So today I was given quite an interesting opportunity to taste the revamped menu at W52. Being completely honest one of my friends is family friends with the owner Benjamin Lung (a local entrepreneur who is the man behind Va Bene, Gaia and Isola) and that is how the opportunity came about. My friend and I sat down over lunch with Mr. Wong who is the VP of the restaurant management company behind W52.

So a little background: I've actually been to W52 before for lunch back on October 1st of 2009 when they first opened. At that time their mantis prawn risotto was their signature item but I left the restaurant feeling rather unimpressed. Let me know if you disagree but I personally find there are way too many overpriced Italian restaurants producing average quality food in town. Sure, they might have great decor or location but at the end of the day if you can't back it up with your food it's just disappointing.

Anyway, the revamped menu is courtesy of famed Italian chef Chef Francesco Berardinelli. Chef Francesco is most noted for his consultancy partnership with the Alain Ducasse Group (Alain Ducasse is the first chef to own restaurants carrying three Michelin Stars in three cities) and has also opened restaurants in New York (Francesco at MIX), Tuscany (Osteria di Rendola) and Florence (Beccofino). Furthermore he has contributed to a good handful of cookbooks (trust me, they've shown me the stack of cookbooks at W52...haha). From my understanding Chef Berardinelli has just accepted the executive chef position at W52 (yay!) and will officially start work in September.

Environment: The space at W52 is spacious and lightly lit. We had a great table right next to a large window overlooking Wyndham St which was to my liking. I quite like the clean, white, modern decor inside. W52 occupies 4 floors: the bottom floor is the bar, floor 2 & 3 are restaurant level and the top floor is the VIP room & kitchen. From what I hear the VIP room costs about $16,000 for a private party of 8-10 people (about $2000/head).

Service: Since I was eating with their VP I expected pretty much close to flawless service and they did not disappoint. The waitstaff was friendly and attentive. Food came out promptly and there were no mixups.

Food: After asking for my opinion on a few items Mr. Wong proceeded to order up a collection of W52's biggest hits:

Stuffed Artichoke Hearts With Pecorino Cheese And Herbs - This is a signature item from their past menu and it lives up to its billing. If you like stronger tasting cheese this is the item for you. I'm personally a big fan of artichoke and after biting into the soft artichoke hearts you get a get burst of flavor from the Pecorino cheese. Yum.

Mediterranean Red Shrimps Served With A “Giardiniera” Of Pickled Artichokes, Mushrooms and Lemon - This is a new item and is basically the Italian version of a garden salad (Giardiniera means "garden" in Italian) found commonly made in all Italian households. Foodies talk about eating with your eyes first and I was visually quite drawn to this dish. The pickled artichokes and shemeji mushrooms had a nice tartness to them and also were a nice contrast in texture. The shrimps where fresh and I quite liked the interplay between the cooler salad and the warm shrimps. Quite nice.

Hand-carved Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio With Shaved Aged Parmesan Cheese - I was told by Mr. Wong this specific carpaccio is different from normal carpaccios served around town because:

1) They don't freeze their carpaccio which allows it to retain its original texture and flavor
2) Hard carving allows the carpaccio to stay fresh before being served to customers

Texturally it did taste a little different from other carpaccios I've tried but I would say the difference is not that easy to detect. Beef itself had light subtle flavoring and was quite fresh. Not bad.

Duo of Handmade Pastas - Mr. Wong wanted me to try 2 of their new pastas. On the left was a Pici pasta with a Sienese tomato sauce. On the right was spaghetti that had extra flour and semolina added to it (for extra chewiness) with white wine sauce topped off with a small piece of goose liver. First off I just wanted to say I am a big fan of handmade pastas. The texture is really hard to replicate with dried pasta.

The Pici pasta is a staple of most homes in Tuscany and has the shape 'similar' to Japanese udon. It had a nice chewy texture and went quite well with the tomato sauce. Just simple and straight forward which is the way I like my pasta. Pretty good.

To me the spaghetti was the better of the two pastas. The extra chewiness reminded both my friend and I of an egg based noodle we had before in Indonesia (in a good way). Never quite had pasta with this type of chewiness and it had a subtle 'egginess' flavor to it. Again, love the simple white sauce accompanying it. The goose liver I think didn't bring much to the table per say but I think I will definitely reorder this pasta dish when I return to W52. Tasty.

Roast Rack of Pork With Fresh Summer Tomato Salad - This was quite interesting since the rack of pork was prepared with a salt crust. The outcome was quite nice and almost reminded me of Chinese roasted suckling pig. The skin was crispy and salty while the meat was quite moist. I normally eat quite clean so personally I thought the skin was a little salty for me but how can you not eat that crispy skin? Haha. I wish I wasn't so full but this was quite good.

Roasted Rack Of Lamb With Basil Potato Purée And Green Onions - A nice roasted rack of lamb. Maybe a little on the pink side for me but overall a tasty dish. The rack was a little gamey but flavorful. Quite nice.

Chocolate Soufflé - To me this was the best dessert of the day. Besides being really light and chocolatey (there's even more melted chocolate to pour on top if you want) I like the attention to the minor detail. Under the powdered sugar I realized they also caramelized a thin layer of sugar (similar to Creme Brulee) to give you a bit of added textural crunch when you bite into the fluffy souffle. Thumbs up.

Mango And Mascarpone Cheese Tart - A nice fresh dessert. The cheese had a neutral flavor and I liked how fresh tasting the mangoes were. Decent.

