Twyst  

As I had to spend a week in Barbados, my girlfriend and her sister organize a dinner for my return. So here we are, Saturday night, my sister's girlfriend and her husband with their adorable daughter, and my girlfriend and I. They made a reservation and requested a round table (the only one i could see actually). when we arrived, the table was ready, and we were directed to it immediately. the restaurant was not busy and did not get busy throughout the evening. the service was pleasant and professional. we brought our own wine, and they did not charge any corkage for up to two glasses pour per person. which I have to say is a pretty decent offer in Hong Kong. The menu is not too big but offer a good variety and choices, I like it because it makes me feel comfortable not to have food or sauces left over for days at the time.
While we choose our food we were served with bread and "Twyst" own creation of stick. it is made out of phyllo dough roll and twisted with a filling, everyone loved it at the table, but I did not. Only based on personal likes and dislikes. it looks uncooked and I am not a big fan of phyllo dough in the first place.
The menu is interesting and proposed a three course choices and a four course choices. I choose a three courses while some chose a four courses.
I had the scallop, spinach and tiger prawn millefeuille, the scallop was not cooked enough and completely raw in the middle, the tiger prawn were tasteless and slightly overcooked and the millefeuille was made with phyllo dough (again!!!) and the spicy passion fruit dressing was nor spicy enough (and i don't like spicy), nor did i could taste the passion fruit acidity because it was so sweet. My girlfriend had the foie gras duo, and that was a better choice, the bread slice was a little bit too thick, but it was pan fried very well, the foie gras creme brûlée was good and the texture was impeccable. I did not like to have it in an egg shell, as I am never sure if i can or should trust the chef to sanitize the shell well... then we waited for a pretty long time, of course as some of us had four course we had to wait for our main course to come altogether which is well done. but it still took too long between dishes to come along which is a sign of the service not sending the information to the kitchen on time, most likely but I can be wrong. Then I had the sea bass for main course while my girlfriend received her duck. the sea bass was nice and cooked well, but the mash potato was not good at all, the green bean were ok although I do not understand why no-one lately (everywhere i go...) do not cut the edge of a green bean and take the filament out... the tomato cherry was slightly warm up which is good but lack of aromas and salt. The duck was ok, well I do not know if it is "confit" by them directly but i doubt it, which means that the only things left to do is to get the duck warm up and get the skin crispy, and they failed at that. the two foie gras ravioli were nice. the rest of the table had the lamb and the risotto and fishermen stew, I did not tasted it but they finish their plate and complimented the food.
We had lemon tart and floating island for dessert, and it was nothing great. the floating island lack of caramel of any sort, and the custard sauce was not flavorful enough and not chilled enough. the egg white were not poached apparently and overcooked (probably cooked in oven or microwave) and slightly burn on top. the lemon tart was ok but nothing i would recommend to try for a lemon tart lover.
Overall it is a nice place and the service is good, the food is decent, and I believe everyone would have a good evening there. I would go back for sure, the price is good for the value we received, and lets face it, I am a picky eater and chooser anyway, and this was a perfectly good evening with a good company in a good restaurant.

2 years ago I brought my running team here for a celebration dinner. Despite a really good meal and enjoyable evening, I never came back until tonight. I guess there are just too many options serving similar dishes in this town. Just within the Pemberton alone, there are Bonheur, Fusion, La Parole, each keeping the others on their toes.

What I like about Twyst is the slight finesse over the others. The environment is slightly better than say, Bonheur, which is too dark, too noisy for me. The dishes here are always just a touch more refined and delicate.

One caveat: I was really really hungry this evening, which could have amplified the good vibe!

Complimentary hors d'œuvre was served after we sat down: little squares of focaccia with salmon or parma on top. Tasty, not ground-breaking, but prevented me from fainting from hunger.There are 2 dinner menus to choose from, a standard one and a deluxe one with a better steak or lobster as main course. Mom wanted to try the 10oz steak and the rest of us opted for the standard menu.

