今次嚟赤鯛食個「元祖叉燒鯛魚濃湯烏冬」（$86）真係有啲失望。雖然個主角係個湯同烏冬、但係今次個叉燒又乾又硬、好似柴咁、差過肉乾。睇賣相都知啦, 點解廚房見到都出俾客人食?! 同個店員反應、佢解釋個叉燒係煎過嘅、但係肯換俾我。我話唔駛換咁嘥嘢、俾另外兩塊叉燒算啦。結果另外兩塊一樣又乾又硬、啲肥邊得個油字、心諗好彩我冇叫$128多叉燒嘅湯烏冬咋。 如果有下次嚟、會揀其他配菜、一定唔叫叉燒。真係有啲可惜、個鯛魚湯同個烏冬我鐘意食㗎 😞

This is the second time I've been to Kitchen. The first time was Christmas 2010 for a buffet. That time, it wasn't so spectacular, but I figured that it might have to do with the Christmas holiday rush, staff being overworked, maybe not being able to secure the top grade produce.

This time though, no excuse. For $500+ in a 5-star restaurant, this was disappointing. There are more things I could point out that weren't good about it than highlights.

The bad

1) The appetizers/salads that are stored in an open-style cold cabinet look like they've been sitting there for quite some time. I had a arugula and goat's cheese salad served in a cup, but the arugula was starting to look transparent; signs that's it's been prepped too long ago.

2) There are two soups. The Chinese soup was Chicken and Coconut. The Western soup was a Cream of Saffron and Onion. They were bland. The Cream of Saffron and Onion was so watered down I could barely taste a thing. Any of Campbells' canned soup would have tasted better.

3) They had steamed grouper, but it's overcooked and the fish was tough. It was a big grouper too. What a waste of fish.

4) Parma ham wasn't shaved into long, paper thin pieces like they do at delis. They just looked like shreds of tissue. Bad presentation, and no melon to pair with the ham.

5) Weak cheese selection - there was a Brie, another semi-hard cheese, a strange Cheddar, and a blue cheese.

6) "Crispy roast pork belly" wasn't crispy.

7) Limited sashimi selection - only tuna, salmon, and a snapper. Didn't even bother with sushi.

8) Dessert was weak as well - they had a selection, but nothing really tasted great.

The good

1) You can toss your own Caesar salad, but they leave the romaine leaves pretty big.

2) I liked the condiments that went with the lackluster cheese board - dried apricots, dried cranberries, walnuts, fig preserves...

3) Haagen Daaz ice-cream in those one-serving containers. Clean and simple.

4) Great cold seafood selection: oysters, crab legs, clams, mussels....

5) Roast beef was nice, but needed a bit of salt.

With this pricing you're better off going to Cafe Too or Cafe Kool at the Shangri-Las, or the Cafe at Hyatt Regency, or Tiffin at Grand Hyatt, or the JW Marriot Buffet. I think I've made my point. Luckily we had a credit card promotion discount, so I don't feel as ripped off.

Apologies for no photos - lighting's pretty dim in the restaurant and I didn't have a proper camera with me.

This is the best place I know of for Sichuan food, and pretty convenient with its location right behind Times Square.

Spicy food is good all year round - especially on hot and humid days, or on cold and windy days.

My favorite thing to get is the Tasting Set ($76). It includes a sampling of Spicy Marinated Cucumber, Marinated Chicken Feet, Marinated Black Fungus; a bowl of Hot and Sour Potato Noodle soup, and a serving (about 1/4 chicken) of mouthwatering chicken.The noodles are nice and chewy, not overcooked. There's peanuts, preserved vegetables, and soy beans in the noodles, which offers a variety of textures. Yu offers spiciness options on most of their menu items.Mouthwatering chicken - my favorite place to order this! The chicken is tender, the sauce is spicy and mildly sweet. A perfect accompaniment to white rice (good for takeout too).Try the tasting menu on your first visit - it'll give you a good picture of what Yu has to offer. If you're going with someone, order different sets to share! Don't worry if you don't eat spicy, because Yu offers spiciness options and also has a very tasty chicken noodle soup!

For more photos and details please visit http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-like-it-hotand-tongue-numbing.html

A friend booked Hooray for lunch today. I didn't realize there was a restaurant on the patio of World Trade center, but I did notice the staircase to the restaurant just outside Uniqlo. It was a nice day out, so we sat out on the patio to have lunch.

Lunch sets are decently priced, from $108-$198 + 10% depending on how many courses you'd like for your lunch. I liked the tuna tataki salad - nicely seared, light ginger lime vinaigrette dressing.

Service was sparse and I heard some dishware shatter more than 3 times during lunch. I also had to request for the water/the bill/ the menu more than once because it seems like the waiters just don't remember.

Decent food, okay pricing, mediocre service.

