ABC Kitchen  

Friend J has always been mentioning that there is a hidden restaurant in the cooked food market that serves decent italian cuisine of a SOHO level. Curious. Hence I came.

Early bird doesn't always catch the worm. We arrived at 11:45am, but the waiter told us that they started their business by 12noon (without any intention to serve their customers or taking orders earlier). Receiving the service of a cooked food market standard, I still could not associate this cramped restaurant with fine cuisine.

ABC Kitchen first caught my eyes when it climbed up the Openrice top-10-chart back in almost 2 years ago (time flies..). I was surprised and sceptical how good the food really was in a "cooked food centre". After two repeatedly cancelled bookings due to uncontrollable crazy workload, I quietly filed it in my to-try list.

A year on.. finally, we, a party of 3, made it on a quiet Monday night.

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Well informed of its settings; we found the "cooked food centre" actually quite decent. Note: it is a "cooked food centre" and so it is quite different from a wet market and much more hygienic. No weird smells. No wet floors. Just a lot of hustle and bustle from customers of all of the restaurants all clustered in the middle area.Very easy to identify. The simple and eye-catching three words - A B C and the Italian flag beside it (I still do not understand why it has an Italian flag.. perhaps they meant to serve Italian dishes, but to be frank, it is more of a mix of western food rather than pure Italian... anyway...). ABC Kitchen was founded by chefs trained at the M at the Fringe; short-handed for "A Better Cooking Kitchen", sought to serve good food at a rather non-traditional setting. The restaurant occupied around 10 tables which were all distinctively decorated with the red checkered table cloths.



A simple paper menu was presented to us; but the range on offer was truly mouth-watering!

Warm white buns were then brought to us with two neatly sliced butter. Nothing much to say about that. Rather tasteless buns and mellow boring butter.

We ordered 2 starters to share for the 3 of us.Rich Porcini Mushroom Risotto.
Rightly named - RICH Porcini Mushroom Risotto - it ticked and satisfied every element of a good risotto. Al dente pieces of rice, each chewy in the middle and swirled fully in creamy truffle paste, joined with generous pieces of porcini mushrooms. It was a nice balance of the luscious creaminess and the sharp mushroomy taste. The thinly shaved parmesan rested elegantly on top of the creamy risotto but added further body and power to the risotto, making each spoonful a scrumptious delight. Pan-seared foie gras with vanilla rhubarb chutney.
It is generally easy to please the crowd with foie gras, but it is not that easy to make good memorable foie gras. A toss of salad, well seasoned with a simple dressing. Two very lightly toasted pieces of bread, very mediocre. Foie gras, slightly to the thin side, looked just dark brown (as per the photo), but unfortunately it was slightly burnt (thus a bit of bitterness...) and no where crispy enough (you need the crisp to maximise the sensation poured out from its fatty core). Vanilla rhubarb chutney not flavourful enough; I could taste neither vanilla nor rhubarb. Rooms for improvement easily identified.

Then 3 main courses to share around.Roasted Suckling Pig.
Let's start with the star. Now there is a reason that this is the ABC Kitchen's signature dish. Very nicely roasted, the smoky skin was very crispy. As I heard the crackling sound, just the right amount of oil seeped out, and my mouth was filled with the strong and fresh aroma of pork. The meat of the suckling pig was very succulent and soft; and indeed, that's the whole point of using a suckling pig - which literally meant "a piglet fed on its mother's milk". Served on sauteed potatoes, and most importantly - fruity peaches (lovely) which added much dimension to the flavour. Recommended! Barbarie (I believe, it should be spelt Barbary..) Duck Breast.
Barbary ducks are in general leaner than normal farm ducks. It is a more tricky type of poultry meat to master and to ensure moisture and tenderness. This dish looked very promising, elegantly presented and the duck was served in a pretty pink. Nevertheless, while the duck breast was pleasantly gamy, it is slightly too tough and dry to my liking. And worse, the blueberry sauce was not strong enough to bring out the flavour of the duck. Nice touch with the mashed sweet potato which livened up the dish. If only, the sauce is more complementing and equally delectable. Short Ribs.
Nice, delightful and very tender having been slowly braised. Hearty and thick sauce (according to the menu, Shiraz was added); but nothing complex and unique. My friend H said that it reminded him of good old Marks and Spencer ready-made sauce. I would call it the "grand-ma recipe". All in all, reasonable dish, but no element of surprise.

