older branch. Whilst the Harbour City one disappointed, I enjoyed the food here.

For our lunch, we started off with a Pineapple slush and a lime soda to cool off from the summer heat.

There are oddly no lunch sets, so we ordered a la carte. We picked the shrimp summer rolls, the fried spring rolls, chicken cabbage salad and a raw beef pho to share.

The summer rolls were decently wrapped, had fresh ingredients and were light and enjoyable. The spring rolls, wrapped inside a crunchy lettuce leaf and basil leaves were tasty too - there are minced pork and shrimp inside, and the sweet chilli dip (nuoc cham) is a perfect compliment.

The chicken salad had plenty of ingredients, from radish, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers and shredded chicken meat in their nuoc cham and topped with crunch peanuts is one of my favourite salads.

Lastly, the pho was of a decent size, with thinner flat rice noodles than the chinese breed, and the beef was tender and just-cooked when pushed under the broth.

All in all, a decent place for Vietnamese food... and despite it being quite expensive compared to the other Vietnamese restaurants around town, its comparatively more hygienic, has better ambience and probably better food.

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  About $150pp for lunch.
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Note that this lunch took part last December, 2010.

It was near Christmas and the menu was a little different from usual. I like restaurants which change their menu often, to keep diners surprised. The lunch menu didn't have a lot of choices, and the menu could be more 'fun' if you will, but then again if each one is well-executed, who am i to complain??

Our bread basket quickly arrived upon ordering. very generous selection, I particularly enjoyed the grissini and the (sun-dried?) tomato-flavoured rolls (orange ones). The balsamic and olive oil that were poured for us were also great...the thick and luscious sweet vinegar - i loved! A dip came with the bread basket, and we noticed that each table received different dips. I suspect this was their take on a baba ganoush, but the eggplant was hardly seasoned the whole dip was almost tasteless....

my first plate from the antipasti buffet included some seared tuna, grilled eggplant and squash, sauteed wild mushrooms, salad greens and a cucumber salad that was pre-dressed. Surprisingly, all the items were good, taste and quality wise. I happily polished a second plate of goodies from the buffet.

Then to our mains - "Hand-made taglierini with cauliflower ragout, anchovies and pecorino" - the dish tasted incredibly light and healthy, not really what I'd like if I were ordering pasta but this was M's choice. Home-made pasta does not necessarily mean it is better than dried varieties, and I actually don't see anything wrong with using dried pastas, unless its a filled-pasta like ravioli. Having said that, I equally don't mind hand-made varieties so long as they retain a bite to them, or is 'al dente'. W52's did not disappoint in this matter, and I would happily return to try out their other pasta selections.... This particular dish was studded with cauliflower and the anchovies and pecorino were too subtle, which resulted in the above-mentioned too-light-a-flavour.

I had the "Roast stuffed turkey with almonds and pomegranate" - This was a turkey roulade served with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. It was only two days till Christmas so I'm guessing this was put on the menu in light of the holidays. I love turkey and for some unknown reason this protein is harder to find in Hong Kong than, say in the US, so I went for it.
This roll of turkey was half-white and half-dark meat, and rolled together with the roasted skin as the wrap. On top were some pomegranate seeds which didn't make much sense for me though I didn't mind them as a bit of textural difference. The meat was seasoned, so it was very flavourful and most importantly, moist. Now only if the skin was crispy.... The cranberry was studded with whole cranberries, and was very sour/tart which was quite nice together with the turkey if you like that sort of combination.

On our shared dessert plate: tiramisu, pear tart, profiterole, choux, blueberry cheesecake, two raspberry mille-feuilles, chocolate tort, bread pudding and a creme brulee.
All desserts are laid out next to the anti pasti buffet table, and the spread looked appetizing enough, so M and I decided we'd try out most of the choices - I think we had everything except for a strawberry panna cotta and fruits?
Anyway, most of their desserts were surprisingly acceptable. I particularly liked the tiramisu, choux pastry and bread pudding. The chocolate torte was hardly chocolatey enough and was quite dry... Others, like the creme brulee and profiteroles were enjoyable enough.

W52 serves pretty good antipasti for a lunch buffet style, and upon a recent re-visit to Bistecca (which had deteriorated a lot in quality and disappointing to say the least) I can definitely say I'd much rather come back here.

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  About $200-$250 for lunch
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Isola is always full.... given the harbour view and the fact that its in IFC, there's no doubt why it shouldn't be. I finally got the chance to try out Isola but was quite underwhelmed with our dinner.

bread basket: There were five varieties in the basket, and though we couldn't finish we were asked if we wanted a refill...of course, we wanted to save ourselves for the mains so we declined. On the left is a pot of pumpkin spread, and since I love pumpkin anything I quite enjoyed it.

Prosciutto, rucola e scaglie di parmigiano ($198): Parma ham, diced tomatoes, mozzarella, arugula and parmigiano on a thin crispy base, which tasted a lot like crackers. The dressing of the pizza did however mean by the time it arrived it was cold, and the once melted cheese was no longer stringy. Whilst I appreciated the generous portion of parma, part of me was missing the yeasty flavour from thi-crust Roman base pizzas. That said, the cracker base at Isola is not bad, its just a personal preference thing. I think the popularity of this pizza comes from the fact that they do use very fresh ingredients, from the shaved parmesan to the finely chopped tomatoes.

Homemade Square Spaghetti with Sicilian Red Plums, Shrimps Zucchini in Cherry Tomato Sauce ($248): This item was on their specials menu and it sounded good so we thought we'd try it. To our disappointment the house-made pasta was square shaped all right, but the dough was so dense the pasta after cooking was almost 'hard'... not in an undercooked kind of way... it was edible, just not very pleasant. The shrimps were tiny, not fresh at all, and the zucchini was sliced so thin and small you could hardly taste it under the tomato sauce. The only redeeming quality was the fresh and rich tomato sauce, but this you can get in a lot of restaurants.

This experience was sort of a blow to my expectations. Although the parma pizza was quite good, at the price they charge, I think I'll go to elsewhere for a yummy well-executed pasta.

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  About $250pp at dinner
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Whilst the lunch set option entails underwhelming food, dinner fares much better.
We started our meal with "Porcini mushroom flatbread" ($148) which was essentially a mini-pizza, with a crispy and cracker-like base. on top was finely diced porcini mushroom, sauteed diced onions and a touch of truffle oil which made everything smell very earthy and delicious. the taleggio cheese on top was just melted but the way it spread made it look not-so-appetizing.

Before talking about the pastas, the "Dutch Veal Chop" (10oz) ($428)
served with a red wine sauce, half bulb of garlic, vine tomato and grilled quartered onion - was simple but very good. The veal chop was cooked to a perfect pink on the inside, and extremely tender. the garlic was fragrant and the red wine sauce was unnecessary as the piece of meat was seasoned already.

The first pasta we tried was the "Italian Wild Boar Ragout Tagliatelle" ($288) - im not sure why it's now called ragout (french) instead of ragu (italian) since the price hike, but anyway this was our favourite dish of the night. the tagliatelle held the rich minced boar bolognese very well, and the bolognese itself was seasoned perfectly - not at all salty and you could taste the meat. the egg on top i presume is slow-cooked to achieve the runny yolk and just-coagulated egg white, which, when mixed with the pasta gave it another layer of richness.

Next, the Lobster spaghetti ($338) - this could have won my heart as i love lobster and tomato-based sauces, but tonight the spaghetti was over-cooked so it lost its bite, and if i'm to be picky the rich tomato sauce was on the salty side. nonetheless, it was still a very good dish, especially with the lobster cooked to medium giving it a slippery texture which i haven't had the pleasure of having since last year at the Derby Restaurant.

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  About $400pp at dinner
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Liberty Exchange (LEX for convenience)'s chef had just changed, and the kitchen no longer head by Makoto Ono but Vicky Cheng.

To start our meal off, our bread plate was a little sad, but it came with e.v.o.o and a cumin/sesame/salt mixture to dip which was quite interesting...

Next we shared a couple "eight hour french onion soup" ($72) with blended gruyere and white cheddar. The soup was sweet from the lengthy hours of cooking, this soup was a thick and hearty soup from the abundance of caramelized onions with bread and melted cheese. our first one was a try-out but it was good so we had another.

The "broiled maso black cod" ($198) was a fillet in maple syrup and miso marinade, served with ginger glazed bok choy and edamame croquette. This piece of cod was perfectly cooked, and from the flakes you could tell the fish was of a decent size. The miso and maple came through but neither overpowering. and the edamame croquette was brightly green on the inside albeit blended with mashed potatoes, crispy and yum.

Our other main was the "USDA Meyers Natural Striploin" ($275) with smoked onions, sauteed mushrooms, truffle butter and potato puree.
No scent or taste of truffles were present, but the mushrooms were good albeit on the salty end. the steak was served medium, but hardly as tender as i hoped. perhaps the burger we saw so many others having would've been a better choice? ahhhh sous-vide steak, where are you?

Lastly, we had the "Short Ribs" ($208) (though this dish is now served slightly differently):red wine braised, LEX slaw, scallion horseradish potato salad, house made bbq sauce. The cut three pieces is more diner-friendly than its older generation of serving on the bone. The crispy meat on the outside was a nice contrast to the tender meat inside. The bbq sauce was sweet but not quite as smokey as i hoped. nonetheless the meat was great with or without the sauce.

For drinks I had the Chill Pill which was super-strong, seeing that there was a double shot of patron tequila (in different flavours).

overall I quite liked LEX and definitely will be back to try the burger soon.

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  $250pp not including drinks for dinner.
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I've been here numerous times since their opening, and will briefly talk about the dishes I particularly liked and the dishes which I didn't like so much.
On my last visit, we had shared the vegetarian spinach and ricotta cannelloni which was surprisingly much lighter than I expected, with a tangy red tomato sauce on top.

Lamb Shank ($140) is another main which, if you're a meat-eater, should try. The shank was braised till sufficiently tender and the sauce it sat in was wholesome, though more of a winter than summer dish this is.

One of the salads I really enjoyed is the pesto chicken salad, as the greens are fresh and the chicken really tender. The portobello and pumpkin salad is also good, though a little on the heavy side for a salad.

Also not to be missed is the pork belly lollipops, with a thin crispy crackling on sat on roast pork belly meat, then served in skewers. Served with a hoisin sauce, it's basically our Chinese roast pork with a twist (we normally use mustard or leave it plain!).

The blue swimmer crab lasagne with a creamy abalone sauce is fishy, but tasty in its own right. Although the pasta was slightly too soft the spinach and crab and sauce worked together quite nicely.

Last but not least, what I did not like were the pizza crusts - hard as rock and not quite thin enough to give you a clean crisp bite. The mediterranean vegetable risotto was not too great either - rice and vegetables were overcooked and flavour on the bland side.

The strawberry pavlova looked splendid but failed the taste test too - there were crystalized sugar particles inbetween the meringue, no where near Jaspas' version as I recall it... The one dessert I did like - deconstructed s'mores - was no longer on their menu the last time I went...

All in all, Oolaa is very affordable, pretty restaurant that can accomodate large or small groups. Personally, I would stick to the savouries and stay away from pizzas and desserts, though, of course, this may change with time.

