News Room: The Pawn's Sister. Just as delicious.

Shop Info:
The News Room
33 Tong Chong Street, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
http://www.thenewsroom.hk/

25 February 2012, Dinner (Restaurant Week HK)
$475 per head

For the last two meals of the Restaurant Week, Locust Tunghok and I decided to shell out a bit more and go for dinner - which typically are better than lunch despite also being pricier.  On Saturday, then, we decided to go for The News Room in Quarry Bay.  Located right next to Taikoo Place and a mere minute's walk from the MTR, the restaurant is easily accessible yet separated from the business of King's Road, especially on this Saturday evening when the Taikoo Place was essentially empty.

What interested us soon after ordering was the water, which is the same as the one from The Pawn, as shown in the background of the photo above.  However, this not being a "British pub", we found it strange to find bottled water from Oxfordshire sitting on the table.  Now, though, having subscribed to the News Room newsletter and received their e-business card, the reason is clear.  They're from the same group!

Anyway, the bread was mediocre.  A bit too dry and as our wine (which I know nothing about...) arrived we didn't really give it much attention.

U.S. Nebraska Beef Carpaccio served with wild rocket, Parmesan shavings & white truffle dressing.

This carpaccio is one of the best I've had.  Usually when truffle dressing is involved it tends to be either 1) too weak that it's undetectable, for cheap restaurants, or 2) too pungent.  This time it was neither.  The truffle smell balanced very well with the beef and added to the flavour significantly.  People always say that smell enhances the dining experiance - this was definitely one of those cases.

U.S. Nebraska Beef Hanger Steak

Served with fries!

The steak was amongst the best I have had for the Restaurant Week, although being slightly overcooked wasn't as well executed as the one I've had at their sister shop The Pawn.  My focus was definitely on the fries though.  These were very nicely cooked, and whilst they are not fat fries, the outer crust was very crispy, almost glassy, and the center was moist and soft.  Reminds me of what Heston Blumenthal keeps going on about the perfect fries.  This might actually be one of the best fries I've ever had in Hong Kong!

Pan-roasted Corn-fed Chicken served with asparagus, leeks, black truffles & thyme

Instead of the steak, Locust Tunghok ordered this pan-roasted chickn for main and boy it was good.  Execution was excellent.  I've only tried a little bite of the drumstick and despite the normal-roasted-chicken look the inside was very tender and moist.  I've been told that the breast wasn't as good (because it's breast...) but still very juicy.  The star though, was the veg beneath, which were perfectly cooked and their natural sweetness has been brought out.  (Actually, execution was better for the chicken, but for the fries alone, I'd go for the steak!)

Classic Pear Tarte Tatin with Cinnamon Ice Cream

Dessert was a pear tarte tatin, a "dessert item" which I've long heard and read about but never got to taste.  The pastry was a bit hard and sticky but the pear was succulent and sweet but with the characteristic freshness of the pear which cuts through the sweetness to balance it out.  I didn't like the cinnamon ice-cream tough, altough it seemed to be nicely made.

Like The Pawn, who forgot to charge us for the water, the News Room forgot to charge us for the wines... which I didn't notice until after signing the bill.  The amount per head would be closer to $600 had those been considered.  And guess what they did?  After checking with some other staff, the waitress came back and told us "forget about it, we'd take care of that"!

A very nice dinner all considered.  Liked the carpaccio, liked the steak, liked the fries, liked the chicken and liked the tarte tatin.  Nothing much to complain about (that's rare)!

Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (4.5/5)
Service:  (4/5)
Environment:  (4/5) 
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (4/5)  Worth travelling all the way to Quarry Bay to dine here!

Goccia Ristorante e Bar: Cheap lunch set. Poor quality.

Shop Info:
Goccia Ristorante e Bar
Shop 2, 73 Wyndham Street, Central, HK
http://www.divinogroup.com/restaurants/goccia/about-us/

23 February 2012, Lunch (Restaurant Week HK)
$215 per head

Locust Tunghok and I decided to go for this little restaurant on Wyndham Street for our Restaurant Week Thursday lunch.  Reviews were overwhelmingly positive on the public restaurant review website, so we hoped to be in for a treat.

The establishment has two floors, the ground floor being the bar area and the 2nd floor the restaurant.  I did notice this rather interesting staircase design... ladies with short skirts should be careful when coming down... wait, that's a design feature?  Fine...

Rather depressingly, despite having booked rather early on I was informed that the indoor area of the restaurant was "fully booked" despite having quite a few empty tables and was told to seat at a table in the outdoor area (which I was later told is a SMOKING area).  Fortunately weather was not too bad and warm enough to seat outside -- it wasn't like there was any choice anyway!