Finally - dessert time! and this was the best part of our meal!Pistachio Souffle.
You can call us greedy; I call this fabulous forwarding planning - we ordered two portions of the pistachio souffle. Fluffy and puffy, carrying a soothing green; the souffle was very inviting and stirred immediate joy to our table. And it certainly did not disappoint. Smooth, soft and airy, lovely level of the pistachio fragrant (you see, if it is too overpowering, sometimes it tastes like cough syrup......); each spoonful was like a spoonful of the cloud in the sky, a spoonful of dream... Pure bliss!!Pavlova.
Pavlova, a meringue dessert which is usually with a crisp crust but soft inside. This was an example of a beautiful execution. Topped with lots of fresh fruits (berries, kiwi, mango..) and whipped cream. The magic was the addition of passion fruit sauce and seeds, which brought a refreshing zesty dimension to the sweet delight. Loved working my way through this dessert, an interesting mix of different "mouthfeel" - crispiness, crunchiness, chewiness, stickiness... I enjoyed this Pavlova a lot.

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I must admit that I am having a slight struggle what to rate ABC Kitchen. It certainly exceeded my expectation given its non-traditional location/setting. Yes, I also really enjoyed the desserts. However - it was not a memorable meal for me and I would not be actively recommending this place. So - it is just an "okay" for me.

I guess this highlights a general rule of life for us: it is not enough to excel merely in relation to your setting, be outstanding in all ways, even when stand-alone .

I went to the famous ABC kitchen last week; like a lot of people I misunderstood the location and went to Sheung Wan Food Market, it was actually the Queen Street Food Market.

I was expected there will be set dinner because I saw from Openrice that the price range was from HKD40-100, officiously the review was understated about the price. For dinner, there's no set but only a la carte, starter can be up-to HKD130 and main courses are between HKD128 - 168 (from memory)

Provencal Fish StewThe Provencal fish stew was something I missed to try when I was in Marseilles last time, never thought that I will have it in a HK local food market.

Sea Urchin RisottoI didn't get chance to try their seafood risotto however the sea urchin risotto didn't let me down, very creamy and freshly sea urchin is a good match with risotto!

Roasted Suckling Pig with Apple Sauce The suckling pig is good but in my expectation, they should be better. Probably because we are Chinese and we had loads of suckling pigs which we can compare. Anyway the apple sauce are lovely.

Pavlova with Passion Fruit SauceThis is a very lovely dessert and made a completed nice end for the night, I killed it all by myself. Thought they are heavy but actually not that you think with the passion fruit sauce.

Price for 2 is about HKD600 which is not a local food market price however the food are worth trying.

Another belated birthday lunch

My Singaporean friend would like bringing me to something special, some where he thinks (which is true) I seldom have chance to go, wet market in Sheung Wan. True, the last time I visited this district was 2 years ago, went to a private kitchen in an old commercial building, which was very nice too.

Kept walking and walking from IFC, to have good exercise before lunch I thought it's dai pai dong, Cantonese cuisine, when I arrived the floor. Approaching this store, called ABC, thought it serves local style western food, and after looking carefully, I could tell the difference.

Table setting, they do set the table nicely, compared with the tables for other stores. Neat and clean Daily menu written on a black board, in both Engloish and Chinese, A to E offering wide variety of choices in such a small place.

I ordered the risotto and my friend had the cod cake; sweet corn soup, wow it is real sweet corn soup. Why I said so,....It has strong sweet corn taste, not canned soup. The Risotto was delicious, perfect portion, I finished all to show respect to the Chef and importantly, I don't waste food. The cod cake was surprisingly tasty, I don't really like fish cake/crab cake, etc but this one is nice.

Egg Benedict, we didn't order that but I saw another customer was having it, looked nice!

What an experience for me, I never imagine there is a decent western restaurant located in a wet market. I know some good Chinese ones, but western cuisine, this is awesome!

Sharing table, tiny kitchen, hanging clothes in the store, very casual place and at the same time, they are serving highly quality of food,...I can feel the Passion there. These combinations make this place really special.

Don't assume no reservations needed because it's at a food market. It is actually highly recommended.
House salad was a miss; greens were bruised and not fresh (sorry. not picture worthy)

Cod cake with ONE scallop was delish Suckling pig was awesome; crispy skin with minimal fat; meat was tender and juicy prawn paw paw salad; the two prawns were awesome; overdid on the dressing a littleThe best part is this is a BYOB establishment with no corkage

This is the last day that I would be working in the Sheung Wan office, time to say goodbye to this "love and hate" place

Last chance, what should be tried? While I am alone today, finally I choose the ABC Kitchen, where seating place is very limited but expected to have quality