Babà With Limoncello And Vanilla Cream - I personally am not a big fan of cakes soaked in anything more than a drizzle of liquid (gets soggy super quick). The fresh vanilla cream did provide a nice contrast against the spongy nature of the cake. Babà, if you didn't know, is a Italian cake made of yeast dough. You see it quite often presented with rum or limocello. Maybe it's just my cup of tea but it was a decent dessert.

With all the nice things said I think it is important to point out that I find their appetizers a little on the expensive side (mostly $100+) relative to their portion size. The pork chop entree to me was relatively good value for money (about $450) since you could share that easily with 3-4 people. Mr Wong and I had a pretty interesting conversation about the struggles with pricing. He described how managers will want to add expensive ingredients to dishes (to justify the increase in pricing) while chefs will argue that the simple approach is actually better. I'm on the chef's side...sometimes less is more.

Needless to say I left W52 needing a wheelbarrow to take me out...haha. To be very honest I was really quite surprised with how the meal came out. A lot of people might argue that what I got to eat might not be a honest representation of what is truly served to the customers (valid point) but I think W52 deserves credit since they were able to deliver even though they had to added pressure of cooking for a reviewer with elevated expectations. I will come back to W52.

So officially I've been to Liberty Exchange twice. Once for dinner about 2 weeks ago and also the other day for lunch. I specifically went back mainly because:

1) I liked their burger quite a lot
2) I didn't bring my camera last time

Environment: On both occasions I sat upstairs which was comfortable and spacious. I quite like their modern decor. I highly recommend sitting upstairs over sitting downstairs where it's more cramped, more dimly lit and also noisier due to its proximity to the bar.

Service: One thing that immediately noticed was the high number of Caucasian waitstaff at Liberty Exchange. That is definitely unusual for a Hong Kong restaurant. The strange thing is the contrast between the Caucasian staff and the other extremely local waitstaff. Either way, the waitstaff was attentive and friendly. Food came out quickly and there were no mixups.

For my dinner experience I shared the following with friends:

House-made sausage - The sausages came in hot Italian, herb and sweet andouille. My favorite of the 3 came was the hot Italian mainly because the taste was the most intense and reminded me of salami. The other 2 sausages tasted quite average. Portion size was a little on the small side for $98. Decent.

Mussels with Tomato and Basil Broth - This was quite nice. The mussels tasted quite fresh and the sweetness from the broth complimented it well. I can't tell you the number of overcooked mussels I have been served in Hong Kong so this was a nice change. The mussels came with a side order of fries (not sure what makes these 2 items go together) but the fries were good as well. Nothing fancy...just crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Nice.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich - This is a gourmet version is with foie gras. Portion size was very small relative to the other 2 appetizers. Basically it was a deconstruction of a PB&J by having a piece of foie gras sitting on top of a miniature french toast-like cube with reduced raspberry sauce drizzled around. When you eat everything together it gives you the flavor profile of a PB&J. Not bad but I didn't think this was good value for money.

Eight-hour French Onion Soup - I had read online beforehand that its consistency was like gravy which sounded quite interesting. Although at the restaurant I felt this was very similar to normal onion soup. It was pretty tasty but not really any different from the onion soups I could potentially get at Dan Ryans or some other American restaurant.

Liberty Burger With Mushroom and Cheese- Now this I liked! Flavor wise it was juicy and really beefy. The onion marmalade also provided a nice hint of sweetness. The use of sourdough bread was also a nice touch. I found out later the beef patty is actually made with short rib which probably explains why the texture/density felt kind of 'loose' and not as dense as a regular patty. Feels a little like eating a beef sandwich than a burger but this is a good burger.

BBQ Ribs - This was HUGE. As someone correctly described it online...it looked Fred Flintstone size...haha. Ribs overall were quite nice and tasty. Came off the bone quite easy (bone was close to the length of my forearm) which shows that they had been cooking it slowly for some time. If there's a minor criticism I can make of it is that the meat felt a little 'stringy'. Pretty good.

Pigs and Apples - Read a lot of good reviews about this but sadly ours was overcooked. The minute I put my knife into it I knew this was going to be on the tough side. Flavor profile wise this has potential with the caramelized apples. So sad this dish wasn't executed properly.

Chicken and Waffles - Another dish I looked forward too but was let down. The chicken was definitely on the dry side. Taste was decent but it's just so hard for this dish to recover once the chicken is overcooked. The waffles...were quite pancake-like and floppy which wasn't too my liking. If you want to get good chicken and waffles in Central I suggest giving Green Waffle Diner a go.

Granny Smith Crumble Tart - The crunchiness from the filo dough was nice and I also liked stewed apples inside the tart. Maybe a bit too sweet for my personal tastes but I thought this was a pretty decent dessert.

Charlie Brown - Highly simple but successful dessert in my opinion. The brownie was warm, 'chocolaty' and fudgy which was a nice contrast to the cold ice cream. Best dessert of the night.

Strawberry Shortcake - This came in a cone like cup. Not bad...just didn't really stand out per say. Shortcake provided a nice crunch against the strawberries and cream. Decent.

My opinion of dinner is there were a few standouts (mussels & burger) but I was expecting more with that kind of a price tag (we paid about $500 each). Honestly speaking, if they hadn't overcooked the pork and also the fried chicken this meal would have been a lot more enjoyable.

