798 Unit & Co - JAR    

JAR offers a selection of bistro-type comfort foods. While the food isn't very refined, the decor is airy and spacious and the prices (especially for lunch) are quite reasonable.

One thing that I highly recommend, though, is their Signature Banoffi Pie with caramelized banana ($60) - which is ridiculously creamy and addictive! It is huge, but believe me, you will have no problems finishing it!

my gf ordered the eggs benedict and i ordered the french toast. first of, there was only 3 tables (total 6 people) the entire time, but it took them at least 25 mins to prepare the food.

when the eggs benedict finally came, there was only one egg to share between the 2 pieces of muffin/ham. taste was ok, not too bad. then about 10 mins later, my french toast was nowhere to be found. the waitress came over and told me that they ran out of maple syrup so they had to run and get it from next door. then another 10 minutes later (by that time my gf was almost done with her benedict), the french toast finally came. when i took the first bite, i noticed something was wrong. i gave it the benefit of the doubt and took a couple more bites, and then asked my gf to verify. they gave me HONEY instead of maple syrup!

i called the waitress over (another one, coz i couldn't find the one who spoke to me) to ask if it was honey, she insisted it was maple syrup. i then asked her to confirm with the chef, and she came back and said the kitchen ran out of maple syrup so just gave me honey. and that was all they said.

i am no food critique or anything, but the service/food was messed up on so many levels:

1, as a chef, how could you not know you are running out of maple syrup? 2, how cou

2, how could you not tell the customer that you ran out of maple syrup AFTER you already served one dish?

3, how could you not ask the customer if it was ok to replace maple syrup with honey?

4, how could you not realize that you had made a mistake and at least offer an apology or asked if the customer wanted to switch the order or something?

i will never go back to this restaurant again and now i know why throughout the entire lunch time there was only 3 tables of diners (a grand total of 6 people).

Overpriced for what it is: average, average, average. The signature roast chicken was rubbery, the seafood stew was a shameful letdown. In fact, it was a bunch of seafood piled up in a bowl, with scant 'stewing' going on and a ridiculous pricetag of $230. The cheese came in the teeniest little slithers at $60 a pop. Definitely not worth the money. Wine list was overpriced and not a great deal of choice. We won't be going back.

1st time to this restaurant. Environment is quit espacious with mainly set up of 2ppl/4ppl tables. However, it's get very noisy when the restaurants is fully occupied.

Set lunch has two menu - Just A lucnh (138) & Just Another Lunch (98) depending on the main course selection (more than 10). I chose Just a Lunch including:
- Self-serve salad bar: got 5-6 selection mainly vegetables (the watermelon doesn't look fresh so just give a pass). Suggest to get as early as you could, otherwise, the salad bar might be a bit messy.
- Maincourse: lobester Club - I paid $30 Addition for this course and expect sth more than just lobester sandwich served with fried potatoes. Bad choice.
- Dessert: creme brulee. quality is OK esp for set lunch
- coffee: ordinary.

Overall, worth the money for $98 lunch set.

We noticed the Leg of Lamb as a special dish of the day on the main menu during our first visit on 8th april. Since the lamb rack tasted great, we thought that the leg of lamb would be even better. So we went again on a Wednesday, and even booked a table in advance with 'leg of lamb' as a special request.

Made reservations. They're really pretty packed for lunch although most diners stay no longer than 1 hour.

After the pleasant experience last time I had high expectations. Some things were still good, for example the salad bar. I still liked it a lot.

Environment:This time dined on the other side of the restaurant. There are things to like about either side. Had a cozy 2-seater this time. They wanted to give us a round table but I preferred the small rectangular one. Facilitates conversation and anyway the round table could seat more guests. Unfurnished, low ceiling, small salad bar in the middle of the room to ease things out a bit, bright enough, nice tablecloth and cutlery, good.

Service:
I like the no-nonsense approach. No nonsense at all, and the waitresses kind of have their own carefree style. Not careless though. They are quite attentive. When I spooned a mouthful of M's soup using M's utensils, the waitress spotted it and gave me a spoon. She probably thought I lacked table manners.

