Fungry and Fabulous

[fungryandfabulous]

Japanese Lunch Sets in Central & Sheung Wan

Recently, I went to Sushi Shin (the one on On Lan Street, not the one in Tai Hang) with a friend for lunch, and as I was comparing aloud all the different sushi lunch sets there are in Central, she asked me if I would write a blog post on all of them, as she could really use an English-language guide. So I’m not going to bother with all the old ones like Sushi Sase, Sushi Kuu or even Sushi Kado, but some of my recent discoveries.

Sushi Shin is probably my favourite recent discovery, and I like to have their Nagomi sushi lunch set, which is 10 pieces, and HK$480. Adachi-san is the chef I ask for there, and I like it because he is very happy to accommodate food preferences (for example, I don’t like octopus, which is usually their starter, so he normally substitutes it with something delicious like akimo). The uni is worth mentioning, as it is covered with a very thin layer of pickled daikon, which changes the texture into something firmer, but also more umami. My favourite piece, when in season, is the last piece of saba (gently marinated mackerel), rolled around a tiny amount of rice with toasted sesame seeds. Oh, and I also really like the flavour of the vinegared rice here.

Downsides: not if you are in a rush. Twice now, I had stupidly made an appointment for about 90 minutes after the start of my lunch, and both times I thought it would be ample time, but ended up being late for my post-lunch meetings. So not suitable if you only have 60 mins for lunch.

Sushi Ima

Sushi Ima on Stanley Street is tiny, seating maybe around 10 people at the sushi counter. After the gorgeous views of Sushi Shin, you might feel a bit claustrophobic in this windowless space. The sushi lunch set is also HK$480, but it is only 9 pieces. However, the one less piece is made up for by the sheer ginormous size of the sushi here. Each piece of fish is at least 3 inches long and an inch wide. The amount of rice is naturally also proportionally larger. Whereas Sushi Shin relies mostly on the fish itself and the rice to provide flavour, Sushi Ima is a bit more “local” in the sense that it sears quite a few fish, and uses a variety of sauces.

Downsides: Too rushed! The 9 pieces were served in about 40 minutes, and it just feels a lot more mechanical than Adachi-san at Sushi Shin. Also, it can be infuriating trying to get a table. They pick up their reservation line roughly 25% of the time; and when we asked when the next table for lunch was available, they gave us a date some 20 days later. So not exactly a place you can drop in for lunch when you feel like it.

Kitcho

Otherwise known as my “canteen”. I go often, for omakase dinner, but also for their seafood rice bowl at lunch (HK$280). It’s pretty much identical to the one at Sushi Kuu, but I go often enough that the chef recognises me to give me all my favourites in one bowl: i.e. uni, seared kinki, fatty horse mackerel, even buri (wild-caught yellowtail) if they have it; as well as the giant ebi shrimp in a separate dish with its head juices. Suffice to say I’m always extremely satisfied when I leave here.

Downsides: can’t think of any.

Kanidou Noda

I’ve been to this crab specialist once for dinner, and although it’s nice, I don’t really enjoy crab enough to have just a whole bunch of different crab dishes for an entire meal. Therefore, the lunch sets here are perfect for me. They introduced an eel set this year, but I especially like the Hokkaido lunch set, which is also priced at HK$480, but includes a whole bunch of stuff including: shirako (when in season); a rice bowl with ikura, uni and crab meat; a poached oyster; salad; egg and soup. It is almost like a bento box in that you get a little bite of a lot of different flavours.

Downsides: can’t think of any.

[fungryandfabulous]

Arzak

For the longest time, I had been looking forward to trying Arzak. It is one of the only three-Michelin-starred restaurants in the world with a female executive chef (the only other one, I believe, is Anne-Sophie Pic at Maison Pic in France). Arzak wasn’t open when I went to San Sebastian 2 summers ago, so when we decided on a winter trip to Bilbao, I immediately seized the chance to make a booking.

I love the food in Spain. I love their meat, I love carabinieros, I love their seafood in general and I love the delicious pinxtos like fried quail eggs with pig trotters. The first mistake I made was perhaps booking Arzak in at the end of a 10-day trip that had already included another 3-Michelin-star meal in Alsace (I know, tough life); numerous favourites in Paris; and quite a few seafood meals and pinxtos crawls in Bilbao itself.

This is just to give some context as to why I was so disappointed with Arzak. Yes, I was already feeling quite full and over-indulged; yes my standards were high because of the fantastic series of meals I had; and yes, my expectations were probably not at a reasonable level. But all that aside, it really was just a completely lacklustre experience.

When we arrived, I was surprised to see that there were both a la carte options, and a tasting menu (of only 7 courses, quite restrained actually for this type of restaurant). Maybe because it was late (well, for us. For the rest of Spain, it was 2.15pm so just a normal lunch time), and also because I had an inkling I wouldn’t return anytime soon, I went for the tasting menu. Matt is of the opinion that that was our second mistake; that a tasting menu is never as good as a la carte. I disagree, because I think a tasting menu should offer the VERY best the restaurant has to offer; classic dishes that they are always proud of.

Gloom started to set in when we got our amuse bouches, none of which were a) worth describing; b) inventive; or c) served at the right temperature (unless tepid room-temperature is how everything including gyozas are served).

The first proper course is a marinated horse mackerel, dusted with purple corn (above). Mackerel and horse mackerel are two of my favourite fishes, and because they are so strong in flavour, it is hard for it to go wrong. And here, at Arzak, it’s not like they were bad. They were just so mild, and so small. You really had to focus on each mouthful to try to squeeze the tiniest bit of taste out of them.

Next up was a choice of either cooked oysters with a number of ingredients including vanilla and cacao (yeesh, no thanks); or scarlet prawn with krill (above). Again, did I mention I love Spanish seafood, especially their prawns and shrimps? Just the night before, I had two fantastic carabinero heads, just served plainly grilled and they were insanely good. Here, they are ruined by having too much done to them. Well, the bodies of the shrimp did anyway, served with everything from lemongrass to mint to krill; don’t even ask me where the heads went.

Next up is an onsen egg with corn, tomato candy and mushrooms (above), which was just a big meh. It’s hard for me to be so unexcited about a partially-cooked egg, but it really felt like a filler dish. The mixture of corn, tomatoes and mushrooms were fine, but no particular ingredient stood out, nor was it clear what was meant to be the focus of this course. It definitely was not the tasteless egg.

For the fish of the day, I got a monkfish Cleopatra with a seaweed waffle (above). Again, it’s not that it tastes bad. It’s just there are so many better monkfish dishes out there, and this reiteration wouldn’t be out of place in a 3-star hotel lobby.

At this point, I’m trying not to let my frustration or disappointment show, but it was hard to keep it in when my main course of duck arrived, served over some sort of iPad screen that had a video of flames playing (below). It was definitely one of those so bad you have to laugh moments. It was so gimmicky and might have been interesting in 2001, but now just feels desperate. It wouldn't be so atrocious maybe if the meat itself was delicious. It wasn’t. Although I asked for it to be served pink (and the waiter even clarified to make sure whether I meant bleeding, which I did); it was served well-done. The sauce apparently had orange, vanilla and kimchi in it, but just tasted of some generic and not very nice sweet sauce. And I know you aren’t supposed to judge food by the way it looks, but looking at the photos again, the colours were just so garish and off-putting.