That was the first disappointment of the day.  Now the second:  despite having the basil crusted cod fillet on the menu, it wasn't available, and was replaced with grilled salmon.  And they did not tell me when I was presented the menu.  Nay, I caught that change when the waitress was confirming my "fish" order!  Now two things:  1)  I like cod; and 2) I dislike cooked salmon with a passion.  So I ended up with the sirloin steak, same as Locust Tunghok.

Having just looked at the public restaurant review website, I've realised that others were served salmon as well... That doesn't sound like cod has "ran out" as the waitress claimed!  Now, if you do not intended to serve cod, which I understand to be a more expensive fish (?), do not put it on the bloody menu!  Just say you'll serve bloody salmon and I'd have avoided coming in the first place!!  Anyway...

The bread basket (actually a basket, of which I forgot to photo...) was OK.

Wild Mushroom and Black Truffle Soup

The soup was actually quite flavoursome, but I would suggest Goccia to rename it to "chunky mushroom soup".    The mushroom pieces weren't small and the black truffle (paste?  oil?) was good to be seen but didn't really add much to the flavour -- the signature earthy fragrance of the truffle was definitely missing here.

Sirloin Steak with Fontina Cheese and Sauteed Mushroom

Overcooked

If the soup was disappointing, the steak was bad.  It certainly wasn't as disastrous as the one I've had on my own at Craftsteak the day before, which was severely overcooked.  This one was very thin, about 1cm thick I'd reckon, which never bodes well for a steak, and was again overcooked.  As usual we asked for medium-rare, and as shown in the photo, that was closer to medium welldone.  The char-grilled flavour was lacking as well, since the steak was only lightly grilled (yet overcooked?  strange).

The cheese was a nice addition.  Although its flavour can possibly be ignored, it did add smoothness to the steak, which it in itself lacks... Furthermore, the steak came sliced and all the juices seem to be gone... that thing was quite dry.  (Need I say again that steak should be rested before cutting?)

Vanilla creme brulee served with chocolate ice-cream

Molten chocolate ice-cream

The dessert was a further annoyance, although by this time we were almost giving up on the restaurant.  The photo above was taken immediately after the plate arrived, and yes the chocolate ice-cream was half melted when served.  I do seriously wonder how long that plate has been sitting in some obscure corner before it was served to us, and whether the chef has any QC before letting a dish leave the kitchen -- any chef who can allow that half molten crap to be served should be fired.  This should be an unforgivable sin.  It was a horrid view to behold!

The flavour of the chocolate ice-cream was decent though, in fact rather strong, which I liked, but given the shape it was in I really didn't enjoy it at all.

The vanilla creme brulee was again OK, with plenty of vanilla seeds which looked more than it tasted.  Also a tall and thin-ish cup with a not-so-small spoon to eat creme brulee with was a bad idea.  The chef / waitstaff need to put more thought into how to serve and present their food!  The supposedly hard caramel was somewhat under-burnt (how I hope this is evened out with the overcook steak...) and not as crispy as I would have preferred.

Service was again mediocre, with no waitress to be seen when we wanted to pay and leave.  Many thanks to the guy at the pizza oven who helped us to find one... we could have been stuck there for much longer otherwise!

I do like to say again that I could not understand the rationale of these restaurants of participating in the Restaurant Week.  If all the reviews on OR are positive, there must be some good to the restaurant (oh wait some are free PR meals?), yet it has ruined its image to us by serving this obviously sub-par meal.  Good enough for the price, perhaps, and meeting price limitation might well be the reason why the cut of meat was poor (couldn't explain the half molten choco ice-cream or the overcooked steak though!) but that's no excuse for a restaurant to serve such poor quality food when they should be able to do better.  To me, it's always a choice of either raising the bloody price to serve a decent meal or to not participate at all!

So for me, unfortunately, I will not come back.

Oh, and for $290, slightly more than the price we paid here, we got a much better meal at Chez Patrick Restaurant.


Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (2/5)  Look at that steak.
Service:  (2/5)  No reasonable waitress should serve a half-molten scoop of ice-cream!
Environment:  (2.5/5)  Despite indicating that we wanted non-smoking, that wasn't accommodated and a guy who seemed to be the boss / boss's friend was there smoking.  Duh.
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (2/5)  Don't bother.

Manzo Italian Steakhouse: A culinary roller-coaster ride

Shop Info:
Manzo Italian Steakhouse
Shop 1104, 11/F, Times Square,1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay
http://www.diningconcepts.com.hk/manzo/index.php

26 February 2012, Lunch (Restaurant Week HK)
$390 per head

This dinner at Manzo was the last of our Restaurant Week meals, and we were hoping that this would be a good one.  Of course, knowing that this is a Dining Concepts really didn't help since our previous experience with Dining Concepts restaurants have been mixed.  There were some that we really liked (i.e. Bouchon) and one that I absolutely hated (i.e. Craftsteak).  The atmosphere, the sausage ageing room, the towel with a diagram of how beef cuts are named as well as the claim on the paper that they have a "Spiritview Ranch" where they raise their own cattle to high specifications gave us hope that this might actually be a decent steakhouse.

