Video
Read full review
2009-03-16
282 views
Greg Malouf's. A local restaurant operated by Dining Concepts HK and licensing from the famous Arabesque/Mediterranean chef of the same name in Melbourne, Australia and using some of his famous recipes of 'Momo Melbourne'. The residing chef is also trained under Malouf and also oversees the operation at Olives at SOHO.On a family oriented Sunday involving shopping then a plan to dine later at 囍宴 滋‧選 afterwards, mother and myself curiously wandered upto the open roof dining area, just to take a b
On a family oriented Sunday involving shopping then a plan to dine later at 囍宴 滋‧選 afterwards, mother and myself curiously wandered upto the open roof dining area, just to take a breathe of fresh air as well as to check out whether any of the often empty restaurants have closed already. With Malouf's advertisement for $30/glass happy hour wines, a bit of desperate persuasion by the manager downstairs as well as the promise of free snacks until 8pm, we walked in to have a sunday drink and it ended up being a light dinner downstairs instead. (I think I went coincidentally on the same day as previous reviewer PEECH by the way, may be I should have said hello!)
A small standalone table filled up with free Mezze/Mezza items and dips are available for anyone having a drink. Strangely enough, most of these free items are the same as the Mezza Bar items on the drinks menu, often in the $5X-$70 range per dish, so this free snacks offer was great value for money since the drinks themselves were super cheap and of selected quality. Food items might include carrots, cucumbers, Hummus Chickpea dips, Sundried Tomato or Red Pepper dip, Olive Dip, Jou Jou/Pita bread, sliced bread, Vine leaf wrapped Dolomites, Ricotta and Spinach Filo Pastries (but the doughy and hard external texture was more like the Noah's ark like 'Pastizzi's' to be exact), poker chip vegetarian Falafel's, some kind of Merguez sausage roll, Olives, preserved Lemon Rinds, etc. FREE! Until 8pm. Great start!
The only gripe is that they dont refill them all the time, so you really need to ask!
OTHER FOODS:
Chickpea batter Sardines with Tabouleh/Tabouli Salad:
Batter slightly too soft and little chickpea taste, but sardines were surprisingly fresh, bony and tasteful.Tabouleh salad unfortunately did not taste anything like it should, the Continental parsleys barely having any aroma and taste and not chopped up well. I think Italian parsleys are better suited in this application, each and everytime. Could barely detect any mint leaves flavour either.
Vine leaf wrapped Portobello Mushroom & Haloumi Cheese with a Yoghurty sauce topped with smoked Paprika and Coriander and Red Onion type of salad (differs from the version online):
Very nice indeed, as I'm a great lover of Vine leaves, Portobello as well as Haloumi Cheese. The Coriander based salad was slightly nicer than the Tabouleh in the sardines dish.
What impressed the most was the Quality of the Wine selection versus Low Price here. There are roughly 11 types of Wines by the Glass available here, which are NOT the usual cheap as chips Chilean wines which induce headaches each and everytime for yours trul - infact, not a Chilean in sight - GOOD! Ranging from $58 to $7x, to max $128 for a glass of Non-Vintage Billecart Salmon Brut Rose (who else would serve this champagne by the glass in HK usually?), all wines except the latter can be had for $30-40 during Happy hour! Wow. A lot of Hong Kong restaurants can learn from here. Here's a preview of what I had:
White:
Dr Loosen, Villa Loosen Riesling 2006, Germany - Haha. All smiles as this type of cheap but slightly sweet riesling wine exemplifies exactly why cheaperer quaffs such as cheap but off-dry Riesling, Beaujolais, Chianti/Montepulciano,really have their place on Sunday's. A cheaper grade of German riesling was chosen here - it had none of the often associated petroleum like funky character (or to me personally, smelling exactly lke Super Glue). That kind of higher end riesling has a bit of an acquired taste character, often taking 30-60 minutes to blow off and not as suitable for food matching especially spiced food like these. $40/Glass Happy Hour.