Food:Bread rollsAs good as 'soft on the inside and crisp on the outside' hot rolls get! They came in that same heat-proof bag, with a bit of room temperature butter, which I appreciated. Not too difficult to spread. I really like carbs. Especially when they come in the form of pastry. And basically anything I can find in a bakery.

Potato and bacon soup 6/10M ordered this, as mentioned above. I could really taste the potato coming through. Normal potatoes. But I couldn't taste bacon. When I fished out a bit of bacon and chewed on it, it was rather bland, and boring. I don't think they fried the bacon before incorporating it into the soup. They probably cooked the bacon together with the spuds in the liquid...regrettably not too successful. Next time could give bacon rashes a good fry before putting it into the soup. The dollop of creme fraiche helped to thicken the soup. Not strictly necessary, but not bad either.

Salad barMy favorite bit of the meal. They put in something new to replace the quinoa! Salad bar includes:
Garlic broccoli, balsamic watermelon, mixed veg, Greek risoni, cucumber with poppy seed (couldn't really taste the poppy seed though), purple yam - extremely sweet I took a bit of everything. I spotted my favorite watermelon with balsamic and heaped a spoonful onto my bowl. They were deliciously sweet, juicy, and refreshing. Would've been perfect if they were a tad cooler. OH well. Good enough for me. Everything else was good - i like greens - Broccoli was fresh and paired with garlic, my favorite, that I had lots of, mm - the only trouble being - lack of variety perhaps. Could also throw in a bit of meat. Or something that's warmer. Would fancy that. I also liked the strong red onion in the Greek risoni, together with sweet capsicum, and feta cheese (which I didn't particularly fancy, but am sure most would). Salad already filled me up half way. Good thing I ordered the chicken and avocado sub, not too filling there.

Slow-braised Oxtail with cauliflower mashIt looked tasty. The portions were very generous and the bed of mashed mash was overwhelming. The oxtail itself was not cooked long enough, or they didn't put in enough seasoning. It was tender, but it wasn't tasty enough. If cooked longer, I think the meat would be more fragrant. And the juice wasn't sticky enough. I prefer oxtail with sticky juices. The accompanying veg wasn't soft enough and tasted as if they weren't really cooked with the oxtail. The cauliflower mash was quite interesting as it wasn't fluffy or smooth like mashed potatoes but granular and rough. A nice interpretation of mash? Nothing special apart from the texture. It's nice if you eat it with a bit of oxtail though. And it feels healthier coz you're not eating as much carbs while attaining the same filling effect.

Chicken and avocado baguette with potato wedgesSmoked thinly-pulled chicken: flavorful and tender. Avocado was buttery. Thousand island dressing a no-no for me. Small portions though, but enough for me considering the huge salad I'd had for starter. The baguette was accompanied by a jar of pickled veg and baked potato wedges. The wedges, as mentioned in my previous post, are healthy and authentic. Not the deep-fried stuff with lots of flavoring, but a simple, baked wedge with thin, crisp skin, lightly salted, peelable.

Homemade rum raisin gelato (aspiring to be ice cream?)How should I put it? I wasn't sure whether this is meant to be a gelato or an ice-cream. The flavour was really nice though - the pleasant taste of rum both inside the gelato and the raisins. Juicy raisins. Probably homemade. If it were meant to be an ice cream it would be too icy. But whatever it was meant to be - I wouldn't recommend it.

Honey lemon chiffon cake Sadly I wouldn't recommend this either. M and I were delighted by the sound of it - but were bitterly disappointed when it turned out to be something of less-than-average quality. The cake itself had a dry, crumbly body, didn't taste particularly strongly of anything at all, and the texture was just wrong - chiffon cake is supposed to be light, spongy, with some bounce if you press it down with the side of a fork, not 'dry' in the mouth..this one felt like pound cake instead. Not what I expected, or wanted.

Conclusion:
Much less of a delight than the last time I came. Perhaps I'd just come for the salad bar priced at $80 next time. The set lunches aren't that exciting anymore. But I know I should come for dinner one day, yes.