The Manzo Restaurant Week set dinner was actually a very interesting one.  Unlike other restaurants, their set actually did not give any choices -- the only choices available were red or white for the welcome glass of wine and how you would like the Sirloin cooked.

The bread was actually OK -- not as hot as I would have liked but at least warm.  Butter was piped (?) and there was this nice grilled garlic which the cloves were cooked so tender that it spread like butter.  Combining the butter and the garlic made up for the less than optimal bread (which was actually a bit dry).

We both went for the red wine, given we will be having steak and don't really know anything about wines except that red stuff goes with red wine (anybody better versed in the lore of wines care to enlighten us here?  Thanks!).  In the back is the Aqua Panna water which they almost double charged us for (OK, compensation for The Pawn who forgot to charge for the water?  Why do these restaurants always make a mess of charging for water?).  Lucky that we spotted it before paying...

That aside, we didn't like the wine at all...

Bolito Misto, Caramalized Onions, Beef Shank

We actually had no idea before the meal what Bolito Misto actually means, but a search on Google showed that it might be a dish that's "boiled together".  That's a wide definition!  It turned out that this bolito misto was a clear(ish) soup of beef shank and onions -- a bit like the soup part of the French onion soup but quite a bit richer (and a bit too salty IMHO) due to the beef shank.  Locust Tunghok thought it was a bad idea to actually have strands of the beef shank in the soup, since it was quite cooked and rather tough.  However, I did like it since its presence greatly enhanced the flavour of the soup (yes I mean chewing that tough bit of meat with the soup).  Guess it's difficult to have both then!

12oz USDA Sirloin with Barolo Reduction Steak Sauce

The steak was a bit of a disappointment.  Given that we both asked for it to be cooked medium rare, it was probably reasonable to arrive cooked the same.  And they weren't.  Mine was closer to medium rare than Locust Tunghok's, which was somewhat overcooked.  Whilst the photo might look attractive, the steak itself was actually somewhat lacking in flavour (that I had to further season it with salt...) and somewhat dry inside.  So... not that good quality a steak, as Ms. M commented?  The fact that this Sirloin is equivalent to the cheapest cut on their menu proper probably didn't help...

The barolo reduction was a joke to us.  Didn't really work with the steak, made things sticky and I don't think its flavour complemented that of the steak at all.  Luckily we didn't pour it on!

Torta with Mandarin Orange Sorbet

The "torta" was actually a slice of cheesecake, with my favourite biscuit base.  Rather fortunately / unfortunately, the flavour of the cheese was rather weak (albeit light) and as a result the thing was quite bland, especially after the steak.  The sour compote drizzled on top didn't help much either.  Why fortunate?  Because we were really really full by then... The mandarin orange sorbet was rather decent though.

Nonetheless, I'd very much prefer a decent "pick me up" then this cheesecake thing...

Latte

The latte was the real disappointment though.  It was thin, sour, bitter and with a layer of oversized bubble foam on top.  It was on the verge of being an awful cup of coffee.  One sip each and we left it there.  That we just went to Rabbithole for their latte and had that fresh in our memory certainly didn't help!

In all, the meal seemed to have gone downhill from the soup, which was rather nice, to the awful coffee.  I guess we really couldn't ask much of the restaurant though, as $390 for dinner at a steakhouse was not very pricey and we might be asking too much if we wanted a superb cut of steak.  That said, I would at least expect better execution!  The conclusion?  I wouldn't regret trying this restaurant, but given the quality of food and the not-really-that-cheap price, I wouldn't be going again either!

P.S.  The steak really made me wonder what's the point of Dining Concepts' restaurants participating in restaurant week.  Normally I would think it is to promote is restaurants to the foodies who manage to book tables via the system to enjoy these supposedly attractively priced sets.  If that's the case, what's the point of participating then giving the restaurant's worst shot to the cause?  The cheapest cut cooked to show inconsistencies?  The frankly rubbish steak at Craftsteak?  The rather unattractive menu for Bouchon?  That will ruin their reputation!  Do they ever realise that some of these people might well be coming back if they're impressed, or that some of these people might write to bitch about their unsatisfactory experiences?  Really... If you're gonna do it, please do it properly (read:  feel free to charge more but don't be such a cheapskate!)


Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (3/5)  Decent.  Acceptable given the price.
Service:  (3/5)  Not bad.  Kind of friendly.  Need to wave around to attract attention at times.
Environment:  (3.5/5)  Reasonably comfy.  A bit too dark though (see the photos!)
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (3/5)  Maybe worth visiting.  If you're curious.

Chez Patrick Restaurant: Good value restaurant week lunch

Shop Info:
Chez Patrick Restaurant
26 Peel Street, Central
http://www.chezpatrick.hk/

24 February 2012, Lunch (Restaurant Week HK)
$290 per head

Chez Patrick is one of those places where I have passed by and wondered how it's like, but never really entered to try.  Its elegantly designed front gives a welcoming feel but also suggests its not-so-low price.  It's location right next to the market on Gage Street is by no means conventional, but one can be assured that it is quiet in the restaurant.