When I sit down, I meet Mr Edison and Ping, surprised

Ordered my 烤乳豬, blow water and wait for around 15 mins
Note, the lunch option here is around 4 basically, but you can still order the main menu like what I have ordered. Of course, they are more expensive and w/o soup or drink, in FREE

The size of pork is quite large, in 2 pieces. The skin of it is extremely crisp, and the meat is pretty soft. Every mouth of it does not have a fat feeling though there is fat and normal meat mixed

The pork taste is nice

Besides, the side dishes potato and vegetable are fresh and juicy
With a nice small cup of coffee that seperately ordered, spirit is totally recovered

Just, thank you Mr Edison for the meal, as he owes me so much, haha

Go and try, you would not regret

It was rather adventuring finding this restaurant as i have never been to that part of Sheung Wan before. Not difficult to spot where ABC is when you are up there as that's the only ones with red checkered table cloths!

Back to the meal:

Mussels in white sauce - rather generous for a starter portion. The texture of the mussels was too soft for my liking

Salted cod and scallops- ok for the cod but scallops overcooked.

Roasted Suckling Pig- just simply cannot be better! Meat was so tender, skin was crispy and the juice.... you just want to drink it! Again, very big portion but so tasty.

Seafood Stew- a combination of fish, mussels, king prawns, squid cooked in a light spicy sauce. Slightly under seasoned but good for summer night dinner and good complement to the rich suckling pig.

Dessert wise:
Creme Brulee- way too rich to finish a meal, would prefer the lighter version
Souffle with Grand Marnier- couldn't quite taste the GM but it was well made as a souffle

Also, dinner rolls were good. Tasty and warm.
Service was excellent! Definitely would come back.

I like ABC Kitchen, I really do but in order to have a good meal you need to be careful what you pick as a lot of the food is sub par.

ABC Kitchen is meant to be Italian but is a fairly base Cantonese interpretation of what Italian is. The dishes they do best are the dishes you can get in any Cantonese restaurant but with Italian sounding names. So basically soft shelled crab, roasted suckling pig etc.

Last night I had the souffle which came out gloopy in the centre and plain cold. The other starter of a salad was edible. For mains we both had suckling pig which was Cantonese in style with mashed potatoes and fantastic. Previous experiences have taught us to avoid the deserts like the plague.

What elevates the meal is the effort the staff put in, the eagerness and spirit and the contradictorary nature of the setting - Western dai pai dong etc.

For more reviews have a look on www.tomeatsjencooks.com

Tom(Eats)

I went there for lunch. The lunch special looks good. But I am there for 西班牙烤乳豬 and the fish soup! However, they switch the menu every couple months. Therefore, the fish soup is no longer serve. Anyway, you may ask for dinner menu in order to have the full menu. I ordered the 西班牙烤乳豬. It was great. The skin was so crispy. All the meat are so juicy and loose. Surprise, 好嘢! You may also order foods from other store next to it. Well worth to give it try!

ABC apparently stands for A Better Cooking Kitchen, in Sheung Wan’s Queens Street wet market. It is run by two former staff who previously worked at M at the Fringe. I thought it was rather odd to have an Italian restaurant in the wet market, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Soft shell crab was superb. It was served with gherkin and lemon, the soft shell crab was lightly battered and perfectly fried. It was deliciously rich and meaty.

La bouillabaisse was particularly good, it wasn’t fishy but it was full of flavour, creamy and not too rich. Generous serving of seafood, enough for the four of us.

Pasta Carbonara was deliciously creamy, served with generous amounts of bacon. I dare not think how much cream was put into this dish, as my pasta carbonara is never THIS creamy! It was scrumptiously good!

The Pizza – margarita pizza – tomato, cheese, and herbs on a thin crust pizza, was good but nothing special.

We started with spring chicken roll stuffed with goat cheese and spinach, which we shared this between the 7 of us. The chicken was superb, tender, moist and succulent.

The tuna steak was good but it was a little dry for my liking. Some parts were rare, but most were slightly overcooked, which was a shame. If it was rarer I think I may have enjoyed this dish as it was crusted and full of flavour.

The suckling pig was cut into pieces and served in separate plates for us. At first I thought that it was a ‘small’ pig, however, it was more than enough for the seven of us. The suckling pig was cooked Portuguese style, the skin was crispy and crackly (the way I like it) and the meat tender and succulent. I have to admit though, not all parts of the meat was tender and succulent. I had two pieces, the first was incredibly tender but the second less so, it was a little hard. Unfortunately the consistency of the tenderness was not throughout but the crispiness of the skin was consistent. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I have to admit, M’s suckling pig was definitely better. I can still remember the texture and the flavour and the tenderness of the meat. It was THAT good. ABC’s version was good but I still believe that M’s is infinitely better.

