ZUMA  

Rarely stylish restaurants don't set minimum charges on Valentine's Day, Zuma is one of them.

Receptionist Attitude
I have read all the comments that the staff being impolite, rude, bla bla bla. The fact is the staff is being helpful and nice, the receptionists are the rude one. One of the Filipino-accent _______ arranged the lounge bar while my friend requested the table should be quiet and with romantic atmosphere. Lounge bar supposed to be loud and for mingling purpose, I was pissed off by the arrangement despite the table was reserved as early as in December which the nice window seats were not hard to get.

Whern i found it days before 14/2, I used the reason to fight for my benefits, that Filipino replied with "no more dining seats" , I kinda roared to her and she raised her voice and we both act like mad women. At the end, I told her "I must talk to your manager, it's ridiculous that you can't offer a proper dining table when we reserved it in December "

I won the fight, the manager being mature enough to handle the complaint. A window seat was prepared and the staff was polite and well-mannered.This dessert is just tooooo gorgeous! Top with a crispy coconut layer, rosebud, sorbet strawberry and bottom with cracking candy and raspberry syrup. So many different flavours and textures, can't stop smiling while enjoying it in my mouth Amedei hot chocolate cake with espresso caramel
Not as surprising as the first one, filling easily cos it's full of choclate but it is still a very very nice one. These two desserts are very special and unique, one of the kinds you can't find it in other high-end dining areas.

I had found a nice contemporary japanese restaurant in central.
zuma at Landmark is so stylish and cozy atmosphere.
Almost of all customers are american or europe people maybe.

I had
- Salad
- Aspara Robata
- Ramb chop roast
.. some other dishes
and 4 glass of champagne.

Location, Service, Atmosphere, everything is nice and very valuable,
especially food price is not expensive. Drink prices are a bit expensive for me but many varieties there.
I also like their service staff. I would like to come back soon.

Spending Head : approximately $700

Had long been warned by friends that Zuma was just the expensive version of Roka, and Zuma Hong Kong is overpriced.
I never tried Roka in Hong Kong, only had it several times in central London as it was so close to my old home there!

One of my very good friends came back for good in Hong Kong, and she was very interested in trying Zuma despite all the bad things we had heard about this restaurant. so we decided to give it a shot.

Table was booked on a busy Friday night. When we arrived there by 8, the bar area was already so packed & we were led downstairs to the restaurant area. Similar to all restaurants serving comtemporary Jap cuisine, the decor was clean and neat, with a big open kitchen in the middle.

Wanted to treat a friend to lunch, sort of a pay-back time.

As the last visit was a few years ago, I really had no recollection of what the food was like at Zuma. All I wanted was to sit in comfort without the whole of Central crowding all over us, I just thought this might be an ideal venue.

Booking and re-confirmation was a breeze. As the lower floor was all fully booked, we were given a table on the 6th floor - where it was a kind of a drinks area at night.

We were seated in the sofa area which was quite nice and casual were it not for the close proximity of the opposite table and its diners. The seating arrangement was such that whenever the waiting staff wanted to attend to the other table, his/her back side would be right in my face! A little inconvenience perhaps but the real cause for concern was that these 2 tables were supposed to be shared by the same crowd at night, thereby making the closeness at lunchtime a little disconcerting.

In addition to the a la carte, there were 2 set lunches with a variety of dishes to choose from - both from the appetizers and the main courses. The difference in the price was the dishes on offer as far as I could see as the more expensive one consisted of items like steaks and teppanyakis. There was something that caught our eyes in the menu - a line that says something akin to 'the food is meant to be shared'. Errr, we didn't know what it meant so we decided to ask the manager and the reply took us by surprise. He said that the dishes were prepared in such a way that they could be shared. How so, we asked? He simply said, for example, 2 dishes could be given for the salads and each patron could dig into the sushi/sashimi that took his/her fancy. I guess the restaurant put the sentence down to ensure that their patrons understood the technique of sharing!!!!!

