Grand Central Bar & Grill    

We wanted to bring the family out for a meal and we all decided for some pub food.

We googled and decided on this Restaurant and made a reservation. It was our first visit.

When we reach there about 1230 pm, the restaurant was only a third filled. The Filipino receptionist/waitress was not very interested in our reservation and using hand signals indicated to us that we could sit anywhere. ( how frivilous..)

Anyway the restaurant was at the end of a row of other restaurants on the open terrace area in the Elements shopping centre. We had initially wanted outdoor dining, but it dawn upon us, that CENTRAL was the ONLY restaurant without a front terrace/ porch for outdoor dining.

To keep up our spirits from the initial disappointment and indifferent staff / service, we made ourselves comfortable on the lower dining area of the restaurant. We ordered:

a. 2 Kids meal
- Mini Burgers - very mini - 3 small burgers about a half an adult fist size - decent not fantastic, with fries served on a paper pirate box. (HKD92)
- Fish bites - like the fish and chips (HKD99)

b. Fish and Chips - very tasty and large portion. Best dish amongst all but incredibly expensive (HKD379)
c. BBQ Ribs - Tony Roma's are tastier. Too overly dripped in BBQ sauce.(HKD208)
d. Pasta Chicken paninni (HKD118) - normal
e. Nachos with cheese - rather badly done - and the cheese was spread awefully over the Nachos. Chef probably had a 'hangover' when preparing this. (HKD 112)
f. We had the lobster bisque - quite decently prepared except that the it had a bitter overlaying taste making it less palatable for us. the soup was offerred in 2 sizes, we took the bowl and shared this through 4 bowls.(HKD99)

We also had some drinks which taste from weird to decent.
Mojita (HKD78) + Rasbery Mojitas (HKD78)+ Gunner (cocktail) (HKD36)+ coke(HKD38)

Because we were not overwhelmed with the food, we took 'conservative' desserts of chocolate cake (HKD79), ice cream. Nothing unusual - good and creamy just like Dreyers...maybe it is..hahahaha.

On the whole, service was lacking and need major improvements. We could not even get the staff attention when the whole ground floor of the restaurant is barely 400 -500 sq ft.
Food was not fantastic but then its not too bad either.

Overall damage is HKD1,707 ( incl tax) for our family of 4 children and ourselves.

We don't think we will return.

Having a extremely good mood today, I decided to go and eat dessert happily. Went to Grand Central Grill Bar and ordered my favourite Hot Chocolate Cake plus fruit punch. Waited patiently for 20 minutes, my Hot Chocolate Cake finally arrived. Vanilla ice-cream on top melted so quickly when I was still taking picture. Picking up my spoon to start eating, the surface of Hot Chocolate Cake was as crispy as usual, with very hot and river-like chocolate running out from the middle. The cake very delicious, I was so full and strive my very best to clear the task! The cake is absolutely not for a single person, but it was just a good day that I would really like to treat myself good!

This is a great place for kids...there are high chairs, a balloon man (at least on a sunday afternoon) and crayons/drawing papers. The staff are also very friendly towards the kids (and non-kids).

Had a burger with mushrooms. Was a good burger, not dry like a lot of other restaurants. The mushrooms were good, not overcooked, not too oily. The fries were just regular fries from the freezer, not freshly made. They were ok..the portion was not too big, just enough.

The staff is super-friendly, makes the visit more enjoyable.

It's been a century since the tragic accident of the world's biggest and luxurious ship Titanic. The media is all about the Titanic, and so are the restaurants in Hong Kong. The Titanic menu is definitely a gimmick to attract customers, but I am interested to know what is on the Titanic Menu in 1912. So I brought my friend to Grand Central Bar and Grill tonight to degust the once luxurious menu on the Titanic.

Grand Central Bar and Grill (GC) is located on the far end of the Civic Square at the Element, I have been to the area for quite a few times and the ambiance is guaranteed nice in there.

Tried Grand Central because we were meeting a friend and had a $150 coupon from eating at one of their partner restaurants.

We ordered grilled calamari with spicy marinara for an appetizer and also a "papaya" salad with grilled prawns to start us off. The calamari was pretty good but could have been little less chewy, but the sauce was very nice. For the salad, I was expecting Som Tom (the traditional Thai-style papaya salad), but it was basically mixed greens with prawns and a fruity dressing/salsa that must have had papaya in it. The salad was about as close to being Thai as I am to being Tony Jaa. The prawns were very tasty and the dressing was nice, but it wasn't what I had expected.

For the main course, we ordered the pan fried halibut with apple & parsley salad. I really liked the halibut, it was crispy on the outside, but soft, flaky and moist inside. It had a nice mix of lemon and butter flavors. The salad was good depending on the balance of ingredients you got on your fork.

We went all out for desserts and tried 3 different dishes: key lime pie, hot chocolate cake & ice cream and cheesecake. All three were quite good. It was nice to have a good key lime pie, since it isn't a common dessert in HK. Their hot chocolate cake is titled "legendary" and chocolate lovers will enjoy it. It was almost too rich for me, but the vanilla ice cream helped to balance it out. For me, the cheesecake stole the show. It was probably the best cheesecake I've had in HK and it was a generous slab too.