By this time, I have no further interest in my meal; not even to take any pictures of it, so I’m afraid I have no photos of the first dessert, a chestnut ice cream with yuzu granita, which was surprisingly tasty and refreshing.

The last dish of the day is a “square moon”, and the waitress asked if I would like to take a video, which I do mainly to indulge her. Basically she pours hot chocolate sauce on a chocolate sphere, and it melts, revealing a rather disgusting mixture of mint and kiwi puree in the middle. Again, it’s not anything new or exciting, and the only surprise is really how unpleasant mint and kiwi are when mixed together.

Overall, the whole experience felt trite and tired. It’s not like there were no good points. The wines were very good; and I liked how the service was flexible: i.e. if you didn’t like either of the main courses on the tasting menu, you were free to choose whatever main course you liked from the a la carte. But I think the whole experience was really encapsulated as we were finishing our lunch, and the waitress came to pour the rest of our sparkling water for us; and poured it directly into my white wine glass. This lack of attention to detail is not serious, but really very surprising for a restaurant with this many accolades.

The tasting menu at lunch was 210 euros per person, excluding wine. Given the sheer number of options around not only in San Sebastian but also Bilbao, I will not be returning here. The last time I was this put off by a three-star Michelin restaurant was probably Per Se. 

[fungryandfabulous]

Sake Central

Sake Central, as the name implies, is dedicated to all things sake-related. Located on the first floor inside PMQ, this is primarily a retail space, with a small sake bar at which you can try sakes by the glass, carafe or bottle; as well as have some nibbles.

Sake Central is opened by Elliot Faber and a few others, so it’s no surprise that the menu is very similar to the one at Ronin, but with even smaller dishes (I know, hard to imagine). But it’s basically meant to be more snacks or tapas, rather than a full meal.

The room the sake bar is in is sleek, dark, with a few spotlights lit over the long communal table, and dark indigo walls. It’s simplistic and elegant.

We start with some daily specials, oysters from Miyagi (above). These are the only things that are not miniscule, and they are briny and sweet.

We try two more seafood dishes. The lightly marinated sardine with chrysanthemum leaves salad (above) is delicious; with a handful of fatty sardine fillets on top of chrysanthemum leaves that are dressed with an equally light touch.

The clams with fennel and gingko nuts (above), however, were slightly less successful. Although I liked the buttery stock the clams are cooked in, it’s undeniable that some of the clams are fresher than others. One actually had to be discreetly spat out.

Next up we try a pair of vegetables: burdock puttanesca (above); and brussel sprouts with chestnuts (below). The burdock puttanesca are not a success; as the root vegetable was a bit slimy, while the puttanesca sauce was tepid and not remotely spicy or packed with fishy umami.

The brussel sprouts are much more successful; pretty much drowned in butter and caramelised to the point of almost being burnt, with some very crunchy chestnuts thrown into the mix. It’s a great winter dish.

To finish, we have a pair of carb dishes. The first is a stunner, easily the best dish of the night: Okinawan soba with fresh uni, lemon and a lot of uni butter, garnished with seaweed and chives. This is just indescribably delicious: I don’t’ usually love uni on anything other than seaweed or some sushi rice, but this was just spectacular. It also is best paired with a cloudy sake that is served by the glass.

Unfortunately, after that, anything else was bound to be a let-down, and so it was for the agnoletti with pork belly and mustard, which came in a slightly over-reduced and also very generic gastride.

We shared all of our dishes, which were a bit of an error, to be honest, and next time I go back (and I definitely will), I will most likely just order the sardine, brussel sprouts and uni soba for myself.

Dinner for the two of us, with 4 glasses of sake and 1 beer, came to HK$1,600. It is similar price-wise to Ronin, but again, be warned, do not come if you are starving. This is definitely a nibbles sort of spot.

[fungryandfabulous]

La Rambla

Last week, I went to try La Rambla in IFC, the new Spanish tapas restaurant opened by the people behind Catalunya, which closed recently. I had high hopes as I remembered Catalunya in its heyday was really quite delicious, and the ambience was also lively. Given that La Rambla took over the rather cold and impersonal Isola spot, I tried to keep my expectations low.

And it’s true that while some people may enjoy the addition of the artwork by Javier Calleja charming, I did not. I found the drawings a bit infantile, and out of keeping with what was otherwise still a very impersonal atmosphere.

While the menu does have larger dishes such as josper-grilled meats and paellas, since it was just the two of us, we decided to stick to tapas so that we could try more.

First to arrive, always, is a plate of 5J bellota jamon, and although we hadn’t ordered any, it was nice that the (Spanish) waiter found it inconceivable that we would have it without any pan con tomate, and so sent us nicely crispy flatbread with tomatoes on it anyway.

Next to arrive were the bikinis: the little truffle and jamon-filled grilled cheese which were so famous at Catalunya. Unfortunately, these don’t compare as while the old ones were greasy yet strangely airy (and you could easily eat 2 or 3 pieces), these ones felt very stodgy and I had had enough after one. I think the problem is actually the bread wasn’t greasy enough, so it was also dry, and the proportion of the bread to filling was also wrong.

Next were a plate of colourful razor clams, just lightly steamed and served with ponzu-marinated apple and cucumber. While very pretty, these clams were pleasant, but not particularly memorable. The sweetness of the clams themselves were mostly obscured by the garnishes.

In an attempt to be healthy, we ordered a grilled plate of asparagus with truffle mayonnaise, but they were completely overcooked and limp and soaked in oil. Same for the padron peppers, which were also covered in a brown sauce, making them even soggier if possible.

You would think it would be hard for any Spanish place to mess up croquetas, but alas, the ones here had been super-sized into something quite grotesque and again, can only be described as both stodgy and oily. It is possible because they arrived quite late in the meal and I was already full, but I doubt I could have had more than half even if I were starving and they were the first thing to hit the table.

Finally, we got a dish that was properly delicious: “the perfect egg”, a slow-cooked quail egg in iberico fat; topped with potato “foam” (personally, I wouldn’t call this foam as the texture is definitely more just like very creamy mash), and topped with caviar. This was hands-down the best thing all night.

Although I was stuffed, my companion insisted on churros. Again, I didn’t mind because I remembered that Catalunya served their churros with a hot chocolate sort of ganache from a siphon, which I could eat by the spoonful. But as I should have realised by this point in the meal, the only way I could enjoy most things here was if I forgot what their old version at Catalunya was like. The La Rambla version came with plain old warmish chocolate sauce (not bad, but certainly not heavenly) and some cream.

Would I come back? I suppose if I were stuck at IFC and needed a lunch option, as I don’t really love any of the other restaurants either. And I suppose I would never say no to a plate of jamon, and fill up with the “perfect egg”. But it definitely wouldn’t be my top choice, and it’s a shame that it certainly has not filled the void of good Spanish restaurants in HK.