Starters:

Crab meat au gratin - nice and meaty but not really worth the $60 extra.
Pan-fried foie gras and roasted quail - competent
Pan-seared scallop and crab meat spinach terrine - Dad complained the scallop was not seared, ie. too rare. I think it was fine.
Roasted thin cut short rib and poached egg with blue cheese salad - the short rib tasted of kalbi which was good but it was a bit chewy . The poached egg turned out to be quail egg which I usually liked but this one was first of all not poached but boiled, secondly, it didn't have a rich eggy taste. Overall, I'd give it a 7/10.2nd course:

Lobster bisque with cognac cappucino - delicious! Intense lobster taste with just enough cognac to give it a luxurious feel.
King prawn ravioli with basil beurre and lobster reduction - delicious too! But i'd have preferred to have chunks of prawn meat rather than the prawn mince in the ravioli; the prawn mince was reminiscent of Chinese dim sum which made it a bit odd.Main:

Chargrilled Angus rib eye - good but not great. Beef somewhat lacking in flavour, for me only but not for others.
Twyst Australian lamb duo - slowcooked tenderloin and grilled lamb chops, much better than the beef. The meat was tender and juicy and full of flavour. The best amongst all main courses ordered.
10oz Steak - Not bad, but not as tasty and intense as expected. Also a bit rough.
Seafood stew with capellini - Delicate dish of seafood (king prawn, scallop, oyster, sea bass and salmon with al dente capellini. Thumbs up.Dessert:

Dessert trio consisting of cheese cake, creme brulee, and chocolate parfait - all three were wonderful.
Poached pear - a beautiful tower of poached pear, custard, raspberries. The pear was poached in chardonnay which did not overwhelm the taste of the pear like in similar dishes where red wine was used.
Cheese platter - brie, blue cheese, cheddar. The cheese was good but paled by the side of the poached pear.Service was attentive and no corkage was always an attraction.

Twyst is my all time favourite restaurant which I go almost 2 times a month!
They never disappoint me in terms of food quality and standards!

Last night I went again, appreciate their introduction of the Waynu dish!
The beef is so tender and juicy!

Dessert gave me a little sweet surprise of the pear sorbet. The taste is so natural, just like having real pear!

Had another fantastic evening, thanks Angela for your excellent service!

Came here last month for a birthday dinner. We all ordered the three course set dinners. It's around $300 and there's a wide variety of dishes to choose from. I wanted to eat the lobster thermidor, but there was a surcharge of $250 which I thought was quite ridiculous.

Anyways, for starters, the scallop salad with "Twyst" dressing was a bit on the raw side. The scallops were meant to be seared but they hardly were seared and seemed more like scallop sashimi. We also tried the foie gras, which went really well with the sauce and figs, and was excellent overall .

For the second course, I had an abalone risotto. The abalone was coated in bread crumbs and baked. The taste good but I didn't think the bread crumbs really went with it. The risotto was alright but tasted a bit like Chinese fried rice! My friends also tried the shrimp ravioli, which according to them had some pork in it and tasted exactly like wonton. The tomato consomme was good and also came with a wonton.

The steak, which I had for my main course was cooked nicely. The only thing was that the potatoes on the side were a bit raw and crunchy.

This is a very small and private restaurant and would probably be quite appropriate for private parties. There's also free corkage, cake charge is around $100.

The only problem is that the toilet is extremely hot and the fans in there hardly help! The restaurant should probably do something about the heat. Other than that, the price and quality made this a reasonable meal, but nothing really stood out to make me want to come back again.

Always on the lookout for nice restaurants that don't charge corkage, I went here for dinner with a friend & took a nice bottle of red with me.

The menu is small which, paradoxically, made it more difficult to order. As I understood it, we had to order a minimum of 3 courses each, for which there was a set price.

My friend eventually decided on the Boston Lobster set menu (4 courses) & I ordered a soup and a main (intending to have a dessert).