So after about 2 weeks I went back the other day for lunch since I didn't bring my camera last time. Here is what we ordered (both are set lunches):

Mussels With Creamy Fennel Vermouth Broth: Not bad. Flavor was quite subtle and light for a creamy based sauce. Mussels were nicely cooked but I personally preferred the tomato and basil pairing versus this one. The fries were nice but again I'm not sure why they paired mussels with fries.

Liberty Burger With Mushrooms and Cheese: I was quite disappointed. The burger felt a little overcook (a little dry) and also it didn't come out at optimal temperature. I understand I took about 20-30 seconds shooting photos but the burger should still be quite hot (which it was not). The burger still tasted pretty decent but the temperature kind of ruined it for me. The fries similar to last time was crunchy and tasty.

The set lunches also came with an appetizer and we picked the smoked salmon salad and also a grilled calamari with a chipotle sauce. The chipotle sauce was nice but the actual dishes were quite average and didn't stand out. The calamari was also a little on the tough side.

My lunch experience was disappointing and considering it costs us over $200 each I would say this further says to me that Liberty Exchange is overpriced for the food it puts out.

So my overall conclusion is if you go to Liberty Exchange go there for dinner. Get the burger, the mussels, the Charlie Brown and maybe the ribs. Expect to overpay but if they execute the food properly that night I still think it could be an enjoyable meal.

So I've been wanting to come to TBLS for some time now and due to a last minute invite from a friend I got my chance tonight. If you didn't know Chef Que Vinh Dang is a Vietnamese American chef who has most notably worked in New York City for Rocco DiSpirito at Union Pacific and Geoffrey Zakarian at Town. From what I read he came to Hong Kong and got frustrated with the restaurant scene here and decided to open up TBLS on his own dime. His style from what I can tell is basically reinterpreting or deconstructing classic American comfort foods and sometimes adding an Asian twist. The menu at TBLS changes monthly.

Environment: TBLS is situated in a old nondescript building on Hollywood Road (near the escalator). You even have to punch in a secret code at main door to get into the building...haha. Anyway, once you're inside the restaurant is a complete 180 in terms of atmosphere since the decor is modern with a homey feel. I love how it's an open kitchen setting. If you exclude the outside seating (it rained earlier in the day it was closed off) you probably have about 12-16 seats inside. The place was definitely on the 'cozy' side but the seating didn't feel too cramped. The space between tables was a tad more tighter since the waitstaff at times looked a little awkward serving the food.

Service: My experience at TBLS was unique relative to most of it's usual customers. One of our friends was over an hour late due to work so the waitstaff checked with us every 15-20 minutes to see if she was coming. From a customer's perspective this was a little annoying but to be completely fair we were more at fault here. Also there was a slight incident when we first got there since the waitstaff were 100% positive we cancelled our reservations (we didn't). After some back and forth they seated us. Outside of these 2 things...the waitstaff was friendly and attentive. I particularly liked how Chef Que would come by each table to explain each course and it was being served. Nice touch.

The menu is set at TBLS so everyone eats the same 6 courses for $480. If you have certain allergies or preferences let them know beforehand and they'll work hard to serve you something slightly different. Now onto the food:

Short Rib Cube With Pickled Daikon - This was their amuse bouche. If you didn't know an amuse bouche basically is a bite sized appetizer that when literally translated in French means "mouth pleaser". Anyway, this amuse served on a silver spoon and was Chef Que's take on Vietnamese bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich served on French baguette). The rib cube was very 'beefy' in flavor and the pickled daikon provided a nice contrast both in terms of flavor and texture. With that said I felt the cube was slightly on the dry side (probably from overcooking) and texturally it felt a little like meatloaf in my mouth which was a little strange. Still quite decent.

Fried Fish Cake Sandwich and Chilled Cucumber Consomme With Tomato Pearls - This was Chef Que's take on a soup and sandwich combo. The mini fish cake sandwich (made of Halibut) was his ode to MacDonald's Fillet O' Fish and delighted me visually. The consomme was quite refreshing and decent. The tomato pearls at the bottom of the consomme was interesting texturally (reminded me of sago). The mini sandwich was clearly the star. Fish was crisp and had a meaty bite even though it was so small. The tartar sauce provided a nice cooling sensation against the deep fried fish. Someone give me a while plate of these please...yum.

Fresh Green Pea and Mint Risotto - This was their summer risotto. Risotto itself was quite creamy and intense which I liked. Maybe just a personal preference thing but I found the mint flavor overpowering and pretty much masked up any potential flavor I would have gotten from the fresh peas. Not bad.

Braised Octopus with New Potatoes, Okra in Chipotle Brown Sauce - This looked quite awesome visually. A large braised octopus tentacle sitting on a bed of new potatoes/okra and sauced with this golden brown chipotle sauce. Sadly execution was a problem here since the octopus was very tough and overcooked. The potatoes were ok but I quite liked the okra since it reminds me of American food from the South. The sauce was excellent and had nice heat to it. Furthermore, there was some caviar inside the sauce which provided a nice textural interplay. Really such a shame that octopus was overcooked.

Pan Roasted Pork Loin with White Bean Puree and Purple Cabbage Slaw - This was a play off traditional pork and beans. The pork itself was flavored nicely but again a little overcooked for my tastes. The white bean puree was really nice and super smooth texturally. The slaw was also quite refreshing. Could have been a really nice dish if the pork wasn't overcooked.

