FINDS Restaurant & Bar    

Wife is now back from her little vacation so I thought I will be nice to her and take her to FINDS. I liked the fact that they have a kids menu so we did not have to pay full price for something that my boy will not appreciate anyways.

My wife and I all picked the set dinner (3 courses). The salmon 6 ways was pretty awesome. Each little piece had a distinct flavor.I had the salad and the soup. The salad was really refreshing with slices of crispy asparagus and slices of aged ham. Barely any dressing on it so it felt pretty healthy. Really enjoyed it!The next up was the soup. It was kind of normal and since I don't remember the soup, I guess it was okay.The next two photos would be from the kids menu. My boy recently fell in love with risotto for no apparent reason so he did not care if it was not the normal risotto they had. I tired a few bites from my son's beet roots risotto. The rice was a bit hard in the center for my liking but my son did not complain at all.I ordered some meat balls (I think you can add a little bit of money and order an extra dish) for my son just in case. It tasted like.... like those you can get at Ikea. The mashed (like pureed) potato was really good. Very smooth in texture and good flavor.For the main course, we had the salmon (what else? haha) and the lamb tenderloin. Salmon was pretty good. Cooked to perfection. Even though it was supposed to be smoked but you can't really get that strong smoked flavor (which was what I liked).

I had the lamb. Now, that is one of the best lamb dish that I have ever tasted. It was tender, rich in flavor, but the normal "lamb" smell and taste was almost non-existent.One little area of let down was the service. For the most part, it was really good. However, whenever you need some water, ask them for the check, or anything like that, they will make you wait until you want to ask them again. Then almost like magic, they appear with what you wanted. I find that slightly amazing... haha

It was my boyfriend's birthday and I book via email on April 18th & called a few times but noone picked up (during lunch hour) and had not heard anything from the restaurant so I booked again via openrice and this time it was successful.

When we arrived at the restaurant it was busier than usual which was good. We have been dining at Finds on numerous occasions and it is one of our favourite as my boyfriend is from Norway. Eating at Finds is a little piece of home for him and plus the Finnish chef is very nice.

For all the times we have been to Finds, by far this time we (all 6 of us) were unhappy and very disappointed with the service. Our waitress was very grumpy from the time we arrived and often ignored us when we tried to get her attention. At one point she was even rude to one of our friends who arrived a bit later and she only under a salad when she didn't find anything she wanted to eat for her mains. The mains menu is a bit minimal if you don't like fish or seafood, there is only one lamb or steak that you can choose.

Anyway we ordered a few starters to share. The salads were a bit bland but the salmons in 6 ways was tasty and that is something that I would recommend, although the portions are very small. 5 of us ordered Smoked salmon as our mains and a spring lamb and they were delicious but again the portions were tiny. We got 4 tiny slices of potatoes with 2 slices of salmon... it was a bit of a joke for the price that you are paying.

I had made a birthday cake and I had rang up to ask if it was okay and I was told there is $150 fee which I said it is fine, not a problem. When I arrived with a cake again I was told there was a fee which i nodded that I understand and it was fine. After the meal, our waitress gave us dessert menus since the waitress seemed to have forgotten... I asked her if we can have our birthday cake now and she once again told me the $150 fee by that time I was getting very annoyed. I didn't need to be reminded 3 times and plus she actually forgot we had a cake!!! She was not that happy to bring us the cake i can tell you that.

Overall none of our guests would return to this restaurant as they find it the service was so poor for this kind of restaurant. The food and the service does not match well, which is a shame since we used to love this restaurant.

What can be better than spending Easter holidays with your best friend!

Price

HKD 268 for two + 10% service charge

Good value for afternoon tea for two.

Environment and service

It is a bit crowded as the waiters kept bumping into my friend's chair. There is enough space between tables though we can sometimes overhear the conversation of our neighbor. I think the waiters can try to avoid bumping into the customers. Food

The scones were served with butter, strawberry jam and clotted cream. The scone was a bit dry but full of raisins.

The bread with param ham tastes average. Just like the HK 豬仔包 with ham.

The dried fruit bread is hard and not appetizing. We just tried a bit and then gave up the rest.The portion of the tea set was large. Apart from the above dish, they had a shelf of food which looked like the one in Ritz Carlton, Martini mousse and a drink (coffee/ tea/ hot chocolate).The martini mousse was a pleasant surprise! My friend like the taste of martini but it is a bit too strong for me.The mushroom tart was great! The topping was creamy with a lot of herbs.