Pincipato Pinot Grigio, 2006, Italy - the most versatile white wine here that suited most food and seasonings in Malouf. A tone darker and denser than usual Italian Grigios but still crisp and floral, this really was an affordable yet surprisingly complex Pinot Grigio. House wine = $30 HP.
Dusky Sound Sauvignon Blanc, 2007, New Zealand - Very distinctly varietally New Zealand Sauvignon, with its punger aroma and passionfruit driven palate that made it prosper in the world. Not entirely my type of Sauvignon as its too new world like, but the sommelier/chefs who chose this to represent the Sauvignon Blanc selection has done well as it punches above its weight in most aspects, although a bit predictive. $40 HP.
Red:
Babich East Coast Pinot Noir, 2007, New Zealand - a medium bodied, biased towards new world Pinot that is also quite representational of the pinot varietal as well as NZ. Sweet red fruits, slightly meaty, good balance between oak, spice and plummy fruit, went well with food here. Again a great choice by Malouf's, obviously not a top wine by any measures but for a measly $40 a glass HP and not much more post-happy hour, its highly recommended.
Umani Ronchi Montepulciano D'Abruzzi, 2006, Italy - An attractive sweet aroma, Dark cherries with a slight complexity in the background that suggests a higher priced wine than its price tag with some complexity and not just sugar sweet druits. This Montepulciano had a medium tannin level and this created a secondary character in the background, reminding me of Vine Stalks or grapeseeds. The House Red here, therefore $30 HP. Not suitable for most food here but a great quaff by itself.
From a Business point of view, the wine by the glass choices here make a whole lot of sense - as they're not expensive wines, therefore they have enough profit margin for the proprietor, whereas from the customers point of view I could afford to pay for my sunday drink, or a few of them! All the ones I tried were much more than the usual single dimensional house wines served everywhere else, they were carefully selected and representional of the grape varietal, whilst surpassing the expectations for their stupidly low prices. Well done. One of the most entertaining Wines by the Glass selections I've encountered in HK, bar Lounge Bar at Four Seasons.
As rumour has it - Malouf's will soon be rebadged to the slightly older and more established 'Olive' brand, possibly in a attempt to induce more brand recognition with non-Chinese customers who have visited the original Olives in SOHO. As can be seen, this open-roof terrace area of Elements hardly gets any customers. Its relatively quiet from weekdays to weekends, a fate that also affects other well known international brands like MEGU. Over at D.Diamond there wasn't even 1 customer at 8:30pm, whereas JOIA fares better but still only at 30% occupancy. In my honest opinion, it will be a big mistake to rebrand it as another 'OLIVE', a name which is too often wrongly associated with Greek food in its SOHO shop as although that is partially true, it is majoritively Modern Middle Eastern. IF ANYTHING, THEY SHOULD BE RE-BRANDING THE SOHO 'OLIVE' TO "MALOUF'S".
The problem is not even to do with branding or the food, or brand recognition, but it lies with the Shopping Centre management. I remember the 1st time I visited Elements, I did not even know about this high end Dining Area on top of virtualy nowhere, with little advertising signs on the elevators below. There is hardly any walker by traffic. If I was Dining Concepts HK, my first priority will be to force the Management into doing something about this lack of marketing or unfamiliarity with this roof top dining area within Elements. 2ndly I would more actively advertise the Malouf concepts to HK customers, or perhaps putting on display his very interesting recipe books which showcase the food from a few Mediterranean countries... even though the execution of the food isn't perfect, at least it is fairly interesting.
Rebranding it back into Olives wouldn't increase sales here, in fact I'll predict that it'll fare worst. It would be a great loss for Hong Kong if Maloufs and then Olives closes down and pulls out from the market as it is a very unique experience, although not as good as the Melbourne version. But you heard this here first - somehow, I have a feeling that not far into the future, this space would evolve to become the next outlet for the newly imported American/French steakhouse BLT, practically managed by the same company. Afterall, BLT is doing well and Elements is missing just such a restaurant of high quality steaks. I certainly wouldn't want to see that happen though.
Post
