Amidst the fear of the ongoing pandemic, some friends and I decided to come here for more spacious seating (better to keep a safe social distance). However, sadly, the booth table we were given for the 5 of us was slightly more cramped than desired. Naturally, we opted for the lunch set menu, which came at nearly $300 for two courses (without drinks). That said, I must say, the complimentary bread here was rather delightful, seeded baguette style bread, quite simple but scrumptious. Starter: Salmon and quinoa salad with tartare sauce dressing. If I'm very honest, it's not easy to mess up this dish because salmon is very flavorful in itself. That said, the fish was very well cooked, not too dry that it's still pretty juicy. However, I didn't think that the salmon and quinoa complemented each other particularly well. I didn't like the tartare sauce in the salad either. Although fish and tartare sauce are a classic combination, I would have preferred a lighter dressing instead of downing my food in a sauce puddle. Main: Spaghetti puttanesca I was rather pleased with this pasta. The slight tartness of the tomatoes balanced well with the saltiness of the chopped olives. Even with olives, the sauce wasn't excessively oily. Overall speaking, I think the food is above average, but it is not cheap. At nearly $300 per lunch set, I'd really expect a drink to come with it. Yes, it's in the expensive area of admiralty, but at this price, maybe I should have gone to the hotel next door instead?

This is one of the coolest British restaurants I've come across in Hong Kong. The interior looks a bit like an exclusive drinking club, and it has a very extensive drinks menu. One thing to note is how exceedingly difficult it was to find the entrance. One needs to go down a small alleyway (across from the fringe club) and then go up one floor. If in doubt, just call and ask. I was quite impressed with the food here, although I have to say, their food menu is rather limited. Most of the food was more "finger food" style and portion and there was only one type of dessert. This place changes its menu quite often, so I was a bit disappointed I couldn't try a couple of things I saw online. We got the battered fish, truffle chips, scotch eggs and meat pie. The fish (which frankly looked a bit like fried chicken pieces) was decent, according to my friend, but we had expected to get a proper battered fish filler, rather than small pieces. And personally, I prefer my fish less fried. The truffle fries and scotch egg, really can't complain. The scotch egg was happily half runny (it's not easy to find a place in HK with decent scotch eggs), but I would have preferred it less salty (especially the mayo on top). The highlight for me was the meat pie, the nondescript parcel of meat enveloped by puff pastry. It's packed with very powerful and juicy meat flavor and the meat inside was unexpectedly moist. So so so glad I ordered this. Don't let the bland appearance fool you. It tasted so good. Granted, I think most people come here for the drinks, which we enjoyed as well. I ordered a drink called "one thousand" and it came in a cup that looks like a canvas bag. To be honest, I can't say I loved this drink, but could have been a matter of personal taste. At least it's quite photogenic! All in all, I'm surprised this lovely establishment isn't talked about more often. So underrated. I can't wait to come back again soon 😍

I have to admit, I came here purely for the artsy printed coffee after seeing pictures online. It actually looked a bit gimmicky to me online, but being someone with FOMO, I thought I'd need to try this place at least once. And I was pleasantly surprised! The artsy printed coffee actually comes with either coffee or chocolate base, but since my friend and I were too excited about ordering the print atop our drink, we forgot to ask for the chocolate base and both ended up with a coffee. Given that the drink costs nearly $90 and customers have the choice to bring their own picture to be printed at no extra charge, I decided to pose a little challenge and brought a photo of one of my favorite paintings, whilst my friend opted for a stock photo from the cafe of the famous kaws character. I was very impressed with the result of my drink (see photo), given that the photo I brought had a melange of colors and I was actually slightly worried beforehand if I'd end up with a colorful mess in my cup 😂. The coffee itself tasted like a latte and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One downside though, the drink was at room temperature, but I get it, if the drink is too warm, it'd end up melting my pretty picture on top. I would strongly suggest bringing your own photo to be printed, since it's so much more fun and it costs the same as the stock photos! Onto the food, I went for the salmon roe and tuna risotto in spinach sauce. Very pleased with the dish! Any risotto lover would tell you it's not easy to get a good risotto texture because every chef has his own preference. Luckily, this chef and I seem to share similar tastes in risotto! The bursts of flavor from the salmon roe and mango bits complimented the relatively mild taste of the tuna and spinach cream extremely well. I really enjoyed the vibe of this restaurant, although I'm usually not a massive fan of pop-culture-esque art like this, it felt very very relaxing, a nice temporary escape from reality. However, the good vibes and food did come at a price, at way over $250 per head for a one-course lunch with drinks. Now, it's really debatable whether this is considered good value. I might come back for the food again in future, but will probably opt for a normal drink next time.