There were quite a lot of salmon in the tea set. One is salmon on top of toasted fried fruit bread. The fried fruit bread tasted a bit better after it was toasted but I don't particularly like the taste of it. It is also a bit repetitive to have it twice in the tea set.

Another finger food with salmon was served on the spoon. I appreciated the presentation. They added some rosemary and wasabi to the salmon and it is quite creative.

The raspberry macaroon was good. Nicely presented. It is crunchy outside and soggy inside.

My favorite part of the afternoon tea is the raspberry cheesecake. The baked cheesecake had bailey inside with very thick 餅底.

The blueberry cheesecake has bailey cream inside but the bailey cream is separate from the cheesecake. I like the one which mix cheesecake and bailey together more.An afternoon tea set ended perfectly with a beautifully decorated mocha. The taste of coffee was not strong and it was exactly what I was looking for. No need too much caffeine on a holiday =]Conclusion
Good afternoon tea place to chill with friends!

Crave sth different hence from openrice we've found this restaurant in a handy location of TST (just a short stroll from Miramar shopping centre). One shortfall is there is no on-site parking on offer. I parked my car in the nearby The One ($29 per hr).

Went there for afternoon tea before a while ago, the restaurant has been slightly renovated since my last visit.
The place is still casual & welcoming which perfect for group gathering.

You can see chef's attention to detail in every single dish. High quality seafood ingredients accomplish with talented chef which make this restaurant as a leader in Nordic cuisine.

3 of us have completed 4 courses each. The highlights of the night were the shrimp soup (texture is perfect) & the salmon in six ways (great co-ordination - awesome for salmon lovers).

The restaurant is located near Knutsford Terrace and a bit difficult to find.
It's a bit small with not many tables. The background music there was quite brisk giving an upbeat casual atmosphere but sometimes the some melody went repeated, which I found a bit annoying. Well, perhaps I'm too sensitive to music.

Anyway, let's talk about the food.
The bread was too crispy and dry that I couldn't eat more than 2 pieces. One type of bread was bitter so we didn't eat.
The water here was very expensive too... $75 for a bottle of distilled water. This was more expensive than some other fine dining restaurants like Watermark.

We ordered blue mussels (poached with Fennel Aquavit, Cream) as the starter. The blue mussels were a bit overcooked and most importantly there were something like bagasse, which was clearly not eatable, inside most of the mussels. So I had to remove it by myself. It should had been removed in the kitchen! Those bagasse things might also be dirty too. You know, blue mussels are tasty for its soft texture. So it's really a disaster to feel this bagasse thing inside your mouth when you expected something soft and smooth! I've never tried blue mussels cooked as badly as this. Besides the texture, the taste was not good. The taste of the sauce was too heavy that it covered the original "flavor of freshness" of the blue mussels. I felt that I was eating onion but not blue mussels! I even needed to use water to dilute that onion taste... how come? Onion was even not stated in the description in the menu!! (Disclaimer: I'm not an onion hater. I do eat onion.) This dish included a basket of bread. Some of the bread was very thin, in a broad shape and much more crispy. It tasted strange. I really regretted for ordering this dish!!! The blue mussels in Baby Blue Cafe were much better than this!

The seafood linguini was average. Nothing special except the fact that the salmon was a bit overcooked.

The house smoked salmon fillet. This dish was good. The salmon was a bit under-cooked, which we think was good. The sauce is made of stewed morels. We love salmon and mushroom so we enjoyed this dish a lot. The fingerling potato was made of pieces of potatoes stacked into a cake. It's texture is quite special. If the chef could add a bit more flavoring on the potato, this would be a perfect dish.

For the dessert, unluckily the milk chocolate mousse (flavored with black currant tea) was sold out. So we ordered apple-banana-raisin-peanut crumble instead. We waited for very long (>30 minutes I guess) after finishing all dishes and the dessert still didn't come. So we asked a waiter about it. He asked us to wait longer. Perhaps they missed this order. The crumble was warm and the apple had a strong taste like cinnamon. The vanilla sauce was tasty. The only thing we didn't like was that the crumble was a bit dry, probably because there were too much peanuts.

Concerning the quality of the food, I would say it varied a lot from dish to dish. So you really have to test your luck when ordering!

