Brickhouse  

我很喜歡中環的墨西哥餐廳及酒吧Brickhouse，餐廳內常播著音樂，服務員態度友善，食物味道一流，是我和朋友見面的好地方。最近，Brickhouse推出了一系列新菜式，都是較健康的，例如素食，gluten-free菜式及羊肉taco等(原來羊肉只有牛肉一半的脂肪!) 新甜品椰子飯布丁非常美味，軟滑又帶有濃烈的椰香。Brickhouse依舊不設訂座，但好像已經沒有新開時那樣大排長龍!

I have already mentioned in my previous review of Brickhouse how much I love this place - it is a hip, relaxing space where you are guaranteed a great time with your friends over some alcohol and Mexican food. I went to Brickhouse many times for drinks and snacks over the past few months, but it has been a while since I had a proper dinner there, and recently I went there to try out their new, healthier items on the menu, such as their vegetarian dishes, gluten free options, and dishes using goat meat (which, I was told, had 50% less fat than beef!).

(1) I love the organic stone ground chips at Brickhouse, which are perfect to nibble on while you drink. Now, besides the traditional guacamole, you can also try the new Trio of Guacamole ($75), featuring three types of guacamole mixed with different fruits everyday, to go with your chips. On the day I went, the fruits in the guacamole were green apple, mango and pineapple, which all tasted good in their own ways. The green apple guacamole had a nice crunch, the mango added an attractive sweetness, and the pineapple gave the guacamole a tropical touch.

Brickhouse is located inside a tiny alley sandwiched between two buildings along D'Aguilar Street. There are no giant neon signs pointing you their way and the only clue that you'll get is the myriad of people hanging around inside a dark alley. Go right in, it's safe.

They don't take reservations and there's a maximum dining time of an hour and half. This place is always jam-packed and unless you're willing to wait two hours for a table, I suggest coming here as soon as they open (which is exactly what we did last Saturday).

In spite of the dining time limit, the ambiance seemed relaxed and people looked chilled out and none seemed to be in any hurry to finish their meals.

The location sounds tricky but actually not hard to find. It is hiding in the alleyway right behind Milan Station, where you would come across a small local handbag stall in the front.

The ambience was great: Chillaxing, crowded, noisy, warmly lit, big thick wooden tables, high chairs at the bar, patio area, hot food, right portion, passionate staffs who can memorize the menu… feels like it’s a different world from the LKF out there.

Would recommend their Beet Fries. Was never a fan for beet roots but this one is sweet and juicy inside, hot and crispy outside, coupled with cajun + mayo it was quite interesting! Tried Mexican Baked Cheese and Tortilla platter. The baked cheese was slightly spicy; the cheese layer was thick and well baked. We finished the dish in literally 5 minutes!! The Tortilla Platter came with 5 toppings (with pork, beef, fish, etc). Also ordered Witches Brew (i.e. tuna)… the fish was thick and juicy, with a nice salty flavour plus a streak of cheese sauce on top. The Mexican beers were good light lagers if you are a fan of beer.

I like the energetic environment a lot and the food was good. Not sure if they are overpriced indeed.

Anyhow, the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, so if you are interested to try, gotta come early to queue for a table during peak hours!

Location

Brickhouse is located down an alleyway sandwiched between two buildings in the heart of Lan Kwai Fong. It doesn't even have a sign saying 'Brickhouse - located down this alleyway'. Nope, much like platform 9 and 3/4 the fact that it is hidden is part of its appeal.

Atmosphere

Brickhouse is wondrously trendy. The furniture in the dining area looks like it was scavenged from a landfill. The paintings and drawings on the walls are crazy inky things and the waiting staff look young, mo-hawked and tanned.

Upon sitting down my dining companion remarked that the Brickhouse's clientele was older than she would have expected for such a youthful trendy place. With drinks costing twice as much as some of the starters its easy to see why though.

Food

Glass of free tap water upon sitting down? Nope. Okay. That's alright.

My dining companions verdict on her frozen margarita - Not that great. My lime soda - who judges lime sodas? It was alright, I guess.

Mexican Style Sweetcorn - Around HKD 55 - This was the highlight of the meal. It was also the cheapest thing we ordered. Essentially, its corn on the cob cut into three pieces. Each piece is cut into three and then rolled in sauce and then in grated cheese.

Tortilla Soup - Around HKD 90 - Bless them, they really tried with this dish. And it wasn't too bad. It was however, let down by the somewhat stingy amount of chicken they used.

Sunday Chicken - HKD230 something - This looked pretty decent when it came out. Two pieces of red chicken. It almost resembled tandoori chicken that you get in Indian restaurants. One piece was a half breast and the other piece was...wahey a fillet! The dish also came with beans and grilled spring onions and three flour tortillas. Again, I can see what they were trying to do with this dish. The main problem, however, is that whereas it is easy to cook chicken okay, it is difficult to give chicken 'wow factor'. And the chicken didn't have that much taste let alone any wow factor. I ended up asking for a lime to squeeze on the chicken to give it some much needed flavor.