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Having the urge for good sushi / sashimi, I came here with my brother for lunch. We began our meal with a small salad (mash potatoes on top?!), steamed egg custard with a sauce on top (super smooth, flavourful and chock full of ingredients), and some stewed spinach/tofu appetiser.

Our sets that day were the 10-piece assorted sushi set ($180) and the Assorted Sashimi Rice Bowl ($280). Regards to the sushi set, except the oxidised lean tuna, the others were fresh and the sushi rice loosely packed to disintegrate in the mouth with ease.

The Assorted sashimi rice bowl arrived locking splendidly huge and enticing. The quality of the raw seafood were good, from the sweet shrimp to the raw chu-toro. The rice underneath was unbelievably tightly packed, seasoned well but simply just way too much!

Our meal ended with a light sake jelly with red bayberry, which was quite refreshing. Would return just for that sashimi rice bowl.

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  $250pp for lunch
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At the time of writing this review, I've been to Linguini Fini more than a handful of times. I believe this is the only restaurant in town I've been religiously visiting and recommending to all my friends because of the super-great service, delicious food and reasonable prices hard to beat.

For starters, the straccetti di manzo (rare beef with gorgonzola cheese and anchovy aioli) is my favourite and I would recommend to all meat-eaters.

Of all the pastas I've had on their menu the mushroom fettucini and the fazzoletti with a bolognese sauce using the whole of the pig are my current favourite. The mushrooms are wholesome and insanely delicious, and the fazzoletti is like a much lighter version of my childhood favourite lasagne.

From the mains I've only tried the hangar steak and the roast chicken. The former was nicely charred and the meat itself tender despite the lean cut. The latter had moist meat, even the breast part, and had crispy fragrant skin on the outside.

For desserts, the twist on the s'mores cookie - the chocolate affogato is sinful but satisfying for chocoholics, especially as the hot chocolate espresso is poured on top of the chocolate disk and marshmallow gelato, and I also recommend the tiramisu which is a deconstructed version which includes a scoop of gelato.

I don't know what else to add but I'll say that service is always excelling no matter a first-timer or a regular...

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  $100pp at lunch, $150-300pp at dinner with drinks
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At the time of writing this review, I've been to Linguini Fini more than a handful of times. I believe this is the only restaurant in town I've been religiously visiting and recommending to all my friends because of the super-great service, delicious food and reasonable prices hard to beat.

For starters, the straccetti di manzo (rare beef with gorgonzola cheese and anchovy aioli) is my favourite and I would recommend to all meat-eaters.

Of all the pastas I've had on their menu the mushroom fettucini and the fazzoletti with a bolognese sauce using the whole of the pig are my current favourite. The mushrooms are wholesome and insanely delicious, and the fazzoletti is like a much lighter version of my childhood favourite lasagne.

From the mains I've only tried the hangar steak and the roast chicken. The former was nicely charred and the meat itself tender despite the lean cut. The latter had moist meat, even the breast part, and had crispy fragrant skin on the outside.

For desserts, the twist on the s'mores cookie - the chocolate affogato is sinful but satisfying for chocoholics, especially as the hot chocolate espresso is poured on top of the chocolate disk and marshmallow gelato, and I also recommend the tiramisu which is a deconstructed version which includes a scoop of gelato.

I don't know what else to add but I'll say that service is always excelling no matter a first-timer or a regular...

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Having heard Cantopop's menu had changed (quite drastically I must say), I was back to try the items that I hadn't yet tried (e.g. the much talked-about Sous-vide char siu rice) and the other newer items. We proceeded to order up a storm...

Sous vide charsiu and fried egg on rice ($68)
As with most sous-vide proteins, the texture of the pork was unbelievably tender. The Charsiu here is generally quite lean, though lacking in the roasted sweet and salty flavour of good char siu. Whilst it is hard to replicate that flavour by just searing / torching the meat after, I think a sweet-salty sauce could've made up for the light marinade. I must add though, the famous 金華燒臘麵家 around the corner doesn't do much (if any) better.

Beef Brisket Noodles In Soup ($68)
My personal favourite from the items we sampled on this visit. The brisket was tender and beefy. The radishes were soft. The soup very subtle but comforting. The home-made noodles are more like pasta, but I made sure to ask them to cook them less so they retained a bite.

Pork Chop Cutlet Piggy Bun ($38)
This was everyone else's favourite. The pork cutlet was well fried, and served on the best buttered buns ever. I believe I told a friend I wished everyone served their burgers in these buns! Think the Japanese-like curry sauce and pork cutlet combination would definitely be a winner for me.

Minced Beef and Spa Egg on Rice ($58)
More sauce than meat. Don't think i've seen this version anywhere. There was so little meat all I could taste was the cornstarch-thickened sauce... and the spa egg was slightly overcooked - the yolk was pasty rather than runny, nothing like the one I had in my chicken and spa egg noodle on a previous visit.

Curry Luncheon Meat Bun ($58)
For me, this dish was great - the spicy curry sauce worked well with the soft pork patty, and of course, there's that bun I like so much. I don't like Spam anyway so this much less saltier and processed version of a meat patty suited me. But because they call it homemade luncheon meat my friends undoubtedly made a comparison to Spam... and it was just not the same.

Yin Yang Cino ($18)
My friend had the milk tea cino (unpictured) which according to her wasn't smooth enough. My yin yang was good enough, we could taste the milk tea and coffee in it and was more enjoyable.

A few hiccups here and there with food and service but generally good and definitely has potential to be better - food here is probably better for your body than your local cha chaan teng anyway!

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  About $90pp at lunch
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In recent years the LKF Hotel (Wyndham St one) has added more quality restaurants to their building. They also house Lily & Bloom, Gold by Harlan Goldstein and the more recently opened Hardrock Cafe. On the 7th floor sits Opus Grill, a steakhouse which also serves up other classics (think lobster risotto and pork ribs) with their own twist. However, tonight, we were determined to attack the possibly most expensive burger in town.

"bread basket": Both types (brown and raisin walnut) were warm and soft)

"Opus Appetizer sampler" ($298): Fit for two, this sampler had (from the right) Jamón Ibérico Bruschetta, Cornflake Crusted Scallop, Prawn Cocktail and Foie Gras. The prawns were huge and really fresh - the cocktail sauce on the side had a good balanced tang.

Sadly there was only a piece of scallop between us two - they cornflake crust was crunchy and the scallops perfectly cooked underneath.

Thin crispy baguette with diced tomato and 24-month aged ham with a drizzle of sweet balsamic. Probably my second favourite item next to the scallops!

The apple grapefruit jam on the bottom was way too bitter/sour for me but the foie gras was well-executed, soft inside and a slight crisp from the pan on the outside. My foie-gras loving fried E thought the foie gras was excellent and didn't mind the jam with it either. The ring it sits in is a sauternes reduction which gave it some sweetness to counteract its potentially rich texture.

Before our main, we were given some pink grapefruit granita into cleanse our palates.....

Then came the "Monopole Burger" ($350): The burger itself: toasted olive and rosemary bread, a 9-oz patty made from rib-eye and NY Strip and melted swiss and gruyere and crisp lettuce inside. On the side are the crunchiest onion rings and potato fries I've had in a while...

We asked for medium but it was overcooked by a little. The beef was really lean indeed, perhaps a little too lean because it had a bite. However, unlike any other burger I've had, it was madly beefy in flavour and the 'minced' pieces were not like completely ground but you could see the tiny pieces of beef adhered together. We were warned by our waiter that we shouldn't expect a normal burger and we agreed.

The onion rings definitely deserve a mention - they were brown and crisp on the outside, the onion on the inside extremely tender..... loved these onion rings!!

The question then is.... was the burger worth its price tag? Sadly, no it wasn't. The elements were good quality but overall could not justify the $350 price. You can buy the Monopole patty raw for

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  About $400pp at dinner
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Since its opening, Loyal Dining has received copious press attention and visitation from diners who wish see what the fuss is all about. Hell, even my mother wanted to come here to try. My first visit was lunch with a friend, and later I returned for dinner with family to try more dishes before I could decide whether I liked the place or not.




Lunch menu


snap of a page of the a la carte menu

Dim Sum with the set ($78)
We chose shrimp dumplings (har gow), pork and shrimp roe siu mai (not pictured, because they got our order wrong and they exchanged the two vegetarian dumplings eventually), and spinach dumplings. Our favourite was the spinach dumplings because of its slippery tasty filling, but sadly all the skins were way over-steamed.

With the lunch set we chose a conpoy and egg white fried rice (the other option being fried noodles with soy sauce) and we were glad we did because the fried rice was damn tasty. Grains were fluffy and separated, not too oily and perfectly seasoned.

From the a la carte menu, we ordered a "baked lobster and seafood with fried rice" ($138) without looking at the Chinese translation (yin-yang rice) which did not match its english counterpart in my opinion. We both expected something like the picture on the menu, but ours was sadly nothing like it. With wet fried rice as the base, the top was covered with two types of sauces, a red and a white, and with assorted small pieces of seafood scattered over. We managed to find a single lobster piece, about the size of my pinky. Needless to say we were pretty disappointed with this rice dish that they so-called their 'signature'.

About a week later I was back for dinner with the family. We were six and hungry and ordered up a storm. We shared various dinner sets and a la carte items, so the following descriptions might seem confusing but I'll try my best!

Daily Chinese soup ($28)
Whilst it felt quite healthy my issue with it was its size and lack of heat - it was luke warm at most.

Russian Borsch Soup (comes with the "Sizzling Set" ($158-188)

66 Beef Wellington ($188)

This 'sizzling' comes from the sauce being poured onto the hot plate and the noise that comes with. No, its not dangerous because its not so hot that it splatters, but just enough for theatrical purposes.


Cross section of our wellington
We were happy with the tender fillet inside, but the pastry sadly fell short. To go with our wellington was a small bowl of rice and some sauteed vegetables and a sauce of your choice - we chose the black pepper gravy.

rice with the Sizzling Set

Another set we chose was the Pigeon Set for Two ($328) With this you get an option to start with soup or Caesar salad, a half dozen of baked escargots, two kinds of pigeon - crispy deep-fried and simmered in soy sauce, and a small plate of stir-fried greens.

Caesar salad
Apart from the fake bacon crisps the romaine leaves were crisp, clean and very fresh.

Baked Escargots on Mash
These were tiny tiny snails, but very tender, quite nice.

Crispy Pigeon Winglet
We were so excited to try we must've forgotten to take a picture of the whole dish. The two kinds were mixed up into one dish with extra sweet dark soy on the side, but when you taste it, the deep-fried crispy one was the clear winner for me. The meat was also very tender, even the breast part, and had a slight gamey taste which I really like about pigeons. Definitely would recommend the crispy one if you're going a la carte!
A third set we ordered was the Baked Crab Meat in Shell and Seafood Set ($178) which came with a puff-pastry covered soup, baked crab shell and a rice option, of either baked garoupa with fried rice and cheese or sauteed prawns with egg and steamed rice.


Baked Fish Chowder with Puff Pastry
This soup was mixed up in the orders and by the time it arrived we were almost done with the meal. The soup was watery and tasteless, the pastry was only brown on the outer most later but soft/soggy underneath. The oven must've been cranked to super-high or something to hasten the cooking times but puff pastry needs time to cook properly. Anyway, this soup was a downright disappointment (as with the other soups, I've noticed).