The lobster starter was salad with mango and lots of very tasty looking lobster meat. The consommé with wonton that I had was very nice but a bit salty. My friend's soup was next - a sort of bisque which resembled a cappucino. She loved it.

Now to the serious stuff, the mains. The lobster main was served with pasta and I am told it was delicious. My pork was beautifully tender & perfectly cooked with just the right amount of fat.

Baileys soufflé & an icecream dessert rounded off a very nice meal.

Downside: not enough vegetables

Service: pleasant but over-zealous at the beginning but settled down once the place filled up.

Oddly, when we ordered the second bottle of sparkling water, it took forever & I was told that they were having to go to their storeroom to get it. (I offered to pop out to the 7/11 instead but the waitress seemed a little confused at that.)

A good meal & I look forward to going back after their menu changes on 15 July.

We had a gathering at Twyst for a friend's birthday at Twyst. The waiter was helpful and friendly when we made reservation to book a private room for 8 people.

As one of the advantages at Twyst has been free corkage, we brought a few bottles of white and red wine for dinner. I called the restaurant to decant one of the red wines for 30 minutes before we arrived, and they have followed the instruction. My friend who arrived before me had brought a bottle of Bordeaux Red (probably Cabernet sauvignon blending with Merlot) in 2006, and a bottle of premium Medoc (Cru Bourgeois) in 1999. As my friend was not familiar with wine, she had asked for the waiter's advice about the duration of time for decanting.

Here's what the waiter recommended to my friend: "The older the wine, the shorter time it needs to be decanted. The younger the wine, the longest time it needs". So he recommended my friend to decant the 2006 Bordeaux Red for 1 hour, and decant the 1999 Medoc for 20 minutes.

Oh wow! I guess it doesn't need to be a wine expert to figure out that this waiter was giving out wrong information to customers. And what's more interesting, what he called as decanting was just to open the bottle without pouring the wine into the decanter, or at least pouring into a glass to allow the wine to breathe. He just removed the cork and let the wine sitting there as "decanting".

I won't expect a waiter at a small restaurant to be highly knowledgeable about wine, but I think it is the basic requirement not to ruin the wine brought by customers. So according to his theory, a 1985 Grand Cru Classe Red will only need to be decanted fo 10 minutes! As I didn't want to make a big fuss at my friend's party, I just quiety requested them to bring a decanter to decant the wine, and to serve the wine with younger age first.

If he was unsure about the information, he should ask his superior to handle it, instead of ruining a bottle of good wine, and he might never know how much the cost and how meaningful the wine was to the customers.

I am not discouraging others to visit this restaurant, as their food, environment and service is acceptable and decent for this price level. But if you are going to BYOB to Twyst, please make sure you tell them exactly what to do, and do not rely on their knowledge. And I hope their management will be able to view this comment, and help to improve the service and knowledge of their staff. It's actually quite a shame.

First impressions are very important. In Twyst, our first impressions was that it is an intimate, quiet restaurant for a satisfying meal.

I would say in this case, we were disappointed. Reading the menu alone, the food indeed looked well-dressed and fancy (foie gras, lobster bisque, chilean seabass). When it arrived, it also looked very well-presented and sophisticated. However, the taste of the food is a letdown. Lobster bisque had a blunt bitter taste and lacks aroma. The cream sauce on the seabass and indian king prawn completely masked the natural flavors of the food. I did think the dessert - pannacotta and the foie gras were quite passable but nothing special. If I had to pick the best dish of the whole course, it had to be the pannacotta. To cut the story short, it felt like dating a girl who puts on impeccable makeup and a very nice dress but when she talkes, you immediately know she is a total hick.

Service is very unenthused with wait staff completely unable to answer many questions about the food but are trying to make up something even though they don't know what your question means. They also served the wrong food to our table at least 2 times.

No wow factor. Try at your own risk.

It was my birthday. So, I hosted a little dinner party to celebrate with my frds at Twyst.

