Having to linger in Central in the morning this month, I wanted to try some new breakfast places. Seeing this new restaurant across the street I decided to give it a try.

The first feeling was already great, as the place was well decorated as in the 50s but with a modern way of lighting design to spot up. At 9:30 it was packed with people, and lucky I got the second last table. The tidily dressed waiter presented the menu including 4 types of breakfast sets all at $30.

Since I did not feel like big pieces of meat I decided to go for the Chinese set, which came with the daily congee (they had two types for you to choose) and steam rice roll with your choice of filling (or Chinese fried noodles) with and tea or coffee. The waitress informed me that daily congee was Abalone with chicken – wow, I just thought to myself, the restaurant really wanted to impress customer.
The congee came in a nice new bowl, not so full though but hot and steamy. I tried one spoon - it was full of abalone and chicken taste well blended with the sweetness of rice congee. Excellent! Then came the rice roll with minced beef, it was a big dish, with 3 pieces, and the soy sauce served on the side. Merely this dish in any Chinese dim sum place in Central would worth $30+. I tried – the rice roll was very smooth, but a bit too soft and the minced beef quite oily. I could only have 2 pieces and had to leave the third. Still, good value for money.
I read the critics before some said the Hong Kong style milk tea was not good. But as of the day I tried it was even better than Chui Wah next door. The tea was strong and well balanced, and with the right amount of condensed milk. It was also real hot when being served. A real satisfactory breakfast!

It was so satisfactory that the place became my usual breakfast place in Central now. I had tried almost all of its breakfast set in the past 3 weeks and all of them were so fulfilling. On top of all, I love most that they serve customers with their heart and attend to every detail – let customers take the best available seat, serving drinking water, carefully set table, big soft napkins, daily little reminder card on table, luxuriously clean restroom with Andreas toilet roll… you can see the compassion of the place. Thank you, Loyal! You have made my day!

My friend was having her movie night at the Elements and I was meeting her there for dinner. Knowing already that most restaurants there are not truly delicious, I didn’t have a high expectation and just picked a random restaurant at Civic Square. As expected the food was so-so, and we decided to move on for a pampering dessert and coffee. As I have read so much about the Chocolate Library at Ritz Carlton, we decided to give it a try.

Arriving at the lobby, I found the Ritz Carlton looked very different from the one in Central. The former one was of Colonial style, light blue and white, floral, and this new one is just cyber. It reminded me of the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai though. And quickly we have found the Chocolate Library, during a Friday evening 9pm it was almost empty. The receptionist lady was young and green, look like a student. And she was not wearing any make-up (or so little that I could not notice) and with a student hair style, I would say that she had already down-graded the atmosphere of the place.

She led us to sit at a table on the very end, which was right next to the one table with a couple celebrating birthday. We wondered why she did not want to spread out her guests a bit if the place was so empty? Perhaps she thought the corner had the best view, but it was blocked 80% by the guests at the next table anyway.

So we decided to move ourselves to a place where we could talk freely without having to hear the conversation at the next table. We picked a table at the middle of the long aisle, where we could not see much of the view as it was all blocked by the patterned glass. We could see the chandelier for Tosca clearly though. But as it was quiet and no one in the surrounding we found it better than the original table.

We were then presented with the menu, nicely produced, really like a book from the library. Not as many desserts as we had hoped, and out of them I picked the chocolate soufflé to share. My friend ordered an Earl Grey tea, and I ordered a cup of Decaf Cappuccino.

The food arrived shortly. The chocolate soufflé was small in size, with a piece of chocolate on the side. The look was not so attractive anyway. We cut it with a spoon, at least it was soft and lingering inside, with fruit jam at the bottom. I tried one spoonful, disappointing, as it was merely warm. The chocolate was rich but as the temperature was not right it just could not bring out the flavor, and made the whole dessert so heavy and not tasty.

And the more disappointing was my Cappuccino. It was served in a normal hotel coffee cup, and even with the foam it was only 2/3 filled when brought to me,. Sipping from it, again, it was merely warm, and no coffee taste at all. I understood that some decaf coffee may taste a little worse, but this one was absolutely poor. And even the milk did not have the creamy and silky taste as it should have. What a big disaster! The hotel should really look into it, if you make your place called Chocolate Library it is expected that guests would order coffee to go with it. How can a coffee taste so bad?

The only thing normal probably is my friend’s Earl Grey Tea. The tea is hot enough, and the tea leave is of high quality, fresh and smelled good.

I started to wonder what the place is trying to sell to distinguish itself? View? It doesn’t really have for most tables. Service? Then stop letting students serve us! Food? Definitely disappointing. Decoration? Perhaps, but if you ask me the sofa wasn’t really comfortable, and the 4-person table was so small that you could not let four people have dessert together, perhaps only 4 cups of tea.

Ritz Carlton, you are one of the best hotels in the world. Please work hard and I look forward to a true 6-star place.

It was typhoon signal 3 and I suddenly craved for oysters. Didn’t want to go far thus I was thinking where to get good oysters in Hong Kong East. I remembered then the best oysters I have had lately was from a small restaurant at Quarry Bay – the Codfather Oyster and Seafood Bar. I really liked the food there but not so fancy about the decoration especially the blue light at the bar and the television on the wall, which I thought had spoiled the atmosphere and down-graded the place. However I just wanted good oysters so I still went right away.