[fungryandfabulous]

Beet

I’ve heard mixed reviews about Beet, a new neighourbood bistro on Kau U Fong, where Le Port Parfume used to be. Someone had told me that the lamb they had there was too gamey; while someone else raved about the fish that was part of the set lunch. I was keen to go try for myself, especially after I learned that the chef came from Clipstone, a London restaurant that I had fallen in love with recently.

While you can order a la carte, we decided to go the full hog and order the 5-course tasting menu. It starts with an amuse bouche of snapper ceviche (cover photo) on a crispy cracker, which is tart, and bouncy.

The next snack is chicken liver parfait on a sort of ceps-shortbread (photo above), which I found delicious. You are meant to have it in one bite, but it’s a generous mouthful, so perhaps not best for those trying to impress on a first date.

The final little snack is a parmesan gougere (above), which was warming, but doesn’t compare favourably with the comte gougere they are serving at Belon, the only other one I’ve had recently.

Larger dishes arrive with a hamachi crudo (above). The menu doesn’t mention it, but it also comes covered with thin slices of peaches. Normally I’m not a big fan of fruit on my savoury dishes, but this is quite good, and it helps that the slices of hamachi are fatty and obviously of high quality. There is a kefir cream sauce and some caviar, and you do wish they bring out the bread (which should be the next course) earlier, so you can mop it all up.

I’m not crazy about bread (didn’t even take a photo), but the one at Clipstone was so good that Matt tried to persuade them to sell him some leftovers from service. He seemed to find the one here just as good, and Raph, (formerly of Yardbird but doing some consulting work here) told us that the chef is a bit crazy about it, choosing different waters for the dough depending on the weather outside. Last night’s bread was made with Evian.

Next up is a salt-baked celeriac covered with winter truffles, in a caramel dash sauce (above). I loved this though I think for a tasting menu, the celeriac could have been sliced thinner so that the portion size was smaller. The sauce though. Again, I needed a spoon just to finish it.

The main course is the porc noir de Bigorre (above), served two ways: a pink tenderloin, alongside a very smoky and fatty pork belly. They are designed to be eaten together, and it is accurately described by Raph as the wagyu of pork.

Two desserts to finish: the first is hay ice cream (above). I’ve seen this on menus a lot lately and I really don’t get it. Are people now eating hay? Am I supposed to know what hay tastes like? Well, this one just tastes like vanilla, but I like the wild rice on top, as well as the macerated strawberries.

The second dessert was brown butter financier with blueberry jam (above) which was a bit too sweet for my liking.

Wines: Beet works closely with La Cabane so you can expect a good number of their wines on the menu; and I actually preferred the options by the glass than the bottle.

Dinner for two with two glasses of wine each was about HK$2,000. The tasting menu is HK$690, a really good deal for cooking that is inventive yet refined. I will definitely be back to try the lunch set.

[fungryandfabulous]

Osteria Marzia

Another day, another Black Sheep restaurant opening. This time, it is southern Italian restaurant on the ground floor of newly refurbished hotel The Fleming in Wan Chai.

Focussing on primarily seafood from the south and coastal regions of Italy, Osteria Marzia is a good-looking restaurant, which should be commended for (finally!) being a restaurant that has managed to give off a hip vibe, yet at the same time managing their acoustics so you don’t have to shout to be heard; nor leave with a sore throat. This is such a rare feat in Hong Kong nowadays that that itself made me inclined to like the place.

The menu is simple, with a few crudo for starters; a section devoted to porcini; 4 types of pasta; and 5 types of grilled fish. I’m a huge fan of short menus, so again, we were off to a good start.

From the crudo section, we tried the hamachi (above); and the red prawns. The hamachi came out first and were so unbelievably fatty and unctuous that it could have passed for toro. I liked that the kitchen left well enough alone, so it was simply dressed with a few cherry tomatoes, olives and rocket, nothing more.

The red prawns (above) were similarly understated: although smaller than some of the huge Spanish ones you see around town, they are unbelievably sweet, and served with a half Sorrento lemon, and chunky flecks of sea salt. They were delectable.

We were off to such a good start I couldn't help but be disappointed with the carpaccio with porcini (below), which was severely underseasoned, dry, chewy, and bland.

From the pasta section, of course we opted for the uni spaghetti (below). Now we weren’t expecting a mountain of uni, but the four tiny pieces did seem very paltry. The spaghetti itself is quite creamy and tasty, except that every now and then, when you accidentally bite down on a piece of chili, it was unbearably spicy. It seemed a bit of an odd combination as the uni is so delicately flavoured, that after the first burst of fire in the mouth, it was pretty much impossible to taste any more of the sea urchin.

I had been looking forward to the branzino with clams, as a friend who visited the week before said it was far and away the best dish she tried. I can’t say that’s true for us. The branzino was on the dry side, and I was also hoping for brighter flavours from the sauce. It could have done with a squeeze of lemon, a more aromatic olive oil, and just generally pepping up of flavours. It was not memorable.

For sides, we had some zucchini fritters (above), which were also underseasoned (they should really just leave a salt shaker on the table), and also could have benefitted from a dipping sauce, perhaps an aioli?

Overall, I found the experience at Osteria Marzia quite enjoyable. The sommelier and wait staff are friendly and competent (especially for a new restaurant)  and I liked the wider than usual selection of Sicilian wines on offer. The food had a few standout dishes (hamachi, red prawn, uni pasta if you can take the spice); but overall was quite mediocre. But oddly enough, it was a pleasant enough experience that I wouldn’t mind going back, but probably sticking mostly to the crudo section of the menu.

Dinner for 4 people, including a round of cocktails and 2 bottles of wine, but no desserts, came to HK$900 per person.

[fungryandfabulous]

Tasting Court

It’s no secret that Chairman is one of my absolute favourite Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, so when I heard that there was a private kitchen which had recently relocated from Yau Ma Tei to Happy Valley, supposedly opened by the son of one of the original owners of the Chairman, I had to give it a try.

Tasting Court is located in a residential building on Wong Nai Chung Road, right by the racecourse, and you have to both book in advance, and also commit to one of their tasting menus. All 3 tasting menus are about a dozen dishes, and range in price from HK$698 to HK$788; with the main difference between the type of dishes on offer. We opted for the HK$698.

There are a few dishes that are served at Tasting Court, which are the same as the ones at Chairman, and those sadly are the ones that fared the worst. They were still good, of course, but unfortunately does not hold up to the original.

So from the appetisers, the deep-fried enoki mushrooms were just a little bit more greasy than the Chairman version; while the tea-smoked pigeon (below) a little less juicy.

However, when we try the dishes which are more original to Tasting Court, they benefited from this lack of comparison and came off very well indeed. One of our favourites was a Spanish iberico char siu (below), which had an excellent fat to meat ratio, and also is very different to your standard Cantonese char siu, as in it came without the red sauce. Rather, this felt more like a slow-cooked, almost braised, version, with a much less sweet marinade.

After these appetisers, there is a chicken soup with fish maw (below), which is hearty, and very similar to what you would get at any Cantonese mother’s kitchen. It had a tonne of flavour, but could have gone with an oil skim. The fish maw is also on the skimpy side.