We locusts finally decided to try the Restaurant as part of our Crazy Eating Week, and visited on this suddenly-rainy day, having forgotten to bring our umbrellas...

Being distracted heavily by the very nicely plated amuse bouche (glimpse of that in the background - I've unfortunately screwed up all the photos of that...), I really didn't have much recollection of how that bread & butter tasted like.  Except that the bread was served warm, butter was room temperature-ish, and that neither was as good as the combination I had a few days ago:  Mandarin Oriental Mini Baguette and Le Gall Beurre de Baratte Demi-Sel (recommended to me by Miss M!).

Terrine de campagne traditionnel de porc, petite salade, et marmelade d'oignons aux abricost

For starter we both ordered the "traditional country style pate, oignons and apricot marmalade".  The pate itself was very rich and smooth, and the heaviness / creaminess was very nicely balanced by the apricot marmalade, which brought a touch of freshness to the combination.  Would love to have more!

Filet de Sole en ballottine de courgette, tomates confites, Poutargue et creme d'ail douce - a.k.a. Angry Bird Face according to the Manager!

In good old English, that's Rolled Sole Fillet with Zucchini, comfit tomato and Poutargue, creamy garlic sauce.  The sole fillet was nicely cooked, although it being rolled means the meat was a bit stiffer and more gelatinous than I usually like it.  The zucchini and tomato cut through the richness of the fish to balance the flavours rather nicely.  Being not very well-versed in French cooking, I had no idea whatsoever of what that red dome was - except that it was exquisite and tasted very nice.

That said... for me this fish isn't as good as the one we had at Amber... or Robuchon a Galara... Those were of course cooked differently but I feel that this lacks the juiciness and tenderness the other two offered.

Aumônière Croustillante de Brie au truffe Noire,  Pommes, Petite Salade Mélangée

i.e. Warm Brie Cheese, apple and Black Truffle in crispy parcel, Mixed Salad.  This was definitely a very interesting dessert, although being the 10-years-old that I am I felt that it is more like a starter since it was savoury instead of sweet (yes I like desserts and sweet stuff!).  That said, the crispy parcel was really very crispy indeed and combined with the unknown sauce provided a very interesting taste.  The brie and apple worked surprisingly well with the truffle and was certainly an interesting experience for me.  Couldn't really say I liked it though.  I still want something sweeeeeet for dessert...

Ile Flottante caramélisée dans un coulis de mangue et menthe fraiches

Such as this "Caramelized Floating Island, Fresh Mango and Mint coulis" Locust Tunghok ordered.  The meringue was very light and fluffy and worked well witht the mango and mint coulis.  I have to confess I didn't really realise there's mint in there without referring to the menu though... I really should have picked this one...

Overall a very satisfactory meal and for $290 per head, worth its money too (this is actually cheaper than bloody Craftsteak), especially given the fine service of the manager and comfy environment.  In fact, this is one of the aspects that I think some of the other restaurants I ate at during Restaurant Week should learn.  Throughout lunch service, there were only two waitstaff, one being the manager, serving some 10 tables.  Somehow they managed to serve all of us just fine, and along with Chef Patrick socialised with the guests, recommended dishes (yes, they knew what they were serving quite well), made the rather mediocre coffee for us and all the while being quite humourous.

Whilst that shouldn't be anything special in a decent restaurant, it certainly felt that way after a team of ~8 consistently blanking me at Craftsteak just the day before...

Oh and I've overheard that this location will be closing soon, to be moved to somewhere in Wan Chai.  So better check their website before visiting!

Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (3.5/5)  Food was rather nice, but not quite "wow this is good!!" nice.
Service:  (4.5/5)  Very friendly and knowledgeable staff.
Environment:  (4/5)  A shame we had to find our way through the wet market to find this place.
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (4/5)  Worth Visiting.

Craftsteak: CRAP-I-stepped-on-a-landmine-STEAK

Shop Info:
Craftsteak Open Fire Cooing
29 Elgin Street, Soho, Central
http://www.diningconcepts.com.hk/craftsteak/index.php

22 February 2012, Lunch (Restaurant Week HK)
$316

The second lunch with Me and Myself during the Restaurant Week was at this restaurant on Elgin Street, quite near Bouchon which we liked a lot.  Unfortunately, this turned out to provide me the opportunity for a change back to normal - to the negative reviews I'm more used to writing...

The first sign of trouble became apparent after I sat down at the table right next to the door.  Why I was given that table where I experienced a miniature tornado whenever anybody comes in despite me being the first customer to arrive is beyond my understanding – there were empty tables throughout lunch.  Anyway, delivery after delivery of raw materials: canisters of coke, beef, and whatever else, kept coming through the door, throughout lunch service.  Perhaps they can arrange their deliveries better so their customers won’t have to endure deliveries squeezing by so many times?

