Amigo     雅谷餐廳  

Amigo, as one of the fine dining spots , is famous for her services. News about her that the food quality drops, well, I have never tried, so it's my first time to testify the truth, how well it goes for my personal taste I don't eat beef and it's a dish my friend orders. The appearance looks nice and juicy. As my friend is very easy going with whatsoever edible food, can't judge here but i will give a 4-5 for its pacakge.Fillet, my dish. Again, looks very nice, tender and soft. I am stuffed with this one dish. If it's served as a smaller portion I will be more satiafied. The signature choc-coated ice-cream, always my most favourite part. I think it's the best crispy coated ice-cream ever, can't get it anywhere, not even at the restaurants of best rating five-star hotels. If you ask me what draws me to here, I will tell you it's the warm, comfy decor and this ice-cream.

At the end, I forgot to take the signature Napoleon Birthday cake. Whoever comes here for a birthday meal, don't forget to order it. It's real nice!

There's a saying said by Andre Gide：Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness。沒有什麼比回憶幸福更令人痛苦。我反而不太認同，有時有幸福可以回憶也是一種幸福。回憶幸福也可以很甜蜜。Yes， it can be very sweet when thinking of the moments when we were together！I can still remember the the occasions we were in Amigo. Sitting in here again made me thought of you.

Still its pattern keeping for years - Giving a rose to female customers and a memo pad with the person's name who made the reservation.

Environment: the decoration still keeps the same with long stairs, old-fashioned interior design, nice table decoration and dimmed light..etc giving you a sense of romantic and decent. The experienced waiters wears in tuxedo gives you a sense of royalty and treats you well

The romantic live-band still there playing and singing love songs! The song you picked last time was 鄧麗君's. So I picked the same this time.

Food:
Butter - ^^ still keep the same as a rose shape (some people complaint the butter is too hard and not smooth enough, um.... actually butter keeps solid when putting in the fridge. In order to keep the rosy shape, they can't use soft butter and also can't put in the room temperature too long before serving.)

Clam chowder soup - big clam with creamy chowder. the clam is a bit salty and fresh. someone mis-underestand the salty taste as spoiled. In opposite, the salted taste represents it's freshness.

Goose Liver - very yummy with juicy inner and crispy outer. ^^

Beef - the meat you loved so much so I ordered it as main course tonight. ! I ordered it being cooked to medium. Somehow it was a little bit overdone. but the source is very yummy.

King shrimp - big shrimp tasted buttery and fresh.

Desser - the most famous dessert here is Napoleon cake, i always ordered take-away but the taste was different compare with eating in here. Anyway, I ordered again tonight. The layers were very crispy and the custard were smooth......but the custard was not sweat enough (Im not that fond on sweats which you can imagine the Napoleon's taste...... a little bit disappointed).

The remembrance of happiness can be sweet and happy and sometimes mixed with..... bitter.... this is life.... and similar to food... the taste can be complicated and with different aroma .... and everyone tastes differently for the same food!

Always passed by but never tried. So for our one yr anniversary my bf booked this place to try. Very old school style as decor was dim and gives you the feeling of escaping hk...! All waiters on tux which was cute. We were seated promptly and I had the 3 course: goose liver (very nice and juicy), sea bass (my fav! Very big piece but extremely moist and sauce and seasoning did not overpower), souffle for dessert which I found very bland so traded with Huns raspberry creme brûlée which was very creamy and delish. Hun had 4 course with goose liver, clam soup (nth special), king shrimp (very buttery snd cheesey!). To top it all we shared a bottle of moet. Food was all in all excellent and service was above and beyond. Agreed with previous reviewers worth noting is the 2 waiters:1 table ratio enabling prompt service, liked them cleaning the crumbs on table (as it's non existent it seems in hk!) and the rose for the lady at the end The band did come over playing a Jason Muraz song but I agree it would be nice if they werestationed in on spot playing as it can be a bit awkward...! Great voices though! Definitely recommend this place for anyone seeking somewhere for a special occasion!

Apparently quite a famous restaurant in HV, so we decided to give a try. One had 3 course set dinner, goose liver, sea bass and cream brulee, one had asparagus soup and rib eye. Despite being french, the cooking style is definitely Cantonese. Red wine is good. Atmosphere is relaxed, but our appetite was ruined by spanish singers in a French restaurant. Singers were rude and unprofessional, not to mention the voice that is worse than my karaoke skill. Waiter also got our dishes wrong. And one more thing, never order espresso there, it's watery, semi hot and extremely weak. Overall experience is below average for a pricey restaurant and high expectation.