Went to JAR again--this time for their BRUNCH

I started off with a Sauvignon Blanc-it was okay (buy 1 get 1 free deal for BRUNCH)

I had ordered an EGGS BENEDICT.
Others had ordered the PANCAKES or the CROQUE MADAME

ALL were GOOD. I'd recommend the 1) Eggs Benedict 2) The Omelets 3) Pancakes 4) Burger or 5) Sheperd's Pie on their
brunch menu.

As for dessert, we ordered a cross section of recommended sweets; banoffi pie and panacotta. BOTH were GOOD!

We were in the neighbourhood & having just seen a review of this place we thought we'd try it out.

I wasn't terribly hungry so I skipped the starter. My friend had the squid & chorizo starter. He assured me that, although the presentation was somewhat lacking (it looked like it had been dolloped onto the plate with a ladle), it was pleasant and tasty & the squid was nicely chargrilled and reasonably tender. As a main, I had half a roast chicken with corn on the cob and a few pieces of root vegetable. The chicken was lovely - meaty, juicy and the skin was lovely and crunchy. The corn was delicious but the other vegetables were not terribly interesting. My friend had the Iberico pork, which was juicy, tender, succulent...and almost completely tasteless! Very strange... For dessert I had Key lime cheesecake with lime sorbet. The sorbet was nice but the cheesecake was absolutely leaden and didn't taste much of lime. I should have gone for the chocolate orange dome, which I was assured was very good, as my friend fended off my advances with a spoon!

The winelist was very offputting. Out of about 40 reds, there were 9 (just) under HK$500. This is ridiculous when there is so much good wine available at reasonable prices. And they charge a whopping HK$320 corkage. Ridiculous. We just had a glass of Shiraz & a glass of Merlot.

The food was adequate but it really is Just a Restaurant and I would not be in any hurry to go back.

Went there for Valentine's Day. Service was very nice from booking till actual day.

Got special menu $498/per person + 10% service. Added $100 for Australian Wagyu, another ~$100 for really nice champagne per person~

6 course meal, each was a surprise! Simple but tasty.

The dessert was too sweet for oriental taste, though.

Looks like the everyday menu is much much much less expensive (~$150/dish). They told me they serve oysters on Fridays and something else on Saturday. Looking forward to go try them some time~

Wonderful atmosphere with a real buzz and metropolitant feel to it. Hip, cosy and fun.
However, despite nice presentation cauliflower, mussles, trout and pasta and even the banoffi pie were all pretty tasteless.
The service is full of smiles, very attentive and a breath of fresh air with personal touches and genuine enthusiasm.
If they get the food right this will be an amazing place!

I have been to JAR on two separate occasions.

I have always been amazed by the food.

For starters, they serve bread in a heated bag--and the bread is REALLY VERY GOOD

The flatbread dish is excellent--especially the one that is meatLESS--and comes with FIGS. It is sweet..but not overwhelmingly so. And
the combination of FIGs Greens and Cheese on top is amazing.

The Chorizo+Squid (Grilled) is also pretty good.

Actually you can order a range of Starters and share these among a couple of you.

The other notable thing about the restaurant is that (according one of the owners WILSON) the floor is
actually made from a boat purchased in China. It was taken apart and hence, the wooden floor panels that you see
now.

The ambience is inviting, clean-cut, and warm. It's subtle. The chairs are kind of different from one end of the restaurant to
the other..but it's all well -harmonised.

IN SHORT--JAR is not JUST a restaurant...it's a GREAT place.

'JAR' is the acronym for 'Just-A-Restaurant' serving 'Just-A-Lunch'es.

D recommended this place. He gave me JAR's business card with the address because JAR hadn't made it to Openrice yet when I visited. Now it has. About time too. JAR is owned by the same owners who run 798 Unit & Co. It shows on 798's business card. I've never had 798 before but after JAR I will be heading there in due course.

I would recommend making reservations for lunch, because on the day I went, it was full.
There was a function of somesort going on on one side of the dining area. In the middle of the dining area there was a middle-sized dessert bar, with duplicated items on either side so people wouldn't have to fight over the greens. On the other side of the room sat parties of 2-4. The ceiling is quite low so it gets noisy quite easily.