Then it was the chaos in understanding the booking.  As far as I know, and as far as my previous 3 Restaurant Week meals told me, those who booked under Restaurant Week will be presented the RW menu.  Not here.  I had to ask the waitress repeatedly before she realised “oh!  Restaurant week!” and gave me the RW menu…

Bread – telling me that the chef don’t give a damn what they serve their customers

If the previous made me worried, the bread they served confirmed that I’ll be in to endure a rough lunch.  Look at that cheap, blatantly purchased bread, slightly warmed and served, which just tasted like those served in HK-style “Western” restaurants.  The pate next to it was a mystery.  I wasn’t told what it is but it tasted of canned tuna.  That “pate” was very solid (as in hard) but flavour was weak.  Worse still, whoever filling that little container with that pate obviously wasn’t paying attention, as the outside of the container was very greasy and not wiped clean.  Thus I ended up with a sticky finger…

French Onion Soup and Gratinated Cheese – not bad

The onion soup was actually decent.  Portion was big but the flavour was there, albeit somewhat  weak.  Not as good as the one we had on Monday at JAR though, which was much stronger in flavour.

Grilled Flank Steak, French Fries, Sauce Bearnaise – overcooked and burnt

Really quite burnt...

... and quite overcooked

Sent back…

The steak, though, was a complete and utter mess.  The cut of meat was haphazard – a long and thin strip.  The steak itself was severely overcooked.  I asked for it to be done medium-rare, and it came well done and burnt – don’t tell me those are grill marks, because it was obviously burnt and taste very bitter.  The inside was almost cooked through with only a slight bit of pink, and it was dry.  The fries on the side?  Well, those looked like cheap packaged fries to me, and definitely not house made.  Tasted much better than the steak though.  I ended up giving up and sent most of it back (see photo…)

Vanilla Ice Cream – or vanilla essence ice-cream

This is probably one of the most un-imaginative dessert I see on the Restaurant Week menus.  Nonetheless, had the ice-cream been good, all would be fine.  It wasn’t though.  Portion was extremely big (the scoop was almost the size of my fist!) but from the colour alone one can tell it’s crap.  Its yellowish tinge shouts “vanilla essence” and it tasted of exactly that, despite the black spots which could be vanilla seeds.  The ice-cream itself wasn’t smooth and flavour was obviously artificial.  Again only finished half.

Latte ($38 + 10%) – worst I’ve had in quite a while

Ordered latte, which arrived foamy and very light in colour.  Can tell immediately it is crap and it was.  Almost no coffee flavour at all except a bit of bitterness.  Foam on top was detergent-like.  Worst latte I’ve had in a long while (the previous that was as bad was Starbucks).  Oh and it’s more expensive than the one I had at Rabbithole which was in a completely different league.

Sometimes I do feel that restaurants like these need to distinguish between quantity and quality.  Providing large portions of poorly made food to customers would only elevate their anger and not mitigate anything, especially when the customers do not want to waste food.  At $248 + 10% the lunch set wasn’t cheap at all and as far as I know, is higher priced than their normal lunch sets.  That wasn’t matched by the quality of the food at all.  This is supposed to be Restaurant Week and no GROUPON budget meal!  I do understand that this price is a bit low for a good cut of meat but at the very least it should warrant proper execution.

Had they price it at $98 I won’t be as furious, because that’s about how much I felt this set is worth – but I’ll know better than giving it a try at that price!

When I left, I finally noticed the two (quite) young “chef” working at the grill… where’s the head chef?  And where’s your QC?  I still couldn’t believe any reasonable chef could send that burnt piece of steak…

Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (1/5)  Failed in almost every dish.  Except the mediocre onion soup.
Service:  (3/5)  Nice enough staff but not very attentive.
Environment:  (2.5/5)  Actually not bad but I was given maybe the worst table in the restaurant.
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (2/5)  Don’t bother.  It’s not exactly cheap and quality doesn’t match the price.

The Pawn: Lunch with Me and Myself

Shop Info:
The Pawn
2-3/F, 62 Johnston Road, Wan Chai
http://www.thepawn.com.hk/

21 February 2012, Lunch (Restaurant Week HK)
~$290

Being true to this Locusts' crazy eating week, I booked lunch at The Pawn for myself so this is my turn to have a lunch with Me and Myself!  A quick tram ride away from office, this is a superb spot for a decent lunch during a busy day.  Frankly, I did not pay much attention to what the waitress was asking when she called to confirm the table - except that I wanted a table on the balcony.  And balcony it is.  I would argue that she gave me one of the best table on the premise.  Seated right at the corner of the 2/F balcony, I was close to yet away from the busy traffic below (and surprisingly not very noisy thanks to the glass balustrades) and had a very open view.