Baked Crab Meat in Shell
You know, at this price, you'd expect at least half of it crab meat with filler of bread crumbs or sauteed onions, but this was sadly almost 90% filling, including potatoes (arghhhh) and bread crumbs and some thick sauce. Not pleasant at all, especially since all I did taste was potatoes.

Baked Garoupa with Fried Rice and Cheese
This dish was the last to arrive (yes, after our desserts) because it was forgotten. How we wished this had come earlier because it was actually must tastier than the other counterparts of this set. The rice was nicely dry and seasoned, the cheese sauce and garoupa not overcooked and gave it some moisture... I could only manage a spoon or two but I was happy I did try it.

Loyal Fried Flat Noodles with Sliced Beef in Homemade Sweet Soya Sauce ($75)
This was good, slightly too sweet if I'm to be picky, but nothing so great to justify its $75 dollar price tag. Any other cha chaan teng could've executed this dish just as well.

Fried Rice with Black Truffle and Diced Beef Tenderloin ($82)
I ordered this out of curiosity, but was pleasantly surprised. The truffle was actually very fragrant and went well with beef and rice. My only complaint is that there is hardly any beef! And when I did find one I swear it was about 1/2 the size of a HK 10c....

Loyal Thick Toast with Preserved Bean Curd and Caster Sugar ($15)
This turned out to be a bad idea. The preserved bean curd ("fu-yuu") was way too salty. I think if they had spread it more thinly rather than generously as if it were butter it would've been more edible but this was just salt on salt on more salt. The bread was indeed thick and fluffy in the center, and that was the only part I liked about it.

To go with the sets we given jelly with tinned cocktail fruits and served with evaporated milk. Very old school, and the parents were definitely having fun with it.

As a last note, I thought the service had a lot of room for improvement. MIxing up and forgetting orders - it wasn't just us, the tables next to us received similar issues, and slow service generally despite the amount of waiters there was stuffed in one corner... At a restaurant like this I expected more I guess. Hope with time the waiters improve.

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  About $200pp for dinner
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To begin with, a hearty tureen of tofu and fish soup with mushrooms and baby bok choy ($45): The stock was great - mildly sweet from the fish and very homey, comforting. Soups like this take hours to make and so I really love ordering Chinese soups when I know theres a good one. We had bowls after bowls of this whilst we awaited our claypot rices and this was only possible because of its lack strong seasoning (read: MSG) and salt. My only issue was that the vegetables and mushrooms were far too crunchy - undercooked as my guess is they're only added to the soup after each order.

Then arrived the white eel on claypot rice ($55): Clear favourite of the night - this white eel had little bones and the sauce on the eel was so delicious we were raving about this one. The hint of chilli, the black beans, the chopped spring onions worked together very well in this beauty of a dish. Not to be forgotten was the rice. It was hard to pick whether the rice or the eel was the star, but I'd go for the former for sure. The grains had been cooked with less water in them so they had a bite and the crust at the bottom was only lightly golden but still very crunchy/crisp with a slight chew. The rice had been flavoured by the eel and sauce on top (of course, you need to mix it a little), and was great without the addition of soy sauce. Definitely a must-try!

Another claypot rice was the chinese mushrooms and chicken on claypot rice ($55): As we sampled this after the white eel one, this fell short in comparison. Have some water / liquid between and you will taste the really fresh chicken with a hint of ginger. The sweet soy accompanying the dish added a sweet-salty flavour to the otherwise barely seasoned toppings. The rice and bottom crust was just as good as the eel claypot - that's quality control for you.

For a healthy side, spinach in their homemade milky white fish stock, fried garlic ($40): some very fresh spinach in their addictive milky-white broth. So good that a man on the table nearby asked for a full bowl of it to drink on its own.

So there - for me, this restaurant is one of the best i've sampled in the Western District. The long menu makes your every visit different, never boring, and only repetitive if you want it to be. I eyed the stir-fried prawns on the table next to us and made a mental note to try that next time!

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  About $80 pp for dinner
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I've been here several times, and am safe to conclude their western desserts are quite pleasing. I've tried on previous visits, the snowflake ice (not bad), apple pie w/ice cream (could use more apple filling), molten chocolate cake (always a winner), creme brulee (heavenly) and the Chinese fu-jook tong shui (boiled beancurd sticks with egg white) which was the only disappointing item...

Most recently, I had the Hokkaido Souffle and the Oreo Serradura (aka Sawdust Pudding) which is new on their menu (which by the way is now a little cute book!), and both were delicious. The oreo serradura had layers of lightly sweetened fluffy chilled cream, alternated with finely crushed oreo cookie 'sawdust'. The sweetness was perfectly catered for the Asian market - not too sweet!

The Hokkaido souffle takes about 15-20 minutes at least, but it does not fail to impress ever. Always huger than any souffle i've had around town, this is definitely a bargain, and so good. They could start making other flavours too since the single milk flavour is getting a little boring....

All in all, I would recommend the serradurra and souffle, but the absolute must-try here is the creme brulee!

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  $25 for serradura pudding, $35 for soufflé
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After dinner I stopped by with some friends of mine. I sampled a few flavours before making a decision. They had four new summer flavours, and I tried two - "rose and green apple" and "lavender and raspberry" as well as other regular flavours like the chocolate and green tea etc.

We all went for the three mini scoop deals for $35 that meant you could have three flavours in a crunch waffle bowl and toppings (dry toppings available only), and it sounded like a sweet deal so i proceeded to pick my flavours. When i chose rose and green apple as my first, I was told that I'd have to add $10. Thinking it would make my whole total for $45 I didn't mind.... Then I chose green tea and lavender and raspberry as well.... At the cashier, she told me my total was $55! That was definitely unexpected, turns out it was $10 extra for each new flavour swap. So if i had chosen all three new flavours it would've been $65?! on the regular scoop menu, the new flavours are only $2 extra each, which made no sense at all. The poor service and lack of preciseness of their pricing made my visit here go from sweet to sour....

Whilst the flavours were quite extraordinary and a nice contrast to the regular flavours in HK gelato for me, my friends didn't like these newer flavours at all and stuck to the regulars, like black and white sesame or blueberry yogurt etc...

The gelato I must say, is a much better consistency than Holly Brown, and I like their flavours in general more than Pappagallo etc., but they really must re-consider their pricing for those mini scoops....$2 extra for a large and $10 extra for a mini scoop swap really was absurd.

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I have wanted to come here for some time ever since a friend told me their Cantonese food was quite good. Since we had a tourist friend in town it was the perfect excuse to try it out! We came here on a Tuesday night to find the restaurant relatively full, but luckily reservations were made.

I had the honour of deciding what to order that night, and so I went with their signatures, as well as a couple of dishes that were suggested by others.

First was the pigs lung with almond soup ($100 for a tureen), which was a first for most people on the table. The pigs lung soup here is slightly oilier than Luk Yu’s and lacked the strong taste and aroma of almonds which I really liked. It was also less creamy than Luk Yu’s in my opinion. However, for those who don’t like almond tea because of its strong scent, this would’ve been acceptable to the palate.

Next a few of the dishes came together… a lotus leaf rice (i.e. fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf) which was reserved when reservations were made. The rice had some diced chicken, mushrooms etc and was quite flavourful and not as oily as some Chinese restaurants prepare it, but was nothing special.

The sweet and sour pork was my favourite dish this night. They used young ginger (zi-geung) instead of pineapple like Luk Yu, and although the ginger wasn’t half as good (lacked the real punch and crunchiness), the pork and its sauce was so wonderful. The pork was still crispy and crunchy after sitting at our table for some time, and the sauce was really balanced – right levels and sweet and sour which everyone enjoyed.

Pan-fried pomfret fillets was a suggestion of the waiter. There was about 9 small pcs of fish max, and it wasn’t bad but nothing exciting or memorable. The choy-sum sitting beneath was way too undercooked too.

“Zai” (vegetarian claypot dish of assorted vegetables with vermicelli) was also one of the favourites on our table. There wasn’t a lot of sauce, but each piece of ingredient was coated with enough flavour from the fair amount of fermented beancurd (‘fu yu’) used, that spoons of sauce just wasn’t necessary. I particularly liked the big Chinese mushrooms and cabbage, whilst ma loved the vermicelli!

Deep Fried whole Chicken ($290) (‘Za Ji Gai’) was not our first choice, but since we didn’t pre-order their signature salt-baked Chicken we opted for this Chinese restaurant staple instead. Whilst the prawn chips on top were really bad and without flavour at all, the chicken fared a lot better. I loved the crispy thin piece of skin, clearly only possible because they had rendered the fat layer in between the meat and the skin properly. The chicken meat was also really tender, if not slightly bland, but a little Worcestershire sauce helped brighten it up.

Spinach with century and salted eggs was not even close to Luk Yu’s. The small dish only had a little spinach, and most were salted eggs, rather than a half-half of each kind. The broth was not sweet and lightly salted as I had hoped, but the fried garlic was good (and good for one’s health too!).

To end, we had some sweet soups ($28 per bowl). Here they have three choices only on the menu (almond-egg white, walnut and sesame soup), but were told they also had red bean soup (dessert of the day I’m guessing), so we ordered two almonds, two sesames, one walnut and one red bean soup. I had a try of the sesame soup and almond-egg white. Whilst my almond-egg white soup was way too thick and sweet, the sesame soup was acceptable – right sweetness and right consistency. Nonetheless I don’t think the $28 a bowl sweet soups were worthy at all… desserts are clearly not their forte, and you can find better versions at local dessert joints/stores!

With four beers our bill came to just under $1,400. Not cheap, though they do have set dinners which have better deals ($888 for 8 diners?!). Wouldn't mind coming back - esp for the sweet and sour pork!

For photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/hkuaa.html

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  $200pp for dinner
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I made reservations about a week prior to our visit, and was utterly disappointed with the service over the phone. This restaurant is no cha chaan teng (local tea restaurant) or dai pai dong (outdoor Chinese food stalls), and so I expected a little more I guess. When I spoke to the lady over the phone, I asked if I could make a reservation. She then replied with me a \'when? because if it\'s for dinner we are fully booked till next month\'. So I told her I wanted to come for lunch, Thursday, at 11.45. She then said they were full too, and so I asked what time they open? \"11.30 in the morning\". I then hesitated, but asked \"how about 11.30 then, can I have a table for two then?\" She said \"yes, we can do 11.30\". With a reminder that they have a 10 minute wait policy before giving our table away, I thought to myself that was rather b.s., since it was technically 5 minutes apart from my original time plan, plus it was not like the restaurant was prepared to kick us out if we stayed passed 12 or 1pm...or at all! A table free is a table free, if they weren\'t going to do two rounds at lunch hour they should\'ve given me the table regardless of time. \r\n\r\nOkay, phone conversation aside, our service at the restaurant was acceptable. We actually arrived on the dot and were turned away because their kitchen was \"not ready yet\" and give them 5 or so minutes. Say whatt???? \r\n\r\nNow, food! \r\nWe decided we would forgo the signature Hainan and Roast Chicken Rice set, and went for a Bak Kut Teh ($88) (for me) and a Seafood Laksa ($88) (for E). These lunch time \'sets\' come with a drink too - coffee or tea. \r\n\r\nOur sets arrived together, and we tried each other\'s, to see what we liked/disliked. My Bak Kut Teh was most disappointing, since I was expecting something more herbal and peppery with tender ribs... that it not what I got.\r\n\r\nIn my dark red soup there were plenty of wolfberries and dates (and even dried lychees) in this soup to make it way too sweet for Bak Kut Teh and resemble the Chinese herbal soup (for the ladies - \"bo huet\"/help produce more blood). I\'m not saying the soup was bad, I just wasn\'t expecting it to taste so sweet and mask any signs of spices and pepper (if any was added...). Other components included dried tofu puffs (tofu-pok), coriander for garnish and pork ribs that were so dry, tough and chewy I struggled to eat them... \r\n\r\nThe other parts of my lunch set included a dish of chopped deep-fried dough sticks (\"yao-tiu\"), a bowl of white rice and some chilli-infused dark sweet soy sauce and a few pieces of bak choy. While the dough sticks didn\'t not impress, being soggy and nothing like the ones at good local restaurants serving congee, I loved the rice! Each grain doesn\'t stick to one another, and was cooked perfectly - not soft but not undercooked either...pure comfort with the dark soy sauce. Ahhhh I must make a mental note to ask what brand of rice they use when I return! \r\n\r\nE\'s Laksa was also not what we were expecting, but not bad. Hainan Shaoye\'s version is spicier than the laksas I\'ve had locally, but same spice-level as they do it in Singapore. The soup however, is very watered-down to a thin broth with a mild taste of coconut only. Now a little mention of other restaurants serving Sing/Malay cuisine - Good Satay in TST East offers a good bowl of laksa that has a very rich broth - too rich to drink but delicious nonetheless. Meanwhile, Sabah Malaysian Restaurant in Wanchai has a hearty curry broth that is right in between Hainan Shaoye\'s and Good Satay which we thought took first place between the three. \r\n\r\nHainan Shaoye\'s big bowl of seafood laksa came with toppings of tofu puffs, sliced fish cakes, two large shrimps and some fishballs. These all fared very well, and the two shrimps which E gave to me were fresh and bouncy. \r\n\r\nWe vowed to return, not for a repeat of the food we had ordered this day, but for the highly controversial Chicken rice meals!

For original post: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/early-lunching-at-cwb.html

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  $95pp for lunch
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This place offers a cheaper option for dining in Central, and its location means it is always full on a weekday lunch. I've been here several times now, and never had to queue because I either arrive early, or come for dinner. I've tried various things on their menu, and recently I had the Tonkatsu with Japanese Curry, as well as the Assorted Mushrooms and Vegetables Ramen (in pork bone soup).

Whilst the ramen is certainly nothing to write home about, not being the springy al dente texture like Ippei-An, the other noodles available such as the Jelly noodle and the fried squid ink spaghetti makes your bowl of noodles much more exciting. They also have three broth available for you to pick from - miso, tomato and pork bone soup. Both the tomato and pork bone soup were not rich as I had hoped on the several occasions which I tried, and frankly not flavourful enough...

On the other hand, their rice selections such as the Eel with Scrambled Egg on Rice, or the Tonkatsu with Curry sauce are winners. Both these have proven time and time to be well-executed and tasty.

The scrambled egg and onion topping is the star of the eel rice, and friends I've taken here have also loved this dish.

The tonkatsu is also made very well - always has a light and crunchy batter coating a fillet of tender pork. The rice used is your standard Japanese sushi rice which is cooked well here too - slight chewiness and quite sticky.

I think the appetizers on the menu are hit-and-miss, but I would definitely not mind visiting for their rice bowls again.

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After lunch at Yung Kee the boys were only 6-outta-10 full... so I took them to Sheung Wan Market for some good eats!! I had read about this place and have made a mental note to come for a long time...so off we were. $20ish cab ride later we were at the doorstep of an indoor-market. On the second floor there are plenty of 'dai pai dongs', each specialising in different foodstuff - there's one doing Thai food, one doing dim sum etc.... We went to shop CF17 and found a table for ourselves and placed our order: one milk tea (iced) each, and two French toasts to share.


Iced Milk Tea ($9 each) comes in a re-used Schweppes bottle. The old man delivered these goods quite soon after our order, so I'm guessing they were made earlier that day and refrigerated. No ice here, so the tea and milk concoction is rich, and as you can see by the colour of the drink, the tea is quite strong - exactly what I like! If you prefer milkier drinks then this may not be for you.... (as it was not for A anyway).


French Toast ($18) is made to order and different from any French toast (HK-style of course) I've ever had. Whilst I grew up with the deep-fried kind, with either a sweet spread in between (peanut butter or Kaya) or plain with golden syrup on the side for you to pour (think Lan Fong Yuen or Stanley Market's 泗益), Sui Kee's version is two slices of white bread pan-fried with a little egg wash until golden brown and then condensed milk is drizzled on top.... now this, in our unanimous agreement, surpasses the deep-fried version! This was something that we raved about from after eating it until night....if you have any doubt as to what I've just said, please do try it for yourself!

For original post and photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/shui-kee-cafe-must-visit.html

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Date of visit: 10th Aug 2010
Yung Kee @ LKF

Wanton noodles ($31) - Yung Kee only makes the thin egg noodles here, but we ordered one to share any way. The noodles weren't as good as I hoped - looked nice but noodles weren't the slighted bit springy and had no bite to it - perhaps a little over-cooked?? The dumplings contained more pork and shrimp thus making the dumplings really soft when bitten in to. They also weren't particularly flavourful... don't think I would order this again.

Char Siu (BBQ Pork) with rice ($2x) – we ordered the ‘bowl’ size, and although the char siu here is quite lean they managed to make it quite tender. I thought the char siu this time was better than last – they had given us cuts with slightly burnt edges, giving each piece a smokey BBQ flavour which we liked. Some sauce would’ve been nice though, the rice was so plain underneath!

Roast Goose with rice ($3x) – I didn’t try it this time, but my brother liked it well enough.

Assorted Seafood Congee ($55) – The waiter suggested this, and it was indeed a very tasty bowl of congee. The name is sort of misleading, since there’s some roast pork (salted), which adds to the flavour of the congee, making it less ‘plain’ compared to the single-item congees. Anyway, there was also some sliced fish as well as a couple of shrimps, and on top was some peanuts, chopped up deep-fried dough-sticks (yao jar gwai) and a sprinkling of fish roe (?) I believe. The ingredients were fresh, even the dough stick was still crisp and crunchy. We all agreed this bowl of congee was really tasty and I would definitely come back for it.

We finished in less than one-hour - you got to love Chinese restaurants for their speed in Hong Kong! Thank you A for lunch! =)

original post: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/yung-kee.html

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After (window) shopping around, S and I started feeling hungry. I suggested Ebeneezer's for old times' sake, plus told her about the added staff to TST's branch where they would serve you just like they do in a restaurant, minus the service charge. Great she said, and so we went.

I decided on a chicken tikka with rice - I normally really like their chicken tikka but today's was a tad dry and hard for me. The rice was the soft and fluffy Indian basmati kind, which I love. Despite the slightly dry chicken I still (almost) cleared my plate though!

This was S's Chicken tikka kebab with the yogurt and mint dressing. The texture of the chicken tikka I suspect was the same, but perhaps being wrapped in the flatbread with the yogurt and mint dressing would help moisten the chicken a little? S also finished her kebab to her stomach's content =)

Ebeneezer's was smart to introduce more staff, lowering unemployment rates - yayyy. The one Chinese male (I am guessing the manager) was very friendly as well, making sure customers were happily seated quickly and menus / food delivered to them. Would I come here more often? Perhaps, if I am craving for kebab, but for yummy Indian food I'd rather go to the many Indian restaurants nearby!

for photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/fast-food-just-got-upgraded.html

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First off, reservations are a must. Lots of people who live around this area know of this place for its good and reasonably priced Thai food. The waitresses and chefs are obviously Thai and so communication may be a little difficult, but still manageable.

We began dinner with two lime sodas ($28 ea) (my friend’s iced lemon tea was exchanged for a lime soda since it wasn’t your regular brewed tea with lemon, but Thai tea bags, which tasted quite weird if you’re new to it!). Our drinks were refreshing and needed for what was about to come!

After what seemed like ages, our starter of prawn and lemongrass salad ($65) arrived. It was a small plate which lacked vegetables – there were two strips of Chinese lettuce on the bottom, at most, and on top sat a few shrimps and chopped spring onions, shallots, chilli, lemongrass etc. The dressing was very Thai - sour and spicy. First two bites we both agreed it was yummy… after a few more bites our mouths started burning. Whilst the shrimps itself was mildly chilli, the other parts of the salad was dressed in so much chilli we couldn’t finish this tiny plate because of its spice levels. I asked for it to be less-spicy in the beginning but I guess the chef didn’t get our message. Ahhhh I was quite disappointed really because we were forced to waste a potentially good salad… If the menu had only listed it’s spice level we would’ve avoided this dish in the first place! It was so bad my lime soda was finished within seconds, and my mouth was still burning.

Next our pumpkin and seafood curry ($75) came with our place of rice ($10). We had asked to change it to a yellow curry as my friend D only likes yellow curries. After the salad, we had asked the waitress to tell the chef not to put any chillies in our curry. By the time it arrived the burning sensation from the spicy salad had disappeared (thank god) so we had our taste buds intact to taste this wonderful yellow curry. It was actually really mild and had a thick consistency. Inside were some fish fillets, shrimps, squid and imitation crab meat. It was served in a steamed whole baby pumpkin, which was quite thougtful since you were able to scrape the sides for some pumpkin meat. Some vegetables in the curry would’ve been better, but I guess they expect you to order vegetables as a separate dish. When we eyed around the other curries seemed to be served in really small bowls.

Portion sizes here are small – good for single diners, as you will be able to finish a single curry with rice, and also good for group dining because this allows you to order more to try and share! I wouldn’t suggest this place for large groups though – service is too slow and the restaurant is honestly quite cramped!

for photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/tuk-tuk-thai.html

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I brought S and J here for some ice cream fix. They only do a single flavour here, "hei" ice cream, which comes in three sizes - single ($28), double ($38) or a pint ($68).
The dark chocolate ice cream is plain, but after a spoon you'll know other add-ins are really unnecessary. It has a strong cocoa profile and has just the right sweetness - definitely one of my favourite chocolate ice creams, and for the chocoholics out there!

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After dinner we went to Roll for something sweet. A lot of their swiss roll cakes had run out, so we turned to frozen yogurt. Between us three we had a large ($32) and a regular ($26), plus an earl grey tea flavoured macaroon for me!

For the large, I asked for strawberries + green tea mochi, and for the regular, my aunt asked for mangoes. The girl mixed up our orders and put the mangoes on the large and the strawberries on the regular. Also as they had ran out of diced mangoes, she wasn’t able to rectify her mistake and was very apologetic so we told her to forget it. Roll’s frozen yogurt base was really disappointing. It was extremely light, melted really quickly and I felt a bit like I was eating air. The base could’ve been tarter and sweeter in my opinion as well – it was just plain milky…. The toppings didn’t fare much better. Whilst the fruits were fresh, she could’ve been more generous. The green tea mochi didn’t taste like green tea at all, just your standard plain mochi – not that it was bad, but why not just label it green mochi? [p.s. my brother observed quickly after she handed us our yogurts that the serving size of the yogurt in the large and regular was really similar - I looked and noticed the same!] 3/10

Macaroons are truly for people with a sweet tooth. Whilst macaroons are meant to be sweet (I’ve never heard of such thing as a low-sugar meringue), they shouldn’t be sickly sweet (as a whole) either. My earl grey macaroon was quite nice. Better than LGB’s sickly sweet version, as the dark chocolate ganache centre was bitter-sweet enough to counter the sweet and crispy macaroon shell. It also had a strong aroma of earl grey… yumm =). 7/10

Whilst I won’t be back for frozen yogurt, I may well give their ever-popular swiss rolls and other macaroons a try.

