The 24 months Jamón Ibérico was not at all Jamón Ibérico but salty and bad quality ham. The waiter said they got it from supplier, did not know it was not Jamón Ibérico and cancelled this order for us.

From my point of view, they are professional, it is their responsibility to ensure the quality of food and make sure it is right material before they put it on the menu. Therefore, there are only two possibilities, either if they cheat or if they are unprofessional.

A friend recommended the Gallery for its great food and atmosphere. I decided to go for a lunch date there to test it out before a dinner I was planning for 10+ people.

I ordered an eggs benedict w/ parma ham and I was so eager to dig in, I took a bite out of it before taking a picture! It was definitely a dish done right. The muffins were well toasted, and eggs delightfully poached. The yolks were hot and runny, and it was an exquisite experience breaking into them. The hollandaise sauce was well done, thick and rich, but also airy. Silky, succulent parma ham accompanied the dish well, with an indulgence in its creamy fat. Needless to say, I wholeheartedly recommend this dish.

We both had a pint of Stella, pulled to (near) perfection - we were told one of the bartenders there won the World Draught Masters by Stella Artois in 2012! There is a quantifiable difference to when a pint is pulled properly. It was chilled well, poured in the correct glass, with the head skimmed for the correct flavour. The first pint he pulled was definitely better than the second though - as you can see in the video.



Overall a great lunch, complemented by the Gallery's decor.

One point of improvement would be service, which was average. They could be more attentive and pay more attention to detail.

But the excellent food and ambience was the memorable part of it all, and ended up choosing it for my dinner party.

Meeting up with 2 other friends for dinner. Desired to have something light but interesting...Read about this restaurant in magazine, none of us have tried so we made reservation...everywhere requires reservation in advance in HK nowadays, even like this one.

They have 2 locations, one smaller cafe on the other side and this larger branch. Interior design is indeed interesting, well matched with it's name "Gallery".

Service was very poor, since I entered the restaurant. One waitress kept chit chat with customers/her friends near the entrance, she saw me waiting for seats arrangement but ignored...the other 2 standing in the bar area, nothing else to do but no response until I walked in a bit till the end of the bar area, suddenly another waitress stopped me, and asked for my reservation info. She is foreigner, but no excuse to give a long face all the time....

We were all carrying happy faces ....however, the waitress looked so unhappy, no smile at all when she took our orders. We didn't ask any question, just quickily told her what we would like to have. I didn't understand why she felt so annoyed to serve. When our dishes arrived, we asked for black pepper...she gave us napkin.. she said she thought we asked for "paper"....unbelievable.

Anyway, food is just so so, nothing really impressed. Eggs Benedict with parma ham, it's acceptable but not really delicious. The toasts were cold. Fries with cheese was rather disappointed. All day breakfast, pasta and the other main course of sausage, only acceptable, not worth of the price at all.

The only one I enjoyed was the rose tea latte....

- food : disappointed!
fish and chips, flaming brownies w ice cream , beer

Fish was too tender, very choppy and way too soggy. Barely able to Completely picked up by a fork after cut! U know what I mean !
Brownies are nothing better than home made with powder bought fr Welcome. Not tasty , no texture !

- service : well, you tell me !?!?

Waited 1.5 hr. Was told they would call when we are next, never received call. But when u couldn't help stop wandering around the street and dropped by 1.5 hrs, they said oh you are next !
Finally got a table. What?? Got the table half hidden under the bar table s wood surface!!! Meaning, if u sit down, one shoulder of urs would be covered by some wood piece !??! Hah ? Requested change of table immediately !
Nobody would refill ur water ever if u never requested. Table on the right requested once, the waitress went to the bathroom immediately after and their cups were then never filled!
Waved hand for 5 secs, waiters were gathering around bar chatting! Waved and waved 10 secs finally they spotted u. The bill please. 10 mins nothing, asked again, only then they printed sth fr the cashier !!
Leaving, waiters were still chatting around bar, me and my bf walked right pass them and they kept on. Wth, was this self service station or sth ? Leave ur money and just get out ? Gosh.

Final words : don't wanna visit ever again !!!

Restaurant: Bricklane
Cuisine: English / Western
Meal: Dinner
Eating with: 9 people

***********************Environment / Surrounding******************************

First impression of the restaurant's environment was its simple and warm feeling. The restaurant felt comfortable and with its minimalistic design full of dark wood and grey painted ceiling. The outdoor patio was quite relaxing as well, as we waited for our tables, we had a sip of beer while waiting for our table.

Although nothing particularly stands out here, the tables are spaced out quite well and there were some lounge seats which were not ideal for a meal. The seats seemed too low from what I can see.