Pomegranate Sorbet Infused with Yakult - This was the palette cleanser and to me was a home run. If you didn't know Yakult is a Japanese milk-like product that tastes a little sweet and sour (it's really quite hard to describe). I've had pomegranate sorbet quite a few times before but the tangy sourness from the Yakult really made this quite a different experience for me. My friend asked for seconds...haha.

Lemon and Thyme Tart with Candied Lemon - I liked the fact that this smelt so lemony-fresh. Although with that said I found the taste a little too lemony for me. I've been eating pretty clean lately and my taste buds in turn have become quite sensitive so that may have played a part. What was also quite nice was the marriage of the crumbly tart and the lemon flavored meringue. Quite nice.

Macaroon Sandwich - A signature item of Chef Que's menu. Even though he changes his menu monthly there is always a macaroon to end the meal. For this specific macaroon he got his inspiration from a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. Chef Que's interpretation had hazelnut ice cream, milk chocolate wafers and chopped hazelnuts sandwiched between 2 macaroon halves which when eaten together tastes very much like the flavor profile of a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. This I quite liked. A bit messy to eat since it was slightly larger than a mouthful (ice cream not easy to eat in bites). Tasty.

The most memorable part of the meal (besides hanging out with friends) was our chat with Chef Que. Consider he's from New York City and I lived there for about 7 years until recently I think we bonded quickly. Few interesting things I found out about Chef Que:

1) The food he misses most from NYC is actually a proper Vietnamese bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich served on French baguette). He's tried a few places in Hong Kong but they don't quite stack up. Second thing (as every New Yorker misses) is New York style pizza...*sigh*...

2) I found out he misses the dirty tacos (authentic kind) as much as I do. Once we started talking about that neither of us could stop talking about it...haha.

Please note: Apparently when your bill comes the "service charge" goes completely back to Chef Que. So the waitstaff asked that we leave a separate tip for them. Kind of strange.

So overall I can say that I see good potential in Chef Que and his food strikes a cord with me but unfortunately the execution last night didn't quite live up to the billing. Even without wine my meal ended up at $600 and for that price tag...I can honestly say I expected a little more. With that said I definitely do plan to give TBLS another try sometime in the near future so fingers crossed next time the execution is better!

So today I had a lazy Sunday brunch with one of my buddies. We suggested Green Waffle Diner since I have yet to try their fried chicken. Wow...the place was packed today for brunch. Last time I came here the place was pretty empty but after a slew of good reviews and articles in newspapers/magazines it seems like this neighborhood place has blown up in terms of popularity. My suggestion is if you want to come Sunday during brunch time...make a reservation.

Environment: The place is definitely on the cozy side but I didn't feel cramped even with the place packed. After a 15 minute wait the 2 of us got a 4 person table so we had lots of room. I just love brightly lighted places (good for food photography!) and Green Waffle Diner satisfies that.

Service: With this sudden increase in popularity it looks like the servers were significantly more busy. Food came out at a decent pace but I definitely could feel that they were strained in terms of staff. Talked with the owner for a while and he said his kitchen wasn't prepared to handle this many people so they're just trying their best to keep up. Overall service is still very friendly but I can imagine on busy days that the chances of them forgetting orders/making mistakes will increase.

Food: I specifically came back today to try their signature fried chicken that my friends were raving about.

Country Fried Skillet - Quite a hearty dish and I liked how my buddy broke open the egg yolk to mix in with the potatoes giving them a more 'creamy' texture. Maybe a little heavy handed for me in terms of salt (I eat quite clean so a lot of people may not agree with me). My personal opinion is if the potatoes were more crunchy the contrast texturally might be better. No major wow factor but this was an enjoyable dish.

Plain Waffle With Maple Syrup - Like last time I agree this is a solid waffle. Although they offer many waffles combinations with fruits or ice cream I personally prefer it just plain with a bit of maple syrup. It's not easy to produce a waffle that is crispy on the outside while somewhat soft in the inside and in this regard I think Green Waffle has done a good job. Also nice that you can taste that hint of 'egginess'. My only gripe is with the increase in customers they should try harder to serve the waffles hot to piping hot. It's still a good waffle when warm but I think it would be better if it was hotter.

Fried Chicken Meal - Now onto the star of the meal! When it first came out I was pretty shocked since the drumsticks were huge for HK standards. First bite into them was very nice. The exterior was crispy (they use a corn flake batter) with a bit of heat/kick (I'm told there is mustard) while the drumstick itself was really moist. Bit of a mess to eat since the crust was falling all over the table but considering I was using my hands to wolf down a giant drumstick...I didn't care...haha! Yum!

The secret behind the chicken? I heard through the grapevine that they actually use a double preparation method for their chicken. After brining the drumsticks the night before they sous vide (means they cook it in a vacuum bag in constant low temperature water) first to make sure the chicken is properly cooked and juicy. After that they dip it in the batter and flash fry it to achieve that crispy exterior. This is probably a different approach relative to fried chicken places in the US but the bottom line is...it works. As to where they get local drumsticks so big...I'm told it is top secret...haha. Is it the best fried chicken in HK? I'm not sure I can say that but the fried chicken here is definitely tasty.

Overall a very satisfying and reasonably priced brunch. I will definitely be returning for their fried chicken when I get that fried chicken itch. Hopefully with it's recent rise in popularity Green Waffle Diner won't take a dip in terms of quality and service.

