紫星軒 (銅鑼灣)

The restaurant is not bad. The food is nice, and the prices reasonable. I have been there about half a dozen times with other family members. However, something happened today which means we won't be returning. I will try to be as unbiased as possible and just give the facts.

First of, the waiters and waitresses are all very polite and accommodating. However, due to one reason or another a family member made a complaint to the manager. I am not sure if he is the head manager or just one of the captains, but he wore a suit instead of a uniform. During the complaint, the family member got quite upset and said, "You don't need to explain anymore". Now, regardless of what the customer said, as long as he wasn't swearing, being abusive, making personal attacks, or being unduly impolite, I think it's only good customer service for the manager to keep calm. Instead, this manager lost his temper, and said, "I also don't want to explain anything to you either". He said it several times and some other remarks then had the last word before just walking off!! What kind of service is that?

I can imagine hard working waiters, working long hours with low pay losing their temper with a difficult customer. But a manager? This guy does nothing but stand at the door way. I already didn't like this manager before the incident because his body language is so low class, unlike the other waiters who are all very professional.

Anyway, I have nothing against this restaurant and its staff overall, and had decent experiences in the past. Nonetheless we won't be coming back.

Fat Angelo's (灣仔)

SUMMARY: The food, especially the salad has too much garlic. Tell them to leave off the dressing for the salad, and add only 1/4 of the garlic they normally use for all food. Toilet is authentic, which means it's not modern, and doesn't FEEL very clean. 7/10 overall.

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OVERALL: This is a great restaurant, with ample portions of food at highly reasonable prices. For dinners, you can easily have a full meal at under $300 per head. The waiters are friendly and well mannered, and the atmosphere is really pleasant. I have been coming to this restaurant for years, but I finally had to write a review because there is one aspect that irritates me so much but my complaints have fallen on deaf ears. So I hope Management will read this review and do something about it.

GARLIC OVERDOSE: This chef overdoses on garlic big time! This is not a place to take a first date or a new girlfriend! They add too much garlic to their pasta and other dishes. But the salad is where they go to extreme! Even if you are not a vampire, be very careful with the regular Italian salad. There are heaps of raw garlic within the salad dressing. You can see bits of chopped raw garlic suspended inside the dressing! I always tell them to leave out the dressing and simply use the olive oil and balsamic dressing available on the table instead. Today they offered me dressing on the side. There were no garlic bits inside so I used the dressing, thinking it was safe. Big mistake. My mouth now reeks of garlic as I am typing this 5 hours later. I tried chewing on three airwaves gum, using Listerine twice, and have been brushing and flossing my teeth, but to no avail. I can't get that disgusting garlic taste out of my breath. Luckily I am a single guy.

COMPLAINT NOT REGISTERED: When I told the waiters of this problem before, they informed me that was how Italian food was prepared, and that other customers had not complained. I have lived in Italy for 3 months, and have sampled plenty of Italian food in Hong Kong, and yet I have never come across that level of garlic usage before. We are talking about raw, or almost raw garlic here! So I wish they wouldn't patronise me on this issue. I know what I am talking about.

DIRTY TOILET: The other issue which annoys me is the toilet. I can see they are going for the authentic look. But please, keep the toilet and the basins modern and clean! I can't stand those grimy tiles. I am not saying the toilet is actually dirty, but it FEELS very filthy, because it's so old. I am really not used to 1980s standard of cleanliness any more. HK toilets have become very clean over the last decade with auto flushing and auto taps. So use the toilet at home before coming to this restaurant.

ANTIPASTI FREDDO: There is also a third problem, though this is minor and more of a personal preference. The Antipasti Freddo has too much meat. The antipasti I am accustomed to having has equal portions of vegetable and meat, so that the salty meat is neutralised by the fresh taste of the vegetables. While I understand antipasti freddo is meant to have a generous serving of meat I honestly think they offer too much. Usually, I can only consume about 1/3 to 1/2 of the meat before my mouth becomes so salty and I have to stop. Besides, it's not very healthy to consume huge amounts of fatty salami. I have tried to ask them to reduce the amount of meat, which while they seem happy to oblige, they still end up giving me quite a lot. This is not so much a complaint, as there are ways to overcome this. You can simply keep the free Italian salad until the antipasti has arrived, so that you have more greens to go with the meat. Besides, no one is forcing you to finish all the meat anyway.