Deserts? No idea. If there were the staff never mentioned them.

Tacos - oh yeah, they serve tacos. But not on the menu. On a wonderfully trendy board which looks like a bug riding an armadillo. How did I not notice said board until after my meal? Ah well...

Conclusion

Two drinks cost around HKD250. The bill came to around HKD 750 for dinner for two.

The problem with Brickhouse is not that the food is bad. The food is actually pretty good. It's that you're not paying for just the food. You're paying for the trendiness, for the 'make everything look like a pop-up restaurant' look. The 'lets charge people high prices to sit and drink our not-that-great cocktails by some overturned oildrum tables.

You're paying way above the odds for reasonably good Mexican food should cost for hipster nonsense and below average service.

You'd almost miss it if you didn't pay attention, it's between Italy Station and a little old lady hawking handbags. I arrived at 7 and it was already 70% filled up, thankfully I snared two seats by the kitchen counter top and passed the time watching tortillas being toasted and ceviches being assembled while I waited for my girl friend to arrive. Looking around, there's so much to admire - the graffiti art on the walls, funky little decorations, the textured wooden furniture, eclectic designs on the dishes and serving platters, and the bartenders happily chatting to the customers next to me and explaining what horchata is. Yeah, that's right, how come it's not on the drinks menu yet? And agua fresca? But they do have a nice little selection of beer to satisfy those looking for a slice of South America.

The menu was simple yet thoughtful, easy to share and with a decent variety. As I say, no need to make it complicated, if it works, it works perfect.

Even though Hong Kong is filled with restaurants of all sorts, there are very few hidden gems; this is understandable, given that we are a very small city with lots of people who love food, and rarely does a good restaurant remain undiscovered.

Brickhouse is a Mexican restaurant which tries to stay casual, hip and hidden, but didn’t manage the last aspect so well. Even at its soft opening stage it already became one of the city’s most talked-about Mexican bar and restaurant, with people rushing to try the “best tacos” in town and its range of exotic cocktails.

Located on a narrow side alley on Lan Kwai Fong just above Milan Station, you will feel that you have stepped foot in a foreign city as soon as you enter, with its graffiti-adorned walls, exposed ceiling and rustic cement floor. (In fact, for those of you who have been to Melbourne, Brickhouse is very Melbournian with its inconspicuous location in alleyways.) Waiters are reliable, efficient and friendly, and there is no service charge added to the bill so you are free to give whatever you think the waiters deserve! Even at my first visit, I already knew that this would become my new favourite Mexican restaurant in Hong Kong.