The seaweed salad that we had was mediocre, size on the smallish side and really wasn't that impressive. The sushi main courses were again small and devoid of freshness such high-end Japanese restaurant should possess - it was closer to the ones one can find at Three Sixty 2 floors below.

This dining experience explained why I had no recollection of that first visit - most unimpressive food.

Having been to the Baikingu brunch on Sundays several times - I can say that is it a consistently great place for tantalizing food & excellent value for money.

The cost is extremely reasonable for what you get. For a mere HK$550 per person - you have an unlimited buffet (raw & cooked dishes) and free flow of Perrier Jouet Grand Brut Champagne, bellinis or sake - in fact there are other choices- I am just listing a few here. If you do not want to drink alcoholic beverages, then the price is HK$428. Children are free as long as there is no more than one kid per adult.
It is a must to have advance booking as the place is always fully booked. There are 2 sessions for lunch as it is so popular.

There is an extensive range of delicacies and the food is scrumptious. You begin your gastronomical trip with the Starter buffet first. You are completely spoiled for choice. Whether you are after melt-in-your-mouth sashimi, heavenly meat or yummy noodles - there is something for everyone.

Once you have had your fill at the Starter Buffet, you then choose one dish from the Robata or Open Kitchen.

Our table had the tempura moriawase - which is a selection of vegetable & seafood tempura. Absolutely fantastic! The batter was so light it melt in your mouth.

We also had the sake no teriyaki kyuri zoe - which is salmon fillet with ginger teriyaki sauce & pickled cucumber. The salmon was cooked to perfection & was succulent & light.

The other one we tried was the tsubu-miso gake hinadori no oven yaki - barley miso marinted baby chicken, oven roasted on cedar wood. This was very flavorsome & certainly worth trying again.

The Dessert Platter was divine. All the cakes were mouthwatering & it was lovely to have fresh fruit with it as well. To have such a selection of choice as well was quite amazing.

The outdoor seating is very comfortable & the atmosphere is very relaxing. The heaters were fabulous & we were very warm & toasty despite it being a cold day.

Zuma's Sunday brunch, the Baikingu brunch, is definitely worth coming back to again!

A rare dinner in Central which was delicious and special but did NOT exceed the half-k pax mark. Really, you don't find these places everywhere.

Partly because I don't eat sashimi. hehehee.

Environment:

Girls Sunday Brunch.

The selling point is Champagne and Sake. Usually, restaurants only service Champagne but they also offer sake as well, time to get drunk by 3pm.

My friend booked at least a week ago, to get an outdoor seat. We love sunshine


Food is fine, buffet style, kind of fusion Japanese with standard dishes such as sushi, oysters, salad; hot dishes of clams in soup, noodle, etc. The main courses we ordered are so so. A lot of Westerners going there, with family and group of friends so it's rather crowded.

Service was really BAD

The reception spent over 15 minutes to check our booking, name and telephone number repeatedly for more than 5 times; and show us a awful face like we were cheating for a table, ridiculous. Only for my friends, I could have left already.

For buffet, I never expect any good service, however, it took us more than 15 minutes to order our first drink and another 20 minutes for a glass of water...not talking about re-fill (We ordered Free Flow of Champagne and Sake) If they are really busy, we don't blame, the waiters saw us and IGNORE, turned their faces around, that's the problem


My friend told me they serve fine dining at night, NO THANK YOU. I don't think they can fulfill my expectation of fine dining.

Be frank, if a not craving for Champagne and Sake together and can really drink, I won't suggest you to go there.

I came here previously for dinner with Hubby and one of our dearest friend, P and had a great meal. I still do prefer Nobu for dinner, however, the brunch we had was quite amazing. At HK$550, you get an endless supply of sushi, sashimi, yakitori and many more and a free flowing of Perrie-Jouet champagne, sake, bellini, and wine – what more do you want? AND a gigantic dessert tray that will leave you stuffed till the next day. I knew what was to come and made sure that I didn’t have breakfast and went to the gym beforehand!