Amigo has shown their excellent service when I call them to made the booking, the person who receive booking was polite, professional and patient, I have lots of questions regarding the arrangement of a birthday dinner, and he answered me politely and clearly.

They have free parking and I just leave my car in front of Amigo, and the table they arranged was at the right hand side of the stairs, pretty private and quiet.

We ordered set of soup, goose liver, prawn, steak, dessert...

onion soup - not very traditional french onion soup, not enough onion and bread in the soup
goose liver - fresh and tasty, big portion
prawn - sauce tasted good, fresh prawn
cream brulee - fine
sorbert - ok
cake - free of charge, though it's mini size but it's very yummy. probably the waiter were busy on that night because they were very rush to light the candle and sing the birthday song in half a minute, I didn't even take enough photos of the cale.

A bit disappointed as the band didn't come to our table.

A great place to eat. Excellent food and service with a large range of wines from a few hundred dollars up to around $100,000 per bottle.
The band is entertaining BUT they should stick the band in a corner somewhere instead of calling them over to sing at everyone's table, usually when we're trying to enjoy our excellent desserts. Not only is it distracting, but its a bit embarrassing - do you stop what your doing to watch the band? or just ignore them? do you tip them? Don't get me wrong, the band is very good and worth listening to, but they shouldn't be standing next to you when you're trying to talk to the people at your table.

Amigo is one of my favourite restaurants since I was a kid, I used to come over here quite often when was studying secondary school, whenever I came back to HK for short break. I love the interior, every single part represents a strong sense of royal classic. The high charis, the sofa, textile, the stairs, the corridor, and even the washroom...so elegant. I always felt like a Princess when I was small, tiny teenager sitting in in round sofa, being served by decent, mature and polite waiters.

Missing the good old days, I haven't been here for over 2 years. Booked a table for 2 having a proper dinner after long busy day and very stressful business in quarter 1, starting of the year and loads of planning and actions to be taken...really need to find a place of such, being well-treated, forget the business role for a while, love to be spoiled like a princess.

When I sat down, dining partner was late, giving myself a moment to relax my mind, trying to catch some memories of the old days, faces, conversations, thinkings of a 14/15 girl....ding..ding..my Blackberry kept blinking...this is an adult's life, hold my breathe and reply emails..sigh...

Anyway, it's a very nice dinner. I had the Chef's Recommendation of 4 courses, with Shrimp and Avocado salad, Clam Chowder, Lamb Chops and Sooffle as dessert. 100 % satified.

Service is exceelent always excellent, customers are all decent....and my Rose, it's an offer for lady. What a lovely treat

Time to time, I go to Ammigo for some special days. However, it was my 1st time having a Birthday dinner for a 8 years old boy. We asked the band to sing a song from Lady GaGa for the boy in Jan 2011.

and they did a really nice job.

Everytime when we go there, We enjoyed their outing food. The taste of all different kind of dishes are wonderful. Everyone knows about their Fois Gras. I have tried many Fois Fras in many other places, but the one at Amigo is the best. It is becuase they can keep the wonderful taste everytime you have it. It is very smooth. I love it very much. There is another favourite foord is their Napoleon Cake. It is not very sweet like the one you can buy from the barkery.

The waiters are very nice. /there are not many places can have good food and good service at the same time.

I love the setting of the place. you can see many nice deco at the resto which are much older than me!!

I enjoy my time everytime I went there.

However, it can be a bit expensive for some people.

Well, but it is a great place for special things, like posposal, birthday and anniversary. your beloved will enjoy it.

I went to have belated Christmas lunch and forthcoming New Year lunch with family, food and services are high class as expected.

I've been living in the neighbourhood for over 10+ years, and walked pass it everyday at lunch hour during my school days, finally got the chance to try out, totally up to expectation!

Other food critics have given lots of positive comments, and i won't repeat it any further

1 thing I want to mention, is that I carelessly dropped my extra camera battery when having lunch there, then I called back and see if any chance to recover. A gentleman picked up the phone, and asked for my name and where i was seated, then he asked someone to go and check out straight away, and replied that they couldn't found it.

