ckchan3's Profile

This was one of the most unforgettable dining experiences I've ever ha . I don’t think I’ve ever experienced so many flavours in one sitting. Bo Innovation is the Chinese version of El Bulli and Fat Duck. It’s Asian molecular cuisine. And there was definitely a wide variety of intense flavours tasted throughout dinner. The menu choice was pretty limited. Which is expected. 3 choices for Dinner: Tasting Menu, Chefs Menu, Chefs Table Menu. We all ordered Chefs Table Menu as the entire table has to order it if one wants it. It was a 15 Course Meal. It was insane. We sat down at 7pm, took a while to decide what to eat and our first dish probably came out at about 7:45 and we left the place at around 11:30pm. It was a nice long dinner. The service was definitely great, the waiter was extremely friendly and helpful and he walked us through the menu to let us know how the meal was going to work. Before every course he explained what was in each dish, the idea behind the dish and how to eat it. The waiter had a business card. That was a first. And he’s only worked there for a year. First dish. Oyster with Spring onion, lime and ginger snow. Thing is. I don’t like raw oysters. However. After we decided which menu to have, he asked whether there was anything each of us didn’t like or were allergic to, and I didn’t like raw oysters and so he said he’ll have a replacement course for me. And he did! The Chef made me a “dead garden” which was morel, dried caterpillar fungus, green onion and lime. #2: Caviar, Smoked quail egg, crispy taro. This was good too. The smoked quail egg tasted like “fun dan” #3: Taro, Demon riesling, Black truffle. They actually came to our table with a cart and had these plates of tiny soup then this server came and explained this dish and how this company deliberately created this wine for their restaurant and they use it in this soup. And then grates the black truffle right in front of us. It was very yummy =) I could definitely taste everything they say they have in the dish. I could taste the taro in the soup, the truffles obviously and the wine. #4 Har Mi [蝦米] This dish is apparently award winning and after I ate that dish I knew why. A dish serving har mi noodle, carabinero, capellini, chilli and sage. It was the best combination of flavours and foods ever. It was funny it reminded me of eating in a cha chan teng because that’s usually when I eat my food with chilli oil. But the prawn was perfectly seared so it was medium rare, the noodles were the perfect texture, and everything all mixed together was just delicious.#5 Bamboo, baby shoot, pith, foie gras. The smell of the dish was very… interesting. The strong smell of the bamboo made all of us wonder what this dish was going to taste like and whether it would ruin the foie gras but it didn’t even affect the taste of the dish. This was another dish that was just perfectly prepared. The foie gras was suvi’d… I didn’t know how else to phrase how the foie gras was cooked. And the pith wrapped around it created the perfect combination of textures to eat it with. AND with the red peppercorn sauce. mmmm….#6: Scallop, kaffir lime, kyoho grapes, sea urchin, mango, shichimi, potato. So this dish the server explained was supposed to represent all the flavours. Salty, bitter, sweet and sour. And I definitely tasted all 4 flavours in this dish. The entire dining experience was fun because we really got along with the server and he said if we could guess where each item of this course was on the dish then he was going to leave. But we couldn’t figure out where the sea urchin was. And the sea urchin was mixed with the mango sauce. Which made sense visually but I couldn’t really taste it even though my sister said she could. I don’t like sea urchin so that’s probably why I wasn’t familiar with identifying the taste. Shichimi is just 七味粉 which was mixed in with the potato. This was another great dish, you eat the scallop and potato together dip it with the lime sauce which reminds you of tom yum gung because of that strong lime taste. And then you eat the jelly grape with the mango sea urchin sauce. So salty with bitter, and sweet with sour.After that. The following courses were good, but not dish can be outstanding:#7: Iberico 36, morel, vermicelli, onion foam#8: Molecular “xiao long bao”in between they served us a palette cleanser: dragon fruit with ginseng sorbet. It was refreshing to eat and definitely helped cleanse the flavours out of our mouth to prepare us for the next course. #9: Salmon, “fu yu”, spinach#10: Squid, sweet bread, lettuce greens (served with soup) - this was really good.#11: Black truffle, wagyu M9+, and “cheung fun” - SUPER GOOD. #12: Sex on the beach….. this was a optional choice on the menu. It’s a dessert which I won’t elaborate on it but it was quite interesting aesthetically to look at… it was served in a martini glass with strawberries at the bottom, peppercorn cream (which I didn’t like. I would have preferred if it was mascarpone but then that would be too typical), served on top with maple flavoured crumbs. The supplementary fee goes to money that is donated to an AIDS organization. Then we had 3 more courses of dessert:#13: Sandalwood, almond, hawthorn. I did not like this dessert. This was the only thing I did not finish. It was panna cotta served in this glass jar and when you open the glass lid smoke comes out and it’s sandalwood which reminds you of incense. Which was the purpose of it… and the entire dessert tasted of this smoke as well, which I didn’t like about it. #14: Shui Jing Fang, banana, vanilla, caramel, raisins. Shui Jing Fang, the server explained, is this 52% alcohol and is a special wine which they mixed into with the caramel sauce. I mixed it in with the ice ceam and it sure was really alcoholic. It was too alcoholic for me though. The only thing I liked about this dessert was the ice cream. LAST BUT NOT LEAST. #15: Petit Dim-Sum - This last dessert was based on Petite Fours where it was served in a 2 level bird cage basket with little desserts like macaroons, “siu hau jo”, and also old candies like white rabbit! And because my Aunt booked so early. The receptionist asked why she was booking 2 months in advance and explained it was to celebrate my sisters birthday… they baked a little treat for her! The entire meal was paired with 2 drinks: Vilmart champagne, and Pinot Noir. The Champagne really matched the first half of the dinner and the Pinot Noir matched the second half especially because we had the wagyu beef. Overall, I think Michelin should give them back the 2nd star. I believe a lot of effort was made to prepare each dish. And there were so many dishes! The entire experience was great. It’s definitely a place worth going if you have the money, an occasion to celebrate and a tongue palette that can appreciate such a meal.I would definitely love to go again.…Read More