The place was packed outdoor for happy hour at 6:45 but had only 2 tables of guests inside. I figured out that the owner wanted to save the indoor tables for those who came for dinner. As I told them I wanted oysters I was seated quickly despite I was alone. I ordered their champagne set which came with 3 oysters of my choice: White Pearl and Divine, and I let the owner suggested the third. He said the best oyster of the day was Ostra Regal, which was named after its origin, a small island in France. I happily took the choice, as I remembered last time the owner recommended the Divine oyster and it was super good.

The Piper Heidsieck champagne arrived, despite not in a high quality glass but it was chilled well. Then came the 3 oysters, all fresh and chubby, looked so delicious. First I had the Ostra Regal, which was of a good balance of sweetness and sea water. The Divine had a complex taste but it had a little less favour compared to last time. The last one White Pearl, was the most outstanding! Big and fresh, full of complex oyster taste and best of all, I just loved the chewy texture which most other fresh oysters don’t have. It was so fulfilling that I had to order the second one, which was the same tasty.

As I had dinner waiting for me at home, I called for the bill and ended my short happy hour with truly tasty oysters. If I have another oyster crave next time, I will come back.

I am writing this to give a BIG applause to the Grand Hyatt Steakhouse staff. Husband and I had such a wonderful evening that I have to create an account to write about it so everyone would know – a true 6-star experience!

We are a big fan of hotel dining, but it has been awhile since we found satisfaction in hotel restaurants. Many are over-priced and offer unstable food quality, uncomfortable setting or poorly trained staff. And last night, we were back to true hospitality at the Grand Hyatt Steakhouse with gracious service and excellent food!

Our happy journey began with the phone booking. The receptionist was friendly and had all the patience to answer our questions. And when we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted by decent young ladies and led to our table. The waiter, a charming young man, brought in our menus and offered us water to drink. And not long later they brought in a big plate of nicely toasted garlic bread. As I do not take garlic, they went right away to bake another whole wheat French roll just for me.

We looked through our menus. At one point I worried that with such dark lighting I would not be able to read, but then realized they had spot lights lighting at the right place. Very thoughtful!

Having heard so much about their salad bar we decided to go for it. And as we are not big eaters we ordered a 16oz strip loin to share, an apple crumble with Ice-cream and a glass of Cabinet Sauvignon.

The salad bar was truly amazing! They had a selection of different mixed salads on one side, parma ham, smoked salmon and foie gras in the middle, and green vegetable on the other side. We took a bit of everything. The different mixed salads all had their own unique taste – mushrooms, zucchinis, cucumbers, salad nicoise etc. The chef has a great talent preparing simple dishes to make them outstanding! The parma ham was good, as everyone says, but the house-made smoked salmon was the hero as it was so well prepared – rich in the flavors, full of fat aromas and does not have any fishy smell at all. They also had all kinds of garnishes: well toasted nuts, cheese, soft boiled eggs… and each single item was prepared to its perfection. We really appreciated the compassion of the chef who designed and prepared for the salad bar! And with a price of $150 per head, it is just way too value for money!!

The waiter made sure we have had enough of our salad bar before he brought in our main course. A small mistake they have made, we ordered the steak as medium but it came in medium rare (they put a wooden stick on it to show), but it did not matter much. We have had better steak before, but at a price of $480 for 16 oz, we were totally satisfied with the quality. It came with a sauce, which I chose for green peppercorn, something difficult to find in Hong Kong. It was prepared just right. They also had different kinds of house-made mustard, which were of super quality and had again unique flavors to bring out the taste of the steak.

When we were having the main course, the restaurant manager, a friendly European lady came for a short chat. What we like so much about the service here is that the staff are warm, professional, and they know when to come to serve, when to leave you alone, and they are all knowledgeable about their restaurant and food, not to mention they are all energetic, and good looking. We were at a Michelin 2- star restaurant not long ago and were totally pissed off by their arrogant, pretentious and unprofessional attitude. It makes a strong contrast.

We felt even more spoiled when our apple crumble arrived! On a huge plate we had two big bowls, one filled with a big portion of apple crumble and the other huge amount of soft ice-cream, good for 4 people to share! It took us awhile to wash down half of the crumble, which was baked just right and with the amazing proportion of sweetness and fruit and crumbles. It goes just right with the soft ice-cream, which again we could not finish. The waiter was so kind to pack the crumble for us to take away, and reminded us it would taste best if we reheat in an oven.

Before leaving I went for the washroom and checked around the rest of the restaurant. As others say, it still looks like JJ’s which brought us great memories as those-were-the-days crazy hang-outs and dating and dancing. The restroom is also clean and fresh and as it should be for fine dining.

The bill came at about $1350, as we turned out to have ordered the most expensive red wine by glass at $330. It was probably a good wine from Napa Valley (as the bottle looked very special), but we could not tell the difference as much. But as the total experience was so positive and we felt so pampered, one perhaps over-charged glass of wine became insignificant.

It was raining and when we were waiting for for the valet parking to bring our car we felt so satisfied and lucky. Thank you again for the great evening. You have restored our confidence to hotel dining in Hong Kong. GHSH, we will be back!