Rating: 7/10

**********************Food******************************
Rating Scale from 1-5
I realise I am quite harsh on these, but for something to reach a 5 it has to be absolutely perfect. A 5 means la crème de la crème of its type and category; my point of view is that there is no such thing as perfect in texture, taste, presentation, smell etc and a 5 is virtually impossible.
0-1: Horrific, inedible
1-2: Will not order it again, and it's below average
2-3: Average joe food. Many places can replicate or make this.
3-4: Quite good and tasty. The higher end of 3 represents that the dish is identifiable to the restaurant and has its own distinctive taste and I will consider ordering again.
4-4.9: Very very tasty and the flavours of the dish is unique to the restaurant. In particular in the mid to higher ends to the 4, the food is almost proprietor-level good.
5: Pure bliss and so perfect that it's inexpressible.

Bricklane Salad (2.4/5)This salad contains Smoked salmon, shrimp, strawberries sauce and balsamic vinegar. Although the picture quality is not very good, one can see how unspectacular the salad is.
The lettuce and leaves were not particularly fresh, the smoked salmon tasted like something you can buy easily from the supermarket, the shrimp was ordinary and the balsamic vinegar was not aged and it was too sour.

This salad was very average, and anyone could make this at home. It wasn't inedible, but it simply wasn't worth ordering.

Fish and chips (3/5)

If one dish were to be recognised as British food, most non-Brits would mention fish and chips. We decided to get the fish and chips and see how the fared.

The fish was not cod, and the texture was too slippery. The best fish I ever had in the UK (the ones wrapped in newspaper) were the ones where every bite commanded chunks of fish. After every bite, you should be able to see the steaming hot chunks of fish that were disconnected. This one did not have any of those characteristics, but it certainly wasn't bad either. The texture was soft and slippery, but it didn't grab anyone's attention because it lacked the meatiness of good fish.

The batter was decent, but it isn't as crunchy as you would want them to be. The ratio of fish and batter was definitely well managed, without one overpowering another.

Overall, it was okay and it can be tasted elsewhere.

Roasted Pig + onion soup + side salad (Special dinner set) (3.3/5)

This was a special dinner set that was on the menu.

To clear it out of the way, the onion soup was terrible. It was simply water, broth and onion mixed together in a sloppy manner. I could even taste the tap water in the soup itself, simply inexcusable.

The side salad was also meagerly average. It was a bunch of semi-fresh lettuce with minimal to no sauce. I had to ask the waiter for more salad dressing, and they had no clue what dressing it was. I had to let them know that the salad used balsamic vinegar!

On the other hand, when my Roasted pig came out, it changed my attitude completely. The pig had just the right crisp to the skin, and enough meat, fat and bone on each cut out piece. There wasn't much fat stuck to each piece of skin, and the selection of the meat was a good part of the pig, but I wished there was slightly more meat. The roasted flavour was infused in to the meat and skin and had a good salty falvour on each piece. Each piece really had me cleaning everything to its bare bones because it was so...'suckling'ly good.

What really enhanced the dish was its specialty sauce which had a hint of sweetness. It was a thick sauce similar to that of sauce you would get when you go to a buffet for roast beef, except slightly sweeter. It simply complemented the roast pig perfectly.

Moreover, it came with a fried rice that is infused with Caribbean flavours and raisins. It was also very tasty as it was infused with flavours of oil, a hint of Caribbean herbs and the sweetness from raisins. This again worked well with the specialty sauce.

Red velvet cake (2.5/5)

The cupcake was aesthetically pleasing , but the taste did not match how it looks.
The cake was layered with cream in the middle and that's where it destroyed the flavours. There seemed to be more cream than the red velvet itself. Since red velvet is such a delicate 'flavour' , it is difficult to elicit the texture and soft and delicate sweetness on the palates. By filling the cake full of cream, it over powered the red velvet cake itself.
Luckily, the cream tasted okay otherwise the whole cake would be left untouched.

**********************Service******************************
The service was overall amicable, but they gave away our reservation table so that we had to wait an extra 45 minutes before we could sit down. As a compensation, the manager gave us one free complementary drink each UP until we sat down. There was a friend who came very late due to work and wasn't able to get a free drink because we literally just got a table and sat down. I was quite frustrated.

On a second note, the waiters forgot some of the things we ordered even though we reminded them on more than one occasion. The waiters also didn't seem very knowledgeable about their own food as they couldn't answer my question on how the food was prepared.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with the waiters.

Rating: 5.5/10

**********************Conclusion******************************
I wouldn't come here again as nothing really impressed me from giving out our reserved table to the quality of the food as a whole. Although I quite liked the atmosphere of the restaurant, it doesn't warrant me to come back again as there are simply too many good restaurants in Hong Kong.