I’m not usually big on buffet, only cause I can never eat ‘that’ much. However, that day, I surprised myself with the amount of food that I consumed! I think my stomach was stretched and is still trying to return to normal.

Plate 1: sashimi, king fish, scallops, salmon and avocado roll, salmon and roe roll, soft shell crab roll, California roll and tamago – all were absolutely incredibly delicious.

Plate 2: octopus salad, fried chicken (crunchy and succulent, one of my favourites on the plate), oysters (fresh!), prawn cocktail (which was so so), salmon and roe salad (delicious!), tuna salad and chicken mayo salad (which was ordinary).

I didn’t take a photo of plate 3 but it did consist of fried chicken (and lots of it) and more sashimi – couldn’t get enough of it!

For main, I ordered the salmon fillet with ginger teriyaki sauce and pickled cucumber and Oh My Gawd it was absolutely scrumptious. The salmon was tender and moist and cooked to perfection – medium rare – just the way I like it. The teriyaki sauce was deliciously rich and satisfying

A ordered the sirloin steak, sautéed mushrooms, wafu sauce and oh my my…. The meat was slightly cooked on the outside and a perfect pink on the inside. It was tender, juicy and scrumptiously good!

Dessert platter – WOW!

Raspberry sponge cake – this was A’s favourite, I thought it was ok but not a fave. The ice cream flavours were black sesame, red bean and almond. The almond ice cream I did not like, but I did enjoy the black sesame and red bean.

The green dessert was of course mint chocolate mousse and it was deliciously chocolately with mint choc on top – it was delish. The other, green tea pudding with banana glace and it was outstanding! This was my favourite! I pretty much ate the whole thing on my own as A didn’t enjoy it, which meant more for me!

It was an epic lunch!!!!

blog: http://gastronomous.wordpress.com

Zuma had an impressive spread when we walked in at 1.30. Two long tables, one filled with sushi and sashimi selections, the other with assorted Japanese 'starters'.

To begin with, the chilled spinach in sesame sauce was not bad. The sesame dressing seemed to be made from purely ground white sesame seeds, rather than mixed with other seasoning which is what you often find at Japanese restaurants. This results in a white sesame dressing which is quite strong, and a little goes a long way.

Miso soup with baby clams was one of two soups available. The clams in this were well-cleaned and not fishy at all. The broth I think had a little sake, but mostly a miso broth which wasn't salty....yumm!

Plate one with the Japanese vegetable soup was, I believe an Ozoni soup, which normally has mochi as it is served as a main during the Japanese New Year. In Zuma's version was some radish, carrots and bak choy to give the dashi and soy broth a lovely sweet taste. It was light and tasty and I loved it.

There were also platters of different salads. One which I tried was a kombu (seaweed) salad which was nothing special in my opinion. Also on plate one was some seared tuna (pretty good), crispy tofu (okay) and grilled zucchini skewer (tasty).

After this I went to over to the other table and picked out my favourite sashimi and sushi. The hotate, ama ebi (quite large) and hamachi were really sweet and fresh. The sushi rolls are small, enabling one to try several without getting too full and the ones I picked were good, my favourite being the cooked salmon with flavoured rice and caviar - this piece is a must-try!

The skewers which I tried included the grilled mushroom, scallop, chicken and leek, mini minced meat patty, flavoured rice and zucchini (mentioned above). Whilst the scallop was way overcooked and chewy to the point of being inedible, the others were in good size, tasty and satisfying.

Also available on the buffet table was soba noodles with onsen (hot spring) egg, which I only managed to try the egg - nicely done with soft whites and a slightly runny molten orange yolk center.