So normally my family I have a few dim sum places that we consistently go to. Not necessarily because the food is amazing but more so because my parents, like a lot of people, are creatures of habit. Anyway, for some odd reason my parents decided to book a table to Fook Lam Moon for dim sum on Sunday. I made sure for them to call the night before and reserve the BBQ pork pie & the egg tarts since I was a little concerned with either:

1) Them running out of either dim sums
2) Having to wait 10-15 minutes for them to make it

Environment: The place is spacious and seating is relatively comfortable for Cantonese restaurants standard.

Service: Service was pretty good but not without flaws. For some reason I feel the waiters are a little careless when serving. For example we ordered 2 different pots of tea and one waiter refilled my dad's tea cup without asking him what tea he had. Although with that said he was extremely apologetic and immediately gave my dad a new tea cup with the tea he wanted.

Food: We ordered a good selection of dim sum:

BBQ Pork Pie (蜜汁叉燒酥) - Visually the size looks a little sad (it's quite small) but it's big on taste. The pie exterior has kind of a crumbly cookie texture and a great compliment to the 'creaminess' of the BBQ pork. The BBQ pork was very flavorful and in a way the bite size nature of it...was just right contrary to my initial impression. Yum.

Steamed Crystal Prawn Dumplings (筍尖鮮蝦餃) - I think in terms of prawn dumplings this is pretty close to perfection. The skin was perfect thickness and the prawns had great 'prawn' flavor. One thing that is hard to do is to have a filling that both feels generous and texturally also not too solid. Did it blow my socks off per say? Maybe not...but it was still a very good prawn dumpling.

Pan Fried Cured Meat and Radish Cake (香煎蘿蔔糕) - The radish cake had great consistency/texture but the real star of this dish was the fried cured meat...it was really tasty! The flavor was quite intense but just right. Throw in a little sweet sauce...I quite liked this dish.

Stewed Honeycomb Tripe (炷侯金錢肚) - Overall a pretty decent dish and the tripe was quite tender. Although with that said it was about the same tastiness as the stewed tripe dishes at other dim sum places. Pretty decent.

Steamed Rice Rolls With BBQ Pork (叉燒爽滑腸粉) - The skin exterior was quite nice and thin while the BBQ pork inside was just as tasty as the BBQ pork in their BBQ pork pie. This was more of subtle dish and was quite good.

Deep Fried Prawn Spring Rolls (鮮蝦炸春卷) - When I first ate this I nearly burnt my tongue since it was piping hot! Overall quite a good dish. The spring roll was super crispy and the filling was quite flavorful.

Deep Fried Prawn Balls (炸多士蝦丸球) - Fook Lam Moon really knows how to deep fry their dim sum. It's basically the interior of the prawn dumpling but the exterior is like fried shrimp toast (炸蝦多士) but in ball form. The exterior was really crispy and light while the filling felt substantial and flavorful. No idea why we ordered this dish but I'm glad we did. Tasty.

Fresh Baked Egg Tart (酥皮蛋撻仔) - Another signature item from Fook Lam Moon. The egg custard portion was very creamy and 'eggy' while the pastry portion was light and flaky. It almost completely falls apart when it enters your mouth. I personally favor the western pie crust style egg tarts but these bite sized egg tarts at Fook Lam Moon were of high quality.

With all these positive things said about their dim sum I do wanted to mention a minor negative...consistency. We actually ended up order 2 orders of the shrimp dumpling and the egg tart and on both occasions I think our first order was better. Could it have been that our palette reacted differently after eating so many other dim sums? Maybe...but my here's my minor gripe about them:

2nd order of shrimp dumplings - Still a very good shrimp dumpling but this time it was slightly overcooked so the shrimp filling feel a tiny bit dry and more solid.

2nd order of egg tarts - I think they overcooked this slightly as well since the pastry feel more 'cookie dough-like'. Although still quite good the pastry took a little more chewing unlike the earlier light and flaky egg tart we had.

Overall I see value in these higher priced dim sum dishes from Fook Lam Moon. Would definitely come back again for dim sum.

Since today was a public holiday I decided to come here for brunch with my parents. Woke up pretty early today and after a 7K run outside I was famished and ready to eat by the time I got to Green Waffle Diner.

Environment: The place is pretty small (fits about 20-30) but didn't feel cramped by any means. I quite like how most of the seats are booths which reminds me of the diners in New York City. Although the decor isn't super nice per say I quite like the bright colors of the walls. Bright colors makes me happy.

Service: Waiters were friendly and food came promptly without mistakes. There was a minor exchange during our ordering period which I found kind of strange. It went like this:

*Waitress explains dishes to my dad*
My Dad: I want to order...
Me: Sorry, actually can you give us a second? I just want to finalize the order amongst ourselves.
Waitress: I think he (pointing at my dad) was about to order...
*Waitress turns back to my dad and takes his order*

My reason for interjecting mainly is because I know my dad way too well and personally I wanted to share our dishes instead of just ordering an entree each for ourselves. The waitress' response kind of threw me back a little since I've never had any waitstaff tell me I couldn't take a second longer. After she took my dad's order I ended up interjecting again and explained to her the reason why I wanted to take a second longer and she suddenly understood my meaning and backed off for a minute. Simple misunderstanding.

Food: My parents aren't really adventurous so they just ended up order some form of traditional breakfast dish (eggs, ham, hash browns) and I ended up ordering one of their signature waffles to share with my mom while eating some of their eggs & ham.

