Original Blog with Pictures: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/11/red-ifc.html

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It was a sudden decision of mine to visit RED @ IFC on this lovely Saturday afternoon for a relaxing brunch! My last visit here was a while ago spending the afternoon under the sun reading. This time I can give their food items a try. You may ask why the restaurant opted for a self-serving approach, it is because this outdoor podium / al fresco dining area is a public area and hence no service can be provided. I am perfectly fine with that as long as I can enjoy my food under the sun. Just look around, it is not an everyday chance one can relax and enjoy a meal with such a view of Hong Kong.

It was perfect to me, not humid and not too hot (under the shade of course!). There were actually a lot of people dining here at this hour, all looking for some sun shines I imagined. If the weather is to get cooler (likely in a month or so), I might just spend the whole day here read, drinking cocktails and just to chill!

(1) 3-Egg Omelette
It was HUGE and thick! I think there were more than 3 eggs. Among the many fillings selection, I picked mushroom, baked ham, sweet corns and cheddar cheese. Wow, there were plenty of ingredients / fillings in that omelette as well. I love the sweet corns which added hints of sweetness to the whole dish. The omelette itself was a bit overcook but definitely acceptable. No surprises for the fries. As for the cappuccino, while it was rather weak, the foam was a surprise. It was very fine and creamy, not bad at all.

Likes:

* atmosphere / al fresco dining
* very creamy foam from the cappuccino
* plenty of fillings / ingredients !

Dislikes:

* weak coffee

Avg Spending: HKD 100 -200 per person

Original Blog with Pictures: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/11/red-ifc.html

Came here before flying off to Europe. We ordered Champagne brunch and it came with a starter, a main course and a glass of Champagne. Everything was delicious and the price for the brunch was not too unreasonable. However, if you order ala carte, it will be quite expensive, and a fruit juice on its own will cost $60 plus 10% service charge which I think is quite outrageous. Hence I agree with some of the comments made by others here about price. However, I found the service to be acceptable, unlike their experience.

Am a pure fitness member so was curious to try out RED, happened that tonight i was in the area and decided to give it a try.

had the portbello mushroom/rocket salad
green pea + procscuito soup
king crab linguine and
turkey burger

portbello mushroom was good in flavour, the slight tangy flavor from the balsamic vinegrette and salsa matched well with the rocket and mushroom, which are more earthy flavours.

soup was weird. tasted like burnt flour... dont know if it was the proscuito or the flour, tasted off.

king crab linguine, very disappointing and overpriced at 198. seriously, if a pasta has to be HKD200 it really better be damn good. the crab was not fresh, tasted off and like mush (i suspect from a can?) and to cover up the shortcomings, the pasta was overly spicey. thus, after two bites, your mouth is numb and you're downing water to cool off the heat.

turkey burger with pita overpriced at 138. damn, i thought i was eating rabbit food. no sauce inside, vegetables were raw and the heads of bean sprout tasted like grass and over powered everything. but again, to begin with, there was no seasoning ...thus no real flavour to over power anyway. it just tasted like grass. the side dip (mint yogurt) with raw vegetables... man it was like dipping your vegetables in toothpaste. not cool at all.

total bill came up to HKD580 for 2 people. that's HKD300 per head, for that price i think you have a lot more choices than to pick RED.

A good friend from overseas is in Hong Kong and we planned to have a small gathering at Red on Jan 1st 4pm. I've called Red 2 days prior to our gathering and they confirmed my booking.

Imagine how disappointing I was to receive a call from them on Jan 1st 12:30am (just 1/2 hour after New year count down), and they told me that their bar only opens at 5:30pm!! They explained that their junior staff made a mistake and was confused with the bar's opening hours! And they suggested that maybe I can postpone the gathering to 5:30pm.

There are 2 points that I found them ridiculous:
1) Why would they call customers in the middle of the night?
2) All staffs should know the opening hours, isn't this the simpliest thing of all?

In the end we have found another place for our gathering, and I am not planning to go to Red ever again.

Paid a visit to RED last night, after nearly 3 years since I have last been there. Overall the standards are still quite good, naturally with a few exceptions! Because it's close to Christmas, they are serving 3-course Xmas Set Dinners, but it didn't look that appealing, so we chose to stick with the a-la-carte menu.

The Yums
Beef Carpaccio (still the very best! must try!)
Grilled Tuna Steak
I had it with the baked potato [w/sour cream, green onion and bacon bits] - also comes with a side of fresh greens, corn and creamy spinach. I thought those 3 sides were really quite nice! I wasn't able to finish the whole thing...
Grilled Salmon Steak
Comes with the same sides as above.
Pinot Grigio (taste was good, but not cold enough)

The Ughs
Lobster Bisque (it is served with cream foam and looked very appetizing, but apparently tasteless...)

Service
- The service wasn't all that great... they practically had 1 person serving the entire restaurant, with 1 other just standing around, and another seeing the guests to their seats and making reservations. We sat down with the menu and nobody even asked us if we wanted a drink. After 10 minutes of nothingness, we had to wave our hand so many times before someone came. Wasn't very professional.
- We went for a drink after our meal outside. It was freezing cold outside and there were only 4 'heaters'... most of the tables were no where near the heaters. Because you had to grab your own EVERYTHING, it was unlikely that anyone would have wanted to have their actual meal outside. Well I guess it was their intention anyway.

Price
Having ordered the above, the bill came up to around $770 (for 2). If you were a member of Pure Fitness or guest at the Four Seasons Hotel, then you get 10% off your bill. Price is reasonable for the quality of food I suppose.

Overall I would recommend RED for special occasions, or a simple after work drink outside. Great view of the Victoria Harbour and TST.

