海鮮質素整體不錯。貨源很好。
特別是聖旨及帶子很不錯。
地方有點狹窄但算光猛新潮。
食物有誠意。不便宜但可以一試。

Very good seafood;
Razor clams and scallops in particular;
Good quality veggies;
Crowded unless you book early.
Worth a try.
Great for celebrating the end of the world.



Doomsday Theor(ies):

Well, I can't say I'm not affected by all these doomsday theory. Ironically, "End of the World" theories are practically endless. First it's 1997, then it was 1999 and the big fuss about 2000. The latest one being 2012.

Many religious groups and other organizations had to change their names to accommodate the change in circumstances. How inconvenient.

It didn't end on 00:01 21st December 2012... In order to prolong the excitement, some people said it should end at 8:00 p.m. because of time zone issues (did the Mayan's take that into account?) Well, some colleagues I know really left early from work to celebrate this day.

If the world ends, the last place I'd want to be is in front of my office desk alone or trying to squeeze into the MTR. So just in case, I left office a little bit early to meet my wife and another friend for dinner. What better place to throw away your troubles at "Cloudcuckooland"?



"Cloudland" restaurant is located in the now very popular Minden Avenue. Right next to Takagi.



Decor:

The place was not big and the tables in the middle were placed fairly close to each other.

A number of VIP rooms and compartment seats are also available.

Bright, clean and fairly modern with nice paintings. It's more casual than grand. Paintings and mirrors added class to this place. We're lucky we booked so we had our own quiet corner. I have to say it's pretty cramped and noisy if you have to sit in the middle area.

Menu:

The menu consisted of just two pages. At the time of writing, they did not seem to have an English menu

Nor did they have a wine list. You could simply pick one at the bar area. The house red was not bad at all :(Appetizers: Spring beans with chili and dried prawns! Hot and delicious. )



1st page - Double-boiled soup and other meat dishes: 2nd page - Seafood & Vegetable dishes:I like their focus instead of being a Jack of all trades but master of none.

I'll recommend their seafood dishes.



We ordered the following:

Fried scallops with shrimp paste:

My wife is a big fan of scallops so we had to order this come what may, including the end of the world. This is apparently a signature dish of Cloudland:The scallops were pretty good quality stuff. Big and meaty. The minced prawn was also fairly sweet.
The sauce on top seemed a bit like HP sauce mixed with a little bit of oyster sauce.

I had high expectations for this so I was slightly disappointed. One reasons was that the scallops were not heated up enough. Also, the scallops were a bit overcooked. I wonder whether pan frying these scallops with the scrimp paste together could do justice to the scallops. Perhaps consider cooking the scrimp paste separately before combining the two?

Anyway, I will order steamed scallops if I come here again. The scallops tasted very nice by itself. Still, worth a try.



Crab Pot:I was curious about the name of this dish, "Rogue Monk Deity Crab Pot" (I took liberty with the translations ) so I ordered it.

It turned out to be a big and meaty crab in a big pot of egg, steamed with minced pork. The shells of the crab was a bit crushed. Some minced pork and orange peel were all added inside to add to the texture and flavour.

Theoretically, i.e. in Cloud-cuckoo land , the taste of the crab should enter the egg. However, in reality, that's not the case... The crab taste barely entered the mixture. The steamed egg was also slightly overcooked.

All in all, the crab was meaty but this combination was just OK.



Pea Sprouts:Very big plate of fresh veggies in a chicken broth with some chopped aged Chinese ham. Possibly the biggest plate of pea sprouts for HK$78 I've ever seen in a Chinese restaurant like this. Good. Everyone liked it.



Razor clams:

You could specify how you'd like it cooked - fried with black bean sauce, fried with chili or steamed with garlic.

We ordered it steamed with garlic, vermicelli and a bit of soy sauce, the traditional Cantonese way and possibly the best way in my opinion. This was very good.

Very meaty and flavourful. I did not expect to have this high quality razor clam in this relatively small and new Chinese restaurant.

This is highly recommended.



The End?

HK$1,280 in total for three. Not cheap.

Service was good. All the staff were polite and efficient.

Because of the razor clams, and that we're still here after the end of the world, we decided to give this place not only OK but a smiling face instead. I might return to try their razor clams and other dishes.

Worth a try if you don't mind the slightly cramped and noisy setting. The high quality seafood definitely made it worthwhile for us.

Read from openrice that the dishes of this restaurant are quite extraordinary, so I gave it a try. However, the whole experience is full of disappointments.
First, the location of the restaurant is very difficult to find, and there is nothing to help us to find it from outside, so I had to call the restaurant to get help.

Secondly, when I finally arrived the restaurant, the waitress took me to a very remote table, although the restaurant was not full at all, and I booked the table one week in advanced. After I complained to the serior staff, they arranged me to another table, which was next to an elevator, so there were people coming out from time to time. We complained to the staff again, and then they arranged another table for me. This made me feel they are very inconsiderate to costumers.

Thirdly, after I had made the first round of order, my friends arrived and so I made the second round of order. At that time, I found that they had missed the first round order and the waitress and waitors are all very nervous, so I had to make the first round of order again.