For original post + photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-tst-eats.html

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I picked Spice as this night's dinner spot since it had a good location, and my aunt wanted some South-east Asian goods.

On a Tuesday night the restaurant was only half-full, and we were seated at a table with sofas and a curtain. It was very dark so but I managed to read the menu with the (pathetic) candle in the middle.

We decided to skip appetizers and go straight to the mains, shared, Asian style. One Chicken Tikka Masala ($88), one Tandoor Fish Tikka ($132), one naan ($24) and a Pad Thai ($90) all came together soon enough after our drinks.

The chicken tikka masala was the waitress’ recommendation. It was slightly spicy, spicier than the chicken makhani (butter chicken) I was going to order. The masala curry turned out very flavourful with a hint of chilli to flavour things up. The chicken was very tender – all meat, no bones or skin. 7.5/10

We ordered the naan to mop of the curry. Good, but nothing to write home about. 7/10

The fish tikka was, I think, mackerel (should’ve asked to make sure =P). It was actually quite spicy despite it being a dry tandoor-grilled dish – I guess the fish was marinated in some strong chilli powder / spicy marinade first. Mackerel flesh when cooked resembles tuna a lot, and if over-cooked it is tough and not pleasant to eat at all. I asked for them not to overcook the fish before-hand, and they really didn’t! Great job, but it’s still a long way behind their signature black cod tikka, which I had on a previous visit. 7/10

The pad thai was pretty good as well. I've tried pad thai here before, and loved it so I ordered it again this time. What was disappointing was that it only had a couple pieces of shrimp and dried hard tofu. There were some condiments such as ground peanut, chilli and sugar on the side for you, but these were really not needed since the noodles are well-seasoned. However, the egg net on the outside was more for show rather than to be eaten…7/10

All in all this restaurant churns out pretty good Indian and Thai food. The portions could easily have been more generous for the prices they charge, but then again, this is Knutsford Terrace (the “soho” part of TST)! Our bill came to $483 for three drinks, the food above, and service charge.

For photos and original post: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-tst-eats.html

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After lunch at Green Waffle Diner, it was time for dessert. Seeing as I wasn’t able to sample their frozen confectionaries last weekend, I was desperate to try Holly Brown’s gelato, claimed to be ‘hand-made’. We sampled the milk gelato (your standard sweet cream flavour), the strawberry gelato (so-so only) and their plain frozen yogurt (not bad), but decided we liked mint chocolate the best.

We looked at the menu and rather than having a plain scoop we went for the pre-set ones in waffle bowls, which come in three sizes. We opted for a large mint a la mode ($56) (i.e. a waffle bowl with a huge scoop of gelato ‘fried’ with chocolate sauce, dark chocolate shavings and oreo cookies).

Appearance wise it didn’t look as good as the menu – there was significantly less toppings and I couldn’t really detect any chocolate sauce, as promised. However the ‘chocolate chips’ were very thin shavings of dark chocolate which went so well with the mint chocolate flavoured ice cream, giving it a good ‘crispy’ texture all around. The oreo cookies were also chopped up in good sizes to give it extra crunch. What disappointed the both of us was the badly made waffle. Yes this place is relatively new but if you are to open a gelato bar with waffles you might as well make sure your waffle bowls are executed well. They were not crisp at all like what you would expect from a cone (think Haagendaz’s ) but actually soft…. You could literally ‘tear’ it rather than snap it like crunchy waffle cones usually do… which gave us an impression of a cookie left overnight. I knew we should have asked for another ‘bowl’ but seeing as we were full from lunch and our huge scoop of gelato we decided to let them off.

Service was extremely friendly and seating was comfortable and spacious. Would come back for their many flavours of gelato (snickers, yakult, chocolate!!), but please do improve your waffle bowls!

For original post with more pictures,see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/holly-brown-for-gelato.html

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So five of us came to try out their all you can eat shabu shabu. Since my reservations made earlier failed, we were lucky to arrive early enough for their 8.15pm round. There are a couple rules you must abide by here...
Rule 1: 90 mins eating time.
Rule 2: Must order the same 'set' i.e. if one diner on your table orders the Australian Wagyu with Soymilk Hotpot, then everyone else must have the same.
Rule 3: Be strategic and don't waste!

We opted for the Gyu Jin Supreme Shabu Shabu Course, priced at $148 per adult. The soup base was a clear (fish) broth, not particularly salty or sweet.

A plate of 'supreme beef', pork loin and pork belly shortly arrived.

The beef when raw looked fresh and red, but after cooking the lack of marbling in the beef meant it was quite tough... The pork loin and pork belly was better in our opinion!

We also went to the table at the centre of the restaurant, where there was plain or fried rice, fresh udon or ramen, ramen or udon in packs, fish balls, pork meat balls, sausages, seafood and vegetables. Ah, and soy / sesame sauces for you to make your own concoctions.... Needless to say, we sampled nearly everything.

Worthy of mention was the fried rice with beef which was subtle in saltiness but had a 'beefy' taste and was generally not bad. The ramen and udon noodles which came in plastic packs were also very good if not overdone - ramen was springy and udon was nice and al dente.

The seafood was fair, the assortment of vegetables better - they had cabbage, chinese vegetables, radish, pumpkin, variety of mushrooms, bean sprouts etc. Thanks to the boys our second and third rounds of meat were mostly cleared! =)

To round off our meal we had some haagen daz ice cream which tonight they had in vanilla, strawberry and coffee.

Gyu Jin is a fun restaurant if you want to 'cook' your own food, and you can leave without stinking from the hot pot. Would return to try the more premium beef, but not for the 'course' we chose!

For photos and original post: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/gyu-jin-isquare.html

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Came here for an early dinner at six...as I've had a pretty tasty lunch experience here I decided to try it again for dinner...

What I like most about Verve is probably mile-long menu (with brief descriptions of most dishes) they have despite the (small) size of the restaurant . And from my experience, the dishes are pretty well executed and reasonable for the servings, similar to Jaspas, just more options!

After studying the menu, we opted for:
Carribean Chicken $128
This was essentially two char-grilled chicken breasts served with roasted potatoes and vegetables (pumpkin, broccoli, asparagus and cherry tomatoes). The chicken, as I had before, was very juicy indeed.. They were marinated very well, giving the exterior of the chicken a brown colour from the soysauce/brown sugar, and the insides were perfectly cooked and white! It also came with a serving of the sauce, which I thought was unnecessary as everything was so flavourful already. Plus the extra sauce (provided on the side) had that burnt/overcooked flavour which was not good. The sides - potatoes and vegetables were well cooked though - loved how the pumpkin and potatoes had grill marks too.

Salmon with Fettuccini $95
This was a simple but rich pasta with white sauce and some salad greens on top. This is much milder in flavour compared to the chicken, but that is because it is of the white sauce variety. The sauce was not thick but creamy at the same time - it was 'saucy', which I prefer for white pastas as I really hate thickened-up white sauces! The noodles were cooked a little past al-dente, but not over-cooked. What disappointed most was the lack of salmon in the dish. I expected perhaps less pasta and at least a small piece of salmon fillet in the dish, but there were only little flakes of the fish visible - good for people who just have that pasta craving that needs to be satisfied!

The dessert part of the menu was upsetting, only offering four choices of the very uninspiring apple crumble, tiramisu, cheesecake and chocolate fondant.... so we left to search for desserts else where

Service was generally not bad but extremely slow, perhaps because there was only one chef (who I'm assuming was not present when we arrived), and one waiter...This meant the dishes arrived separately with nearly 10 minutes apart. We didn't mind as we were kind of expecting this at 6pm on a Tuesday night.

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I hadn't seen E in a while and it was time to catch up over good food. Now E loves breakfast foods so when I suggested Green Waffle and its concept, she was damn excited. Reservations were never needed for my previous visits here during dinner, but I made reservations in case. When I arrived the small-ish diner was three-quarters full on a Thursday lunch... a good sign?

Here they have a very reasonably-priced lunch set menu which includes a main and a dessert (half a waffle with a scoop of ice cream). But since nothing on the set lunch menu enticed us (green apple compote with waffle and sausage?!) we opted for their simpler items on the menu. We decided on a breakfast of seared vine tomatoes with scrambled eggs and a whole-wheat waffle (instead of the normal toast) ($44 + 9 for the upgrade), and a buckwheat waffle with blueberries and cinnamon sugar.

The scrambled eggs here were quite good - creamy and slightly runny… lovely! The seared vine tomatoes (my favourite kind) were really sweet and juicy albeit slightly undercooked for my liking. A little more time on the grill or pan would have made it better and less hard in texture. The whole wheat waffle upgrade was E’s idea. Not a bad one either. There was a strong presence of that wheat taste, similar to 100% whole wheat bread, but the texture was maintained at a light and airy form – delicious with a little maple syrup complimentary from Green Waffle.

The next plate of buckwheat waffles with blueberries was sprinkled with the right amount of cinnamon sugar to give it the divine aroma that the cinnamon-addict in me lusts after. In hindsight I probably should have ordered something that was pre-set rather than ‘create-your-own’ since this relatively simple and small plate ended up costing $51 (not that it is expensive for Soho, but compared to the previous huge plate of food!). Anyway, the buckwheat waffle itself, I would think, is closer in taste to the original plain ones, but didn’t have that airy texture here =((. Blueberries were fresh but more could’ve been provided as it looked quite dull on the plate…

A good lunch anyhow, and will definitely return for more breakfast items or whenever a waffle craving kicks in!

For photos and original post: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/waffles-please.html

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I haven't visited EXP since last year... and I noticed some changes on their menu - the pizza selections have definitely changed and prices have increased. I chose the new 'Seafood Pizza' for tonight's dinner and taste-wise, it wasn't bad. The seafood, apart from the fish fillet, was fresh enough and the quantity of cheese good and nicely melted. My complaint however, would be that the seafood or pizza sauce was not quite dry enough, resulting in my pizza being slightly 'wet' - not good!

S's Duck Breast Fried Rice has been on their menu ever since they opened I believe, and was every bit as good as I remember it to be =) on top is the raw garlic mash which S chose to leave out wisely as the raw garlic was way too strong, pungent, and no doubt would leave one with bad breath. The smoked duck breast seemed to be the vacuum-packed variety, which didn't really bother either of us as it was tasty. The fried rice was not oily and very flavourful...

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Berrygood's original is not bad, but not special either compared to its rivals. On this day, they had original and green apple in their machine. We sampled the green apple and I thought it was really strange... in a bad way. I looked in their fridge and found my favourite - chocolate. Berrygood's chocolate flavour reminds me a lot of Dreyer's ice cream, and I love it. We shared a large so we could have the three toppings, and a tablespoon of each variety was given. The toppings here is what I am sure keeps fans coming back for more - they are fresh with a lot of variety to meet everyone's needs =).