(1) As Brickhouse is brought to us by Maximal Concepts, the guys behind Blue Butcher and Play, we can trust that their cocktails can’t be too bad! One of their signature cocktails is the Diabla ($115), a drink with vodka, Japaleno, raspberries, pomegranate and a dash of lemon - this is my favourite drink and I loved its fruitiness and also the spicy kick from the Japaleno! (You could ask for it to be less spicy if you prefer a milder drink.)(2) We also tried Spaceman ($95), made with jack daniels, southern comfort, lime, and cream soda but don’t really recommend it, as it tastes a bit like cough syrup. For something truly exotic, you could try the Cubano ($115), with tobacco-infused tequila, vanilla brandy and grilled pineapple!(3) Moving on to the food, I simply cannot praise Brickhouse’s down-to-earth and excellent Mexican fare enough. Take this Chips and salsas ($125) for one - the chips were organic and stone ground, and had a beautiful taste and a gorgeous crunch. The guacamole was creamy and scrumptious, and the chips were also served with 4 daily salsas and pickled veggies which were absolutely addictive!(4) This Watermelon salad ($75) was another plate of pure joy! The watermelon cubes were sweet, fresh and juicy, and was a fabulous match with the lemon cucumber, goat feta, chilli syrup, and mint leaves. The secret ingredient which distinguished this salad from the rest was the brown, crunchy candied pepitas, which added a pleasant, sweet touch and was the icing on the cake.(5) Here is another addiction alert - you will not be able to stop eating this Mexican Style Street Corn ($55), with grilled corn covered in chilli, mayo, lime, and queso, which is really bad as everything else at Brickhouse is so good! The grilling process and the chilli and queso really brought out the sweetness of the corn, and the textures and flavours just came together perfectly.(6) Sometimes at Brickhouse I feel like I am perpetually on a frenzy, and I am not sure whether it is the alcohol, the upbeat music or the heavenly food. Having been driven crazy by the dishes above, we finally calmed down a bit and quietly savoured this Peruvian ($125), which was a yellowtail ceviche mixed with avocado, apple, dicon radish and orange, with a yuzu-lime dressing. The yellowtail was sea fresh and the other ingredients added crisp textures and refreshing flavours to the dish; the yuzu-lime dressing, in particular, was invigorating.(7) All of Brickhouse’s tortillas are homemade and freshly prepared before you, which explains their smooth texture and clear, natural flavours.It was a mistake for us to order a tacos platter ($245) as the two of us had eaten so much already, but we did not regret it and were in fact secretly glad that we did. We sampled 5 different tacos - beef tongue, chicken, fish, rib eye and beef. The beef tongue was soft and tender but did not have too much taste; the fish was fried in a deliciously thick batter; the chicken tacos was nicely served with a large dallop of guacamole; the rib eye was juicy and tender, and was served with a thick sauce with a distinctive onion taste; and the beef was grilled until dry and shredded, and smothered in a thousand island-like dressing. Verdict: Absolutely delicious!!!(8) Nutritionists will frown upon people who stuff themselves with colossal amounts of food, but I think that's the right way to go at Brickhouse! Right after we had finished battling with our tacos platter, our waiter decided to tempt us with a goat’s milk yoghurt ($65) for our dessert, and we succumbed to it. I am a person who prefers cow’s milk to goat’s milk any day, but even then I found this yoghurt dessert incredible - the caramel just blended so nicely with the yoghurt, and the sweetness and creaminess of this dessert was divine. There was also a piece of chocolate bar filled with peanut butter cream on the side. This was definitely a heavy and filling dessert, but aren’t heaviness and strong flavours what Mexican food is about?When the restaurant first opened, the place was heaving every single night and I have friends telling me that they had to wait for 2 hours to get a table. Now the situation seems to have gotten slightly better, but as the place is still vastly popular and it doesn’t take reservations, don’t count on being able to get a table especially if you have a large party. If you are desperate for the food like I am, try heading there at 6pm - 6.30pm when the restaurant just opens. The restaurant serves food until 2am on weekdays and 5am on weekends, so you could also drop by for a post-dinner Mexican treat if you wish!

My friends and I dined at Brickhouse with high expectations given the positive reviews it's received. As others have written there's a no reservation policy so one of us arrived at 7pm to put our name down for a group of 6 people and was told we would have a table at 9pm. There's no room to drink there as they use the bar to serve diners so you're left with the rather poor choices in LKF. I'm sure the bars in LKF are very happy with the no reservation policy as it means they can rake in a few dollars whilst diners wait. We received a call around 9pm to say our table was ready and as we still had drinks to finish said we would be there in 15 mins. We were given the impression to get there much faster. Given you can't make a reservation or drink there whilst you wait I don't think this is in order. Personally I don't like drinking in LKF either so think they need to re-think this policy.

We started with handmade tortilla chips, guacamole and salsa. Given the price the quantity of all items was on the small side. One of the salsas was more like an Indian mint sauce but the other items were all good. Two of our group were vegetarian and as there were few suitable items on the menu quickly made their choices whilst the rest of us had much more choices to make. We suggested to the waiter he take our vegetarian friend's order first and then ours but he only took their order and it took us a while to flag him back to take ours. We had the witch's brew, beetroot chips, vegetarian chilli relleno, tuna tostada and various tacos. All the dishes were on the small side especially the beetroot chips which we would all have liked to try but with only 6 pieces had to leave to the vegetarians. I sometimes buy beetroot at the wet market and given the price they were charging think the serving should have been much more generous.

Our initial choice of drink was a pitcher of frozen lime margarita. It didn't have any tequila kick and when we asked for a spoon to stir it with were given a table spoon which didn't reach to the bottom. This should be served with a long handled spoon otherwise all the alcohol sinks to the bottom.

The venue is fun with interesting decor but the music a little too loud to have a conversation.

The food here isn't Tex Mex but quality, proper Mexican which is just what Hong Kong needs. Unfortunately with a wait time of 2 hours for a table, over-priced food for tiny portions and poor service I won't be going back. What a shame as their food really is good!

Hong Kong, being far far far far (and away) behind the rest of the world in terms of new culinary trends, has finally adapted the no reservation policy at a few of its bourgeoning restos in the central district (Yardbird in Sheung Wan I believe being the first) Brickhouse has followed (or so I'm told, "stolen") the brilliant come-as-you-are-and-we'll-try-and-seat-you policy that more restaurants here should do, its lucrative sure, you don't know whether you'll be able to turn over so many tables but in my experience in the industry people eat good food fast, order more then move onto the bar where they build up an astronomical tab consisting of various poisonous spirits one can only hope they don't have work in the morning. At least, I didn't.

Unfortunately (for you) there are no photos only the above that depicts the somewhat disarming entrance to the Mexican joint in Lan Kwai Fong.