The service here was bad.
1. We waited very long for the dessert and they seemed to have missed our order.
2. Every time when I wanted to talk to a waiter / waitress, I had to kept my hands raised in the air for long until someone came. This is not a big restaurant. So it's supposed that they could easily see the customers raising their hands! And once, a waiter responded to me by raising his hand too so I expected he'll come soon. But long after than still no one came to us! So I had to raise my hand a gain. I guess he had forgotten us!
3. When we paid the bill, the waitress left the bill on our table and went away. We placed the credit card on it and waited for long but no one came back to collect the card. My girlfriend even joked that perhaps it's free of charge and we could just go! Finally I had to raise my hand (again -__-) to ask a waiter to collect it. After he came back and the bill got signed, he didn't check the signature and asked us "you can take your card back now" and then gave us the receipt & bill. Firstly, he should had checked the signature. Secondly, I expected he would give us the bill, receipt and the card together, instead of asking us to take back the card by ourselves. Even much cheaper restaurants are doing this. How come a fine dining restaurant like this asks the customer to pick up his/her card by him-/herself?

In conclusion, I don't recommend this restaurant. With this price, you can have better food and service elsewhere.
This was our anniversary dinner. We regretted for going to this restaurant for this important date.

Tried their set lunch. 2 courses for me (main & dessert), 3 course for my husband. The following dishes were remarkable :

1. bread basket --- hot french roll with crispy crust
2. steak --- medium cooked to a perfection. Tender and juicy, yummy!!
3. warm chocolate cake --- molten lava inside, not too sweet. Very good

Service is attentive though a bit slow. Staff were serving with a smiling face. Definitely will come back to try their dinner.

My friend took me to FINDS the first time as she knew someone who works there. We went there when they were in LKF and it was a fun night out, so we thought we would try them in the Kowloon side. The Decor is definitely better in the new one, love the chairs and the ceiling features.

I've seen the bartender's name on couple magazine, thus I was thrilled to try his molecular cocktail. There are 2 offered that night, Earl Grey Martini, and a smokey JD coke. I loved it, the foamy got us all laughing and impressed.

We ordered some appetizers to share and the seafood one was to die for. The scallop was so fresh and I love it lingering in my mouth, gotta say, they do make some good salmon. We ended up shared all our entres as well. Roasted chicken tasted like home cooking, meatball was so juicy, and the mashed is so yummy.

The service was good most time; although there was one that seemed not to know what he was serving, but the manager came right away to "educate" us

We had a large dessert platter, oh my, that was way too much. cheesecake, donut thingy, parfait...

We left them holding our bellies up, good job, new FINDS.

As a true foodie, I never take any pictures of my chosen dishes. I don't understand how you can truly enjoy a meal while constantly being interupted by trying to take a perfect food shot. I prefer to live in the moment and relish the memories of my mind.

When asked by a business colleague to meet in TST, I was up for it, since I usually dine around my work place (IFC). I was pleasantly surprised by the cool interior design of the Luxe Manor which houses the restaurant FINDS. The restaurant itself is equally nicely designed, with cool colors and nice wood chairs. We were seated immediately, as we had made a reservation. The restaurant was half-full.

FINDS offers an exceptional value for money set lunch menu, with your option of courses. I ordered the roast beef starter, the beef and pork meatballs for the main course, and the cheesecake for dessert. The service was attentive and overall good.

My roast beef started came accompanied by a mix of fresh greens, and potato salad. It was all very fresh and very tasty. It was so enjoyable to taste the vegetables at their peak and their flavors were accentuated with the perfect amount of salt. Roast beef was nice as well.

The meatballs were served over mashed potatoes. However, the kitchen forgot to add the berry sauce on top, leaving the whole dish rather dry and dense. I would rate this dish as very average. Completely edible, but nothing I would go back for.

Then came the cheesecake which had a nice cookie crust and served with fresh berries and chocolate sauce. This was a nice, simple dessert, but also on the average side.

Overall, FINDS was a good place for a decent lunch while in the area. I cannot say that I would make a trip out to TST to specifically dine at FINDS again, though.

Upon entering the new Finds, you can feel the modern Scandinavian vibe which is reminiscent of the nordic summer - natural, colorful, social and energetic. The venue draws inspiration from nature, with a round bar in the center facing the entrance with a river stone pattern, wave-like timber ceilings, hardwood doors and partitions. The white wallpaper with stripes different earth toned stripes adds to the feeling of being in a Finnish forest or in a land with a thousand lakes. There is also a back terrace leading directly to Knutsford Terrace, where old Finds fans will be surprised to know that they have kept the iconic blue mosaic wall from the former venue in LKF.