The main event is the huadiao steamed crab, of course, and here I’m afraid it really does not compare to the original Chairman one. The flavours of the wine and chicken fat are soaked in less into the crab; the rice noodles clump much faster; and I really missed the finely julienned spring onions that came with the original.

Next up is a type of meatball served in a clear broth with some Shanghainese cabbage (below), and this was one of my favourites. It doesn’t look very impressive, but it’s very delicate and well-cooked, yet packed a punch in the umami levels. It’s basically a version of the Shanghainese favourite, lion head.

The soya chicken (below) arrives next, and again, I couldn’t help but be nostalgic for the Chairman one. Again, it’s hard to describe exactly why it is less good, but somehow the dish just comes off as a little less refined; the sauce has less depth; and the chicken is a little less juicy and flavourful. This is really more of a bog-standard soya chicken that you would get at most high-end Cantonese restaurants.

Finally, there is a plate of stir-fried Chinese kale with ginger sauce, which I found a bit greasy and forgot to take a picture of; as well as a plate of noodles with dried shrimp roe, which I was too full to try but a lot of people seemed to enjoy.

The last two dishes were dessert: a coconut and jujube gelatinous cake, which again I didn’t try but everyone around the table deemed too sticky and no one went for a second bite; and a cold drink with rice wine, which was pleasant enough.

Overall, I think if you have never been to Chairman, or balk at the ridiculous prices they are now charging for their crab dish at dinner, then Tasting Court is a good option. However, for me, I will still go to Chairman and get their lunch sets, which can include the crab and the soya chicken, for a much more reasonable price. Unlike the many rave reviews on the internet though, this is definitely not the best Cantonese food I’ve ever had.

Corkage is HK$100 per bottle, HK$200 for a magnum.

[fungryandfabulous]

New Punjab Club

New Punjab Club is Black Sheep Group’s latest opening, and in the media there was a lot about how it is founder Syed Asim Hussain’s homage to his heritage, etc. I was much more excited, however, by the fact that the chef was formerly from Gymkhana, one of my favourite Indian restaurants in London.

As with most hip restaurants in Hong Kong, the bookings were both hard to get, and also annoying. I received an email confirmation, plus two phone calls on the day, I suppose in case I had gone senile in the 5 hours between phone call one and phone call two. But sadly, that is par for the course in Hong Kong, and it barely even phased me. What did get my goat, however (which incidentally reminds me that my favourite dish at Gymkhana was a kid goat), was that when we showed up at 8.50pm for our 8.45pm booking, we were asked to wait as the people who had our table had not vacated.

I believe that when restaurants take multiple seatings per evening, it is the responsibility of the restaurant to make sure the first seating vacates with plenty of time. What you should most definitely not do is ask your second group of guests to wait, while the first group leisurely sips their wine. This is especially important because New Punjab Club doesn’t even have a bar, where you can perch and wait. Instead, in addition to our group of 4, there were another group of 3 who had obviously been given the same message, so there was a group of 7 people huddled in the doorway like Dickensian urchins sheltering from the rain, which I suppose is quite apt for the restaurant’s colonial vibe.

About 20 minutes into our wait, a waiter saunters over and apologies, says it will be a few minutes more, and has the gall to say he just “wanted to make sure we were comfortable”. We’ve been standing in a jammed doorway for 20 minutes, did we look comfortable to him, we asked back. What is even more galling is this: the restaurant clearly had my number seeing as they saw fit to call me twice in one afternoon; wouldn’t it make sense for them to call me actually at 8.45pm when they knew full well we would not be seated within the next 5 minutes? That would actually be a useful bit of information for us to have, as we could have taken our time and had a drink elsewhere, unlike the previous two phone calls to reconfirm my booking, a complete waste of time.

An incredible 30 minutes afterwards, we were finally escorted to our table. The gin trolley comes round and the poor waiter spends another 5 minutes painstakingly doing his job, which is introducing us to all the gins available. Unfortunately, we had to cut the performance short as we were now beyond ravenous, and had to alert him to the fact that we needed a menu much more urgently than alcohol.

Finally, an hour after our original reservation time, we are finally served some food. The menu at New Punjab Club is divided into starters (we ordered lentil dumplings and “smashed” samosas); items from the tandoori grill (we ordered chicken tikka and a fresh cheese); and curries (butter chicken and lamb shank); and sides such as naans; raita; and salads.

The smashed samosas (above) which arrive first were devoured, almost before I had time to register that they were oddly sweet; which became true for all the dishes which were served with the raita, especially if they were also covered with pomegranate seeds.

The lentil dumplings (above) are served cold and smothered in more yoghurt, but are nice and refreshing. I also liked the contrast between the dumplings and the crispy chickpeas on top.

The chicken tikka (above) arrives next on its own, and it’s spicy yet subtle; smoky and juicy. It’s a large portion; and best divided between four.

Next up is the butter chicken (above), which I must admit that I order in every Indian restaurant I go to. This one has a distinct taste of saffron, and while rich, is not too heavy. The chicken pieces are mostly white meat, which for me is a shame.

One of my favourite dishes was the cauliflower with new potatoes; the aloo gobi (above, in the foreground), with a top note of cumin. What I like about the food at New Punjab Club is that almost all the dishes have its own distinctive spice or herb which differentiates it from one another. So if the butter chicken was saffrony; and the aloo gobi had cumin; then the lamb shank (below) definitely carried an underlying note of cinnamon.

The butter naan (pictured next to the aloo gobi), however, I did not like. When it arrived at the table, there was a waft of that artificial smell similar to microwave popcorn. The appearance also looked like a calzone with that sort of hardened shell. I tried a small bite and found it hard, and not as soft and fluffy as the naans I prefer.

The paneer (above) cooked on the tandoor was made of buffalo milk, and while enjoyed by everyone else at my table, I did not find myself liking that, either. I thought it was quite bland, dry, and very stodgy. It didn’t even have the saltiness of feta to carry it.

All in all, the food at New Punjab Club is good. In fact, it was good enough to erase most of the ill-will that was generated by the reception. The service overall is also friendly and very enthusiastic. But again the evening hit a glitch when we received the bill, with one G&T charged as 3. The mistake was quickly rectified and even the one cocktail we did have was taken off the bill.

We’re not sure if it’s standard practice at the restaurant, or maybe it was to make up for the bill error, but at the end of the meal, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label was brought around to the table and we were all offered a shot, supposedly a typical gesture of Punjabi hospitality. We didn’t notice any other table getting them, and we would be surprised if they did, because after the shots were taken, the bottle was left on the table and we were invited to have as much as we liked. Perhaps that was why the people ahead of us were so reluctant to leave the table?

Would I go back? I probably would because I did enjoy the food; and the atmosphere. I might go back on a weekend when I’m less inclined to be irritated by long waits at the front door. Or maybe I’ll just go back when it’s not so brand spanking new that something so basic and yet so unpardonable could occur.

Dinner for four, with only 4 beers and 1 G&T, came to HK$2,200, which is obviously not cheap, but you are paying for the atmosphere, the hip beats, and the accoutrements like the gin trolley or extremely snazzy waiters’ uniforms.