Seafood Paella, if you are disgusted at how much we ate, you should be! I still am! I was getting full by this stage; but had to try the seafood paella. It was different to what I expected; the saffron rice was more watery and moist than I have had it. The seafood was delicious and cooked to perfection, however, I believe the overall dish was so so. I have had better elsewhere.

Lastly, dessert, we got a tray of all the five that was on offer. Crème brulee, banana banoffee pie, chocolate puff, souffle and mousse.

I believe we tried almost every single thing on the menu except for a couple of entrées and mains. I am still rather disgusted at how much we ate, but it was deliciously scrumptious and good. I thoroughly enjoyed the suckling pig the most. The service was as good as you can expect from a wet market, and the ambience, casual and loud (we were probably the loudest table) and quite reasonable for the amount of food we ate.

Casual dinner with two friends - decided to try this place since had heard about it.
Located in very small but very clean public market food court - ABC puts tablecloth and proper cutlery on the tables they serve.
Brought own bottle of wine - byob all good.

Appetizers:
Salad - fresh arugula - good dressing ratio and well tossed
Deep fried soft Shell Crab - Not bad - a tad oily but tasty
Spaghetti Carbonara - Really well done and especially considering it was only $60 - pasta al dente - sauce, ham, everything well cooked and put together

Mains:
Roasted Suckling Pig - ok - portion a little small, skin crispy, meat fell off the bone - ticked the boxes
White Asparagus with Parma Ham and Poached Egg - more about the ingredients than cooking skill, but was a good combination and tasty, and chef did the right thing but not trying too hard
Seafood Paella - Served on the skillet, generous with the seafood (two large shrimps plus mussels and clams), little light on the rice, was alright, but not my intepretation of good paella

Dessert:
Chocolate Mousse: rich good
Souffle - Not bad at all, fluffy, lemon twang

Overall:
The menu is limited (about 6-7 choices each for appetizer and main). Wouldn't necessary make a trip out for this, but it is byob and not a bad place to eat fairly well for little with a small group of people and take your time with it. For the money that they charge you, this is pretty good fare. Would come again - though it is in a public market, it wasn't too noisy. This is no high end place so if you're judging it for that then you're mistaken, but for good food, good value and being laid back - it's a good choice.

Since the set lunch menus are not so attractives; for 3 people, we have ordered 2 bouillabaisse, 1potato & leek soup, 1 pan fried foie gras , 1 suckling pig & Souffle.
Bouillabaisse: This soup should be basically a FISH soup cooked with different types of fish &saffron and served as main course ( ex. Chez Patrick ). The soup we have is totally a chinese version: no saffron, lots of local seafood rather than fish, taste like a crabe bisque or the chef have used a can of crabe bisque because the soup doesn't taste any 'freshness'.
Leek soup is correct especially for $20
Foie Gras is very oilly & no taste, is it a chinese stuff?
Suckling pig: Crispy but 口感& taste 好似煲湯肉, funny.
Souffle is good.
No bread: we have asked for some bread & they don't provide any bread for lunch.
Is it really a western? european? restaurant ? Do they think bread is only an accessory in the meal that they cannot charge any money ?
Wrong ingredient & wrong way to serve .

M and I have been wanting to visit ABC Kitchen for some time, since the rave reviews after its opening... tonight we finally made it to Queen Street Food Market, hungry and expecting good food.

Bread – home-made dinner rolls speckled with herbs were warm and soft upon serving, but unfortunately too ‘doughy’ for me.

Bouillabaisse ($88) was a small bowl of seafood in at most a few tablespoons of soup. Bouillabaisse is a seafood stew originated from Provence, containing at least three types of seafood and topped with bread/toast spread with rouille. ABC Kitchen’s version was definitely a thick stew, and not a thin broth on our visit, and contained a large prawn, a couple clams, mussels and a small piece of white fish. Taste wise it was rich in seafood flavours, and hearty – I loved this stew! But portion-wise, they definitely could’ve been more generous, especially with the soup. On top sat a toast (a different cut of their home-made bread) spread with (I am guessing home-made) rouille, which was really excellent, probably even better than the stew! 7.5/10

Suckling Pig ($118) took a while to be served… at least 20-30 minutes after ordering. The portion was again slightly disappointing, our two cuts consisted of one crackling skin only and the other a bit of meat attached. We both thought the skin was indeed very crispy and well roasted, and the meat tender and moist. However, the two blobs of sides next to the pig spoilt the dish a little for me. The purple cabbage was insanely sweet, whilst the mash…bland and awful. They added in bits of corn and carrots for texture and colour but without seasoning the whole concept fails! 7/10

