Linguini Fini... "cheap and cheerful"... and only that.

Shop Info:
Linguini Fini
1/F, the L place,
139 Queens Road, Central

9 July 2011, Lunch
$127 per head

It was a hot summer day... and my locust friend and I decided to try this new Italian restaurant in Central.  As with my usual horror food stories, the signs of trouble began early on, except that we didn't notice at the time.  Located on the 1st floor of the quasi-newly-opened L Place, Linguini Fini is right above 港土茶記.  Whilst the place was easy to find, it was nonetheless difficult to get to...

== Warning Engineering Rant Below ==

The problem was... despite claiming to be located on the 1st floor, this restaurant is actually located one something like an attic -- you can see the restaurant by looking up from the lobby of the building -- but annoyingly you can't get to it!  That attic only extends half way into the lobby, meaning that of the three available lifts, the outermost lift couldn't possibly reach this 1st floor (or it can open its door to... well... empty space).  Yet, when you press the button for the lift (whichever button you use, even if you press the one for the innermost lift)... the doors of the outermost, and only the outermost, lift will open.  To get the other two lifts to work for you, you'd need to drive the outermost lift up... and press the button again... It's not like it's an easy thing to do either, since almost all the floor buttons inside that problematic outermost lift is disabled.

What kind of genius of an engineer does it take to make such a stupid, thoughtless lift system?  If you wanna have lifts that serve different floors, bloody separate their call buttons!  Such blatant lack of design reminds me  of some of the firms I've met in my previous job... where the trainee engineer does all the job.  Jeez.

== Back to Normal ==

Anyway, we managed to get to the restaurant eventually.  The setting was of a modern, casual dining environment.  That's when the second problem popped up.  The wait-staff, whilst mostly friendly and welcoming, were using English to all their customers -- except the manager.  Now obviously the two of us are Chinese, and so were the waitresses.  Come on... this is a casual dining place... can we be made to feel at home?  some Cantonese, please?

I was hopeful when I saw the menu -- a two page, no faff menu.  Normally new restaurant + big menu = trouble.  But if the menu is reasonably sized, things should usually go fine.  The view of the semi-open kitchen gave hope as well -- I could continuously hear the head chef calling out orders and the rest answering and cooking -- a vibrant, lively kitchen buzzing with energy.  Food from such a kitchen should be good, right?

Unfortunately, no.  I don't pretend to be an expert on Italian cuisine, and in fact, I don't know anywhere near enough of Italian cooking.  However, there are two things which I do know, and that is 1) freshness is very important; and 2) Italians love their coffee.  Linguini Fini, I'm reluctant to say, spectacularly failed on both front.

To begin with, the bread.  The eagle eyed might spot from this rubbish iPhone photo that this piece of bread (interestingly served in an anchovy tin) is nowhere near fresh.  Look at the compressed air pockets near the edge...  My take, having tried to chew through that bread, is that their bread was made (perhaps in house, perhaps not.  Couldn't tell), left to cool, left in storage for maybe a few days, then chopped up, slightly reheated and served.  The 6-7mm near the edge was rock solid, whereas the rest was rather stiff.  That reminds me of that baguette I bought and forgotten about for a few days... then reheated in a microwave... Now has it occurred to the owners that leftover bread should probably be discarded?  Or maybe plan the amount made so their customers won't be served over-2 to 3-night bread?  Freshness, come on...

Then came the mussels.  I didn't really bother to photo that, since the mussels were rather... what's the opposite of fat... lean?  And perhaps not that fresh either -- difficult to tell since the flavour of the mussels was largely masked by the rather strong tomato and onion sauce...  Anyway, my focus was the garlic toast... which was rather severely burnt.  My complaints: 1) the bread used was the same as the one we had for the bread tin, and just as well aged, just as stiff; 2) garlic is a difficult thing to miss, but I couldn't taste it at all; and 3) all I tasted was charcoal, carbon, whatever you call it -- the taste of burnt toast.  That begs the question of "what the hell are the chefs doing?".  Don't they check their food before sending?  BURNT TOAST is rather difficult to not see, especially when served burnt-side-up!

Their signature "Linguini Fini, alio olio", as pictured half-eaten above, was no salvation.  Now as a side note, alio olio, along with a pomodoro something, were the two normal styles of Linguini Fini on the menu... the rest were "localised", with what I consider interesting combinations.  It doesn't seem I should go back and try though!  This Linguini Fini, which the waitress claimed to be house-made, had a texture resembling the "chau mien" of the dai pai dongs in HK... It was pointless trying to tell whether it was cooked al dente or not, or whether it's really house made.  The flavour was strange as well -- the herb used didn't really complement the garlic... this was a really strange pasta...

The ravioli... supposedly with ricotta cheese, herb and tomato.  Tasted only of tomato.  Enough said...

As for drinks?  We didn't order anything in the end, but it was quite an experience trying to figure out what to order -- the menu was again a two-page affair, with a selection of cocktails, wine, beer and draught.  Unfortunately, since we were not feeling like having anything alcoholic, we asked the head waitress / manager whether they have anything non-alcoholic, her answer... "well we have the cocktails" (yes I know, but they're alcoholic) and "we can make them virgin if you want to".  That's very accommodating, and I do appreciate that, but come on... it's not about whether I want to make a cocktail bloody virgin, or that you're willing to offer to make it virgin for me.  It's about catering for the need of your customers.  What if there're pregnant women? kids?  Couldn't they just have, say, good old simple hot chocolate, if they couldn't care enough to make coffee?  or tea?

And it's an Italian restaurant, right?  NO COFFEE?!?!!

P.S.  According to an unverified report from a friend, she spent some 60 minutes at this place during a weekday lunch service, and ended up having to take her pasta out.  And somehow she had coffee, which wasn't on the menu when we went...

P.P.S.  Its website claims that its food "Let bold flavor roll off your tongue, as ‘cheap n cheerful’ gives way to ‘marvellous and meaningful’".  Well... cheap n cheerful, maybe.  At least their food aren't exactly expensive and their staff are indeed rather friendly.  But "marvellous and meaningful"?  Unfortunately not... and "casual is not careless"?  What about my burnt toast?

Summary (Rated 1-5)
Food:  (2) Not exactly appalling yet, but I hate being served food that is so obviously not fresh.
Service:  (4) Friendly and welcoming, very good for this price range.
Environment:  (3.5) Good casual dining environment, although I'd appreciate some more space.
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (2.5) The whole experience was let down by the food.  What a shame.