[fungryandfabulous]

Co Thanh

Regular readers of this blog, if there are any, will notice that I’ve gone quiet on restaurant reviews for a while. This was because of a few reasons; I was doing a few reviews for some publications, and these were mostly of older and well-established places, so there was nothing new to write about. I also got sick of eating out so started cooking at home a lot more. But more importantly, even the new ones I did go to were so uniformly overhyped and disappointing (I’m looking at you, Octavium) that I just didn’t feel like writing takedown after takedown.

But last night, I finally went somewhere that was delicious, unpretentious, and basically inspired me to put hands to keyboard again, just to help me remember it.

Sorry to say that Co Thanh is not actually that new. It’s the super casual Vietnamese restaurant on Kau U Fong just off of Gough Street. It is opened by Brian Woo, who spent a few months in Ho Chi Minh City, learning how to cook from the famous Nguyen Thi Thành, (also known as The Lunch Lady). Co Thanh basically translates as Madame Thanh.

For anyone looking for your typical basic beef pho, this is not the place for you, as it isn’t served. Rather, there are three main types of soup noodles available. The first is a bun mam, a tangy broth made of preserved fish, balanced with sweet pineapple, and served with a variety of other toppings including squid, eggplant, roasted pork, and fish balls. The flavours are balanced, and even if you are trying to eat less carbs, you will get plenty full just eating all of the toppings and drinking the broth.

The second broth we tried was completely different, being a much richer, beef-based one. If the first broth is better for a hot summer evening because of its tanginess, then this bun bo hue is perfect for cooler weather because of its robustness and depth of flavour. It has beef balls, a slow cooked beef brisket, and some sliced beef, as well as a lot of scallions and shallots as toppings.

There is a third soup noodle on the menu, which we didn’t try, but chef Son Pham was kind enough to offer us a taste anyway, which was the bun thai. As the name suggests, it’s inspired by Thai flavours, and this one I really loved because it’s downright sour and salty, with tamarind and lemongrass, yet it’s clarity also makes it the lightest one out of the lot.

From the non-noodles part of the menu, we also tried the banh mi, which is bursting with ingredients, especially homemade pate and mayonnaise, as well as lots of coriander. While I liked it a lot, I did think that the acidity could have been a bit more evenly dispersed. Right now, you only get the tartness if you happen to have a bite with the pickles, but being a weirdo who likes all my bites to taste exactly the same, I would squeeze a bit of lime juice all over it to make it more consistent.

My least favourite dish of all were the spring rolls. I like my Vietnamese spring rolls to be on the lighter and fluffier side, but this one was quite stodgy, with what I think is taro mixed in with the pork filling.

As if we didn’t already over-order, chef Son Pham also gave us a taster of what was the lunch special, a few absolutely delectable pork sausage skewers. These contained just the right amount of fat, and were covered in deep-fried shallots. Unfortunately they came out last so I could only have one, but I made sure to pack the other one for my breakfast omelette the next day. I really hope they become a permanent menu item because as much as I hate having to queue up for food, I might do it for these sausages. Having said that, we were  told that Monday nights were the quietest, and when we went at 7pm, there was no queue at all.

Dinner wasn’t cheap, especially if you have street food price expectations in your head. It’s about HK$400 for two (massively gluttonous) people. But considering the dire state of pretty much all other Vietnamese offerings in Hong Kong, this is a price I would gladly pay.

[fungryandfabulous]

Blacksalt

Located where the original Grassroots Pantry used to be in, in Sai Ying Pun off of Third Street, is modern Indian restaurant Blacksalt.

To be honest, I’m really not one to judge Indian food at all. I know next to nothing about it. My favourite Indian restaurant is the stall in the wet market on Queen Street in Sheung Wan, where I always get the same thing: yup, butter chicken. I basically have the palate of a 7-year-old Mancunian when it comes to Indian food, so this is a review based purely on what tastes good to me, not its authenticity or anything like that.

There is a complimentary plate of mini poppadoms with lentils (the cover picture) before the meal starts, which are a bit soggy, but it has been raining for about two weeks straight.

To start, we order the okra chips (above): I usually hate okra because I hate the slimy texture in the middle, but I was told these were excellent. They are battered in chickpea flour and served with chilli kewpie. I ate a lot of them, despite the slightly nauseating texture, because the batter was delicious, as is kewpie, as always. I also liked the little slivers of red onions.

Next to arrive are the Kathmandu meatball mo’s (above): I don’t know why they are called that on the menu, as I always thought they were just called momos. Anyway, names aside, I liked these: the handmade wrapper is silky and quite thin, encasing pork rump and garlic chives. The gravy is also delicious and thick and creamy, and as the cauliflower couscous (below) arrived at the same time, they were a perfect match.

Also from the meat section was the Bengali ox cheek vindaloo (below). I have never had a vindaloo so I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but I didn’t like this one. It’s bland in spite of all the sherry vinegar, Kashimiri chillies and black cumin, and the taste of the meat itself is non-existent.

The “poulet tikki masala”, made with local free-range chicken (below), also doesn’t hold a candle to my wet-market stall butter chicken. The bird itself is quite tender, but again, I just didn’t think the sauce had the right bite. I did like how it came with a rice pilaf with pickled vegetables and raita though.

Overall, I think the meat mains were quite disappointing, but I would happily go back for a plate of fried okra and momo dumplings.

It’s interesting because on the one hand, it’s a cheap meal, roughly HK$200 per person, which for a night out in Hong Kong is extremely reasonable. But then, my curry in the wet market is HK$90. It is obviously a nicer atmosphere, with a decent wine list and some craft beers. So yeah, I’ll say it’s quite good value for money, despite some of my tablemates grumbling that “it’s still a lot for curries”.

[fungryandfabulous]

Gough’s on Gough

Gough’s on Gough, at 15 Gough Street, is a surprisingly large restaurant opened by “British vintage-inspired interiors brand” Timothy Oulton. Yes, I too was a bit skeptical about that, but I saw a couple of pictures of instagram of some rather delicious-looking food, so I decided to set my skepticism aside and try it.

This is really a post about how you should not believe everything you see on Instagram. Because what I saw was this: a number of delicious-looking posts of a dashi custard with sea urchin. (See the cover picture of this post) Which was all I wanted to eat. However, when I got there, I realised it was part of the tasting menu, not the a la carte. But luckily, the very friendly waiter asked the kitchen, and they said sure, no problem, you can have it a la carte.

I was ecstatic until the dish arrived. Because look at this picture again, carefully. Do you see what I see? Or rather, what I don’t see? Where is my sea urchin? Does it count as false advertising if what I order doesn’t match what I saw other people eating on social media, or posted on the restaurant’s own Facebook page? I thought it sounded too ridiculous so I ate my uni-less custard in sulky silence. It’s not bad, I suppose. I don’t love the teriyaki sauce, which reminds me of when you go to a Cantonese restaurant, and they don’t calibrate the soy sauce that’s put on top of a steamed fish properly, and it tastes a bit sickly sweet. But really, I’m sure that would have bothered me less if I had some uni to soothe me.