On another day, I brought a friend and we shared a swirl of that days offerings - chocolate with original. We selected mochi and fruits to go with it. Whilst i would've preferred the two flavours to be separate, it was still delicious and a nice ending to a spicy dinner next door.

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This day's offerings also included a 'mix berry' and 'chocolate-coconut' and 'vanilla' flavour, which the sales person gladly let us test (yes, all of them!). He also enthusiastically informed us we were allowed to have two flavours in a cup and for the large we could pick two toppings. Although I knew this already, I didn't mind listening again because he was just so friendly and polite. We decided on eurotart and chocolate in the end, and I must say the texture of Yogurtime's froyos are not everyone's ideal froyo... Eurotart aside, I have had many friends who seem to think their other flavours lack creaminess and reminds them of shaved ice. I agree, which is why I usually come back for their Eurotart only. As they did not have mochi today, our selection of chocolate wafer with strawberries did not disappoint, though they were clearly running out of fruit so there was only one tablespoon of fruit given..

I want to mention a little on Yogurtime's servings - they are often generous with the froyo despite the increased prices, and I like how they don't 'swirl' the flavours, which I find ruins things for me. I like them to be kept separate like this one here!

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On a Sunday lunch this place is pretty quiet, no long queues, no loud laughter….just peace (well, not quite true as a screaming child came along later….).

A friend and I were here to catch up so we savoured bit of quietness we were given… After looking at the menu full of pictures, we went for the following:

Watami Salad (has a tuna mayo topping, side of sesame dressing, teriyaki chicken and the regular lettuce, tomatoes, carrots etc.)


Beef in stone pot rice (more like Korean bibimbap)

Scallop and Tuna sushi rolls

Scallop skewers

Nothing from this meal particularly stood out – salad was okay, beef rice was too spicy after mixing the toppings, sushi rolls were mediocre at most - not as fresh as say, Itacho or Itamae, scallop skewers were cold and too dry. The prices here are reasonably cheap so I wasn’t expecting anything ‘wow’, but I probably won’t return any time soon for the food.

On the other hand, drinks here are quite good - on previous visits I've sampled the passion fruit boba tea + mango yakult smoothie - both very refreshing and tasty!

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So I was here for a lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in quite a while. The elevators weren't working so we had to hike up these stairs - a pre-meal work out that made me sweat like mad in today's 35degree weather =(.

We chose to sat at the famous counter where two Japanese chefs sat (or kneeled) in front preparing grilled meats. Presented with a lunch and drink menu only, we proceeded to study the well-chosen and reasonably priced menu.

I had a tough time debating in my head whether I wanted the seafood robatayaki set ($250), the deluxe sushi/sashimi set ($200) or the Beef Teriyaki set ($100) and a waitress quietly interrupted my thoughts and told me there was a "Suzie set" ($168) which was their day's special that had five kinds of sashimi, a bowl of rice and the standard miso soup, steamed egg and pickles etc. It was quite similar to the sushi / sashimi set, save for the bowl of rice instead of somen noodles and additional sushi. Since the former sushi / sashimi set sounded like too much food any way, I went with the Suzie set which I thought I'd be able to handle!

My friend ordered the Pork Cutlet Donburi Set ($98), and we waited patiently whilst catching up and watching others devour their food. I must say I couldn't stop staring at the Beef Teriyaki that was being preparing in front of me...medium-well and all.....next time!


Soon enough we were presented with a small salad of mesclun and cherry tomatoes dressed in a vinaigrette. The dressing could go more Asian...perhaps some yuzu or sesame? But I wasn't complaining!

After a while our lunch 'trays' arrived, looking gorgeous. Although the pictures pretty much speak for themselves, let me describe a little!

In one covered tea cup was some steamy miso soup with spring onions and precisely diced tofu which was yummy. The soup was not too salty either.

In another wider tea cup was Japanese Chawanmushi (egg custard). This was again executed very well - steamed to just-set, the egg was silky, soft and smooth. At the bottom sat a ginko nut, and at the top a couple pieces of thinly sliced mushrooms and ikura (salmon roe). Yum.

Then I tried the yellow radish pickles which were nice but not as sour as ones I've had. This is quite nice for people who like milder pickles. The sakizuke (pictured as the little white square thing in a dish by itself) is the appetizer that also appeared on all their set lunches. I didn't care for this at all - it had a spongey/soggy texture and didn't carry much taste. My friend didn't even bother trying it.

My plate of sashimi, although consisted of all local-favourites, certainly looked wonderful! When I was ordering I asked not to have salmon and whether they could give me something else. The waitress kindly said it was okay, but they would probably swap the salmon for more of the other sashimi that were to be plated for this particular set. I agreed, but when it arrived I still found five different types of sashimi. From the left there was hotate (scallop), tai (snapper) maguro - akami (lean tuna), hamachi (yellow tail) and kanpachi (amberjack). Not the most exciting sashimi, but all were very fresh - after all that's what is most important right? The maguro (tuna) + hotate were my favourites - sweet and succulent.

The rice is equally important. Mine was a bowl of luke-warm Japanese pearl rice which was cooked to my liking - a bit of chewiness retained....yum!

My friend liked the miso soup and chawanmushi equally, and enjoyed his katsudon but would've preferred if the pork wasn't so peppery... a bit over-seasoned there.

Our meal ended with a small tiny plate of fruit - melon, one grape and a thin slice of strawberry. A bit sad, but we weren't here for fruits.

All in all, a very reasonably priced meal we had. The setting of the restaurant was spacious and quite genius. This one, I'll definitely return =)

For photos and original post, http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/busy-suzie.html

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Since waiting 16 tables for dinner at Inaniwa Udon-Nabe was not an option for my family nor myself, I thought we'd try out something out of the box - Mexican. We were seated at a really cute high booth, and we studied the menu...

First up we ordered two appetizers - a appetizer sampler ($125) and an order of nachos ($88).

The nachos which had two kinds of tortilla chips - red and yellow, with melted Asadero cheese, corn, jalapenos, guacamole, salsa and sour cream was certainly pleasing to the eye but not so on the palate. The chips were no longer crunchy, more of seasoning was needed. The cheese whilst nicely melted, was pretty bland in taste... if you're going to use a mild Mexican cheese its fine, just add some salt to compensate for the lack of flavour! More salsa / guacamole etc would've helped too.

For us this appetizer platter was pretty disastrous. On the plate were some skewers (chicken and pork), pan fried chorizo, quesadillas, seafood ceviche and fried Manchego cheese. Where/how should I start? Satays were not bad but cold. The ceviche (in the glass on the left) had semi-raw seafood, and dressed with a lime dressing with chopped tomatoes/onion etc. There were dices of scallop and shrimp, and whilst the scallops were just cooked, the shrimp was half-cooked i.e. not pink in colour, still grey and not translucent either. I should have sent it back, but I couldn't really be bothered because I was so disappointed already. As for the chorizo frito which came with a tiny piece of garlic bread...I didn't like it, at all. The sausage was unbelievably tough, hard and chewy, whilst the garlic bread was slightly stale. The deep-fried Manchego cheese sticks and the quesadillas were the only items that received an 'okay' from us.

Our mains of flank steak fajitas ($152)and prawn alambres al pastor fared slightly better.

Steak fajitas presentation-wise was pretty good. It arrived on a pan, with a bed of onions and peppers beneath steak strips (over-cooked and slightly tough as a result), four little pots with 1/3 each full only of sour cream, salsa, guacamole and re-fried beans. A drawer was on one side which contained three tortilla breads. The steak was most disappointing as it had been way over-cooked, and they could have been more generous with the condiments. The tortillas were however, soft and fluffy and slightly thicker than one's I've had. Nonetheless I can still think of many places which would serve tastier fajitas in Hong Kong.

The prawn alambres al pastor ($147) arrived on a skewer which the waiter than proceeded to take off the meat before I could photograph it. Anyway, the prawn (or shrimp rather) was placed on the plate underneath along with a side of fried potatoes and asparagus. Some really tangy and sour lime dressing was also provided, which I didn't care for. The shrimps were good - well marinated, so it was tasty. But the asparagus was way over-cooked, and the potatoes were only so-so....

After all this bad food we were pretty full, so we skipped the churros that I wanted to order in the beginning. The bill came to about $732 including three beers and service. Not expensive for civic square restaurants, but the food could've been so much better in quality and execution, for the price they were charging. Hell, anyone could've been cooking these dishes for all I know!!

For photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/cafe-iguana-truly-disappointing.html

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On a rainy Friday night I was invited to a dinner at Luk Yu with my mum by my aunt, having just been here a little over a week ago. We were seated in their cute booths once again and my aunt ordered their pigs lung and almond soup before we studied their menu. The soup was just as creamy white in colour as the last time, but slightly less thick or chunky from ground almonds and less salty, which I thought was better.

My Aunt then ordered the sweet and sour pork with young ginger, and on the recommendation of one of the waiters, a stir-fried sliced pigeon with ham dish.

The sweet and sour pork was one of their signatures, and although ginger is not for everyone I loved the use of the young ginger. It had no roots and I loved the spicy crunch in my mouth. The pork was soft and not chewy or tough at all too. Sauce was well-balanced, without overdosing on the sugar or vinegar…yumm.

The fresh sliced pigeon with ham was stir-fried with button mushrooms and ginger pieces. The 'ham' was nothing other than deep-fried Yunnan ham and was laid out by the chef in the shape of the bird (see photo!) – creative, no? It was very easy to eat as it was all meat (no skin or bones), and had been very well seasoned – perfect with rice. The dish was overall very delicious and I couldn’t stop raving over it at the table.

We also ordered the same spinach with assorted century and salted eggs, for no chinese dinner is complete without vegetables! Never too salty here, the broth was clear and tasty.

My experience here was better than the last, because of the soup as well as the dishes were relatively new for me. I would strongly recommend diners try the pigeon dish, and can’t wait till my next visit!

For original post with more pictures see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/luk-yu-tea-house-revisited.html

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We were here for one thing only - dessert! M had raved about their banoffee pie ($65) before and I had to try it, so she kindly agreed, even though I knew she wanted the malteser cheesecake more =P.
Our pie took ages to come, but I guess they were slicing it, dressing up the plate blahblahblah..... Anyway, when it eventually arrived, I was a happy customer.

Doesn't look as good (on its own) as Simply Life's aesthetically, but the layers were better proportioned, and definitely leaned more towards the real banoffee pie. This one had a bottom crust of crushed digestive cookies with butter, a layer of caramel (noticeably thicker than the one from Simply Life - much better too), whole bananas, and a layer of Chantilly cream (i.e. sweetened whipped cream). As the cream layer was significantly thinner compared to other banoffee pies I've tried / seen (798 Unit, Simply Life, Portobellos), I thought Jaspas had executed my ideal banoffee pie. Why so much cream anyway? Yes it looks better, but if I wanted to eat cream I'd just buy some cream and whip it up right?!

We were pleased with this dessert, and if you ever get a craving for banoffee pie I'd recommend you head over to Jaspas!

For original post and pictures: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/lunch-around-central.html

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After watching a movie, we decided to come here. All of us hadn’t been to Amaroni’s since…ages! So I was quite curious to see whether it was how I remembered.