Caramel Apple Waffles Crunch With Chocolate Ice Cream: I was quite happy with this dish. Even after taking photos the waffle was hot, tasty and had a nice crunchiness to it. The waffles were just right and texture was good. The tartness of the green apples provided a nice contrast against the sweetness of the caramel. My mom ate the ice cream but I imagine that would be also go well with the waffles. I'm not going to say this is the best waffle in Hong Kong per say like the posts below but it definitely is a good one.

One thing that impressed me was their choices of waffles. For each waffle dish you could choose from 4 different types of waffles like:

Wholewheat waffle:
Green waffle (pandan chiffron juice infused waffle so the inside is green)
Buckwheat waffle (gluten-free)
Classic waffle

When they have choices like this it says to me they really thought about their customers and try to tailor make each waffle to suit each customer's wants/needs....thumbs up!

Sunshine Breakfast: Traditional breakfast dish with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and potato wedges. I only tried the eggs and some of the small grilled cherry tomatoes and the food was good. It's not easy to cook eggs well and I think they did it just right.

Another thing that impressed me about Green Waffle Diner was the prices. My waffles cost $41. My dad's Sunshine breakfast costs $45. My mom's Light Morning Starter costs $29. To me these prices are very cheap for a casual brunch place in Central/Soho.

Overall I was pretty happy with Green Waffle Diner. The manager said before I left that I should try their fried chicken next time which is apparently quite juicy and has a corn flake batter exterior infused with a bit of mustard for a bit of added kick. Sound delicious. I will be back to try that next time.

So a friend of mine was visiting from New York City and my good other friend suggested we get Thai in Kowloon City instead of the usual dinner in Central.

Environment: The place is pretty bare bones. I would say around the level of most indoor dai pai dongs (大牌檔) and definitely a little on the cramped side...but with that said, most customers probably come to this place not because of the environment.

Service: Overall service was ok. Food came quickly and the waitresses did their job. The waitresses here don't speak great Cantonese or English (they are Thai) so sometimes there were slightly communication issues. Also the waitresses seemed extremely busy throughout the night and at times it took a little more effort than usual to get their attention.

I've always heard Kowloon City has a great deal of good Thai restaurants and 泰之選 (Best of Thai) did not disappoint. Portion sizes here are quite generous so keep that in mind when ordering. We ended up ordering 5 dishes between the 4 of us which included:

Green Water Spinach With Garlic (蒜蓉炒通菜) - Very big flavors to start the meal. Some might considered this dish 'too garlicky' but I quite liked it. A simple yet tasty dish.

Thai Appetizer Dish (泰式拼盤) - We ordered the small size and everyone on this was pretty decent. Maybe a little too many fried items for my tastes but I loved dipping the prawn and fish cakes in the sweet and sour sauce.

Special Fried Rice (泰寮炒飯) - My first impression of this dish was it reminded me of the Japanese omu-rice (which is an omelette wrapped around fried rice). What surprised me was the ingredients inside. This turned out to be a seafood fried rice (with squid and prawns) and was quite good. What I particularly liked about the dish was the use of mint. The mint wasn't overpowering and gave the dish a slight cool finish after each mouthful.

Soft Shell Crab With Curry (咖喱炒軟殼蟹) - The sauce was a little on the thick side but this was quite tasty. The soft shell crab was very tender but still retained a little crunchy texture while it was smothered in a mild creamy curry sauce. Yum.

Fried Fish With Mango Salad (芒果炸魚) - I was a little surprised with this dish when it was presented since the 'fish' looked more like a eel. Anyway, this dish was more on the spicy side and the texture of the fried fish was really nice and crunchy. My minor gripe with this dish was that you couldn't really taste the fish since it felt like I was mainly eating mouthfuls of crunchy bits. On top of the fish was this green mango salad/slaw. Quite tasty if you like to eat spicy. Pretty a decent dish.

A few things to note if you decide to come here:

1) If you didn't make a reservation come here early since it gets packed quickly after 7PM on weekends
2) They only accept cash so remember to hit the ATM beforehand

So my first Kowloon City Thai experience was a positive one. Overall I left the place quite stuffed and the meal was quite reasonably priced (about $125 per person). Although I didn't find any dishes to be 'home-runs' I still felt the overall quality of food was quite high. Would be interested to come back here and try their other signature dishes.

I was recently craving Italian and decided Brivo is probably a good spot to have dinner with 5 of my good friends.

Environment: The place is definitely on the small side (about 25-30 seats) but not unusual for Soho standards. Considering we ordered a lot of food we found it was not easy to fit everything on the table. Although with that said, I thought the place was cozy and not uncomfortable by any means.

Service: I thought the waitstaff here was very friendly and helpful. The food did take a bit longer to prepare than we would like but overall I am quite pleased with the waitstaff. There's just a strong sense that the waitstaff tried hard to showcase that they value your business which I find lacking in a lot of other restaurants in Hong Kong.

Food: I would classify the food at Brivo as "International cuisine" with a slight Italian focus. The reason I say this is because I found their menu had Italian, Mexican, Thai and American dishes. Furthermore I found their menu to be extremely extensive especially for such a small restaurant. My personal opinion is menus like this usually suggest a lack of focus on the restaurant's part. It's so hard to do a few things well let alone a ton of things well.