Anyway, moving on. The other starter was Scottish crab with a bit of mayonnaise, served with a pickled cucumber and some green apples. This is innocuous, though I think a bit too heavy-handed on the mayonnaise, I would have preferred a bit more lemon to let the crabmeat sing, rather than subduing it with the mayo.

The mains: I ordered the fish of the day (wild Scottish salmon) with mussels and a coconut curry. Again, this was a problem of expectation versus reality. Recently, I went to a Chinese-Malay wedding at the Marriott, where the main course was a Malay fish curry, and it was phenomenal. This was sort of what I had in mind, through no fault of the restaurant’s. But when it came, the fish looked quite sad with its few drops of coconut curry, and it also tasted a bit dry. I liked the garnish of tomatoes and other vegetables on the side, but wish there were more of it. I’m one of those people who like to make equal bites out of all my food: a certain amount of fish with a certain amount of garnish with every mouthful, and this proportion just makes it impossible.

Our other main was a Hungarian free-range chicken. Our waiter emphasised that they were truly run-around-the-farm free-range. I did  not know chicken from Hungary was now a luxury product. Anyway, it was very good. I didn’t order it (my date did), because I asked and it was chicken breast. But I have to say that for a breast, it was actually very tender, and there was enough fat on the skin to make it almost delicious. The little ball in the middle is made from the chicken leg, and is like a confit fried into a ball. Again, I have to comment that the proportion of vegetables (delicious asparagus) to meat is off. There should definitely be more vegetables, and sauce. All I have to say is, imagine how amazing this dish would be if the whole thing were dark meat.

 We weren’t particularly tempted by the dessert, so we polished off our wine and headed off elsewhere into the night for some cheese.

 Overall, I would say the food at Goughs on Gough isn’t bad, but the portions are tiny. We paid HK$1660 (without service charge, as is reminded several times); so about HK$1,900 total when you factor in your own service charge and tip. This was with a bottle of decent Cotes du Rhone. It’s expensive because quite frankly, you are not full when you leave.

 Would I go back? I wouldn’t be totally against it if someone suggested say a group dinner, but it is not likely I will seek it out again on my own. However, it does have a very nice bar, so it’s a good option for a pre-dinner drink in the area.

[fungryandfabulous]

Pici

I’ve been a bit slack with the blog lately, but I really don’t think it’s my fault because there seems to be a total dearth of restaurants opening lately. But I’m back, and here to voice what is probably a rather controversial opinion.

Pici is not good. It’s not worth however long the queue is. Last night, on a Wednesday night at 8pm, it was around an hour. It was not worth the wait. Let’s get right to why.

We were hungry, and opted for meatballs starters. At first, these aren’t bad: a blend of pork and beef, it’s relatively juicy. But then as we discovered quite soon about 1.5 meatball in (there are three in total), there isn’t enough tomato sauce, so after roughly the halfway point of the dish, it goes downhill, drily and quickly.

Then there was the radicchio salad. If you are allergic to nuts, do not come to Pici. I’m not allergic to nuts, I just don’t like hazelnuts in my savoury dishes, so we asked for the salad to come without. Lo and behold, it arrives with hazelnuts. The manager quickly notices and sends it back with apologies. Meanwhile, the table behind me has 4 Americans, and one is (loudly, how else?) asking the waiter what nuts come in the salad. “Walnuts,” replies the clueless waiter. I’m about to turn around and be a good samaritan to tell him that it’s actually hazelnuts, in case the guy had a deathly allergy to them. But it’s all good as he announces to the whole restaurant that no, it’s actually pinenuts he’s allergic to. Nuts aside, another gripe I had about the salad is if on the menu, goat cheese is listed as the second item (after the red and green mixed leaves), then there should probably be more than a pinkie-nail-sized amount of it.

The main events arrive: we ordered the liquid parmesan ravioloni with high expectations, which were promptly dashed. The first ravioloni we burst open had a satisfying amount of liquid parmesan oozing out, but the rest were duds. Worse, the pasta itself is too thick. The single layer covering the middle is just about acceptable, but when you get to the edges which are a double-layer, it’s chewy and stodgy. Finally, the sage is burnt. Not just nicely charred, but bitter burnt. It’s also underseasoned, with the only salt coming from the parmesan dusted generously on top.

Our other pasta, tagliatelle with porcini mushroom, is no better. Again, the seasoning is off: the porcini mushrooms are almost inedibly salty, while the pasta itself is bland. The pasta machine is again on the wrong setting, as the tagliatelle is too thick. Finally, a good saute would have helped the porcini mushrooms not be gooey and slimy.

Perhaps because the starters and mains were so disappointing, but we did enjoy the tiramisu a lot. The mascarpone is a nice golden shade of yellow, while the proportions of the ladyfingers and cheese is just right. Yes, it’s a tiny bit on the sweet side, and I would have preferred the bitterness of the espresso to come out more, but it was still by far the best thing on the menu.

In conclusion, if you are going to London in the summer, go visit Padella, and come back and tell me that Pici is even worth lining up 1 minute for. Or if you don’t make it to London, just go to Giando up on Star Street. 

Dinner for two with a carafe of Amarone was HK$980, service not included.

[fungryandfabulous]

Dim Sum Library

As much as I love traditional dim sum, I’m also not opposed to innovative versions, especially when they use ingredients that I love, such as sea urchin. So when I saw on Instagram someone posting a sea urchin spring roll from Dim Sum Library, a new Chinese place by the Aqua people in Pacific Place, I knew I had to go and try it out.

 The menu is very promising, and right away, I spot a few things I knew I needed to try. Three are from the chef’s recommendations list alone: the spring roll with Hokkaido king crab and sea urchin; osmanthus-smoked coddled egg with pan-fried foie gras; and very exciting, the dan dan xiao long bao. Sadly, all were good concepts, but just missed the mark one way or another.

 The smoked egg comes first, and it is a great shame that the foie gras on top is lukewarm, and a grainy texture. Flavour-wise, the egg is also not smoky enough, but still not as offputting as putting a tepid, sandy piece of liver into your mouth.

 The spring rolls were disappointing because of the mayonnaise they all sat in. It is sickeningly gloopy, and completely overwhelming. You couldn’t taste the crabmeat at all, and they might as well have used the fake, cartoon-looking one. The sea urchin was thankfully only on the outside of the spring roll, on the side that was not soaked in mayonnaise, so at least that was rescuable. Also, it was not even Kewpie.

 The dan-dan xiao long bao is a genius idea, but again, the execution falls very short, mainly because the dan dan soup is not nearly peanutty- enough, and too ma la instead. The meat is mushy and otherwise not memorable.

 A more “normal” dish is the Shanghai cabbage and fish maw in fish broth, but this was also disappointing because the fish broth tasted more like a regular vegetable broth, and the fish maw was crunchy. Fish maw is one of those bizarre ingredients that only the Cantonese really understand, and it is prized because of its high collagen level, giving it that sort of chewy, gelatinous texture. Here, it was as crunchy as conch.