Brickhouse, it is safe to say, is a little oasis in the over-priced snicket that is Lan Kwai Fong, up past (coincidentally) my bus ride home, it is down a back alley and is somewhat isolated. So it's got that going for it. The Dr. (who you will grow to love on these HK posts) and I arrived at 6 on the dot and it was already full, the bar was buzzing, speakers were blaring Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. So far so good. We were the last pair seated by a snarky if not, pretentiously dressed mslashw (you figure it out). For about ten minutes we were sat there with no water, no service, no recognition, we were the invisible locals. Oh yeah, the typically aloof "We need the table back by 7:30pm" was repeated periodically throughout the night (naturally).

Now, I do not claim to be a "connoisseur" of Mexican food, despite the fact my sibling lived in Arizona for so many plus years and I have been to Mexico on more than one occasion so I sort of think I can work my way around a Mexican menu. I have my likes and dislikes. But perhaps my so-called expert knowledge of Mexican food is, in reality limited and narrow. What do I know? Upon sipping their signature Margarita (which, by the way, was a costly $100+ and was extremely watered down) and perusing the menu I had a jolt of, "what cuisine is this again?" Their facebook page attributes the cuisine "South American found in Mexico City". OK. Hit us with your best shot.

When one of our surly servers finally appeared we ordered quickly, Beet Chips were arguably the best, deep fried pieces of beet with a spicy mayo, Tuna Tostadas so measly that it took about 5 minutes to consume these morsels, a solid Ceviche (are you seeing a trend here?) and lastly, one of their priciest plates on the menu and of our meal the chile rellenos ($100), a favourite of mine, a deep fried green pepper stuffed with cheese. Traditionally I believe its stuffed "just with cheese" but in this instance was stuffed with cheese and quinoa which added a strange flavour I cant quite recall (thank god) perhaps the inclusion of this fibre rich and often touted by health rags grain was just an unpleasant reminder of how un-healthy I was being.

The total bill came to a whopping $330 each, my companion added a little extra. I suppose, in these times, with hiking food prices I can (almost, almost) understand.

Groups; yes. Singles; I'd advise against. Couples; as long as you have nothing to say to one another.

First of all, this place is busy, and they don't take reservations (though you can show up and put your name on a list). We showed up around 7:15 and they told us they'd have something around 8:00 (and they did). They told us we'd need to be out in an hour and a half. That's a long dinner, I guess people just like to sit around drinking here? At those prices, not me.

There are tables in the restaurant, but we got seated in a long, low bench across from the bar, on stools with no backs rather than chairs. I don't mind that sort of thing, but my stool was pretty hard and my back was aching by the end of dinner.

The food is definitely mex-mex, and not tex-mex like Caramba! or Tequila, and not whatever the hell Taco Loco is supposed to be (gross?). Here's what we got:

Chips, salsa, and guacamole ($125). In Texas, where I'm from, and to the parts of Mexico I've been to, chips and salsa are free with your meal.The salsas were pretty bad. The "pico" one was overpoweringly oniony; the "verde" one was oddly thick and overly cuminy; and the other one... I don't even know what was in it. The guacamole was excellent, as were the chips. I didn't check if you could get the guac by itself, but if you're just ordering some tacos, that's probably the way to go. $125... just too pricey for something so insubstantial, especially with such terrible salsas. Salsas: D. Guac: A. Chips: A. Price: F.

Chile relleno (~$100). This is a big deep-fried poblano pepper, stuffed with cheese and (I think) quinoa, and smothered in sauce. The pepper was a little soggy, and not spicy at all (they do tell you it's mild), but it was pretty tasty, the breading was mostly crisp, and the cheese & quinoa mixture was a nice alternative to the very cheesy/ greasy chile relleno stuffing you find at tex-mex places. The sauce was meh. B+

Chicken taco ($45). The taco was pretty straightforward. Tender, marinated chicken, salsa verde, and cilantro. Not the same "thick" salsa verde with the chips & salsa. The taco was great with the guacamole... wish that were an optional add-on. A-

Beef shortribs (~$125). These were very much like the ribs you'd find at any barbeque joint in the states... except they were really good. Tender, meaty, delicious. A

We also had two drinks, a margarita (no complaints!) and a raspberry & jalapeno cocktail, which was impressively original and tasty. The drinks were pretty pricey (I can't recall, maybe $135? or maybe less?), but you might consider trying the raspberry & jalapeno one all the same.

The food is great here, but if you're not careful, or you're gluttonous, or like me you're both, you'll wind up spending a lot. We must have dropped like $700 for two people. The thing is, you could get out of here for like $90/ person for two tacos... which is what I'll be doing next time I come. The menu's not really extensive enough to keep you coming back for much more anyway. A