Then later tonight, I received the call from the restaurant(in fact they called me once before, but I missed the call), and told me they've found the battery while doing the clean up after the lunch session, and asked me drop by to collect it anytime as they have kept it for me. I really appreciate the high class customer service they have provided, tho the camera battery is just a tiny matter, they are capable to do a good follow up and keep such tiny matter in mind, that really impressed me a lot, and I really appreciate the genuine help they have offered.

I really look forward to the next visit to Amigo soon

My 2nd visit yesterday (1st time was 4 yrs ago).
The service has improved so much. The old-fashioned waiters are very nice and humorus! The live band was gorgeous and funny too! They sang the Chinese song "Shanghai-Tang" in their Philipino tunes and it was amusing!
The food - Well, it was like Western food in Eastern style... The sauce of the foie gras was tasted like "soy bean sauce" which was slightly salty instead of the sweet n sour taste that it normally goes with. it frightened me...
The Escargot soup was watery.
The grapefruit sherbet was too bitter, but ok.
The lamb chop was good, but the side dish was frightening me again. I don't understand why they used "layered taro cake in coconut sauce" to go with lamb or beef tenderloin!?! Ridiculous...
We had a free birthday cake which was a Nepoleon. The vanilla cream on the top layer was good, but as a whole, it was not as good as the Nepoleon from the Harbour Grand Hotel or from Tony Wong...
Finally the Banana Brulee... the texture was not like the traditional creme brulee, it was foamy and lighter.

the table was booked with a little writing pad as souvenir

we chose 2 dinner sets. all of them are good!
apart from the food.. the most important thing are the waiters are polite
the service is good.
the environment is classic and comfortable.

as this is my birthday dinner, they would give you a little cake despite you have already had a dessert.
and the band would sing birthday song in front of you. it's actually very very very imppressive <3

although the price is comparatively expensive than most of the ordinary restaurants, it's worth it!
i will recommend to people of this restaurant

once again, thanks my dearest for bringing me to here!

Had a set lunch ($310) which consisted of 4 courses plus a glass of red/white wine and a cup of coffee.

The environment is very classic. Service and food are good. The coffee is good too.

Overall, I recommend this restaurant and will certainly visit it again.

Amigo deserves to be a legendary and time-honoured restaurant. My gf invited me to dine there for a casus belli and so we went. We were arranged a quiet table. The interior mimicked a wooden lodge or an old manor house with timbered floors and walls. The decorations are just right with no excessive adornments or unfitting colours.
The starters and main dishes were served by waiters with dishes coming on a trolley. The food was good and met my expectations.
With a full stomach we were served deserts and coffee, with one little condiment - music by a live band. I requested "And I Love You So", not fully knowing if this song was right for this place and on this occasion. It turned out to go well.
During the two-hour dinner, I heard the song "happy birthday to you" for countless times. Many folks chose Amigo as the place to celebrate.
Strongly recommended for anyone who wishes to feel about old Hong Kong. It is fine dining the colonial style, mixed with elements of "Hongkongness".

I am very fond of Happy Valley because of its semi-isolated location in the middle of a busy district. The people are more friendlier in my opinion and ever the dogs there seemed to be more approachable. All these feelings came from my short stay in Happy Valley a few years ago. I miss the area very much and someday I might just move back there. There were many happy moments during my short stay but memories are best to be remembered and treasured. I remembered how I often walked to and from Causeway Bay as part of my much needed exercises and passed by Amigo. Every single time I would slow down my steps while passing its door and look up at its famous logo plus exterior and imagine myself standing half-way around the world somewhere in the France or the Mediterranean. Anyhow, enough of day-dreaming for now. I have been to Amigo for lunch and dinner before but the last last was several years ago already. It was a great idea to come here for a Sunday lunch after such a long time.

Since its establishment in the late 1960s, Amigo has been considered one of the top restaurants in Hong Kong both for its food and extravagant furnishings. Many things have changed I think, even during my last few visits. The usual formal dress code seemed to be "modified" to "smart casual" in order to accommodate a greater range of customers and open-up its exclusivity image developed over the years. The interior is very ... sumptuous ... with plenty of wood furnishings. It gives people a warm but slightly intimidating atmosphere due to the formally dressed wait staff welcoming you from your first step into the door. Somehow the environment made me imagined myself to be in a Medieval castle in France, waking up in the early afternoon and being served lunch, Baron style !