To end my 'starter' course I had some hand-made tofu with assorted condiments which just come out. I must say the first bucket of tofu available when we arrived looked grainy, runny and just...unappetizing. The new bucket looked fairly neat so I scooped a portion and topped it with some miso sauce, grated ginger and scallions and sesame seeds for flavour. The tofu was properly set this time, and it was wonderfully creamy. On its own it tasted very natural and a little of the miso sauce for seasoning made the soya curd taste all the better. Definitely recommend this ONLY if it looks 'set'!

For main course, each diner may select one of several dishes. The menu included items like tempura, grilled mackerel, mentaiko udon, miso chicken fillet etc. We only selected two different items (we probably should have tried the other items rather than doing repeats!), the sirloin and the salmon.

The sirloin was quite disappointing as it was chewy and tough despite being cooked to medium or medium-well. The taste was good, but a chewy steak just doesn't cut it! Portion was generous though.

The salmon on the other hand, was impressive. It was a fairly generous portion of fillet again, and the light salty-sweet marinade made for a tasty fish. The salmon was perfectly cooked and not at all dry like many salmon fillets can turn out. The cucumber on the side also provided for a nice refreshing crunch to balance the salmon.... yummm!

To end our meal we were served a dessert platter. Each table, we noticed, have the same four pots of matcha mousse with banana, mint and chocolate mousse cake, raspberry sponge cake and a blueberry and mascarpone fool. On top of the huge ice cube in the centre was FIVE scoops of ice cream. I would've wanted to have 5 different flavours of ice cream / sorbet, but I'm not complaining! Two were chocolate, two were green tea, and one maple-walnut.

The matcha mousse was good, but the banana topping sort of ruined it for me. It was a mis-match.... I think a chocolate-something would've paired better with the not-so-sweet matcha mousse.
The mint and chocolate mousse cake was alright, but since I'm not a fan of mousses I didn't love it.
The raspberry sponge cake was a nice light cake and wasn't too sweet.
The blueberry fool was good taste-wise but definitely too 'liquid', as if it had been assembled and served right away without being in the refrigerator to 'set'. At the bottom was a whipped cheese layer, and topped with blueberry sauce and fresh blueberries. Sweetness was right, but definitely not appealing once the spoons were put in...too watery!
The ice creams were fantastic - green tea could've been slightly stronger in taste, but good nonetheless. My favourite was the maple-walnut though.... I wonder if it was made in-house? As it resembled Movenpick's a lot!

Service in general was okay from the waiters, despite a few being clueless whom were obviously new. Because of these newer waiters, we were under the impression that the juices were free-flow like the champagne and sake with the brunch, and so when we were billed for the three glasses of juice we ordered we wanted to understand why. We spoke to the manager, and he said that it was not his fault because he instructed the waiters that juices are not together with the brunch deal.... he also dragged out all the waiters who supposedly served us, and asked us to identify who said that! My mother was shocked at his manners and definitely couldn't remember who said they were free-flow with the brunch but someone did and that's all that matters. The manager definitely ruined our celebration of a family birthday for us that day....

So although the food was generally great, the service just seemed....appalling for Zuma.

For photos and original post: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/09/sunday-brunch-zuma.html

Wanted for a long time to visit Zuma. Partly for the experience, partly for the novelty, partly for the allegedly good food.

Took the lift from Landmark G/f to 6/f. But our table was on the 5th floor. The waitress led us down a long winding staircase, into this magnificent high-ceiling space which was a combination of the dining area and the open kitchenS. The first thing I noticed is that there are many many seats. And that almost all of them were filled, except the sushi bar seats. There was also a very nice outdoor dining area with large umbrellas.

And so we sat down. Surveyed the menus. Decided to order a couple dishes to share between us, instead of ordering set lunches. The set lunches were bloody expensive. see for yourselves (from my photos). Turned out to be an excellent decision.

