COCO  

COCO at The Mira had been acclaimed as the modern 'Willy Wonka' making his gourmet in Hong Kong. Prior to trying, we had read some pretty impressive claims about the patisserie offered, such as artisan chocolate concoctions and even a couture makeover for their humble cupcakes. With great expectations in mind, we made our way there for the much anticipated food test!

Mango Velvet ($34/-)This is a classic red velvet cake with mango cream and mango jelly cubes. It is a cake with a dark red colour, usually achieved by adding red food flavouring. With buttermilk and cream cheese as the frosting for the cake, the rest of the ingredients included butter, flour, cookie dough and cocoa. Dating back to World War II era where food were rationed, boiled grated beets were found in velvet cake recipes with the purpose of enhancing the colour and moisture of the cakes. It gained popularity during the Great Depression being the first food with red food colour and other flavour extracts with the use of point-of-sale posters and tear off recipe cards.

Like how it was originated, the texture of the red velvet cake was moist and soft. The frosting was light but tasted rich and creamy. The surprising element to the cake struck in the middle with fresh mango chunks. Coupled with the 'chewy' and 'q-like' mango jelly cubes, the overall texture was well-balanced. There was a right amount of sweetness from the ripe mangoes and also the buttermilk frosting.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Jivara Berry Delight ($39/-)This was a milk chocolate mousse with wild berries compote. The milk chocolate mousse was soft and melted upon the first taste. The wild berries compote helped complemented the texture, giving a 'full' and dense feel to supplement the light mousse. It was not too sweet which suited our palate, but on hindsight, it was nothing too impressive to win us over.

Verdict: 7.0/10

Blueberry Chic ($39/-)This was a creamy New York blueberry cheese cake in Coco's way or rather as claimed. While we enjoyed that the cheesecake was relatively dense like a classic New York cheese cake, there was a complete lack of blueberry taste. The biscuit base was damp and did not offer the crisp complementing texture as desired. This cheese cake was too pedestrian for our liking.

Verdict: 6.0/10

Or Noir ($39/-)

cupcakes回味無窮...
however chocolate banana mousse is really bad...
tasted warming heart, chestnut char, strawberry, blueberry, mango and rasberry cupcakes...
all very good and surprising...
strawberry one with strawberry jam and walnut inside...
chestnut one with marble cake, chestnut cream and chocolate pieces and even sesame seed...

Last time after experimenting with 3 of their cakes yet without trying the other signature Raspberry Dome, I came back with this in my mind and finally got a feel of their coffee too! Note that this was eaten at the OUTSIDE 2nd cake shop, which they've recently opened facing the main street.

RASPBERRY DOME -
With Mascarpone Cheese filling and what seemed like mini-macaroons on the outside! I actually quite like this. Was it very good? Well its personal but I think THIS particular cake was good enough for me... whereas the last 3 cakes I tried were 'strange' rather than not good!

CAFFE LATTE -
The Coffee Packaging says COCO Espresso (LOL ) but its unrelated to the shop named Coco Espresso in Sheungwan! But guess what? Despite being from different suppliers, they taste very similar by pure coincidence and I believe carried similar mixture of beans in the blend - both are quite unique in the Hong Kong market in my opinion

The COCO Cake Shop's version has a caramelly undertone and had a pretty forward nutty aroma. Despite the taste profile all being held within a narrow range, it was actually full of layers, also naturally sweet with a lengthy aftertaste that lasts around 4-5 seconds - something which is very rare to find locally! The Barista in the outside shop did a better job than I expected too, the milk was velvety and not overly heated up, therefore carrying a bit of its natural milk sweetness as well! GOOD!

Their blend is roasted up North in Mainland China - yet, its more sophisticated than almost everything else roasted locally that I've tried - it reminds me of older style, commerical Australian coffees. This was quite surprising!

COFFEE: High '4'
CAKE: High '4'

I've heard great things about the Pastry Chef - Thomas Lui and the awards he's won. However, despite what many people have talked about in the YAMM or COCO reviews for the past half a year, he actually only arrived and took over the Pastry Chef position around June... I finally got here around early July to try some of his creations.

'MARSHMALLOW' MILLE-FEUILLE - The pastry on this was slightly caramelised yet full of pastry taste. I personally like this type of Brik-like pastry more than the Mimosa's Puff-like pastry layers, its also similar to the really good one I had at Caprice. Other than that, I wasn't really impressed by the looks of this cake and its fillings - those were set a bit too hard.