Our final dish, which two waiters had recommended, was the Yunnan black truffle crispy-skinned chicken. I also didn’t like this. I didn’t like how all the chicken meat had been deboned, and then tossed in a sort of gravy or glaze, that had some hint of truffle in it. It’s really not necessary, and does not add to the enjoyment of eating the chicken at all. The skin was still nicely crispy at least.

Overall, I have to say the experience was not very satisfying, and it is a shame, as I think some of the ideas really did have legs. It’s just the execution that is disappointing.

Lunch for two, without alcohol, came to about HK$650; not a huge amount, but nor is it really worth it at its present quality level. I would not go back.

[fungryandfabulous]

Greater China Club

I’ve been meaning to go try out Greater China Club for a while, but because I’m an irredeemably lazy island girl, the fact that it was in Lai Chi Kok has always deterred me. So when a friend asked me if I wanted to join him and the PR for lunch on a Monday I wasn’t working, I thought it was as good an opportunity as any.

And although I’m sure it’s not news to anyone but me, it’s really not too far! It’s 8 stops from Admiralty, and it takes about 20 minutes. The restaurant is located in a shopping mall called D2, which is literally across the street from the MTR exit.

Greater China Club is a members’ dining club, that’s also open to non-members. The biggest difference is if you are a member, the menu reflects a members’ price versus a non-members’ price for each item. The decor is not, as suggested on the website, super-retro 1920s Shanghai-glam. Rather, it’s a pretty standard Cantonese high-end restaurant: nice enough, but nothing too memorable.

The menu is huge. There is a dim-sum menu, a larger dishes menu, plus a special menu on the day we visited, which was a sort of nostalgic, old-HK, 1950s menu. We chose a number of dishes from all menus.

First, from the nostalgic menu, we ordered a cholesterol-bundle of barbecued pork wrapped around barbecued duck feet, chicken liver and then some more char siu, which is the cover image of this post. To me, this is the sort of food that my parents talk about all the time but you hardly ever see on menus anymore, mainly because it’s a heart-attack on a plate, and we are no longer in a post-war era where you just want to get the most calories for your buck. Did I mention the whole thing is coated in honey? I don’t think everyone will like this dish, as it’s a bit fiddly and quite sweet, but it is definitely unusual. I liked the concept (I mean, it’s basically Cantonese turducken, what’s not to like?) but the execution could have been better, as the char siu on the outside was a bit tough; and the duck feet could have been braised in a stronger soy sauce, to give it a different dimension in flavour. The chicken liver was also just a touch over-cooked, making it a bit gritty rather than creamy.

Second from the traditional menu is a double-boiled pork lung soup with almond (above). I love a good Cantonese soup, the most incredibly comforting thing in the world. Pork lung soup with almond is something I used to have all the time if my throat was feeling scratchy, as it was meant to be soothing. This is an excellent version, and you can really taste the almonds, without the soup being unnecessarily sweet.

Third from the traditional menu is an absolutely delicious braised pomelo peel with shrimp roe (above). This is a much more common dish still made in most Cantonese restaurants, but this is an excellent version. The quality of this dish depends mainly on the stock that the pomelo peel is braised in, and how long the chef spends braising it. Pomelo peel doesn’t have much flavour, so it works mostly as a sponge. Here, the stock is excellent and therefore, the dish is excellent.

Fourth from the traditional menu is deep-fried milk custard rolls (above). I’ve only ever had this at one other restaurant (Chuen Cheung Kui, an old-school Hakka restaurant in Sheung Wan) and those were much better. Here, the outside of the rolls are much too thick. I prefer the other version where it’s almost like a very light tempura, where the gooey, piping-hot milk is barely encased in the thinnest of skins.

From the regular dim sum menu, we try steamed buns with chicken, black mushroom, pork, shrimp and quail egg (above). This I wasn’t extremely fond of as I thought while there was a lot going on, all the flavours of the different components were a bit same-same. It would have helped perhaps if the chicken was a bit fattier with skin. I do like the quail egg, though I’m sure that did not help my cholesterol count post-lunch.

Two other dishes we ordered from the regular menu was the barbecued char siu (above), which I thought too peppery. I also didn’t find it marbled enough: I like my char siu to have equal proportions of lean and fatty meat. However, I did like the sweetness of the honey glaze, which I find all too often lacking in more “modern” restaurants.

The second dish is the seasonal vegetables with Iberico ham in rice broth (above). The flavour of this dish is excellent, and I don’t mind the substitution of thin but fatty slices of Iberico ham for Yunnan ham. The broth is also quite thick, and personally, I would have preferred it if it was strained so you got the creaminess and aroma of the rice, without the chunks, but that’s probably just me. It was definitely tasty enough for me to doggy-bag it when there was half a plate left over.

For dessert, two very old-school desserts: sugar cane steamed pudding; and sesame rolls (above). I wouldn’t personally have ordered either of these desserts on my own, but I must say the sesame rolls had a fantastic chewy texture, and a nice, strong flavour of ground sesame.

Overall, I think the food at Greater China Club is not bad. I liked the pomelo peel a lot, as well as the vegetables. I would probably come back and try more of the dim sum. Actually, what I would definitely come back to try is their suckling pig stuffed with glutinous rice. When I saw this on the menu, I mentioned to the PR that I absolutely loved this dish when I tried it at The Eight in Macau, and she let it slip that actually the chef moved from The Eight to Greater China Club, so it’s probably just as good there. Which is great, as Lai Chi Kok is a lot closer than Macau!

Lunch: was paid for by the PR, so I have no idea how much it was, but judging from the menu, I would guess it’s roughly HK$1,200 for 3 people at the members’ price, and about 10% more for non-members. This is not inexpensive. As a comparison, I just happen to come across a receipt on my desk from Tim’s Kitchen (also not an inexpensive restaurant) where I went recently for a team lunch for 9 people, and that bill only came to HK$1,865.

[fungryandfabulous]

Beyond Burger

Lately, the Beyond Burger has been popping up a lot on my Instagram feed. Created in Silicon Valley, it’s a burger patty made of pea protein, and is supposedly cholesterol-free, antibiotic-free, hormone-free and GMO-free. Being the carnivore that I am, normally I would have turned my nose up at this, but on a recent weekend in Phuket, I found myself chowing down on some vegan sushi rolls that were delicious, so I decided to be open-minded and give it a try.

You can get the Beyond Burger at a few places, and I went to Ovo Cafe at Nan Fung Tower to try mine. Although it’s a cafe that portrays itself as healthy, a closer look at the menu suggest that it’s not. While waiting for our table, we saw what looked like poutine, but with a slab of avocado thrown on top. Or when I ordered my iced lemon tea, explicitly without sugar, it arrived with a centimetre of viscous sugar liquid at the bottom. Or when we ordered our kale salad, it came with a “vinaigrette” that was definitely not just olive oil and vinegar, as it was extremely sugary. Also, if you look at the picture closely below, you will notice a distinct amount of non-kale leaves.

But back to the burger: when it arrives, it certainly looks the part. It’s huge and the vegan cheddar cheese drips off convincingly. I take my first bite, and while a lot of the reviews online compliment it on its umami-ness, all I taste is salt.