Better still, perhaps because not many people are willing to sit outdoor on this (still) rather cold day, I had my little section to myself for the whole lunch!  So nice...

This being a British pub, guess what bottled water they serve?  Nothing French of course!  This is "drawn from the aquifer within Blenheim Park (Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire)".  That might well be as British as you'll get.

The Britishness didn't end there.  On the back side of this little salt box, it actually says "sea salt flakes" instead of "Fleur de Sel"!

Anyway, the herbed bread was decent and warmed when served.  However, I did find the cold, hard butter which wouldn't spread to be somewhat annoying.  It would be much better if they warmed it up to room temperature.  But then again, the (unsalted) butter itself was quite bland and lacks the creaminess and richness one would expect of a good dollop of butter...

Marinated Tomatoes & Goat’s Cheese served with garlic toast & basil and rosemary oil

This starter was very nice.  The marinated tomatoes were packed full of flavour, with a distinct swetness and tanginess and is very juicy, which balanced quite well against the crunchy toast, which somehow managed to remain dry despite sitting underneath the tomatoes.  I couldn't really tell the "garlic" bit of the toast but with the fragrance of the basil and the oil it soaked and the creaminess of the cheese, every mouthful was a well balanced treat.  Personally I would prefer to have the tomatoes skinned though, removing the annoyance of having to chew through it and enhancing the contrast between the juicy tomato and the crunchy toast.

Coal-Grilled U.S. Nebraska Flat Iron Steak Rubbed with mustard & garlic served with spring onion mash & Port and Stilton Sauce

Whilst the staff didn't ask how I wanted the steak done, it came medium-rare, just how I'd like it.  The photo taken under strong sunlight here is rather deciving since it was actually quite pink / red in the core.  The steak itself could be better since the end bits were a bit dry, but otherwise as a whole it was moist and flavoursome.

I do feel, however, that the star is the mash.  The spring onion is a very nice touch, adding freshness which balanced the normally heavy mash.  Also, personally I'd prefer more butter in my mash (make it 50%!  haha), and maybe a bit more salty.  But then, that's where the sea salt flakes came in handy!  With that added, it was just soooo nice...

Honey Sponge & Ginger Ice Cream

The dessert was decent and the ginger flavour was there but not overpowering.  The sponge was on the dry side though.  Would not be my favourite dessert but couldn't really complain either...

The service here should be commended.  I have almost never seen a wait-staff standing around during lunch but somehow, whenever I finished the dish, somebody appear out of nowhere to pick it up and to serve the next.  I really like the way how you do feel undisturbed and at the same time the service doesn't drop.  The staff, from the lady calling to confirm the table to the girls greeting at the door to the bloke who told me I should go to the second floor instead of wandering on the first to the guy to the waiter who served me throughout my lunch, were all very courteous and friendly.  I do hope more restaurants have staff like theirs!

Now, as a side note, I suspect they've forgotten to charge me for the water...?  Should have added that back had I noticed...

Anyway, it was a really pleasant lunch and I'm sure I will be back to try their other dishes.

Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (4/5)  Very nice.  Well worth the money.
Service:  (4.5/5)  Very friendly staff who are actually ninjas and can conceal themselves.
Environment:  (4.5/5)  Might actually have been a 4, but loved the table I got!
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (4.5/5)  Worth visiting, and revisiting, and revisiting.  It's really quite good.

JAR: Yes it's Just-A-(decent)-Restaurant!

Shop Info:
Just-a-restaurant
2/F, 8 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong
http://www.justarestaurant.com/

20 February 2012, Dinner (Restaurant Week HK)
~$340 per head

As the first meal of the Locusts' crazy eating week (yes we went bonkers signing up for restaurants in the restaurant week HK), we went to this casual diner on the floor above La Piola.  This is one of the places which we always wanted to try but never really got around to do so - and restaurant week has given us the perfect excuse to do just that.

The environment of the restaurant was cozy, elegant and minimal at the same time.  With the smooth wooden furnitures and simple painted ceiling, friendy staff, I really shouldn't have much to complain.  Except for two things:  1) it's such a shame that for most tables, they've decided to cover the whole table with table cloth.  A touch of wood makes the feel so much better; and 2) seriously, they need to tweak their hi-fi system.  Like most restaurants without consulting acousticians, this place has mostly hard surfaces, and the speakers are placed near the ciling - right next to the beams.  As a result the low frequency of any music they play is overwhelming whereas the higher frequencies gets blocked.  Or perhaps it's the resonance of the low frequency notes due to lack of absorptive materials.  In any case, the constant booming bass gave me the headache.  The easy way out?  turn the bass down.  Then the diners will be able to actually listen to the soft background music when they eat.  Or enlist the help of an acoustic consultant.  A boomy base, albeit a seemingly unimportant detail, can make or break the restaurant's environment.

Anyway, to the food - which matters most to us!