There were different set lunches being offered and It did not take me long to pick the items form the options. My dining companions also opted for the set lunches for convenience sake. To start off with, we were served with a choices of bread. I preferred the French bread over the toast and it was hot with a crisp plus firm crust. I really liked the floral butter not just for its presentation but for its quality, very buttery!!

(1) Deep Fried King Prawn Toast
Very well done indeed! It was not greasy at all and was able to trap the freshness of the prawn inside and remained relatively juicy (instead of all dried up). This dish remained me of the prawn toast being offered at HKU Alumni Restaurant and Fung Shing but then they cannot be compared in this way. I enjoyed the dish very much.

(2) Consomme of Milanese
Not really too surprised about this consomme, it was alright but what surprised me somewhat was the ingredients used. If you look closer at the second picture, you can see some Alphabetic pasta! It was an interesting use of ingredient at such an establishment.

(3) Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Black Pepper Sauce
I did not order this but did try a few pieces and they were nice. It was grilled to medium rare as instructed. The sauce was just right in terms of flavors + spiciness but it was a bit too liquid and honestly I would be happy to do without it, just the steak itself would be lovely.

(4) Baked Pork Loin with Tomato Coulis and Cheese
This dish reminded me of variation of cordon bleu. The pork was thinly sliced with cheese on top and it was not dry at all, it was tender and juicy. Along with the sweet and sour tomato puree / coulis, it was very well matched.

(5) Grand Marnier Souffle
For dessert, we all change to Grand Marnier Souffle which was not on the set lunch menu. I had to take the picture very quickly because with the whipped cream on top, the souffle was starting to collapse in by the tiny weight on top. It was moist and soft inside and melt in your mouth. Well done! You can add extra Grand Marnier sauce on the side but I recommend just a little bit would do because you also want to taste the souffle itself, too much sauce would mask the other flavors.

(6) Ice Creamed filled Chocolate Crisp
I wasn't sure how to name this item but it has always been one of my favorite. It was filled with ice cream and wrapped around by a thin layer of crisp chocolate. On my last visit, it was mint chocolate ice cream filling and this time it tasted like coffee flavored ice cream. On every bite, you can experience the crisp texture of the thin chocolate layer and then immediate with the soft and chilled ice cream from the inside. Make sure you eat the whole thing at once to get the most out of it. I still prefer the Mint Chocolate version myself. One minor note to mention was the way it was served. It was a very nice touch indeed to place the ice cream filled chocolate crisp on top of an iced plate (and there were some ice beneath the plate as well to keep the item chilled ).

Likes:

* Decor + Service
* Grand Marnier Souffle & Ice Creamed filled Chocolate Crisp - just so good! (I personally prefer the Mint Chocolate ice cream version much much better)
* Baked Pork Loin with Tomato Coulis and Cheese

Dislikes:

* Consomme of Milanese - fair only but the use of Alphabetic pasta really

Avg Spending: HKD 300 - 500 per person

Original Blog with more pictures: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/09/amigo.html

When first just entering into the restaurant, I was impressed with the atmosphere and the decoration.
We ordered 2 set dinners. One with 3 courses and the other was 4 courses. Even though it claimed as 3 or 4 courses, actually what you get is more than it specified in the menu. For other restaurants, they would claim themselves 5 and 6 courses, with the same dishes provided. I can say it is rare to see nowadays there are still have restaurants so generous.
Food is delicious. I like the clam chower very much. The clam was so fresh and big! The portion was not small even for a set dinner. The beef and the fish we ordered were all very good.
The service was excellent. There were so many waiters, and every one was of high quality service. Even in those restaurants in 5 stars hotel, they don't have so many waiters (table : waiter is almost 2:1) , not to mention their service quality is not up to standard. Amigo has the so-called "5 star service" that you found it was lost in most of the other "high class" restaurants like open the doors for you, pull the chair for you and clean up the bread bits. When I asked where is the rest room, the waiter not just showed me the direction, but also even opened the door for me. It was not a very big deal actually, but you can feel their attentive and care for the customers. Having said that, as just mentioned by other reviewers, there is no 白鴿眼at all even for just wearing casual dressing couples like us. The $600+ set dinner is just worth to pay.
One thing for the live band... they don't know manysongs.... we asked if they can sing "Reality" and "I'll be there" and they don't know about these songs which are so popular.
For the b-day cake (Napoleon) was just so-so. Not as good as the other people said.
Anyway, I would still highly recommend this to couples who want a romantic dinner.