Anyway...boy, did we over-order tonight. Between the 6 of us we ordered 5 appetizers, 2 pizzas, 6 entrees and a bottle of red wine! I didn't try everything but I'll review everything I did get to try:

Parma Ham and Melon: Decent. I think if the parma ham was a little saltier and the melon was a little cooler (temperature wise) it would be a better dish.

Thai Beef Salad: I was a little shocked at the size of this salad. The dish was quite gigantic. I felt they were a little heavy handed on the sour element of the dish but I liked the spicy kick from the dressing. Decent amount of beef even there was a ton of vegetables. Overall a pretty refreshing and tasty dish...a nice way to start.

Calamari Frutti: Pretty decent. Calamari didn't feel too chewy/tough and the sauce was quite nice. This dish could have been better if the calamari had a more crispy exterior from the deep frying.

Caprese Salad: Not bad. Although the mozzarella could have been of higher quality and the tomatoes a little cooler in temperature (it was more room temperature) I though the overall dish was pretty decent. I do like the twist where they used capers to give it a slight salty tang.

Surpreme Pizza: I've spent an extensive time in New York so I like my pizza a certain way. With that said, I thought the thin crispy crust pizza here at Brivo to be pretty decent. The toppings were generous and the cheese tasted quite 'cheesy'. I'm not a major fan of crispy pizza crust but it did provide a nice textural contrast to the cheesy toppings.

Linguine Alle Vongole (linguine with clams): I quite liked this dish. Some people may find this dish slightly under-seasoned but it worked for me. A trick I think is to include a clam in each bite since the saltiness from the clam evens out the seasoning from your mouthful of pasta. My minor gripe about this dish was the large pieces of basil in the pasta. I think they should be smaller since when you get a mouthful of pasta with a large piece of basil it overwhelms the taste of clams, pasta and sauce. Pasta itself was al dente and had good bite to it. Visually the dish looked interesting (the little clams surround the pasta in a 'flower-like' pattern) which I thought was a nice touch.

Note: My friends who had the Spagetti Ai Fruitti Di Mare (basically seafood spaghetti) and Penne A La Vodka both said their pasta was under-seasoned. Although it might be a little silly to mention, I've recently been eating quite 'cleanly' (mainly because I started running a lot again) and my taste buds have become more sensitive so I now favor food that is a little more lightly seasoned.

So the bottom line is this:

- The quality of food at Brivo is pretty decent (won't blow you away) although I personally could find no major standouts dishes.

- The portions at Brivo I think are generous and reasonably priced unlike a lot of other Italian restaurants in the Central/Soho/Sheung Wan area.

- The service at Brivo I think deserves a mention cause I think it's hard to find a restaurant in HK (let alone a medium priced one) nowadays where the waitstaff feels like they value your business.

Final note: I think most people should be able to get dinner here (even with wine) for under $300. I paid $350/head mainly because we over-ordered.

So if your looking for a place in Soho that serves decent food at reasonable prices I think you should give Brivo a try.

So due to some last minute changes we decided to come to Tenzen here in Causeway Bay for my brother's birthday dinner.

Environment: The place is actually decently sized (about 25-35 seats) but maybe due to the narrow/long shape of the room it felt slightly cramped. I do like the bright lighting though. Not only is it a better environment for food photography but also it's always nice seeing what you are eating...haha.

Service: Overall service was good and waitstaff were friendly. Food came out quickly and there were no mixups. My only minor negative comment is maybe because there were hardly any customers there were a lot of waitstaff standing around our table which in turn seemed to put some pressure on us getting our orders in. I might also agree with a prior review that the waitstaff didn't seem super knowledgeable...but overall the experience was good in terms of service.

Tonight was a good time to test out my macro extension tubes for my camera so a handful of the photos will look more closeup than normal. Here's what we ordered:

Chilled Sliced Tomato: Not a bad dish but I was a little surprised about it's simplicity (in a bad way). It was basically just a tomato sliced up (surrounded with ice) with a tiny bowl of salt to the side. If the tomato tasted quite different (it didn't from an average tomato) or had a good sauce I think this dish would be a lot better. Don't think this was particularly worth the cost.

Salty Firefly Cuttlefish: This dish tasted fresh (some might find the 'ocean taste' a little strong) and was visually interesting. My main gripe with this dish is with its size. Basically it was just 5-6 small cuttlefish in a bowl the size of a soy sauce dipping dish (my photo is a closeup so the real dish looks a lot smaller). Although this tasted good...I don't think it is worth the money.

Grilled Beef Tongue Skewers: Tasty and I liked the texture. The beef tongue was well seasoned (slightly spicy) and most parts of it was relatively tender (the ends seemed a bit more 'chewy'). Quite good.

Grilled Chicken Cartilage Skewers: If you like chicken cartilage this is pretty decent tasting. Maybe a bit too oily for some people. Pretty decent.

Sushi Platter: Since there were 5 of us we order 5 different types of sushi. Here's what we ordered:

- Sea Urchin (Uni): Nice. Tasted pretty fresh and creamy. Sometimes the 'ocean taste' from uni can be a little overpowering but this was quite subtle.

- Horsehair Crab (Kegani): Decent but honestly speaking the crab felt dry.

- Fatty Tuna Belly (Chutoro): My brother said the waitress called this dish "dai toro" (she said it was between chutoro and otoro grade) but after some internet research I have no idea what dai toro is. It was pretty good (decent amount of fat) but personally I've had chutoro which melts in your mouth more.

- Cockle Clam (Torigai): Pretty decent. Kind of chewy and fresh. Tasted kind of similar to squid/cuttlefish.