Firstly, thank you the owner, Angela for helping me out on hosting this dinner party for 22 people. It was difficult to plan for a group this size with 4 courses dinner.

The ambiance of Twyst was very nice. Spacious and not too noisy. The best is... no corkage charge.

The dishes we had that night were pretty nice. They were big too.
Overall, it was a good choice for simple celebration.

I originally tried to book a table at Fusion 5th Floor in the same building but it was full that night so I booked Twyst instead. I have eaten at Fusion 5th Floor a couple of times before and thought the food and ambience were excellent. But I had never tried Twyst before so was a bit skeptical taking my friends there for the first time. There were seven of us so we were given a private room with a square table (which I requested). I personally prefer a square table to a long table for a party of 6 to 8 guests because a square facilitates more interaction and synergy within a group - similar to a round table typically found in Chinese restaurants. Western dining at a square table is what I consider a nice "twyst", haha!
The specialty on the menu was of course the baked crab appetiser (limited quantity every night and always very popular among patrons). But please note that there is a surcharge of HK$50 if you choose the baked crab over other selections on the appetisers menu.
When the cream of mushroom soup i ordered was served, the waiter actually brought an empty bowl with some truffle oil inside, he then filled the empty bowl with hot cream of mushroom soup poured from another serving bowl. Though gimmicky, it was still unique compared to the conventional way of serving a bowl of soup directly.
The pasta with wagyu beef cheek was memorable - the beef cheek was very tender and tasty, though the pasta was a bit dry for my taste.
The duck leg confit and the prime rib steak were pretty good, and the pork medallions were very tender and tasty.
Free corkage charge was also a nice touch.
In my opinion, the food quality was high enough for connoisseurs. I rank the food quality right up there with that of Fusion 5th Floor, what puzzled me was that it wasn't packed with guests like Fusion 5th Floor. Perhaps somebody else on this site can enlighten me?

I usually go here to have the dinner, today I have a dayoff, so go to here to try their lunch, reasonable price lunch set @ $128
appertizer + soup + mani course + dessert + coffee/tea
u got no complaint, the king prawn & scallope are so fresh, I dunno why the lady on my next table asked the chef to cooke dthe scallope, @@, only the ox-tongue is a little bit overdone

Went there tonight. Not full at all - think it's still relatively new.

If you like Fusion on the 5th (in the same building) you'll like Twyst even more. $ - Twyst is slightly cheaper. We didn't order wine and costed us ard $430 per head. (4 courses)

Heard the chef worked in a five star hotel before, and the quality of the food was quite good.

Must try the antipasti platter. A selection of 4 mini antipasti - interesting combination although the salmon one was ordinary.

Main was good - try the lamb shank. Really tender.

They have choices of 4 course, 5 course, or 6 course.

The Pemberton has become like a restaurant building and Twyst is one of the latest addition. It serves modern continental cuisine (with a twist). Choice of 3 to 6 course set dinners. All the courses were pretty tasty and well prepared with innovation. I particularly liked the lobster ravioli and the souffle. The best thing is it is free corkage so great for wine lovers. The decor is comfortable and the table spaced out so not too noisy even when full. Definitely worth a try.

I went there twice, two different occasions - a private dinner recception and a casual Saturday Lunch.

The dinner reception was really good. The restaurant was divided into two parts - the mingle area and the dining area. The dining area can hold around 40 people, nice and cozy.

Food was great, nice presentation as well. We had an 8-course dinner that night. Pity that I didn't bring my camera.

As for the Saturday casual lunch, it was great. Originally we ordered for a 4 course lunch (HK$148 - great value), however, the restaurant-in-charge said that the dessert was on the house, so we just need to pay for a 3-cousre lunch (HK$128) that's include appetizer, soup and main-course, of course dessert as well.

However, I need to make 1 remark about dessert, the dessert was not too spectacular, it's ok. Anyway, good value for a good sit down dinner.