While some may think of the LKF Finds more as a drinking hub, the new Finds puts a lot more weight back on gastronomy. Their award winning chef Jaacko continues to prepare fine scandinavian dishes. Today we are trying their Signature House-Smoke Salmon stewed with morels, fingering potatoes and dark dill sauce. As always, the dish is beautifully presented. The salmon is cooked just right and it's so fresh and juicy. And the herbs let the subtle flavor of pink salmon shine through. A bite of morels together with the salmon adds some extra zest to the dish. Other must try dishes include their dark rye bread and Swedish Meat Balls, which is so typical in Scandinavia, Fresh Oysters, North Sea Mussels and Smoked Reindeer ‘Waldorf'. A lunch set starts with $108/head, with a soup and a main course. You can also enjoy their salad buffet if you fancy. A 3 course dinner starts at $298. There is also a kid's menu too.

While the sun almost never sets during the Nordic summer, the nightlife seems to always shine in Finds. The bar's long drink menu includes, of course, their signature molecular mixology cocktails, which are all renewed, except the all time favorite Earl Grey Martini and a long and very reasonably priced wine list which features a number of champagnes, old and new world wines and dessert wines.

Located in TST, and as a hotel restaurant, Finds gets a mix of international and mainland tourists, local businessmen, the old molecular mixology cocktail sipping crowds who pay visits ritually, as well as Scandinavian expats who crave for the Smorrebord (open sandwiches), Daim Brownies (made with Swedish Daym chocolate bars) and Aalborg snaps (A northern Danish liquor).

The name of the restaurant, F.I.N.D.S., stands for Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden and it is natural to presume that it serves nothing but Northern European cuisine. Well, not exactly. Yes, you would most definitely find the usual Scandinavian ingredients such as herrings and reindeer in their menu but they offer so much more.

Let's start with their chef. Executive chef Jaakko came from Helsinki, the capital city of Finland and has worked for the local two michelin star restauant Chez Dominguez, which was ranked by "Restaurant" Magazine as the 23rd best restaurant in the world last year. We had the pleasure of visiting Helsinki in the summer of 2009 and were hoping to stop by Chez Dominguez for lunch but too bad that it was closed for summer holidays during the first 3 weeks of August. This time, we can finally taste Jaakko's magic.

Greenland shrimp soup with shrimp mousse and dill (Grade: 3.5/5)
We had no idea that's how shrimp soup was served in Greenland but it was good. Although the plate only held some 10-15 spoonful of soup, we much preferred quality rather than quantity. Tasted very much the same as lobster bisque, the soup was complimented nicely by dill and a soft shrimp mousse. It was also served with a small toast atop with baby shrimps and mayonnaise.

Salmon six ways (Grade: 4.5/5)
This was easily the best dish of the night. The salmon was cooked in six different ways including cold smoked, seared, mousse, pickled, gravad lax, and roe. I particularly enjoyed the gravad lax cooking style. The slice of salmon was "buried" under salt over a period of time making it taste like a salmon 'jerky'. Well, not as hard as a beef jerky but definitely additional texture.

Foie gras two ways (Grade: 4/5)
The pan fried portion of the foie gras was very crispy on the outside and soft on the inside but yet it was not oily at all. Not to be outdone was the terrine portion, which was marinated well with wine, giving its taste yet another dimension.

Poached silver cod, with spinach and potatoes (Grade: 3/5)
I am not a fish lover, never been and never will be but I do like codfish. Like any other codfish, the silver cod is best known for its rich fat content and natural flavour. However, this pales in comparison to the other more innovative dishes.

Venison tenderloin (Grade: 4/5)
When it comes to Scandinavian cuisine, reindeer seems to be more popular than venison but we were not afraid to give the venison tenderloin a go. This venison tenderloin was cooked using the slow cooking technique allowing the natural taste of the meat to be preserved. We especially liked the slight gamey flavour of venison and it was wonderfully matched with a thick black currant sauce.

The only knock about this dish was the fact that it was not served hot. Presumeably, our servers waited a while before bringing it to our table and the meat noticeably cooled off, especially during this cold winter time. Otherwise, it would have been perfect.

Overall
Although the atmosphere of the restaurant was unexpectedly disappointing (poor lighting in particular), we were certainly not disappointed with the food at all. Northern European cuisine itself may have scared some potential customers off but there were plenty more to offer here on top of the herrings and reindeers, such as pasta and steaks. I would personally recommend the three-course dinner set which was only priced at $298.