I remember portions here are pretty huge, so after our bread basket of focaccia and bread crisps, we decided on a rosemary roast chicken ($168) and table-long margherita pizza ($155).

Our two mains arrived together, and I first dove into the chicken – the skin wasn’t crispy so I didn’t care for it much, but the meat underneath was moist and yummy, full of natural chicken flavours and some sprinkling of the pepper on our table made it more wonderful. Not even the breast parts were dry – thumbs up!

The pizza was good, but not mind-blowing. The base is not the flat crisp types (like many restaurants in Soho), but a doughier flatbread. It could have used some more time in the oven as the pieces nearer the centre was quite soggy. There was a good amount of mozzarella too, and the pizza sauce was well-seasoned. Extra strips of fresh basil wouldn’t have hurt though!

The three of us didn’t manage to finish the chicken nor the pizza even though we were ravenous at the beginning…I blame the bread basket, but what we ordered could've fed four very hungry diners =).

The waiters were friendly, and the place is clearly better suited for large groups – in fact, there were several birthdays celebrated here this night so it got a bit noisy too.

For original post, see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/08/amaronis-italian-restaurant.html

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Date of visit: 31st July 2010

On this day I met up with my foodie friend M to try the famed beef brisket at Kau Kee. Service is very quick here so we didn’t really have to wait to be seated, we simply joined another table with random diners.

There are two sizes here, the standard where your beef comes in the same bowl as your noodle, or the large, where your beef comes in a plate, with a bowl of noodle on the side which is ordered separately. We opted for the standard size, but I had trouble deciding once again. What I really wanted was beef + tendon in their signature clear soup with wide-cut noodles, but the waiter wouldn’t budge and said I could have curry tendon only (as a dish too), so I followed M and ordered beef brisket with noodles in clear soup ($27), except she had hor-fun instead.

Our steamy bowls of noodles and beef came quickly, and I tasted the light-coloured broth first. It was definitely umami, but didn’t have a large amount of MSG that made me react with a pang of thirst like I normally would. [ps msg isn’t bad for you unless you’re allergic to it!] Anyway, we both loved our soup. Kau Kee’s thinly sliced beef brisket was really tender, and M clearly loved it. Perhaps I am used to a different cut – those squares of tender beef brisket are the way to go for me – so I thought it was only so-so. My wide-cut noodles were yum, but so darn filling I couldn’t finish. M’s hor-fun was also really good. Soft and slippery but not over-cooked at all.

I do think this place deserves a recommendation, but I have yet to try many other supposedly ‘famous’ joints for beef brisket, such as Wah Jeh’s, or even the not-so famous, just to compare. If only they were more flexible, would’ve loved to try the beef tendons too. Ahwell…. Another time!

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On a Thursday night my friend and I decided to try out the ladies night promotion at Lan Kwai’s Stormies. Their menu is not extensive – a couple of soup and salads, sandwiches and burgers, steaks, ribs, pastas – reminds me of a shorter version of Hard Rock Café’s menu (which is re-opening nearby in LKF this year apparently!!!). We decided on a spinach salad, burger and king crab legs.

Spinach salad ($88) was definitely a starter size. Dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette, toppings included strawberries, blueberries, goats cheese and pecans. Quite tasty and we both liked the pairing of fruit and spinach.

Stormies’ Burger ($88) was a medium sized burger with a thin beef patty that was ordered to be medium-well. It came with a side salad and seasoned fries. The burger itself was pretty much…..bad. The beef was way too tough – especially on the outer rims where it had been fully cooked – and there was no natural beef juices at all present. Comparing this to my last burger at HKJC’s Food Plaza this was…. unimpressive. Fries were pretty good according to my friend and she proceeded to finish them all, since I dislike potatoes.

Alaskan King Crab Legs ($128 for small size) – was served warm. It tasted quite salty from the parsley butter sauce but really tasty. They came with two long pieces of garlic buttered bread which were nicely charred from the grill. The crab legs were meaty and in general very good.

For this meal we ended up paying about $100 each, quite reasonable for the quality of food we received. But whether I would pay their original listed price for the salad and burger in particular is another story – I didn’t think the portion or quality of beef justified their standard prices at all.

For original post and photos see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/stormies-on-rainy-ladies-night.html

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This was my first time here and I was quite shocked by the size of the restaurant. Walking in you see an open-style kitchen with counters for the buffet, and proceed further there is many tables for guests. For today’s lunch I decided to visit my friend D who was working in the area….

Lunch at Congress is straight-forward. You can choose the salad or noodle buffet ($105 each), have both for an extra $35, or have either plus one from the main courses list for an extra $35.

Seeing it was my first time here, I went for the salad and noodle buffet to sample as much as I can. Meal began with a heart-warming soup – there was a Chinese pork-based soup, and cream of pumpkin. Both were simple, light and tasty. Bread rolls were pretty good too, I particularly like the black sesame roll =).

Next was the salad bar where there was a variety of salad leaves for you to pick from, including butter lettuce, mesclun mix, romaine lettuce etc etc.

For toppings you can expect the regular salad-bar items, e.g. corn, chick peas, kidney beans, diced chicken, diced ham, artichokes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and heart of palms. There were several dressings for you to choose from, before you end up at the salad bowl where two chefs were at your disposal to help you mix everything up nicely! Oh yes, and don’t forget to help yourself to one of those crunchy thin breadsticks…!

The noodle station was our next stop, with four soup bases and an abundance of vegetables, seafood, meats and noodles for you to pick from. Between us we sampled the clear Japanese mushroom broth, Pork bone soup and the relatively light laksa soup bases. Simple but hearty and filling! (Note: ramen noodles in laksa broth makes a very yummy bowl of noodles.)

After a bowl of salad and noodles I was very satisfied indeed, but I couldn’t help to wonder if I should have went for one of the main courses? Tandoori cod fish had caught my eye but decided against it since chefs here were Chinese…. For the fantastic harbour view, relaxed atmosphere (we sat chatting until 3pm!) and the flexibility of combining ‘set lunches’, this is definitely a place I will return to!

for original post, see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/congress-restaurant-at-convention.html

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My friend P's sister loves Char Siu, and so do I, but not to her extent =P Everyone's preference of Char siu is different. I like them lean and soft but still slightly chewy, whereas others may like them half fat/half lean etc etc. I suggested we try out Yung Kee for our lunch meet-up.

A plate of roast goose and char siu with rice ($52) was quite reasonably priced. I tried the BBQ Pork only and it was pretty good. Not too sweet or salty, and did not have the scary red colouring some places tend to have. It was caramelized well, making it smell appetizing. The pork itself was pretty lean, yet was not chewy - yum!

Shrimp Wontons with Thin Noodles ($31) arrived next. I only tried the soup, which was quite good and mild in flavour - no presence of any alkaline (gan sui)! I didn't try the wontons, but P did comment that it was not all shrimp. Had a bit of pork as a filler. She prefers Mak's Noodle (麥奀雲吞麵世家).

Congee with fish slices ($32) was really good. The congee was slightly too thick for my liking but taste-wise it was spot on, and I didn't feel the need to add any other flavourings, even pepper. The fish was 'wan yu', thinly sliced and they gave at least an ounce or two of it. Would've liked the chopped spring onions to be fresher though, the ones given (mainly white, so towards the root of the plant) weren't so nice and gave a little bitterness.

Mini Egg Tarts ($21)
We decided to end with a plate of mini egg tarts. The tart shell was pastry-based, rather than my favourite cookie base, but was not bad. It retained some crispiness around the sides of the tart. The filling was nicely sweet and smooth, my favourite part of the egg tart! Nonetheless, I still think for this kind of flaky pastry based egg tarts, Pak Kee's on Centre St is the best (and they sell for $2.5/standard sized!).

This place was quite full, so reservations are a must for lunch hours. I did enjoy my simple meal here, and would gladly do it again, but may visit Tai Cheong instead for my favourite cookie based egg tarts!

For more pictures, visit http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/yung-kee-lkf.html

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On a Monday night my ma was in the Central area and so we met up for a quick and simple Chinese dinner.

We were seated at a 'cart' table so it was like a little private booth - so cute!

We sat down and immediately I asked for a tureen (2-4 pax) of their Pigs lung soup with almond before reading the menu =) My ma had tried this before and loves it so I had to too, right?

We each had at least 2.5 bowls of this lovely milky white soup. It reminded me a lot of the dessert 'almond tea' as there was plenty of almond in this soup. It was also very savoury and slightly salty. The pigs lungs, my mother said, was cleaned very well here and it takes skill to do it - not easy to do this at one's home!

Spinach with century and salted egg was next to arrive. The superior broth was really good and not salty at all. It didn't have the bitter after-taste of the iron in spinach when cooked either. It was tender and the eggs added some texture and taste to the dish, yummy! (p.s. the broth is really good with rice!)

So after being told that the 'pot' items e.g. beef on rice in claypot was only available during the winter season, my ma suggested za zi gai (i.e. deep fried crispy whole chicken). The few tables around us we noticed, also had this dish present, so it must be one of their more popular dishes we thought. When it arrived, it was a nice golden brown colour. My ma picked up a prawn cracker and started munching away loudly - must be the crispiness of it I thought, so I did the same! I know I know, it sounds rude of us but we had our 'private booth' remember? So no one heard us....

Soup, chicken, a bowl of rice and the spinach was very satisfying for the two of us. Our bill came to $580 for these few dishes which I thought was quite pricey... But in all fairness each dish was executed very well =)

for more photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/finally-trip-to-luk-yu-tea-house.html

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Several years ago I visited Noritake & Niji Bistro for a lunch with a friend. I still remember thinking the fusion pasta (Bolognese with miso spaghetti) was pretty good. Fast forward a few years, this item remains on their menu.... but we were here for tea so we didn't want to order something of the main menu.

Tuna salad with wasabi mayo ($48)
This salad was from the new summer menu, and I decided to order this rather than something off the tea set menu as it sounded tasty enough, and would leave me with room for dinner later.
I pictured a substantially-sized salad as the bed with seared tuna on top... then this plate arrived, which was tiny. I guess for its price I didn't expect much, but I thought more salad leaves wouldn't hurt. The tuna was fine, but it wasn't freshly seared as it was cold on my plate. It wasn't stringy in texture at the least! I did however like the wasabi mayo - tasted like wasabi but in a creamier form with a slight tang - good, and a little went a long way!

Blueberry Cheesecake ($68)
Niji has a cake display outside, selling squares of sesame, sakura flower and blueberry flavoured cheesecakes, all of which are the creamy baked kind. However they were only available for takeaway, so we were happy to learn that they were available as cut cakes with the tea set (green tea marble also available), albeit a third or quarter of the cake. The plate was done very nicely - no wonder it took the longest to arrive.
Back to the cheesecake, it was wonderfully creamy and smooth, with a hint of sourness from I think lemon? which went nicely with the blueberry topping. Would love to try the green tea or sakura flower cheesecake soon!

Also ordered was this hot dog (from tea set menu) ($58) which I didn't get to try, but my friend finished it in no time so I assume it was good? =)

The tea sets come with coffee or tea as well, so I think the prices were quite reasonable, save for a few items.

This place is a good option at Harbour City for having a meal with some friends, the restaurant interior is quite nice, like an English tea room, but with Japanese-themed western food.