Fourthly, the restaurant was very very crowded, which made it very noisy and I had to sit uncomfortably.

Fifthly, when I finished the meal, I ordered some dessert. However, I wanted some hot ones and some cold ones, so I asked the waitor if I had to order the hot one first. The waitor told me he would arranged them for me, so that they came the same time. However, the cold one came first, and after very long time, I complained again, and the waitor brought me the hot desserts. I told him he had promised to arranged the desserts to come at the same time but it was really not the case, he said he could not control it and said sorry to me. That is really ridiculous !! If he cannot control it, why he make his promise before.

I feel all the staff in this restaurant are not professional at all, and the whole experience is very bad. I can say I will never go to this restaurant again and warn my friends about this place.

Thanks to MarshyFood for organizing this Bloggers Tasting Event with the boss of Cloudland Chinese restaurant - the Boss is himself professionally trained in Chinese Cuisine and Head Chef Bo is even more well known, for he has already appeared on a local TVB Cooking Competition Show (大廚出馬) and came home carrying multiple and quite heavy Gold & Silver Medals I must say, as we got a chance to hold them to know their actual weight! 蒜泥白肉 - Garlic & Chili Pork Slices
A modernized version, the pork was leaner than usual but quite tender. I liked this as it wasn't too powerful in garlic, though purists always have their own theories about traditional authenticity.

.胡麻鮮准山 - Chinese Yam in Sesame Sauce
Quite crunchy and refreshing, the chef actually added some acidity into the sesame sauce to ensure it's not too filling.

.丹山海蜇花 - Cold Jelly Fish Platter
Quite crunchy, with some bits of the Jelly Fish head attached.

.大廚出馬水芺蓉生班球 - Steamed Egg White with Grouper Fish
An award winning dish. The egg white was super smooth and not watery, topped with a carrot juice. The fish was spot on cooked, but not too sweet. Could therefore be enhanced a bit by spring onions and ginger?

.金沙龍皇伴太子 - Fried Minced Prawn and Hokkaido Scallop
This was the most anticipated yet disappointing dish. There wasn't much sauce or flavour of it's own. May be it could do with some Salt and Pepper or better still, a Salted Egg Yolk coating as that was what the name had me believe!

.日本花菇雞腳燉螺頭 - Soup of Japanese Shiitake, Conch and Chicken Feet
My soup was a bit-off as it was salty and only had chicken broth flavour. These are boiled individually for hours and since mine was off, I tried a few other people's ones and there's were much better LOL.

.椒蒜香煎安格斯牛肉 - Green Pepper & Garlic Stir Fried Angus Beef
Beef was a bit too 'tenderizer' affected for me, I can tell the beef quality wasn't bad so it didn't really need it. Beef flavour and the peppery/garlic sauce was spot on. 希望師傅下次信得過自己的炒功!

.亞保脆皮三黃雞 - Chef Bo's Crispy Skin Chicken (Fresh Chicken, must Pre-Book this. And You totally should!)
With the name of the Head Chef attached to a dish, it had better be good! It was actually really crispy with nice yellow chicken oil flavour. Totally what HK used to be famous for in the past - great tasting Yellow Skin Chicken for flavours.

.法邊豉椒蟶子皇 - Razor Clams in Black Bean Sauce and French Beans
Another totally addictive dish. The black bean sauce was perfectly tuned for balance, umami packed but not too salty. The French beans beneath it was a really nice touch. *The Muscle Foot is deliberately added by the Chef for texture, he said some customers think their crunch is 'sand', but it is actually part of his recipe.

.韮王上湯煎粉果配稻庭烏冬 - Fried Fan Gor in Chinese Chives Soup, Inaniwa Udon noodles
Due to the number of people eating, the noodles were slightly over-cooked and the Boss and Chef knew exactly what happened as he ate with us and will teach the staff re-heating them to improve their timing or change the way this novel dish is presented. I really liked this dish and creative idea, the Fan Gor dumplings were done so well and better than Fook Lam Moon's version, so was the dipping broth.

.萬壽椰香果 - Pawpaw Stuffed with Coconut Pudding
Someone said this looked good on the menu. It was quite interesting as a dessert. Not as strong as I anticipated but I would happily order this again as a light dinner!

******************************
OVERALL, I wouldn't say every dish was perfect. But some had some nice new ideas and most were cooked near enough to perfect ! There is little wonder why Chef Bo has won so many awards.... He is well trained in Culinary Schools and has a fine judgment between creating modern Chinese & Cantonese dishes, versus also needing to cook them well to impress in the taste department!

Finally, I have time to type some comments for this FANTASTIC restaurant!!
Everything is pretty good~! Very Very NICE soup~! Prefect precentation!I like the beef so much, bigger portion is much better^0^Like the steam egg white so so so much!!!! Good tasting~!MUST order~! Crispy skin, prefect taste~! DON'T miss it!

Restaurant's decorating, setting is pretty nice! Food is yummy~! But the service should be improve^^ Cheer up!