- Yellowtail Amberjack (Hiramasa): We were told this was a seasonal fish by the waitress. Decent. Can't say it tasted that different from other types of white fish sushi.

Overall sushi was pretty decent but I felt overpriced. A minor point I wanted to make was the sushi rice here needs a little work. Although none of the rice fell apart it did at times feel like the rice didn't hold together that well (when compared to sushi rice from experienced sushi chefs). Also, the rice felt like it didn't have much flavor where as good sushi rice should have a hint of vinegar taste.

Grilled Cod With Sauce: Delicious. The cod was grilled well so it was still moist and the sweet soy based sauce was also yummy. The skin on the side was also slightly crispy which provided a nice textural contrast.

Whitebait With Egg: This dish was recommended by the waitress and not on the menu. Personally this dish was a miss for me. They prepared the dish identical to how katsu don would be prepared (but with whitefish instead of pork cutlet). To me this dish lacked texture (felt a little mushy), was too 'watery' and felt quite one-note. If they pan fried this dish it would be so much better.

Simmered Eggplant With Grated Radish: I liked this dish. Definitely something a little different. The flavors were strong (yet tasty) and the eggplant had a really 'meaty' bite to it. The broth it was sitting in was also quite flavorful. Some may find the grated radish a little mushy but this didn't bother me too much.

Seared Scallop With Seaweed: Another miss for me. The scallops were seared (so the inside was still pretty raw) and we were told by the waitress to put it on a piece of dry seaweed (nori), fold it and eat it. The seaweed was a nice textural contrast but I found the seared section of the scallop to be a little too dried out.

Eel Rice (Unaju): The waitress told us some Chinese food critic came by recently and loved this dish. I wish I could take a photo but my parents started eating this dish before I even had a chance . Overall I find this dish to be very tasty. The grilled eel was moist and delicious. The rice with the sweet soy based sauce had great texture and nice fragrance. Good dish.

Inaniwa Udon - Visually it looked like quite a simple dish but the udon definitely tasted better than regular udon. From my understanding Inaniwa udon is a type of premium udon that is thinner and flatter than the regular thick/round udon. The udon had good amount of chewiness and the broth (although simple) was a nice flavorful compliment.

Overall there were some hits at misses at this restaurant. Even though this place is marketed to be a sushi place I think the non-sushi dishes were actually the better dishes (and more reasonably priced). Because I find them overpriced (for the food they put out) I doubt I will come back again...for dinner. With that said I could see myself coming here for lunch and getting a eel rice with maybe the a side order of the grilled cod.

Had another get together with friends tonight. Been hearing a lot about Press Room for a while but honestly never got the chance to go since it's kind of 'out of the way' in Sheung Wan for me.
Environment - Overall quite comfortable and casual decor. I love the high ceilings and the chalkboard menus on the wall. Although the place was full it didn't feel cramped. Tables could be a tiny bit bigger since I felt at times the plates (which were on the large size) did clutter up the table slightly.
Service - Food came promptly and there were no mixups. Our waiter felt a times a little 'slow' or maybe under-trained. When I ordered a bottle of sparkling water 2 other waiters came by immediately afterwards to see if I wanted more water which I think showed there was some confusion amongst the waitstaff...but overall I really can't fault their service here.
There was only 1 thing on my mind when I came to Press Room...I got to order their famous fries!
Promme Frites (法國薯條) - Visually the fries look pretty plain but one bite into them and you'll know why they are so famous. The fries (although simple/straight forward) are just done right. Crunchy on the outside, slightly soft on the inside and the best part is they stayed crunchy/hot for quite some time. Also I dig how some of the fries still had the potato skin on them. Although Union J has duck fat fries and Halo has truffle cheese fries...Press Room now has my favorite fries in HK.
Onion Soup Gratinee (洋蔥湯) - Overall a pretty good soup. I like the addition of the chives to the melted cheese. Soup was pretty rich in flavor but I kind of wished there was more soup relative to the amount of cheese and bread. The cheese was melted about right and the onions were caramelized well. The soup felt a little on the thick side to me but that's more personal preference.
Lobster Risotto (意大利龍蝦煨飯) - Risotto is actually not an easy thing to get right. I find many times in HK that risottos comes out too dry or the grains are mushy/too soft. This is not the case at Press Room. The risotto had the right amount of moisture/creaminess and it was nice that you could feel every grain in your mouth. They were also 'generous' with the lobster since I found good sized chunks of it in my risotto. The taste...was very rich and tasty and the lobster flavor permeated every risotto grain. The richness might not be for everyone but overall I think still a very good dish.
What my friends' ordered: So my friends' ordered the skate wing, venison chops and also the hanger steak (medium rare). I tried all 3 and although the skate wing and venison chops were decent (the texture of the skate wing was a little weird: it was flaky in a 'stringy' type of way) that hanger steak was awesome. So full of flavor and juicy. Seriously, next time I go back to Press Room I'm getting that hanger steak.
All in all I had a pretty good meal here at Press Room. The price isn't cheap (mains outside of pastas are generally $200+) but you do get pretty large portion sizes and in a way you are getting your money's worth. Food as I said before is straight forward but I have to commend them for delivering solid dishes albeit the simplicity.
Final note: I think Union J in LKF is a pretty good comparison price, environment and cuisine wise...but I think if you don't find Press Room too out the way I would go to Press Room instead.