ORANGE CHOCOLATE TERRINE - The domes on top are chocolate coatings spray painted in green, but inside are some type of jam and marshmallow with an orangey taste. The main chocolate cake is quite dense and slightly moist. I liked this but it wasn't worth the price at all, it was quite a simple cake,

COCONUT GREEN - This is probably one of the signature cakes as its slightly more complex than the above offerings and is always available. I can't remember much since this was months ago, but I know it had a Lime Mousse which contrasted well with the coconut flavours. The bottom is green tea sponge - with very little tea taste. To me, it was only the 'colour' which was relevant here, since it didn't help create more complexities when tasting the cake.


OVERALL - I won't say I didn't like it, certainly I enjoyed eating them somewhat but I believe the cakes here taste very 'solid' rather than smooth, plus there really isn't much coherency or theme in each cake, despite the input from all the separate exotic ingredients. I still enjoy Fine Foods' cakes the most from this area - so let's hope COCO can improve 1 day and give us some Winners!

I went there with a friend for happy hour (6:15pm), obvoiusly happy hour is not the right time for cafe nor cake, there are no body but only 2 of us.
not a big fans of desert nor cake, just go there to expereince.

food : I had 'Lemon Ganache Tart' and 'Breakfast Tea'
the tart came out just fine, delicious a-bit-crunchy tart, with mild taste of lemon.
'breakfast tea' came in a pyramid-shape tea bag, the tea taste really so..so.. the tea is too light, i prefer much stronger taste of tea.

environment
too small and cannot be treated as a cafe, this is more like a part of the lobby.
lighting and decoration is okay in terms of design. but this is not a very cozy place since the area is big, and not too warm, the place is a bit cold-feel.

people
no other people in COCO. except the staff, and many passer-by who were heading to 'Yamm' for the buffett.

Staff and Service
just fair service. fair introduction of the cake to us.. just able to give us some info and let us think ourselves what to order. if she can do better.. she can have more welcome-tone and even try to understand what we like then made sugestion to us. too young and not as experienced.
when we asked information about the price of 'yamm' buffet, she could give us good info.

price
over priced i believe so..

It was my second time here and same as the first, I was here for their cupcakes. It is very natural for people to compare the cupcakes here with Sift's but since I am yet to try Sift, it is really hard for me to do a comparison. What I can do is a simple comparison between my previous visit with this one. First of all, a lot of advertisement have been done for this small cake shops in various food magazines in Hong Kong recently but it is rather hard to attract a great crowd in my opinion because of the limited space and seats available. The outlet is basically in the corner of lobby with only a few stools around a high circular table. Not an idea place to spend the afternoon or even a chit chat session especially when there are people constantly walking around the lobby and coming in/out to the lobby restaurant Yamm located right across from the food counter.

(1) Black Pearl Cupcakes (Chocolate and Black Sesame)
Unlike traditional / American style cupcakes, the toppings were made of buttery cream instead of sugar icing. I personally prefer the sugar icing but it was alright the way they did it. However, the cupcake itself seemed a bit hard to me and too chilled for some reasons. It was slightly better the last time I was here. I did like the inner fillings of the cupcake which consisted of some crunchy chocolate waffle pieces.

(2) Mango Margarita Cupcakes
Nothing special about this cupcake. The same buttery cream was used instead of icing. Most of the flavors were within the cream; but rather light in my opinion. Diced mangoes were fresh and sweet but the cupcake itself was again too hard and overly chilled. Disappointing indeed. I think it is time for me to give Sift a try and do a comparison.

Likes:

* nice toppings decoration for the cupcakes
* tentative service (well, not many tables or seating to serve anyhow)

Dislikes:

* Lack of proper seats
* Noisy, right at the middle of the lobby
* overly hard cupcakes

Original Post: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/07/coco-mira.html

不是太難找, 但也要用上問路吧, 我想只是我係咁的....
係出面根本就唔知點樣入去大堂, 結果我上了1st floor, 看到COCO所在再去返地面
之後問一個企左係黑色大玻璃門前既人, 佢即開門話COCO位置比我聽
因為本人以為黑色玻璃門後是一間club之類既地方, 所以行過幾次又搵唔到入口下才問
我自覺幾embarrasse....lol

去到櫃台, 望到d cakes / chocolate cube, 眼花撩亂, 根本就唔知choose which one to have.
跟住問staff recommend which cake to me, 佢好詳細的問我like what flavour, dislike what flavour, how sweet i can handle etc... then they recommended a cake surrounded by white chocolate ,with strawberry on top, and mousse inside. + i have ordered the iced chocolate.

The Cake (what the name is it? no idea)
The decoration was very simple and clean.
Very sweet in general (is what i asked actually), but too sweet of the white chocolate slice...urgh is too sweet. The strawberries are very nice, they didn't have any sour flavour (Thanks to COCO's supplier). Mousse is very very smooth as i expected. and three pieces of cake in the middle are quite moisture, i think is good indeed.