A lot of people came here because of the instagramable blue cake and Cafe decor, but I came to check out gluten-free cakes, because I hear it's much healthier to GF. Interior-wise, I have to say this place scores fairly high. Pastel blue tones complimented the girly flowery style very well. I did find the place a bit cramped though, but OK I know, space in Hong Kong is expensive. Luckily, we booked a table in advance so we didn't have to wait for a table or worse, sit outside in the heat... The drinks list is quite extensive so I had a tough time choosing, and eventually ended up with a blue Earl Grey latte. My friend opted for a more adventurous choice, the Sapphire latte (something called tiger nut milk with blueberries, acai and maple syrup). We enjoyed the drinks. The Earl Grey in the latte was quite pronounced and had an almost flowery hint to it. I took a sip of the Sapphire latte and it carried a sweet flavor that I can't really describe (must be the tiger nut milk, which I'm still not sure what it is...) but in a good way. For food, I ordered the Avocado toast with egg and shared the earl grey cake and carrot cake with my friend. The toast dish was a bit underwhelming. To be fair, I don't usually eat gluten-free bread, so I'm not sure if it's supposed to taste like this, which was pretty bland and the texture was not great either. The portion was fairly small as well, especially since this cost around $100. And I had to add $30 extra for the salmon. As for the cake, the Earl Grey cake was nice. I don't know if it's tougher to make GF chiffon cake but this was very airy and the Earl Grey really sang through. The blue cream was dyed with butterfly pea extract and just tasted like normal cream. On the other hand, the carrot cake had more problems. Firstly, the texture of the cake was more like a pudding, very dense and too moist for my liking. Usually, the part I look forward most on a carrot cake is the cream cheese frosting but this was some other unknown cream, which I think contained coconut. Maybe as a cake it's not terrible, but I'm not the biggest fan of the coconut flavor. Personally, I found the entire piece of cake too sweet (that I couldn't finish it). All in all, I appreciate the cafe's effort to promote healthy eating, but it might be a while before I come here again.

I've heard a lot of good things about this place before and the funny thing is the food style is supposed to be drastically different between day and night. Being a brunch fanatic, I especially came here to sample the east-meet-west fusion brunch dishes. Personally, I love eggs and a good hollandaise sauce, so naturally I went for the char siu eggs benedict and the flavors were beyond my expectations. Naturally, the eggs were cooked fairly perfectly along with a Hollandaise I couldn't fault. But in between was also top quality avocado and amazing pieces of char siu pork (neck I think), cradled by lightly toasted bread. The fat from the meat and creaminess of the avocado sang so well with the dish. I hadn't had that "Omg" moment from a dish for a long while. It came with some fried lotus chips, which were nice but seriously the eggs were the star of the dish. It was so good, that I genuinely considered ordering a second helping. I don't understand why this dish isn't mentioned more often on openrice, so underrated! Big big big thumbs up 😍😍

Elephant grounds is one of my favorite spots whenever I feel like splurging but only have time for a quick lunch. As usual, this place didn't disappoint me again. I ordered a soy matcha latte and torched salmon donburi. The matcha lattes here are so good, and one of very very few places that doesn't add sugar, because (I think) the matcha used is at such a quality that there's no need for sugar! No bitterness in the matcha at all and the subtle tea flavor really shines through the milk. The soy milk is also top notch and can definitely rival a creamy milk base. Also an added bonus that the drinks always come with a surprise pattern atop. Today, I got a seahorse !!! Turning to the food, to be honest, it's decent quality but I wouldn't say amazing. The salmon was lightly torched and on a bed of salad and rice (the texture of which is very good), along with a dash of mayo and spring onions, made a simple but lovely lunch. I love the atmosphere here, wood-paneled furniture and decor, nestled admist the hustle and bustle of wanchai, but somehow still manages to give me some tranquility. OK, the price is less attractive here. A simple lunch like this set me back 188, but I suppose this makes a great guilty pleasure on a Friday afternoon.

I personally love Greek food, but it's not very commonly found in HK. I have hence been itching to try out this rather new establishment near my office. Lunch sets are offered here, at 168, you get a mezze, a salad and a souvlaki. No drinks included. Yes, I agree that the pricing is rather steep. I went for the good old hummus dip with vegetable crudités. Actually a bit gutted that they don't serve the dip with pitta bread (well, you can order pitta at a charge but i couldn't be bothered). I opted for a chicken souvlakli. We also ordered a dish of some Greek cheese baked in apricot sauce, upon strong recommendation by the waiter. Flavor wise, everything was quite good. I was pleasantly surprised by the salad which I think was fried quinoa in yogurt on salad leaves. The souvlakli was quite garlicky but tasty. It came with slightly very oily fries inside though, which I wasn't the biggest fan of. The cheese in apricot sauce was pretty good, but very sweet. I'm personally a cheese fanatic, but not sure if everyone would enjoy it that much. In conclusion, I liked everything that was served to me, but Geez this place is not cheap. $168 for this amount of food without drinks is rather steep. And of course, after ordering water and an additional baked cheese dish to share, the bill came to way over $200 per person. Quite expensive for a random lunch, but you don't mind the prices, by all means, it's a decent place to go to.