The atmosphere was nice. We sat upstairs. The downstairs seemed more like a place for drinks.

The service was okay, but every time you needed something you had to wave them down, despite the restaurant not being near full. I tend to prefer the servers to be more attentive and notice when glasses are full or dishes are empty.

I have eaten at this restaurant several times since arriving in Hong Kong, and can highly recommend for burgers, fish and chips, and most salad dishes. The Caesar Salad with chicken was not quite up to US or UK standards, but not bad. The burgers are great, and the service and management are friendly and accommodating.

Took the opportunity with family and friends to enjoy this new venue in Elements, it was quite late in the evening and we were all hungry and ready to eat, we ordered kids meal and appetiser of Nachos, the Nachos were disappointing as we found that tortilla chips were soggy not the slightest bit crisp, we've been having some varying experiences with Nachos too date and this was not good We managed to get the Manager and explained our opinion, he was understanding and took them away, he returned to let us know that they will prepare a FRESH one for us and that they will put the toppings on the side to ensuring crisp tortilla's . They were crisp when they came back but now the toppings were smaller, guac, sour cream and salsa served in small ramekins..... Fortunately the main course made up for this disappointing start and the House draft ale was very enjoyable, may come back again sometime but will have to ensure that the nachos come out crisp.....

We tried this restaurant for the first time and I'm sure it was also the last time.

We ordered set lunch for some very basic discs such as steaks and fillet. They were just cooked in the simple way but disappointingly all were very very salty and the food was not fresh.

The only good thing is that there were a lot of seats as it was not full during lunch though most other places at Elements are usually full.

Awful experience and not value for money. May be just go for a Big Mac next time...

I went to this restaurant last night and found it to be just awful. So awful that I actually registered for open rice just to inform others. I felt it was almost a duty at how poor this was.

I arrived at 7:00 for dinner and had to flag down a waiter to be seated.

I and my father ordered the

Spinach Dip with Pita Bread
Australian Rack of Lamb
US Prime Rib Eye
Bottle of the Chilean Merlot

I don't know where to begin.

First off the wine was of poor quality. Very young and could possibly be confused for children's grape juice.

The spinach dip was soupy. Not to mention that it was tasteless minus the melted cheddar cheese (which is a big no to begin with) that was something Sargento would have produced to put in your local grocery store.

After the spinach dip, we had to request our plates to be changed before the main course along with the silverware. When the new plate came, the plate had food crusted to it. I requested another change of plate only to receive a annoyed look from the waitress. Never refilled our water once, in fact water actually never came. We just drank wine.

Mains,

When they arrived the rack of lamb was actually semi awful (as opposed to absolutely awful for everything else). I wouldn't expect to taste lamb. It is heavily crusted with garlic and the meat was overcooked. Easily well done vs our request for medium.

US prime rib eye.
No way it was US prime. The meat was tough, chewy and relatively flavorless. Not to mention there was so much fat on the cut that the grease from the fat was enough to make you slightly nauseous.

We didn't even finish this steak because it was so poor. I was going to feed it to my dog but i'm still contemplating doing possibly in the name of mercy.

To add insult to injury, the total bill was 1200 HKD. Not astronomically expensive but for 1200 HKD you can easily have a much better meal and Hong Kong's infinite array of better restaurants.

The only redeeming quality this place had was that it had some US sports channels.

My conclusion: Avoid at all costs. Maybe do shots at the bar.

Loveee brunching on chill Sundays, and decided to try the semi-newly opened "American" restaurant at Civic Square in Elements. I recommend sitting on the upper level during the day as the dining room is comfy (aka spacious) and naturally well-lit with floor-to-ceiling windows (is there another word for those??)

The setting, while praiseworthy, is most definitely NOT a positive indication of the food nor service, much to my disappointment.

Talking first about service, the waiters and waitresses just... don't know how to wait on tables. It gets old, but often times a huge complaint for dissatisfied patrons is that they didn't refill your water. And yea, that's what happened here too despite the restaurant being mostly empty the whole time we were there (testimony perhaps to its sad service/food?) The service was also ssslllooowww. How long does it take to make a martini? (Ice, alcohol and pineapple slice does not equal 20 minutes) Amateurish much?

Cost-wise, the lunch sets are decently priced... that is, until you take a bite out of their pulled pork ciabatta. Then you feel ripped off!the slushy martini wasn't bad. The liquid nitrogen, which the waiter spilled over my pants by the way, really wasn't necessary though and lasted a whopping 15 secondsclam chowder was a thumbs up. Lots of clams and not too watery. no to the ciabattas and prawns paninis, which have no real distinct taste. The burger one of my friends ordered that wasn't on the set lunch menu was quite good actually. It may have been that we ordered the wrong stuff.

The check took a long time too. Not sure I'll be back until the waiters undergo some serious training!