Personally, I really like the way they serve the bread - in a hemp (?) sac with warm rocks in a bottom pouch.  The bread was warm and soft and the butter that came with it was room temperature and suitable for spreading.  Unfortunately, the bread was on the dry side, even with the butter applied and the butter was rather tasteless.

Smoked Ham & Sweet Potato Croquette with cranberry apple compote - Didn't like the compote.

The amuse bouche was an item which I failed to comprehend.  Usually amouse bouche is meant as a refresher for the taste buds - to prepare the diner for the meal.  It's not usually meant to be anything heavy... but here comes this ping pong-sized potato croquette.  The croquette itself wasn't bad though, fried right and it held its shape well.  The ingredients themself, however, did not really come through.  I did not realised it's smoked ham & sweet potato without referring to the menu and we thought the cranberry apple compote was some tomato puree.  I would say, though, that the strong sourness of the compote did not go that well witht eh croquette.

That presentation reminds me of Amber's foir gras lollipop though... :P

Salad of Blue Swimmer Crab & Butter Lettuce,  avocado, mushroom & poppy seed

French Onion Soup

I rather liked this starter duo except for the (raw) mushroom, the avocado which didn't add much to the flavour of the salad to me, and the burnt cheese of my onion soup :(

The crab meat was flavoursome and moist, which went really well with the sweet and refreshing butter lettuce.  The french onion soup was well executed (except for my burnt cheese!!), which is very strong in flavour.  Portions were just right, although I'd loved to have more of the onion soup...

Casarecci with Portobello Mushroom with caramelized onion & goat cheese (V)

The main I ordered was a funny pasta.  Although I do know and like the basics like spaghetti and linguini and penne, I've never heard of casarecci.  A quick google search showed it to be a funny look S-cross sectioned pasta.  And that's exactly what it was!  The chef seem to be really good in dealing with onions, since the caramelized onion in this dish was again very strong in flavour, with the natural sweetness of the onion brought forward by cooking.  The Portobello mushroom was a good addition and added an extra dimension to the flavour.  I'm less sure about the addition of goat cheese, although I suspect that it had something to do with the smoothness of the dish...

What I like most, however, was its execution.  The pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce (or should I even call it a sauce?) and other ingredients clings on to the casarecci pasta really well, with the shape of the pasta certainly helping here.  The plate was dry after the pasta was finished (no I didn't lick it) but despite that, the pasta itself was moist.  Very good balance there.

Hanger Steak with arugula salad (supplement $50)

I swapped some of my pasta for Locust Tunghok's hanger steak, which was well cooked.  It came medium-rare as requested, brown on the outside, pink / red in the core.  The complain I'll have, though, is that the meat wasn't sufficiently rested before they cut it up.  Too busy in the kitchen, perhaps?  As a result the juice has "escaped" into the sauce, making the meat itself slightly (only slightly!) dry.  Could have been better.

Signature Banoffi Pie

Didn't like the banoffi pie at all.  Cream was part-frozen and base looked ready-made and too thick (even if I like digestive biscuit bases, this was still too thick).  Banana slices with caramelized sugar on top, on the side, was a nice touch though.

I rather foolishly asked for a latte, which turned out to be a joke (tasteless with detergent-like foam on top) and couldn't be bothered to take a photo of that.  Locust Tunghok's coffee didn't seem to be any better...

We asked for a look at the regular menu after dinner -- to realised that it is FILLED with items that we'd love to eat.  Probably should have came for the regular menu then... XD

In the end, it was a very satisfactory meal.  Will likely come again!

Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (3.5/5)  Some well executed dishes, but not all.
Service:  (4/5)  Very pleasant staff.
Environment:  (4/5)  Penalized for excessive bass of the background music.
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (4/5)  Worth visiting.  It's not exactly cheap though!

Oolaa: Oocrap!

Shop Info:
Oolaa
G/F, Centre Stage, Bridges Street, Soho, Central
http://www.casteloconcepts.com/locations/hong-kong/oolaa-hong-kong

18 February 2012, Lunch
~$260 per head

As the title of this post might suggest, this is yet another instalment of Locusts' eating-adventure-gone-bad.  On this cool Saturday afternoon, we decided to visit this rather remote establishment near Central.  Located to the west of Aberdeen Road and accessible via Stanton Street, the "Soho" in the address is rather questionable.  However, other than that one might find it difficult to describe this area.

The restaurant is much larger than we imagined (or realised, since we've walked past this place a few times already) and comprise of a bar, dining area, private dining and an outdoor area, which occupies almost the entire ground floor of the Centrestage Towers.  We were reassured by the fact that the establishment was packed with people and went for it.

To go straight to the point, 1) there was almost no service; 2) food was crap; 3) overpriced.

For me, the only saving grace was the pint of Kronenbourg 1664 and the half pint of Asahi, which were nice and not often available as draught in Hong Kong.

