Oliver's Super Sandwiches    利華超級三文治店  

Haven't had breakfast at Oliver's for a long time. Impressed with their new decor (is it really new, or that it has been too many months since I last visited!?!) Came in after 9am ..... so the place was pretty vacant and quiet, and we can have a nice breakfast.

i had breakfast twice in 10 days. same old problem:

cafe assistance used dirty and smelly towel to clean the tables. not only the tables get smelly, germs are distributed in the eating area.

i asked the manager to clean the table again with clean towel, he showed a black poker face.

if the manager allows this kind of hygiene standard in dinning area, what is expected in the cooking area?

in the dinning area, the seats are also stained. i have to go home to change my pants before i go to work.

i think i will not go there anymore to buy dirty food.

Although I have reviewed this outlet before, 1 day on a relaxing weekend I walked in for a bit of afternoon tea. I happened to sit close to the Serving Counter's area.
Guess what I saw?

- One customer ordered a particular sandwich for toasting, then went back to his seat. One of the serving staff with a bad 扮晒嘢 attitude, a slightly chubby faced guy with long hair, proceeded to use his bare hands to flip through the mount of pre-made sandwiches sitting in the display fridge.... He even managed to do this as if it makes him look 'cool' somehow.

From the front, this is not apparent as its filled with sandwiches but I watched this with disgust from behind. He then proceeded to serve the next customer and handled the money! - I believe he might actually be a senior staff and he should have known better.
Next up and without a bit of exaggeration, this idiot began flipping his obviously super hair-sprayed hardened hair with the same hands again, before serving the next customer.

- All this was going on whilst the rest of the young staff, girls and boys at the back were swearing in Chinese profanities endlessly.


WHAT AN UNPROFESSIONAL AND DISGUSTING SHOP!!

PS: Compared to the beginning opening stage, the Regular Coffee included in the Set Meal is also no longer carefully made from the Espresso Machine, they're now pre-brewed and poured whenever is required. Now, I finally understand why one needs to add $5.0 for a Latte or Cappucino coffee.

I couldn't believe that this was an Oliver's that I was walking into. I normally steer away from these chain outlets, as they seem to lack character, but being captured by the interior style, I took a chance with this sandwich shop.

The design of the interiors felt like you were walking into a nice small cafe not in Hong Kong, but rather London or New York. It looks very rich and expensive and comfortable, but the food was surprisingly reasonable. Lunch is less than $50/pp.

The ham and cheese croissant is reminiscent of what I used to have in New York, which i miss a lot. And accompanied by the popular Ice coffee from illys it's really quite a treat. And the staff are so attentive that you feel like you are in a proper restaurant rather a self-service place.

I just moved into the Shama serviced apartment upstairs, and am glad to have found a place that is worth going to around here other than the usual fastfood places like BK, Mickey D's and Subway. Oliver's food seems much more fresh and healthy and I've actually started to eat at Oliver's rather than bring my food home because it feels so nice to be in there.

This shop has really made me re-evaluate my prejudice towards this and other chains. And props to the interior designer for changing my mind. I'm sure I'll be eating here at least 4 days a week!

I couldn't believe that this was an Oliver's that I was walking into. I normally steer away from these chain outlets, as they seem to lack character, but being captured by the interior style, I took a chance with this sandwich shop.
The design of the interiors felt like you were walking into a nice small cafe not in Hong Kong, but rather London or New York. It looks very rich and expensive and comfortable, but the food was surprisingly reasonable. Lunch is less than $50/pp.
The ham and cheese croissant is reminiscent of what I used to have in New York, which i miss a lot. And accompanied by the popular Ice coffee from illys it's really quite a treat. And the staff are so attentive that you feel like you are in a proper restaurant rather a self-service place.
I just moved into the Shama serviced apartment upstairs, and am glad to have found a place that is worth going to around here other than the usual fastfood places like BK, Mickey D's and Subway. Oliver's food seems much more fresh and healthy and I've actually started to eat at Oliver's rather than bring my food home because it feels so nice to be in there.
This shop has really made me re-evaluate my prejudice towards this and other chains. And props to the interior designer for changing my mind. I'm sure I'll be eating here at least 4 days a week!

Did not expect Oliver's Super Sandwich to be so beautifully renovated, especially knowing how run-down this shop location was prior to Oliver's taking over. Had afternoon tea (or coffee) with snacks, the meals around the $24-27 mark. Very good value for money on paper, considering you get an Italian illy coffee with it. Funny thing though - you need to add around $5-6 for a cappucino or caffe latte, but for regular coffee (aka flat white) is included. This 'policy' is actually ridiculous from a cafe owner's point of view. Regular coffee uses more milk, also requires more time and effort to stretch/heat the milk for a regular coffee than a Cappucino or even Latte. Someone in Oliver's obviously doesn't understand this theory, or else is plainly trying to CAPITALISE on the unaware consumers to extract more money. Eitherway its a laughable pricing policy.

