BO-LO’GNE     博洛尼亞  

A Japanese theme restaurant. There is bread with butter and then there is the house slices they serve here! Each bite is very richly buttery! Hard to describe in words. Perhaps because I am not in the habit of buttering my bread. In this case, the bread is likely made with butter and the taste is powerfully thus. So powerful, I still wonder why butter is included (see picture) to butter already powerfully buttery bread. The borsch soup (which the servers call 'red' soup) is also quite nice. A very bold independent taste. It was also genuinely thick -- which added to its robust taste. Just a slight hint of pepper with every bite --helping to cleanse the palate. The spaghetti was a tomato base with some mushrooms and meat (disappointing) and seaweed atop. The taste was fine (although not overly keen on the smell of the seaweed). But the use of cheap luncheon meat (thought when tasted, confirmed upon closer examination) really dimmed the meal. Partially because this meat is rather tasteless and rubbery (ie non-meat like) in its consistency). When the sauce camouflage is removed, the cause of the lack of meat taste is clearly shown (see photo). Rather disappointing --if only unexpected considering how much culinary thought and effort went into the other components of the meal. The tea was very strong, but with no distinct flavor or aroma - making it surprisingly bland (even with the addition of sugar).

Still, I think most come here for the bread.

1. I am a big fan of breakfast. Being able to pick breakfast in the evening is totally awesome!
2. The water is a big surprise. We thought it's simply water with a splash of lemon juice. But it turns out to have kiwi, lemon, apple and pear. I believe it's filtered water instead of tap water which you can find in other obnoxious places. It carries quite a distinct flavor and flagrance that linger for a while.
3. The Danish bread tastes buttery and very rich. It feels like something you can only get in the finest bakery in town (with the right timing). However good it tastes, it should be very much bad for my heart. I can imagine how much butter has been put in. Should only have it every once a while.

This shop originated from Central and they only just opened their Shatin shop. Their central shop is a cozy little restaurant while their Shatin shop sports a totally different vibe! It's bright and spacious, feels slightly similar to Pokka Cafe.

The food here is very good. I'm ashamed to say I've yet to try their Central shop but this Shatin one is truly remarkable. I ordered the special "Shatin burger set". The burger came in their homemade croissant-texture bun, with bacon, fried egg, and of course a patty. The set also comes with a small salad, fries, and a coffee. It's a discounted $70 until Nov 30, and afterwards $108.

The salad is fresh enough and the dressing is very nice. It's one of those typical japanese vinaigrette, but this one is clearly homemade and just tastes a lot better.

The fries is neglectible.

The burger is great. The bun is their authentic homemade "croissant-textured" bun, and the fried egg, bacon, and patty were done just right. Given the high quality of the meat, it's amazing to say that this is the first time ever that I've enjoyed the bread of a burger more than the meat. I usually throw away the last bite of a burger after I've ate all the meat, but this time, the last bite is the best! The bread is soooooo good.

The coffee is very standard, but I must say it tastes better than most japanese-style western restaurant's.

My bill came up $77 after service charge, and after paying I walked over to their bread counter and bought a 2-slices pack of their authentic bread ($19), a custard-filled bread cube ($18), and a red bean filled bread cube ($18). Yes, the bread here is THAT good.

While sourcing for restaurants in Sha Tin, we came across this new branch in the mall.. Actually wanted to visit this place for a while in Central, but every time I went, the place was shut. Apparently it doesn’t operate on Mondays for the Central Branch. So having heard about the new branch here, we were all really excited to go.
A friend of ours mentioned that this place is very famous for their bread and being a bread connoisseur herself, she highly recommended that we try this place. We made reservations for lunch and when we got there, it was still rather quiet. The service was great and prompt. Perhaps it was rather new, so they had to keep their business etiquette to par.

Wednesday’s set lunch was the ‘Teriyaki chicken sandwich’ and ‘Mushroom angel hair’. The sandwich came with a soup and had fries on the side. Each set also came with a drink. Like the norm, an extra $2 was needed for cold drink.

The water they served was really fruity and minty. Found out that they included green apples, strawberries and mint leaves in the water. This made it really fresh and you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was tap water or not (great idea!) – however, adding fruit may actually cost more than ordering distilled water sometimes.

The lunch only cost $80 per head and we were full to our stomachs!