To begin with, Nobody gave a damn when we entered the restaurant.  Waitresses (and there were many) walked by and none thought of at least checking out what the two customers who just came in wanted.  Find us a table, anyone?  Perhaps being Chinese in a restaurant where almost all diners are Gwei-los surely didn't help, but I do consider finding your customers a table or telling them you don't have one to be basic hospitality.

After stopping a lady who seemed to be the manager for a table and being shoo-ed off to a high table in the bar (nobody ever asked what we wanted - we were here for freggin LUNCH and there were obviously tables in the dining area!), we asked for a menu.  And I thought it's a common practice to show your customers the menu as see what they want.  Anyway, we had to ask two separate wait-staff and finally got to appreciate the menu after a good 5-minute wait.

Now, it would be normal to expect that the place was understaffed and the house crew were stretched too thin to provide any quality service -- no, the place was freggin SWARMING with wait-staff, most appearing to be extremely busy, or at least trying to seem to be extremely busy by wandering around all the time.  WTF, really?

Steak Tartare with Roquefort foam, quails egg, Turkish toasts and a gazpacho ‘shot’ ($160) -- worst I've ever had...

This steak tartare was the worst I've ever had.  By far.  Its problems are many:

1)  The freggin patty / dollop / pile of meat was almost certainly minced in a mincer instead of chopped, as it should be.
2)  Quite a bit of white tendon bits...
3)  That pile of meat has definitely sat in a cylindrical container for ages -- long enough that even with the help of a fork and a knife, I had difficulty breaking it up.  It was basically a solid lump of mushy meat.
4)  Why I have to break it up?  Well, the damn thing isn't seasoned AT ALL.  The gherkin was on the side, the cheese foam was on the side, the mustard was on the side.
5)  I had to chop-my-own-gherkin.
6)  Mustard is of the cheapest, supermarket variety -- much like those they use on cheap hotdog stands.
7)  The toasts were rock-hard.  And they were dry.

The list can easily go on.  And come on, a tiny pile of poorly-made steak tartare for $160?  Are you serious??

Linguini alle Vongole with fresh clams, scorched tomatoes, saffron; in a white wine garlic sauce ($130) -- rubbery clams

Locust Tunghok's main, which I had a few bites.  Again very poorly executed and not balanced at all.  The clams were FUBB (i.e. f-ed up beyond believe) -- so overcooked that half the clams were separated from their shells.  For a while, we thought the shells were there for decorative purpose only.  The meat, of course, was rubbery and tasteless.  Except for a few pieces which had a disturbingly prominent fishy after-taste...

And the taste.  Saffron?  White Wine?  Garlic?  I tasted none of those.  The overwhelming flavour in the pasta was of the spiciness of chilli.  Nothing else.  The linguini itself might have been al dente-ish, but that didn't really help much.

Eggs Benedict - 2 poached eggs; with citrus hollandaise (OPTION:  smoked salmon & buttered baby spinach) ($95) -- WTF?

Again, a massive screw-up.  The looks, at first, might be promising.  The poached egg, at least, look somewhat proper.  But no, this Eggs Benedict was a mess.  Why:

1)  hollandaise sauce can only be enjoyed by the eye -- it was basically tasteless.
2)  the smoked salmon seems to have been unpacked, defrosted and left in the kitchen for hours.  Texture was mushy and it was basically falling apart.
3)  what are those stalks doing there?  I love these kind of stalks stir-fried with garlic, Chinese style.  Not in my Eggs Benedict thank you.  And this veg just didn't work with the salmon at all.
4)  I couldn't taste the *buttered* part at all...
5)  Whilst the English muffin in this looked fine (it was still a bit dry), the bottom of the other muffin (there were two, as normal) was absolutely solid.  So tough that I couldn't even cut it with my knife.  I wonder how long that has been aged...

Luckily, the poached egg was OK, with a perfectly runny yolk.  But then, given the other screw-ups, that really didn't compensate enough... And come on, at $95 I do expect to have some sides to go with this, or given that they charge for the sides ($25-30), at least some plating?  Presentation was just that, 2 Eggs Benedict on a large and rather empty plate.

When we left, I couldn't shake this thought off me:  perhaps, perhaps, this place is so full because this is a convenient place for a drink for the foreigners living above?  Unlike the food, their beer was decent.  Having sampled a bit of breakfast menu, starter and pasta, and given the excessive price tag, I really wouldn't have the stupidity to come again, and I would suggest you to avoid this place as well.

Summary (rated 1-5):
Food:  (2/5)  The beer certainly helped.  Otherwise I would have given a 1.5, if not a 1.
Service:  (1.5/5)  Simply horrid.
Environment:  (3.5/5)  Actually quite like the ambience and the ample sunlight in the restaurant.  Bit too noisy though.
Big Locust's Recommendation:  (2/5)  Don't Bother.  No point wasting your hard-earned cash here.