Food:
1.steamed baby spinach w/ sesame sauce 8.5/10
Not quite what I expected at first, but very delicious. The wilted spinach was mixed in a thick sesame sauce (with white sesame sprinkled on top). Those who like sesame (which includes basically everyone, i believe?) will love this dish. A must-try, to me. The portion is not large. perfect size for 2 diners.

2. spicy fried tofu with avocado and garden herbs 8/10
The flavour was quite interesting. Spices were very strong but not too hot. Sadly a bit too salty for my preference, and the tofu wasn't smooth (滑) enough. It was rather lumpy in fact. I'd have expected a crisp shell with a smooth heart. But the avocado + green salad on the side complimented the spicy bean curd perfectly. Mmm. I can't exactly name the leaves though. Not my favorite. didn't really love the tofu, but it was quite special.

3. pan-fried pork and shiso dumplings 8.5/10
Thin skin (good). Juicy filling. (even better) the special thing about this dish is, there was this fresh, citrusy leaf wedged between the meat paste and the skin. The taste was special. something i'd never tasted inside a dumpling. Tasted like lemongrass something...? Not sure. Tasty. Special. Slightly oily but who cares. It's just 5 dumplings. Forget about the calories.

4. takana pickle fried rice 9/10
Upon recommendation by the waiter. We didn't order any soba/udon/fried rice so the waiter asked us whether we'd want some boiled plain rice. He then recommended this fried rice. Turned out to be quite delicious. The rice grains were plump and chewy. They weren't sticky. The ingredients were interesting too - the takana (a savory, salty vegetable), seaweed and white sesame. If you go you should try.

5. hokkaido sweet corn tempura 8.5/10
Who would expect that sweet corn could be tempura-ed? The corn was sch-weet! so sweeeeet. It was juicy and slightly savoury. lots of corny juices. Delightful sensation in mouth. First crispy, then soft, then mushy. Recommended too.

6. grilled teriyaki salmon sliced pickled cucumber 9/10
You can see from the photo that the salmon has been cooked in a very special way. There are no lines on the steak. It is much smoother than the usual seared salmon. Also, the edges are charred. I love charred food. It was fatty (but not unacceptably so), fresh, delicious and flaky. (flaky is good).

Conclusion:

Great. Come here for the ambience, the food, the atmosphere, the exclusivity...everything. (but the price). That is it.

We went as a small group last Friday for farewell lunch and everything was a la carte order.
Decor was undisputably great, big chairs large tables, just the right size for most of the expats visiting.

They obviously added a lot of heart into the dish arrangements and the details they do with the food. Quality of the food is v. good but not enough to WOW!! me.

Edamame
Spinach w/ sesame sauce
Minced Tuna / salmon with caviar and crackers on the side
Sashimi sea bream w/ two eggplants
Sushi assortments - mainly fish and prawns
Deep fried squid
Sirloin steak beef cubes
Chicken Yakitori
non alcoholic drinks
Raime
Pichi - lychee based
Bill came to an excess of 2000hkd +