Sen Fuku is not the typical bright, crowded, loud and rowdy hot pot place but a dimly lit Thai Buddhist designed decor, a nice ambiance. The seats are very comfy which is a good thing since hot pot usually takes a while.For the hot pot soup base, we ordered the Hokkaido milk base. I was excited to try it because I’m so used to eating hotpot with a clear soup base. the hokkaido milk base was delicious, it smelled so good as you lean over the pot to cook your meats. the tables are designed so that there’s a hole in the middle of the tables and you don’t have to stand up to lean over the hot pot.The restaurant pretty much offers any part of the cow which is the cool part so we ordered 2 different parts. the side of the cow and the neck. Both nicle thick slices of meat but I really had to make sure the beef was fully cooked but at the same time not overdone. we also ordered a selection of mushrooms which was good. I really enjoyed the 2 different dumplings we ordered unfortunately I don’t know what they’re called because I didn’t order the food but I trust that the selection of dumplings isn’t that wide and that they’d all be good. we also had a plate of small fish balls, beef balls etc. They were actually prepared in the restaurant and so were very fresh. You can tell it’s not your typical commercial fish ball just by looking at the gloss over the raw fish ball. We also had these huge fresh prawns and that was very fresh and full of meat to eat.To enjoy the hotpot and balance out the “yeet hey” we ordered something nice and cooling to drink throughout the meal. chrysanthemum tea, which is pretty typical.The place is pricier than your average hotpot place. So you better save up before coming here it’s worth going to try the hokkaido milk hot pot.…Read More

BLT does not stand for Bacon Lettuce and Tomato in this case but Bistro Laurent Tourondel. Laurent Tourondel is the name of the chef who lauched the whole BLT restaurant group. BLT Burger is actually located only in NY, Las Vegas and Hong Kong. Personally I thought the server came too early to ask for our orders. Or maybe it was because me and my friend hadn’t seen each other for so long we talked a lot and the menu’s not complicated people might typically take a little faster to decide what they want. But when the server came I told her we needed more time. And she never came back. After me and my friend decided on what to eat, I had to catch the servers attention to come and take our order. I wasn’t especially hungry so we just shared The Combo #1 Classic Burger, Soda and Fries. We added $25 for a milkshake (Mocha Mudslide) which was originally $68. Added $8 for Cheese (American Cheese). and had the choice of skinny fries, fat fries or waffle fries and I chose waffle fries.If you’re from San Francisco this place might remind you of Burger Bar where Macy’s at. It’s already quite expensive but they give you the option of adding more and so your bill ends up more than you think. And most people like their burger with cheese and if you’re already willing to pay so much to eat a burger there $8 is nothing to add for a slice of cheese. I guess it’s a smart business tactic. The restaurant was like a modern designed American diner. The restaurant was very well designed, but on the tables you’ve got your typical 2 plastic squeezy bottles of ketchup and mustard, the metal paper napkin box and your utensils all wrapped up next to you. Kind of dark though..Service could improve. They didn’t give us wet paper towels until the end and it wasn’t a individual thing as if though they were waiting on each table to nearly finish but at a certain time they just gave everyone wet paper towels. I mean I understand we came to eat a little earlier than most people because by the time we left it was almost full capacity. But they could’ve given us the wet towels earlier. And they did not know how to present a bill. I asked for the bill and they gave it to me and went away and didn’t come back for it. I had to wave someone down again and checked our cash on spot picking up the $200 and then took it to the cashier and came back with our change. That was.. mehh.. Was the food good? Sure. Portion was decent, restaurants always give more than enough fries and the fries were good. I didn’t plan on writing a review for the place so I didn’t take any pictures. The milkshake was pretty good too. Was the entire meal worth $177? No. And I shared this. If we didn’t share times that by 2. Even more not worth it. But we wouldn’t have been able to finish our meals if we had a combo each with a milkshake. AND again I don’t know if it’s just me but the burger bun was not toasted and usually I expect them to be toasted until they’re warm.I feel like I’m writing a really bad review about this place. But if I had to rate this restaurant it’d just be your average 3/5. Nothing stood out about it. Nothing stood out about the burgers, or the burger patties. And they proudly say they're USDA prime which is probably why they think they can charge so much. The reason I’m not praising this place is because for such a high price nothing stood out about it to make it worth so much. But if you can afford it. There’s no harm to trying it. You’ll probably find it really good. Here’s the menu http://www.bltburger.com/PDF/eatin-hong-kong.pdf…Read More