On the plus side, I love the alfalfa sprouts on the patty; and at least texture-wise, the patty resembles beef. But there are a lot of negatives: the biggest of which is the vegan cheddar, which tastes like the sort of cheese-in-a-can that you get with nachos at baseball games.

The avocado served alongside is hard, and again, there is no thought to the detail as it is served with Heinz ketchup, not exactly the healthiest variety of ketchup out there. Similarly, it comes with regular French fries, without even an option of sweet potato fries.

A lot of people think this tastes like a real burger; and I suppose the closest comparison I would draw is your average music festival burger, where it tastes industrial, not exactly meaty, and not healthy at all. It is ironic that this supposedly “healthy”, vegan patty actually gave me that same chemical after-taste as a dirty, cheap, fast-food burger.

I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised because if you think about it, is there really that much difference between an industrially-made pea-protein-based patty, which is probably full of chemicals to make it as close to a beef patty as possible; and a hormone-filled, antibiotics-saturated, poor-quality fast-food patty? Ultimately, in both cases, you are eating something that is not natural, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that both just end up tasting artificial, and resulting in a slightly gloopy texture in the month.

Gram-for-gram, although the Beyond Burger has more protein than beef, I did not feel full or satisfied at all afterwards. Overall, it bears no comparison at all to a good, quality, fresh beef burger, which admittedly is harder and harder to find nowadays (though the patty at Blue Butcher, or Blue or whatever they renamed themselves as now is probably the best one out there). I also find it interesting that in the chart above, it makes no mention of sodium content.

Lunch for two, with two burgers, two iced teas and a kale salad to share, came to HK$500. That is a lot to pay for what is neither a tasty, nor particularly healthy, lunch.

[fungryandfabulous]

Happy Paradise

Happy Paradise, which sounds like a massage parlour, is the latest restaurant by May Chow, the chef behind Little Bao. It is located on the corner of Aberdeen Street and Staunton Street, where Steak Frites by Butcher’s Club used to be.

We went during the soft opening period as it’s the only time when the restaurant takes reservations, and when we arrived at 9pm on a Friday night, the first thing we noticed was how spacious the restaurant was. There are a few tables plus a dining bar, but there is a vast amount of space in between. I suppose the idea is for when the restaurant gets more popular, there will be a lot of standing room for people just drinking. The second thing I noticed immediately was the neon lighting. While it’s retro and nostalgic, it’s also really unflattering.

Although we had booked a table, the atmosphere seemed more fun at the bar, so we decided to have our meal there. I start with a Kowloon Soy Smash (above), a cocktail with mezcal, soy air, thai basil and ginger. I was forewarned that this was a savoury cocktail, which it was. It doesn’t go particularly well with food since it is quite salty, but no more so than a potent Bloody Mary.

From the food menu, we started with the salt and pepper bombay duck fish (above), a deep-fried tiny fish that is eaten whole. The meat of the fish is very light, so it was a shame that the batter here was quite thick, which overwhelmed the fish itself.

Also from the starter menu, we tried the radish with cucumber, ginger and ice plant (above). The cucumber and the radish are served separately, with the cucumber being quite salty, and the radish being sour. It’s a nice combination and a refreshing start to the meal.

From the larger plates, we ordered the slow-cooked chicken with glutinous rice and shoaling wine (above). This was far and away my favourite, stand-out dish of the night. It’s a whole chicken, which is juicy and plump, placed atop a mound of glutinous rice, and the whole dish is then soaking in delicious rice wine. It’s comfort food to the max.

Our other meaty main was a lot less satisfying; a char siu with silky egg and rice (above). The char siu doesn’t have that juicy, fatty almost limp texture that I like, instead, it was almost chewy like pork neck. And and while I enjoyed the side of pork lard to pour on top, I also thought it was missing some of that sweet soy sauce taste that this dish traditionally has. Also, if you notice the photo quality of this image suddenly got much worse, because at around 10pm, the restaurant transitions into a full-on bar, with lights very much lowered and the music very much pumped up.

Our last dish is another vegetable: cold celtuce stem with sesame and chili (above). We had actually ordered the kale with oyster sauce so you can imagine the confusion when this arrived in the semi-darkness. Taste-wise, it’s fine, but nothing special.

Dinner for two, without alcohol, came to around HK$800. It’s not a lot for a night out in Central, at a hip and happening joint; but nor is it a little for what we ate. I guess you come here for the vibe and the cocktails, and pay for that accordingly. Having said that, I’ll definitely come back again (early, while the lights are still on and the music is low) for the chicken dish for sure.

[fungryandfabulous]

Bun Cha

It’s a common enough complaint that you just can’t get no good Vietnamese food in this town. Not the low-cost, high-satisfaction type of street food that you can find anywhere in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh anyway. I’ve discussed ad infinitum the many expensive but totally mediocre Vietnamese restaurants on this blog, but now I think I’ve finally found a possible exception!

Bun Cha is up on Aberdeen Street, so if you want a good pre-dinner work out, just hike up from Hollywood Road. It’s located where there used to be a Japanese restaurant, and it’s extremely casual. Sitting on the terrace outside surrounded by plastic beer crates labelled Saigon or Bia Ha Noi, I definitely got a flashback of Bourdain and Obama having their famous bowl of pho together. Add another 15 or 20 degrees, and you can definitely imagine yourself in Vietnam.

The menu is relatively simple, though not 10 menu items as I read on another blog. Maybe more like 30? We ordered a couple of rolls: a shrimp and vegetable rice paper roll; a pork patty roll; fried spring rolls; a bahn mi; and beef vermicelli.

The shrimp rolls arrive first (above), and they are a pleasant surprise, in that the shrimp are still slightly warm, and obviously quite fresh.

The next to arrive are the deep-fried spring rolls (above), and although it sounds simple (deep-fried stuff is always good, right), it’s surprisingly hard to find some where the batter is crispy and not too thick; it’s not too greasy but still satisfying. These manage to hit all the right spots.

The spring rolls were good, but the dish of the night was most definitely the bahn mi (above). The bread, which is crispy yet slightly stale in that perfect way, is wrapped around a mountain of pickled vegetables, good dollop of mayonnaise, a tiny bit of pate, and then most importantly, perfectly fatty juicy pieces of pork belly. This is easily the best bahn mi I’ve had in Hong Kong, and easily beats many others I’ve tried in Vietnam.

The next roll we ordered was a mistake, as I thought I had ordered a bun cha (i.e. where the pork patty is grilled, and then served on vermicelli, with dipping sauce and loads of herbs. But somehow, we managed to get the roll version (above). It’s still good, and you can see the proportion of smoky patty to vegetable is very healthy, but I think I would have preferred to try the real bun cha.

The last dish was also the most disappointing, of minced beef on a bed of vermicelli, with peanuts, pickled veg and raw herbs (above). The proportion here is all wrong, as you finish all the toppings way before you even eat half of the noodles.

Dinner for two, with two beers, came to around HK$450. If you insist on comparing the price to street stalls in Vietnam, then of course it’s expensive. But considering its authenticity and the fact that you just saved yourself a couple of thousand dollars flying to Vietnam, I would say this is a steal. Just the bahn mi and spring rolls alone can get me here any time.