CONCLUSION: Other than these three issues, I am very happy with this restaurant. 7/10.

Isono Eatery & Bar (中環)

Location: Situated at the former Police Married Quarters site on Hollywood Road, the entire building is definitely unique and a fun place to go at night or on weekends. I would not recommend it for weekday lunch as it is quite far from Central and the warehouse sized lifts are frustratingly slow. It's difficult to find the way the first time, but is actually quite easy to get to once you know your way around. One thing though, for an out-of-the-way, subprime site, they sure do charge as though they were situated at The Landmark

Environment: The unique theme on the outside carries through to the inside. The decor plays on a high-end industrial theme. They jazzed up the industrial environment to become pretty classy. It's good to come at least once just to take a few photos. Try to get a seat in the middle where the ceiling is double in height and you get a full view of the center show piece - a bar that towers all the way to the ceiling. 

Service: Lousy - well not everyone. The reception is nice enough and the filipino waitresses were quite good. But the local male waiters were another story. One tried to pressure me to order a bottle of 750ml water, which I could not possibly finish as I was there by myself for a quick lunch. I made a big mistake by order a can of coke which ended up costing $70. I told you, they charge as if they were situated at The Landmark. And YET he seemed annoyed that I "cheaped out" and didn't order that bottle of water! When the bill came and I saw the $70 charge, I said nothing, but rounded up the bill to $300 - with only a $7 tip. My credit card was stuffed back towards me angrily without a single word. As I was leaving, none of the waiters standing idly by the door said a word. Well not all the waiters were bad but it's the few bad eggs which leaves a nasty impression - thus the 1/5 rating isn't too fair on the others.

Food: Not bad actually! I had the tartare beef which was delicious. I think they used duck egg, as it was deep orange. The other courses were OK too. I enjoyed the tiramisu which are foamy. The presentation of the food and the cutlery were interesting. 

Conclusion: The environment is unique and worth a visit. The food should not disappoint. However, I found it to be not very good value for money, despite the positive factors. And for such a price, I do not expect such poor service. 

$70 for a coke! Avoid at all cost. Insist on water or just get a cocktail.

Osteria 意大利餐廳 (尖沙咀)

Environment: Situated on the Mezzanine level of the Holidy Inn on Nathan Road, the environment and ambience of course good, as expected. The decor follows the traditional Italian style. Spacing between tables is adequate, the place can get pretty loud (like a dim sum restaurant) during lunch. It is more quiet in the evenings. The service is good as is expected in any hotel restaurant. In fact I would say it is somewhat above average for a hotel.

Food: The lunch salad buffet is quite good, with an assortment of artichokes, sun-dried tomato, marinated bell peppers, and a variety of parma ham and cheese. While I am entirely satisfied with the buffet, I think some local HK diners might be disappointed because it doesn't have much seafood. The smoked salmon they serve is of good quality. The main courses are decent and quite good, but nothing spectacular to write about. The dessert buffet does not have much variety. The tiramisu is wonderful, but the other dessert are so-so. Overall, I would say the food is decent and not bad. 

Conclusion: A very nice and relaxing hotel restaurant with good Italian food at the heart of TST. Pricing is reasonable. Based on my review, it might seem as if there is nothing exciting or special about the Osteria, but I would still give it a high overall score because not many restaurants perform admirably on every factor, and most have at least one poor factor. 

$48 for a can of soft drink. Water available on request.

Casablanca Oyster Steak Restaurant (尖沙咀)

Hidden away on Prat Avenue is this little French restaurant. Reservation was easy and I only booked two days before hand. It's pretty much a local style western restaurant, but they do the best with what they have. The decor is mediocre but acceptable. The spaces between the tables was good. Their service was polite and courteous. The food was of good quality, although the style of cooking was pretty ordinary. The oysters were very fresh and huge (I know size isn't everything, but all things being equal I'd prefer a juicy oyster) and they had a large variety all from France. The quality of oysters were better than other oyster restaurants of this price point. All in all, I had an enjoyable dinner and would be back in the future. This is one of the few restaurants that give good value for money. The only thing I didn't like was that they would reuse the cutlery and always placed the used ones on the table, making a mess of the table cloth.