Carbonara ($58) was probably the worst carbonara M and I have had. I stopped after two bites because life is too short for poor pastas. Our linguine was sticky and softer than al dente, but that wasn’t bad enough. The sauce given was too little, too rich and bland - it could’ve been thinned down to coat the pasta properly, therefore preventing the linguine sticking together. There was no taste of egg, and the fatty bacon did little to help with the flavouring of the whole dish. 2/10

Banana banoffee Pie ($38) was the dessert we picked over a dessert sampler, because we were quite full by now. It arrived shortly and I swear both of our jaws dropped in awe of the presentation. Digestive cookie crust? Yes. Toffee? Yes. Banana? Yes. Cream? Errr..yes, if aerosol cream counts. But how they managed to screw up this simple dessert is beyond me. The photo in this case explains. Nonetheless, I did think their toffee was quite special and tasty. 5/10 (because of the yummy toffee). If you are looking for good banoffee pie, M recommends Portobellow whilst Jaspas' banoffee pie for me was way way way better than what we had!

Our bill came to about $300 for two - definitely not cheap, despite what reviews have said. For the quality and surroundings of the dinner this night $300 would be fair, if not slightly over-priced.

For photos and original blog, visit: http://gastronomerr.blogspot.com/2010/09/abc-kitchen.html

Decent Western food in a cooked food market?
Not your average Hong Kong char-chan-teng type soda tenderized marinated meats on a sizzling hot plate? pork chop bun with refried chips and cocktail canned fruits in "salad" sauce?
No wonder I've heard so much about this place.

I've been wanting to try forever, but the place's always fully booked, but finally, I had my chance, and we went all out, almost ordering the whole menu

One of my favorite items of the night was the soft shell crab appetizer. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, well seasoned.

We were so hungry that night, these warm and fluffy bread were consumed the minutes they were placed on the table. Nice touch of herbs...but I wish there was more butter...a tiny chunk was not enough for the four of us ;)

I've never tried a proper bouillabaisse before...but this one tasted like a watered down lobster bisque. It could really use more seasonings...the gorgeous piece of bread on top is a nice touch. If only the soup was tasty enough, it'd be perfect.

My other favorite dish was the linguini carbonara. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the sauce was creamy and tasty. We couldn't get enough of it, we ordered another portion

The pizza appetizer was alright...but it's nothing memorable.

Our centerpiece of the night was this whole roasted suckling pig, which had to be ordered in advance. The owner kindly took out the whole pig for photographing purposes, before sending the pig back into the kitchen for more roasting. We were a little worried, our pig looked kinda...small. But, let's get back to the pig later...

The spring chicken stuffed with goat cheese and spinach looked gorgeous. However, I found that the inner part of the chicken was a little bit undercooked. Yikes! Nevertheless, loved the idea, the goat cheese gave the chicken the slap of flavor it needed, it was juicy, and the salad on the side balances the dish perfectly.

The tuna steak was a little dry, flaky and underseasoned, but the sauce was nice.

Now, let's get back to the pig. Crackling golden crispy skin...with mostly tender, tasty and juicy meat, especially the fatty bits. However, there were still some dry and tough parts...I guess that's the risk of ordering the whole pig, you don't only get the best bits.

We underestimated our pig a little, we had a lot of leftover, I brought home even the brain, which was a very special treat, as it is not easy to find pig's brain served anywhere in Hong Kong these days, despite the belief that the Chinese eat everything

PS. If you want a touch of heat, ask for some hot sauce, but handle with care, the hot sauce is really really hot, even for me, and I can handle my heat ;)

We also ordered their paella (that's right, we almost ordered everything on the menu). Beautiful flavors, meaty and savory from the stock and bacon fragrant and fresh from the seafood. However, the rice was a bit mushy...and I was missing the crispy burnt bits at the bottom of paella it was almost...soupy.

To end our meal, we had the dessert platter to share. The creme brulee was nothing memorable, the chocolate puff was decent, but we've had better from Bread Papa, the mousse...again, nothing special, the black sesame souffle looked gorgeous but it left a weird aftertaste...the best for me was surprisingly...the banofee pie. The caramel was super rich, smoky, sweet with a tinge of saltiness, perfect with cream, chocolate sauce and banana.

We were absolutely stuffed at HK$250 per person (with a few beers, and several portion of pig for lunch boxes for the next day ^_^)

http://mochachocolatarita.blogspot.com/2010/08/abc-kitchen-sheung-wan-hong-kong.html