I think it's a bit unfair to compare a fairwood to an established Hong Kong Style Cafe, therefore my review will only compare those of similar price and accessibility.

Today I was craving Imitation Sharksfin Soup so I went ahead and tried Fairwood's version. I bought the D lunch set for $23 and it includes the soup, Honey hot dog, a chicken wing and a drink.

Hot Lemon Tea
I know it seems odd to say this but their lemon tea really hit the spot. They gave four lemons in the small cup and it was really great and fragrant. I do feel I'm craving lemons so it probably isn't as outstanding if you're a tea aficionados. But to me, it was great and as it was a takeaway I put it into two cups and added hot water. Really nice, very lemony.

Streetstyle Sharksfin Soup
Looks just like other pictures from fairwood and the taste was definitely not bad but it was a little bland. At first I thought it was disappointing but with each bite it grew on me. I think I will go ahead and add more vinegar for punch and it will taste better. I do miss the texture from the excellent street hawker variety I had in mong kok but of course it's unfair to compare the two.

BBQ chicken wing
Note, I am not a big fan of chicken wings and again I bought the set for the sharksfin soup and was thinking of giving the chicken wing to my dog after washing it in water. First bite in I thought, sorry poochy you're getting something else tonight. Lots of flavor and served on a stick. Done surprisingly well and exceeded my expectations.

Honey Sausage
Again didn't buy it for this but this one was also surprisingly good to me. Not as surprising as the BBQ wing but good.

Conclusion:
This is a great lunch set for all the "wrong" reasons. I had absolutely no desire to eat the BBQ chicken wing nor the honey sausage but they were both bursting with flavor. The sharksfin soup on the other hand, lacked flavor but was not offensive. It just needed something and I will experiment with it. Overall I'm quite surprised with the quality of the lunch set as the lunch that I had before with my folks was quite blah. But due to the good service and the flavors I definitely recommend this place now. It's a fairwood so you shouldn't expect much, but I think the chicken wing won't disappoint

After writing a scathing review of The Yuu (horrid service, don't go there!) I prefer going back to my roots as a foodie and obsessing about good food. And there's no better place to write about than the famous Din Tai Fung.

Service:
Impeccable and unbeatable. There was a funny incident last time where my dad accidentally spilled tea. Before we even saw it the waitress was on it and cleaned it right up. I don't remember another place that was so on the mark.

The Food and Pricing:
This is all about Taiwanese cuisine and if you don't fancy it, it's a good idea not to come here (though the xiao long bao should be tasty for any carnivore). In addition, this place is not cheap by any means but you get what you pay for if you choose wisely. That said if you only want the best food pay the premium for the following three

Xiao Long Bao (regular)
The perfect xiao long bao with delicious soup inside and perfectly wrapped so not one of our baskets (more than 30 xiao long baos) had a rip. One that seemed to drip was actually due to the plethora of juices inside coming out from the top.

Xiao Long Bao (Hairy crab)
I love crab but I'm not a big fan of the Hairy Crab variety. That said, if you LIKE hairy crab you'll love these xiao long bao inspirations as I've been told they're bursting with flavor. Though I pass, I heard they're delicious and worth the price premium.

Dan Dan Mien
Another taiwan authentic dish made genuine right down to the fragrant leaves and slightly bitter aftertaste. It is spicy but nothing too hot to handle. It is bursting with flavor and some love the juices enough to eat it straight. It is a bit too salty for me though so it just goes excellently with the noodles.

Overall:
I cannot recommend a restaurant that places a premium higher than Din Tai Fung. To me it's one of those places where you go "it's expensive" but then realize "it's worth it". You won't be disappointed with the service and the taiwanese cuisine.

I respectfully disagree with the Editors Choice review below me though you should take in mind everyone's taste buds operate on a different level.

Meatballs $9
What was once my favorite is now repulsive to me. I'm DEFINITELY not a big fan of the Meatballs made today as they are literally swimming in the sauce (which was always less tasty than the meatballs to me) and have become mini sized. You can barely taste anything BUT the sauce and the portion is fine as I certainly don't want seconds. Perhaps you'll still like them if you like the sauce or you'll get lucky and they'll skimp a little. But as the servers are on autopilot it's hard to control that. All in all if you want to taste the meatball you'll do better buying it from the market. I can't vouch and say the quality of meat is the same or worse because I honestly couldn't taste it.