Iced Chocolate with cream on top (small size)
Drank this after the sweet cake, ummmmm......like the hot chocolate in McDonald.
But whne i kept drinking and drinking, it started to seems a buit Cacao's hot chocolate flavour. it is strange, it can tell is different. i have no idea
Beware: drink is very expensive if stay there

The first impression was: Wow, that's cool. and the service was excellent, they were very nice and they knew their products very clearly.
And i do think that this is a take away cake shop rather than stay there due to the lack of table and the design of the only 8 people table.

And their meun is changed, i didn't see some of the products the previous 食家們 mentioned before. Only Orange Chocolate Terrine, Lemon Ganache Tart, Coconut Green & Cup Cakes are still being sold. And they launched some new cake two days ago (according to the staff). If you guys are interested, you can go and check this out.

It so happened that I needed to venture to Tsimshatsui for a little errand...and it so happened that I arrived a bit early. What a great chance to visit one of the places which I have not yet explored in TST! After a bit of internal struggle between Debailleul and Coco, I chose the latter as I wanted to check out the hip decor.

Impeccable service started the moment I walked through the front door. Two doormen directed me to Coco promptly. I must admit I was taken aback by the surroundings. It looked like a counter plunked in the corner of a great hall randomly. Nevertheless, I approached the counter and the lady there greeted me sincerely.

I was actually craving something dense, something like brownie cheesecake. Their cake choices that day included a Napolean, a raspberry mousse, a green tea-coconut concoction, an orange chocolate terrine, and a lemon ganache tart.

After some pondering, I chose the terrine even though I didn't quite like the combination of chocolate/orange. However, it fitted my craving for something dense and chocolatey. I wanted to try the raspberry mousse cake too, but I guess I'll save it for another visit. I also ordered a chamomile tea.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of comfy seats. All there were was a round communal table with bar stools and a small coffee table in the corner with cyber-looking chairs. I quite like enjoying cakes in big plushy sofas in hotel lobbies, so the dark environment and less than comfortable chairs did not satisfy me. Oh well, I chose the coffee table anyways.

Not long after, the server brought me my cake and tea, and helped me steep my teabag as well.Then I took a bite of my cake. WOW...the chocolate flavour was INTENSE and very very dense. There also was a thin layer of sponge on the bottom of the cake with a raspberry-ish sauce. The sponge was negligible though and it felt like I was just eating a dense chocolate brick. And what a surprise when I found out that inside the green chocolate domes on top was orange jelly and MARSHMALLOW! Yum yum...after a few bites, the chocolate flavour did get a bit too cloying though and I had to cut through the sweetness with a bit of tea. Also, there was not much orange taste within the cake (which suited me fine). It was at this point that I found a bug in my tea =[ The server promptly changed it though, but gave me no apology, which was a bit unprofessional. What makes it worse is that since my cake is dark, and the lobby is dark as well, it would be hard to see if a bug flew on my cake! =S

Overall, I enjoyed the cake's tastes and looks. The flavours could have been a bit more creative, but I do agree that the other choices might have fitted the creativity bill better.

What they can improve on is better service (I do understand that it's just a lobby coffee shop...but still...it's a hotel after all), perhaps more choices available at one time (it was hard to choose!), and comfyer seats. I'll be back!

I had been thinking to come and try the Matcha Mango Duo but everytime i hardly got a chance to buy take away or dine in. The chance just came last nite, but it was just disappointing me.....

Before i write this, i just got to know the cake supposed to be served the ones stored in back office instead of displayed ones. But i was served the one displayed. Nevermind, if it tastes good but it is not the case.

I bought the cake and ate at another cafe just nearby....The matcha taste is ok with the chestnut paste inside but it totally does not match with mango esp. now it's not the season. The worst part is the cake at the bottom, too dry and too hard. I couldn't believe a 5 star hotel cake shop would serve this dry piece of cake, even worser than those from Maxim....

Even though $30 a piece with this size is rather cheap, but i would definitely go for Mandarin Oriental's smaller piece of cake though. There are heaps of good comments of the cake shop but this experience already made me no intention to give it another try.

Also, the service wasn't good too. I admitted i got out a $1000 note was for changes but the attendent gave me a bad face and finally said not enough change. Nevermind again, i won't come next time.

Streusel (Earl Grey) Cake
Matcha Mango Duo
Cafe Latte (including Complimentary Chocolate)
I personally think the Earl Grey Cake was lacking in tea flavour and slightly too sweet but I like the crunch bites which gave it a great texture.
Matcha Mango Duo is great in both presentation and taste! I never knew green tea and mango would make such great match. the brown-ish stick-like above the mango are chocolate which was very smooth in taste too. I think it would make a great birthday cake
Cafe Latte was nothing special and to my opinion, slightly overpriced for $55. However, it came with four petit chocolates so i guess that was justified.