Interesting touches Zuma does to their dishes
Edamame - interestingly, they sprinkled sea salt onto the edamame and lifted the already fresh taste of the beans.
Spinach w/ sesame sauce. - the touch for this is that they tossed the spinach in the sauce completely rather than having it on the side or on the top.
Minced Tuna & Salmon w/ caviar and crackers on the side.
They served it on a bed of crushed ice. It seemed to me they used a sea urchin wooden slab and stuff it with minced tuna and minced salmon, each taking up half of the slab, with spring onions sprinkled on top. They have caviar served on a wooden spoon and very thin sesame rice crackers served on the side.
the way to eat this dish is to take a cracker and take up a good portion of that minced tuna / salmon and put some caviar on top, then gobble it down. Just loved the fact that the sesame crackers were very mild in flavour so the tuna / salmon flavours weren't being overtaken.
Sea bream sashimi - it is served in a fusion style and on a large round metallic black plate. The fish is placed along the edge of the plate with two piece of eggplant on the side. There is a cirtic sauce drizzled on top. Tastes good but I found the sauce too strong and overtook the mild taste of the fish.
Sushi Assortments - tuna toro, salmon, sea bream, 鱆紅魚, 油甘魚, raw shrimp
again its v. good quality but not I thought that the 油甘魚 didn't taste rich enough compared to other places which I had been.
Deep Fried Squid - they added pepper and salt into their batter, which was very light and a drizzle of lime on the side gave the dish another dimension. however, the squid itself was not meaty enough so despite of the light batter the squid still tasted fairly oily.
One thing I like about how they served this dish tho is that they chipped off a corner of the lime to ensure that the juice would fall onto the squid rather than being splattered around.
Sirloin Steak cubes - We were sitting right in front of the Yakitori station so it was interesting to see how it was served. We went for the lower end option of a US steak. They grilled a steak and then another chef took it off and sliced off the edges before cutting them into cubes. However, iin order to complete the stack, the pieces of sirloin is not used completely. There will always be one cube from the previous sirloin which would be used for the next serving. The plate arrangement for this dish is to stack it up, added some gravy and dried garlic pieces on top with also more dried garlic pieces on the side.
The cooking skill was excellent. the beef was medium rare although I wasn;t a great fan of US beef as I thought US beef were more chewy with less flavour compared to Australian ones.
Chicken Yakitori - probably the best dish I had throughout the lunch and was glad it came on the end. The chicken was done just right (i.e. a little brown on the outside but still juicy on the inside) and the leek complimented the chicken really well due the sweetness of it.
I think Zuma fails on the quality of the ingredients but not the skills of the chef.
Pichi drink - The flavour was great and refreshing. Pity though I didn't think it complimented the food well due to its slightly citric flavour. However, it would be an excellent drink for summertime and will be better than having a mojito.

I have always been a fan of this style: ceviche type dishes served in a hip environment with lots of space and nice decor.

My friends and I meet here fairly often for drinks but not so often for dinner, but the food is good, I especially like their crispy fried squid starter and their crab hand rolls -- nothing earth shattering but a very nice accompaniment to some sake. Good quality sashimi, too usually just go for the selection.

Two things I didn't like so much: Being seated in what is obviously the worst table in the house, even though the restaurant was half empty -- and having to threaten to leave in order to be seated at a better table. (the restaurant didn't actually even get completely full). Also, the waiter missed a couple of orders and didn't bring out the dishes in any logical sequence, bringing starters out after we had the main dishes delivered.

All in all, a decent place, but a bit overpriced (I think we are paying for the real estate) and the service definitely needs to be upgraded. And...they need to recognize their frequent customers a bit better.

This is my second time to Zuma- the first time was on a date/a la carte- the food was not impressive.

this time- i went for their sunday brunch- it was roughly 500 pp- includes all you can eat appetizers (included sushi and a variety of cooked dishes) and one main course, and finally a nice dessert.

food- again, i find the food here to be average at best. take into account money paid, and i'd say it's actually bad. the food quality/taste/selection is as good as going to a cheap diner.

service- the absolute worst- waiter kept forgetting items, spilling drinks, and in general taking a long time to get to us.

location/decor- obviously great.

we wanted to try látelier de joel robuchon but we didn't meet their smart casual dress code (it's our day off), so we rocked up to zuma.

they have 2 lunch menus, one 490, the other 290 (or similar numbers). so we had one each.

2 recommendations: the beef tartare is quite special because it has some chilli to add flavour to the beef. the black sesame tofu dessert is highly recommended.

the down side: it is pricy to eat here...and other food is so so...

Went there on Sunday for the champagne brunch and summary as below:

Appetiser Buffet =

Main Course = Average

Dessert

Very chilled out and very relaxed. Bellinis were very good, I had at least 8 glasses. Service was slow due to a lack of manpower but otherwise all was a pleasant experience