Hot Dogs $6
On the other hand, I think the hot dogs now taste better. While I agree that both the meatballs and hot dogs shrunk, I prefer quality over quantity and for the hot dogs they hit that quality mark. It's now a snappier dog without as much of that processed taste that made me prefer the meatballs and it also goes along better with the toppings. That said don't make that mistake of overwhelming the meat in sauce and only use sparing amounts of ketchup and mustard. These of course aren't German franks but for $6 it's really tasty.

Popcorn $4
Quite good and a little bit sweet after you get to the end, but otherwise very fragrant and yummy. Great even if you're like me and don't like caramel popcorn.

Sundae $2
The waffle cone is really delish and the ice cream itself is quite good. It's comparable to McD's and has a lighter, icier feel to it. It's not milkier or less sweet, as one reviewer said, but it's still quite good. Especially the cone.

All in all ikea is value priced and their portions are quite small. Great for a quick bite to eat as it hits the spot, it's not great if you had fond memories of their old tasty meatballs.

Dad and I wanted to eat a bit of Steak so after sleuthing around on openrice found that people felt Outback served good food at great prices but had lousy service. Good food was always meant more to us than meh service so I went in with expectations of yummy noms and zero expectations of lawry's style service.

My findings? The food was spot on and great. But the service? Equally as good! Asked for refills and everything though the way the place is laid out it's kinda hard to see the servers and hard for them to hear you. You have to flag them down and then they wind around the maze and get right to you.

I also have to mention the lunch prices.

After gratuity it came to less than $70 a person ($58 on menu) and it was such a steal. We got:
Cream of Corn Soup - Ok, not amazing
A small dish of salad - Fresh and crisp
Bread with Cream cheese - Very tasty!
Black Pepper Steak cutlets with rice and veggies - The best of these dishes. Perfectly cooked steak but the meh veggies and rice took it down a notch
And Coffee or Unlimited Soda (they serve Coke Reg/Zero, Sprite, Cream, Fanta, and I believe that is all but may be missing something)

There were about 9 selections in total on the menu and this was the only beef one but boy it sure did not disappoint.

The black pepper steak was EXCELLENT for Hong Kong standards and pretty damn good if you come from the states like me. The rest of the main dish, was forgettable but when eaten with the steak tasted fine.

All in all I have no biggie complaints about the food, service and quality. And neither do the expats who sat away from us smiling as they dug into their burgers. The meat is great for HK standards and I have to agree with one reviewer who said that the burger sure does look delish.

Unless we were really lucky or you're really unlucky, you can't go wrong with lunch at CWB Outback. And this is coming from a non fan of outback.

We went for a saturday brunch and after hearing all the hullabaloo about this place thought that it was going to do some serious impressing, it didn't.

It was still good but it is definitely not as good as the hype you'll read. The best I've had in Hong Kong, especially at the price, but I'll just say it's fresh and tasty and can sorta see why the uninformed flock to this place.

I'll stick with the best first

Steamed Egg
You go to a japanese restaurant to eat... eggs? Well sounds crazy but I was glad I was in the party and suggested it because they never tried this before. The steamed egg is the absolute must try signature dish of the Mon and it definitely didn't disappoint. The egg was perfectly cooked and it went faster than the sushi... which is somewhat sad since I expected a good sushi.

Chicken Gristle
The chicken gristle had a great smokey taste to it but was definitely oily. Again not the best I've had especially for the price and while I liked it it is only because I love chicken gristle.

Sushi
What was supposed to be the main dish just seemed like a filler to me. The sushi was fresh but had no other distinguishing feature that set it apart from other expensive HK sushi joints. While good it seemed ho hum compared to everything else.

I realize I may have had a less than shining experience and perhaps this is the lowest quality you can expect from the Mon. The steamed egg was definitely one of the best I've had, and if this is just an off experience I can live with how this has over 200 smileys while other restaurants that are far superior than what I experienced gets crys and OKs.