FOOD -
Honeyed Ham and Cheese Croissant -
This was really nice indeed. Cheese was definitely quite a good cheese, and it was thick and melty - tasted like melted 'gruyere' or 'un-aged comte' but did not seek out the answer this time around. Croissant was good without exceptional, but none of the Hong Kong-nised sweet pastry BS. Ham was thick and tasty too. Will be coming back for this time and time again, just for the cheese alone.
Tuna Jaffle -
Did not eat this, but apparently ok too..

ILLY COFFEES -
Regular Coffee -
This was really bland tasting to be honest. Its not completely illy's fault nor the coffee maker's fault. illy is just one of the most difficult coffees to master on an espresso machine.

Espresso -
想起幾年以前,我跟本唔鍾意飲 Espresso (或食 Dark Chocolate) 的. Coffee 都係. 雖說香, 但苦的, 又澀, 好戁放進入口. 當時成日稔, 啲人一定係扮大個, 勁扮嘢, 先話好味的. And the Top coffee baristas often talk about how 'difficult' it is to extract a good shot, or Top Shots or God Shots. I was still highly skeptical about this, even during the short period I was a cafe partial owner and was trained officially in coffee making and also learnt latte art myself... I was not open-minded enough......

In hindsight today? I was completely, utterly, 'should commit suicide ashamed' wrong for holding this biased view, just as many still are on this planet. The reason I/We are wrong? 無良商人. Not exclusive to Sxxxxx and PxxxxxXxxxx or just about almost all coffee shops in Hong Kong or in other countries. In reality - A REAL ESPRESSO, is so unbelievably gorgeous, its NOT bitter, NOR usually acidic and when done correctly, would take you onto new plateaus not experienced before. I did not even realise this was theorectically possible, until I had the revelation of experiencing some top coffee shots from top shops overseas.
In reality - Espresso's do not work in a linear, 0-10 scale like most food. It only has 1 sweetspot and perhaps some minor sweetspots next to the peak spot, when all controlling variables with its 'multiplying effect' must be calibrated to nearly 100% simultaneously. I can think of around 9 variables which all influence the outcome and which none of them must be below 95% before they destroy the outcome. Espressos therefore work on an exponential scale, or like a Sine/Cosine graph with their peakforms.
Now that I finally have cracked the code, I can say, instead of 0 - 10, Espresso can only be rated on a scale such as 0, 7-8, 9 and 30. Anything below 7, is completely wrong and therefore undrinkable. A score of 'around' 30 is when everything is correct, a God Shot, which I initially believed people were purely bluffing and never existed, until I experienced a couple and confirmed that it does exist. It is just so 'god damn good', it reverberates in the mouth with a never ending sweetish, almost oily lingering taste that once you've experienced it, you'll finally realise what we've been missing out on.
As a comparison, perhaps in say even Italy - the ratio of good Espressos to bad ones might still only be around 1 : 8. In say Australia (where multiple world champions are born), its around 1 : 30 or more. In Hong Kong? The ratio is around 1 : 500 or more, without exaggeration. Coffee in HK, really is that bad, because, people haven't experienced it before and don't understand how difficult it really is to get to that difficult to achieve SWEET SPOT.
In the past 6 months or so in HK - I still remember perfectly, I have only had 3 GOD Shots in more than half a year, and 3 Pretty Good Shots. Six shots - that was it, and sometimes the experience isn't replicable even in the same shop with the same barista. We're quickly falling behind the world in this respect, that's why I keep on bringing up this topic on Openrice deliberately - I don't really mind what people think of me.
I'm not trying to be harsh or 扮嘢 or anything, but unfortunately, that's how coffee especially Espressos work. At least in milk drinks, the milk or water can mask the downfalls. Its not up to me at all to control, but its the truth. If one thinks about it, even a 為食 and very perfectionist and always curious 'foodie' such as myself, could not grasp the Theory during the days I was a part-owner in a cafe with a commercial coffee machine, until more than 1 year later.... until I finally opened my mind and learned from others who boasted that they know better - and finally discovered they really weren't kidding...天外有天, 係真的 I mean.... if we as 'consumers' don't ask and wish for more in Hong Kong, what are the chances of receiving it anytime soon in the future?
Here with my shot that day, unfortunately it was below a '7', which means its a 0. It doesn't matter if its illy, the so-called best coffee brand name in the world from North-East Italy. Its the person in the end, who can fully change the fate of the coffee, when they understand the 'sweet spot' calibration theory - which changes daily as well as with every batch of beans, temp, humidity, etc.
But who cares anyway? Lol.