For original post and photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/noritake-niji-bistro.html

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We arrived 8 on the dot, and were seated to our cart table (a comfy U-shape, with sofa seats). Tonight was a full house at Lian, signs of a good restaurant (and reservations here are a must!). There were five of us, and I made recommendations based on my previous visits.

First to arrive was the Tiger Prawn and Lotus Root in Yellow Curry ($178) which came with a side of sliced baguette. The yellow curry sauce was excellent - good thick consistency with a nice colour from turmeric, and the tiger prawns were very large and fresh. However, this dish is quite spicy, despite being a yellow curry. My only complaint would be that the lotus root could have used a little more time in the heat as they were rather crunchy for my liking. We also ordered an extra side of rice ($20) (which took a ridiculously long time to arrive, probably because they were so busy and quite short of waiters) for my brother to mop up the sauce.

After a while, the Seafood and Abalone Rice in Lotus Leaf ($128) arrived. The rice inside is actually fried first, with plenty of turmeric (explains the yellowness). The rice was so good, nothing like I've had before...I just wish the portion was slightly bigger!

Whole Lobster with Garlic Butter ($250) came next. Size first - it was one lobster split in half, with its claws shelled and the claw meat on top of the body. I would estimate there was about 7 or 8 ounces of pure lobster meat? The sauce in the middle is a tangy (lime), salty (fish sauce) and spicy dipping sauce which was rather tasty, but only if you wish to wrap the lobster meat in the lettuce. The lobster itself was already rather tasty - fresh and juicy with the fried onion, garlic and breadcrumbs on top. Also, there was at least two tablespoons of red lobster roe in the head/neck parts of the body.

This was actually S's choice - a red curry salmon ($160) which also came with a side of baguette. I've had this on a previous visit and remembered it to be a very mild curry - very suitable for people who cannot take spicy foods and so this was my recommendation for her.... She was a happy customer I believe!

Last to arrive was a White Miso Marinated Sea Bass Wrapped In Cucumber Ribbon ($195) and the purple dices are japanese pickles (plums?). The cod was lightly pan fried, although not as smooth and silky as the cod fillets I am used to (my last was at Ippei-An, and this could not compare to the cod there). Flavours for this dish seemed much more Japanese than Thai or Vietnamese. The sauce is a slightly sweetened miso sauce, and I suspect the use of honey. The cucumbers were so thinly sliced and paired with the fish quite well - a pretty healthy dish altogether. Nonetheless I am confused as to why this dish was available at Lian, a supposedly Thai and Viet (fusion) restaurant. It simply didn't fit in with the other dishes on the menu which were all very Thai / Vietnamese-influenced!

We also ordered a lime soda ($35) which was slightly sweet, sour and very refreshing!

Lian offers quite a long list of desserts, mostly paired with home-made ice cream such as honeycomb etc, from $70-80 per each, but none of us really had room for them, as most of the desserts (save for ice cream) sounded very rich.... next time perhaps!

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So my friend E and I came here for 'brunch' on a Wednesday.... I have only been to Habitu The Pier before (which by the way is closing soon...!), and so I had no idea this place requires you to order your food at the counter by the entrance before finding your own table...

Poor-ish system aside, we chose our table - with a view of the ice rink. Drinks arrived first...a rose milk tea (hot) and a Hazelnut Habbiccino

I ordered a set, and opted to pay a little extra in order to change it to this Rose Milk Tea. Probably not a good idea after all, since it was quite watered down with a only a hint of rose scent. Yes, it looks great but taste-wise it was a disappointment. Although, I will say the barista did a pretty good job with steaming the milk - the foam was creamy, light and stiff at the same time.

Hazelnut Habbiccino was E's choice. Habbiccinos have been newly added to Habitu's drink menu this year, and having tried the caramel before, I recommended my friend to try one. She chose Hazelnut, and in my opinion it was pretty good. Reminds me of Starbucks' hazelnut latte, but frozen and the blended ice was nicely done, without large chunks of ice like one would often find in Starbucks...

With my set, I opted for the Prosciutto pizza ($96 with the rose milk tea), which was one of four pizza selections in Caffe Habitu. When it arrived it looked quite good I thought, but these thoughts quickly disappeared as I dug through it. It was the thin-crust variety, but the crust was so soggy it was hardly edible and safe to say the worst pizza I have eaten in a long time. The prosciutto was nice, not too salty and sliced thinly, but hardly any was given, as seen in the picture.

E's Gourmet Breakfast ($58) arrived the same time as my pizza, but perhaps the staff had been waiting for the pizza to be ready or something which caused it to be only luke warm when it arrived. The plate consisted of sautéed mushrooms, scrambled eggs, half of a thick slice of toast, two small sausages, some baked beans and half of a grilled tomato. E liked this a lot, so I tried the eggs and sausage, both of which were quite good but better if hotter.

What I liked about this branch was its relative quietness during weekdays, so you can read the SCMP (ask the staff for a copy) or have a good conversation with friends. I don't think I will be visiting for pizza again, but I wouldn't mind having my caffeine fix or some pastries here...!

For original post and more photos: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/06/caffe-habitu-elements.html

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So the non-stop pouring ruined our original plans to visit Causeway Bay, and we came here as a back up as my friend requested for western food. Remembering I had a very good dinner experience here (love the extensive a la carte menu for such a small restaurant), I suggested this place for lunch... Little did I know the lunch menu would be so boring!

There was a set lunch menu ($88) (this place offers brunch - i.e. egg items on Sundays I believe), with a choice of soup or salad for starters, fish / chicken / beef / pasta of the day for mains, and either dessert of the day or coffee/tea as final course.

For starters, I had the pumpkin soup (soup of day) which came with two garlic croutons... Whilst the soup was great with a sprinkle of cheese (mozzarella?), I didn't enjoy the croutons as they were quite soggy.

M's salad of apricot and orange segments looked very tasty and colourful...she seemed to enjoy it as every bit of this place was gone! =))

For my main I chose the Fish of the day with tomato-basil sauce, rather than the menu-prescribed lemon butter sauce, which the waitress gladly changed for me. The fish turned out to be a very boring but well-seasoned (therefore tasty) piece of sole fillet. Underneath was some standard grilled veggies - carrots, eggplant, broccoli etc and potato mash. The sauce was good - tangy as it was rich with stewed tomatoes (not ketchup, yayy) and I love basil so I was happy.

M chose the grilled chicken (breast used, but she didn't realise) which arrived with the same tomato-basil sauce on top, and grilled veggies + mash underneath. Apart from the protein I am guessing it was quite similar in taste to my main? M thought the chicken was quite dry though...

As an ending to our meal I chose to have coffee as I was already stuffed....I was engaged in a good conversation with my friend so I forgot to really taste it =P I just remembered "not bad" crossing my mind, but nothing to write home about.

My friend chose dessert of the day - tiramisu, which came with a scoop of ice cream. Whilst I think the addition of ice cream is not necessary for most desserts (save for chocolate fondant and apple crumble), I'm not complaining that Cenacolo chose to provide a scoop with their dessert! This was clearly a slice from a large batch. I had a bite of the tiramisu - very light, like commercialised tiramisus, but the sweetness was just right. Portion was good for a set-lunch, and a small sweet ending to a meal.

Perhaps I shall visit for their a la carte menu, but won't be returning for their set lunch (too boring!)...

For original post see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/06/set-lunch-at-cenacolo.html

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I think this must be my fourth time here in five months...but I'm not complaining at all! A friend arrived at about 7.15 to get us a ticket for a table for four. At 8pm we were finally seated and served some Chinese tea which we all thought was pretty good.

We began with two orders of cold soya milk which was only slightly sweetened - a perfect drink for any chilli foods you ordered. From the appetizer section, we ordered some string beans with minced pork ($28). Slightly salty, but very addictive. My only problem was that, as an appetizer I thought it would be cold, whilst my friends who picked this dish expected it be hot, and it arrived being neither! It was luke warm - eeek. I think this dish is meant to be cold afterall, but tonight they were so busy they probably didn't have time to refrigerate it....

Noodles mixed in broad bean sauce aka za jiang mian, which was not quite what I expected. The sauce (bottom of bowl) was good, but the pressed hard tofu, minced pork and broad beans aren't really toppings which I would pick to go with noodles. And again, the dish was only lukewarm at most. I think I would have preferred the noodles in sesame and peanut sauce (dan dan mian)...

The signature xiao lung baos ($48) which are so delicate yet none of the skins broke and where intact from the steamers to our mouths =). The pork inside is very well seasoned and not fatty or with fillers like some restaurants. With a bit of the black vinegar these were very tasty indeed!

We ordered a single steamed pork and vegetable bun ($15 ea) to share. It was more vegetable than pork, and not bad, but incomparable to their juicy steamed plain pork buns.

Next was a fried rice with pork ($42). So simple but so satisfying and delicious. Strands of egg and lean pork was dispersed evenly throughout. The rice was however, rather 'wet' which I didn't mind, but some people often like their fried rice very dry...

Hot and Sour Soup ($32) is a must order for me. As my friends weren't interested, I happily had this to myself! (Sorry Crystal Jade, but you can't compare!) In here were strands of egg, tofu, mushrooms (fungus) and some shredded pork, in a balanced hot and sour thick soup topped with chilli oil....ahhhhhh.

Boiled Pork and translucent noodle ('fun pey') in garlic chilli dressing (蒜香粉皮肉) ($48) was picked by my friends. It was a new dish for me. When it arrived I thought the pork (belly) might be too tough because it was boiled and looked slightly dry, but luckily I was wrong. The marinade was quite spicy for me due to the chilli oil, but the garlic was quite addictive. The dish was good overall, but not something I'd order.

Xiao Lung Baos with crab roe soup ($68) tasted quite different to the regular one. The soup was more orange in colour. Taste wise, it matched the vinegar more and I like this one better!

A couple other dishes which were ordered, but because I was so full and had tried these on previous visits, I didn't have any: steamed taro buns ($30/3) + steamed taro xiao lung baos ($33)

This restaurant is so popular with locals and tourists, with the quality much better than other Shanghainese chain restaurants that perhaps they should open a couple more here in Hong Kong. If it were up to me, I'd only make plans to come here during non-peak hours to avoid lengthy waiting times!

The bill came to under $500 for the food above plus two glasses of soya milk. Not bad at all!

original post and photos see http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/07/din-tai-fung-for-four.html

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Came here for a dinner on a friday, to find the restaurant completely full. I had made reservations but was warned by the girl at the front desk that she may not be able to honour my reservation since they were full. However, there was a vacant two-seater that had been saved, but she simply did not check first before giving such a disappointing comment.

We decided to forgo the set menus and ordered a pork and preserved veg with noodle in soup, and two soup dumplings (xiao lung bao), as well as stir-fried mushroom dish.

The dumplings came first and one broke as it was picked up because the skin was not elastic at all but soft. The pork inside was fatty and did not taste good either.

The noodles were fine, not particularly good, but where the problem was in this dish was the soup. It seems the cooks had either put way too much salt, or forgot to soak and drain the preserved veg before placing it in the soup. It was so salty it was inedible.

The mushrooms were fine, but quite oily for a dish that was supposed to be cooked and served in a chicken stock...

The bill came and since we were desperate to leave this noisy restaurant, we paid without checking. Little did I know when i read the receipt later, they had charged us about $20 ea for tea which we did not have. We were given hot water only...

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