First visit to the restaurant for lunch and promised, will NEVER return for the rest of my life!

Were greeted coldly by the waitress and urged to place our orders once seated. Ordered the following:-

- 1 x salad and soup (potato) each
- 1 x Mushroom fettucine (with some slice red & green bell peppers)
- 1 x Chicken risotto with turmeric
- 2 x coffee (expresso & house coffee)

Both salad and soup taste normal and nothing to be excited about. The mushroom fettucine was ok but not the chicked risotto with turmeric. Tasted so salty and awful! Same thing goes to coffee. Such a simple drink but turns out to be sour! Can you imagine drinking coffee that taste sour??!! Ridiculous!!

In addition, the waitresses were rude and cold. Since we are sharing our food, we requested 2 extra plates and imagine that you have to repeat thrice to get the plates.

Sorry, no more next time!!

BACKGROUND

A quick business / old friends meet up over lunch. Both of us are trying to be healthy so when this place was suggested it seemed ideal. We met at the restaurant at 12:30 ish for the set lunch.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Not really my cup of tea but Hong Kongers love the Japanese / Taiwanese Formica and plastic kitchen look. It presents a clean frontage. There is a small organic pill and supplement store at the front of the restaurant.

MEET AND GREET

Not bad - not exactly friendly but mildly efficient. I was the first to arrive and about the fourth person in the restaurant.

TABLE SERVICE

The waiter was cold and efficient. The waitress seemed horrified that she would ever have to wait on someone that looked like me. A request for a working black pepper mill (big smile, big please) was greeted with such disdain that I felt like walking out. For such a small restaurant it seemed to take an age to find a replacement and when it eventually came the smile and thank you we gave was met with a blank star and a "So what" look. She went back to drinking her green goo noisily through a straw at the front of the shop.

MENU, PRICING AND ORDERING

The menu is very clear and easy to choose from and there was a nice selection of items. The prices were reasonable at $58 - no service charge - for the set lunch which also seemed to include a bowl of soup and a soft drink. I actually think that the menu seems to be quite good value.

I ordered:

* Tomato soup

* Chicken Risotto with Turmeric

* just water to drink

FOOD DELIVERY, TASTE AND STYLE

Starter

Both soups arrived at the same time, were a good temperature and tasted rather nice considering it was a set lunch soup. Slightly pink in colour, mildly creamy and quite herby.

a good start

main

We had both ordered the chicken risotto however the dishes arrived nearly ten minutes apart. There were less than 10 people in the restaurant and neither the waiter nor the waitress could be tempted to come near our table. It eventually came with one 9/10th finished.

Poor kitchen management aside, the risotto was actually really quite nice and both myself and my partner enjoyed it very much. It was very creamy, well balanced liquidity wise which is always important and the turmeric had been used well to give that nice slight Indian tilt.

If I could be guaranteed of better service I would definitely return for this dish at lunchtime. Great value for money.

** POST NOTE

Within 5 minutes of leaving the restaurant, I realised that I had left behind my umbrella. Now, this wasn't a cheap little 7-11 umbrella. I had placed it in a well behind our table (table 2) against the window. To get to the umbrella, you would have to go behind the table, lean into the window well and drag it out.

Upon returning to the office, I asked my secretary to call the restaurant and tell them that I would be by at 8:00pm when I finished in the office and I could pick it up. Apparently it had disappeared!!! They could not find it anywhere. There were 6 people in the restaurant when I left....strage eh?

With my wife we decided we wanted to have some decent food, possibly without MSG! Not a easy task in Hong Kong these days especially if you stay on a rather low budget. We went on the internet and found out this restaurant at "The One" shopping mall in TST.
The restaurant is located at the 4th floor, it is rather small (20-30 seats), average interior decor and linked to a small but interesting organic grocery. The menu listed several european specialities from pizza to spaghetti and paella, we've tasted the chorizo and chicken paella and the spicy eggplant spaghetti and we end up being very satisfied with our choices!
The waiting time was very short and obviously the food was pre-cooked as it is impossible to prepare and cook a paella from zero in 5 minutes!!!
The low cost menu suggests that not all ingredients used for cooking are likely to be organic, it might be that the pasta or the pizza is made of organic flour but I seriously doubt that all other condiments, vegetables and meats are indeed organic!?

Anyway all in all it was a very good dining experience which I can recommend to everyone.
Really hope organic affordable restaurants can become more popular in Hong Kong! Above all, we do need to eat better in order to feel better!

Cheers!

The new menu is just like a fine dining menu.
2 appetitisers, 1 soup, 1 main course.
this is excellent, and value for money.
one of the menu is
hokkaido oyster baked in pastry,
warm mushroom salad, with balsamic vinegar
spinach soup,
lamb rack with yellow ginger rice.(assorted five grain rice)
coffee or special herbal drinks(peppermint, or lavender, lemon grass or rose etc)
just $220 per person.
if you choose other main course, it is even cheaper.
comparing my last experience which is about 1 month ago, i find the new menu is more tasteful and more french style.
keeping going, mr. chef.