去年投資銀行請食飯﹐ 人山人海。 事隔數月﹐ 再臨 RED﹐ 面目全非。 拜六晚筵﹐ 全場只得兩張檯﹐ 共六人﹐ 我地四人已是大客﹐ 另檯二人﹐ 可能係 FOUR SEASONS 房客。 十幾個鬼仔鬼妹 service 我地四人﹐ 態度殷勤﹐ 有點受寵若驚。IFC 第一個金融重災區﹐ 雖不中亦不遠矣。

食物依然好味。 芝士極重手。 須知現今芝士價格比年初漲價何只一倍。 姑公要了份 today special 生蠔伴麵﹐ 配 caesar salad. 出奇的好。 。姑妹份懀牛尾 + 姑仔份澳州 lamb rack 亦好﹐ 每人加份龍蝦湯。 可惜姑姑份海鮮集會D mussel 唔太新鮮。 扣分。 姑姑剛從澳紐歸來﹐ 極懷念當地新鮮青口。 霎熟即食﹐ 美味無窮。

姑公要了份mogarden 生啤﹐ 大大杯﹐ 要雙手才能擰得起。 酒身略甜。 姑仔要份 hse wine, 埋單 9折都要$1400 大洋。 唔平。

I think the waiters are very condescending
it seems that they think you know no English, not very friendly indeed
I tried lobster bisque which is too far salty
and I tried the grilled Tuna which is totally disapppointing
my friend tried Lamb, I guess it's better but still not fabulous
so don't try it out if possible

Before WALL-E, we went here for a lazy lunch/tea.

I always like fish and chips. So happy to know that they serve fish and chips too. But it really quite disappointed me coz the fish is tasteless, the powder covering the fish was too thick…the whole thing was not satisfying except side dishes. French fries are good. Freshly made with real potatoes.

Ordered omelet as well, and the waitress told we could have 4 choices of filings. As I remembered, we had bacon, mushroom, corn and cheese ( there are two kinds of cheese). Omelet was much better than fish, its thick and taste original.

Service was so-so. I hope that’s not becoz I’m not foreigner. But it’s nice to have a sunshine meal during weekends there. When I left, I realized more ppl were sitting outside enjoying sunshine ( not for me, that’s really too hot!!) and their high tea set seems cool too.

p.s. there is an outside bar in the open space area, you can order there and enjoy seaview if you are ok with the hot weather now.

叫左chicken wings,正有 少少辣,好冶味芝士蘑姑pizza,無乜特別.環境靚,不過無service,要自己羅野

ordered nachos ,fish and chips,macaroni and 1 afternoon tea set
fish and chips,魚麻麻地,無乜味,chips 1般啦,粗左少少所以唔太脆
nachos啲醬唔夠多
macaroni ok 啦,可以再濃啲
甜品都ok,唔會難食
環境就真係無得頂relax 到爆,hh到夜晚飲野都very good

與男友來享受一個陽光Sunday lunch，可惜，是日陽光實在好得過份，有遮蔭既位置已經全部客滿．男友堅持要在室外，沒法子，唯有被迫同陽光玩遊戲．其實全場氣氛不錯，大家都懶洋洋的，我們點了chicken caesar salad, roasted beef salad, mango juice and orange juice. 材料簡單但新鮮，很令人放鬆享受的一餐．
有趣的是，當我們在猶豫不決的選位子時，一個侍應叔叔很街坊的說：呢度大笪地嚟o架！你地鍾意坐邊就坐邊啦！聽完真係Ｏ哂嘴，哈哈！

飯後短聚, 由SOHO到老蘭皆人頭湧湧, 最後只好行到IFC, 自己SERVE自己地來一個無敵海景DRINKS,

一杯ketel one martini, 在self service吧取回位置時, 真的要步步為營, 否則倒了便不堪設想. 喝一口味道dry至極點的martini, 唔……好男人呢!! 吹著熱熱的天然風,不知不覺, 由11時坐到1時才離開, 下次都是點一杯冰涷的飲料比較合宜了

習慣了一星期來一次
同朋友吹水
是日飲左golden carrot,太好了,最近先發現原來有non-acoholic 的東東!哈哈!
golden carrot 是CARROT + LIME + APPLE + PINEAPPLE + orange, 好fresh, 不過個甜味好似好syrup 咁
仲有,hawaiann c*** (唔記得左個名添!),好鳳仙好tropical o既acoholic drinks!
我好鍾意呢度o既環境

在IFC看罷電影之後,上來Happy Hour間一間場.

十度氣溫之下,坐戶外實在不好受,幸好其仿煤氣燈的企燈,釋放著點點暖氣.

天寒地凍,有人要杯熱咖啡,我就繼續飲啤酒,想來想去,來個Stella Arotis.沒有生啤,唯有支裝上.

(X!去Taste買$10唔使一支,黎呢度仲有支裝?貴三倍呀!)

(車!你地去茶記,吃個餐蛋麵,都要十幾蚊啦.自己煮都得啦.戇x!)

飲Stella,最好當然生啤上,罐裝也不錯,而且要500ml size,可惜,香港沒有供應.

冷風之下喝著Stella,想起已移民到新加坡的舊友Stella....

何日再重聚?未知,唯有繼續幹住這支Stella先.

同男朋友去左飲野
環境舒適,音樂開得唔係好大聲
出面仲有梳化坐,不過太熱冇去到坐
o係室內坐,一人叫左一杯野飲
我飲左杯baileys,好味呀~
男朋友飲左杯dance at beach party,本人唔太飲酒,太achoolic喇,好似飲緊火酒咁!
不過下次去試下dinner都好喎!