Okinawa Dining Bridges opened recently in the new Cubus building on Hoi Ping Road in Causeway Bay. Also part of the En Group, Bridges brings in Okinawan fine dining to Hong Kong (the other En restaurants are more on the casual side or are izakayas). They also have a small store specializing in Okinawan products just at the entrance of the restaurant - this is a collaboration with the Okinawan government and the Antenna Group in Okinawa. Bridges has set lunches ranging from $150 - $280. Set lunches such as Goya Champuru (Stir-fried Pork and Bitter Gourd) and Okinawa Soba Noodles are at the $150 mark, whereas a sashimi rice bowl set lunch and a sashimi set lunch are priced at $260 and $280 respectively. They also have a Shokado Bento (Lunch Box set) at $280 (limited to 15 sets a day) and a Grilled Fish set for $180 (limited to 5 sets a day). I ordered the Shokado set.

After a light salad with sesame dressing, they brought the lunch box out.Clockwise from top left: Sea Grapes and Mozuku (a type of seaweed native to Okinawa) in Vinegar Sauce, Stewed Okinawa Aged Pork, Grilled Okinawa Motobu Wagyu Beef with Miso and Goya Champuru, Deep-fried Prawn and Shallots (Tempura). Clockwise from top left: Steamed Egg, Sashimi, Clear Soup, Okinawa Rice (Takikomi Gohan, steamed rice with mushrooms, vegetables and meat), pickles in the middle.The set comes with tea/coffee and dessert. Today's dessert was a yuzu sorbet and a frozen orange jelly.

Even though this was described as a bento (or lunch box) on the menu, this was more like a tasting menu with samplings of Okinawan cuisine. I love how this one set lunch puts forward all the food highlights I had in Okinawa (the seaweed, the champuru, the pork and the beef). Presentation was beautiful and delicate, following the Japanese tradition.

If you plan to eat this whole bento, come hungry! Like a tasting menu, the fullness creeps up on you.

See more detailed photos at http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2011/02/okinawa-dining-bridges.html

Wa San Mai is the one teppanyaki restaurant I go to most frequently - food is fresh, service is good, and it's conveniently located in Causeway Bay right above Sogo.

We ordered a set menu for 3 people which had an appetizer, Australian abalone, Hokkaido Scallop or King Prawn, boiled clams in sake, fois gras, seasonal vegetables, sliced beef and steak. It was $2080 for US beef, $2500 for Australian Kobe, $2980 for Japanese Saga A4. Please visit http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2011/02/teppanyaki-at-wa-san-mai.html for more photos!

Was at Elements the other day and passed by Chez Shibata, a famous Japanese patisserie and tea salon. So I picked up two signature cakes to share with my family at home.Coeur des bois ($38) - This was the first cake I chose without hesitation. It stood out from the rest because it was bright red, it was heart shaped, and I love raspberries! The Coeur de bois is a vanilla bavarois with a raspberry jelly and a light sponge cake layer on the bottom. The bavarois was light with an airy texture, which contrasted nicely with the tart jelly in the middle. The thin sponge was a bit too wet, which made the texture kind of grainy.Tranche Maccha ($40) - I love green tea and chocolate, so I decided to get this one too. It's a chocolate sponge cake layered with green tea mousse and chocolate mousse, decorated with chocolate pearls and a chocolate ribbon. This cake was okay - I didn't like the fact that again, the sponge was soggy. It was soaked in an orange liquor, which didn't work so well with the green tea and chocolate. There could be a better balance between the chocolate and the green tea - while I do love some strong dark chocolate, it made tasting the green tea difficult.

I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. There was a huge hype about this patisserie, and the cakes do look like art on a plate. Sadly, it just didn't taste as good as it looked, or as good as it costs. Probably won't be a next time.

http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2011/02/nibbles-chez-shibata.html

Went to iSquare with friends for lunch between class time. Saw that they had an all-you-can-eat deal and thought we'd try.
The all-you-can-eat for 60 minutes was $88 for normal beef and pork $108 for better beef and pork, and then $208 for Japanese beef (wagyu). Need to add more money for the sukiyaki, the soya bean, or the mixed soup bases (per person). The vegetables and noodles were laid out buffet style, the beef and pork had to be ordered. If you restrict yourself to 1 plate of meat (150g), you're looking at about $30 cheaper for the normal and better beef, and $80 cheaper for the wagyu.
First thing that annoyed us - we were a group of 6, but 2 of us haven't arrived yet. We asked if we could sit down first, but they said no - the 60 minutes start counting down the moment you sit down. If the restaurant was super busy then that's fair because the restaurant has to turn tables around, but there was no one waiting! We didn't understand why we couldn't sit down, and have them start the 60 minutes once they take our order.

Second thing that annoyed us - we had about 5-10 minutes left on the clock, but the staff came by and asked us to pay first, and told us we had 6 minutes left. We were busy eating, so she came by again and said we had to pay first, and that we and 2 minutes left. That really ruined things - a reminder once, say 10 minutes before the end, would be fine. But here, the reminders and exactness of time shows how stingy the restaurant's policy is.

The final draw - they started cleaning up right when time was up, to try to get us to leave. We already knew our time is up, so we thought that meant we couldn't order more meat or get more vegetables or noodles from the buffet. We were a bit annoyed they tried to clean up so fast, especially since there was no one waiting for tables. We had our food cooked in the pot and turned it off, thinking we could sit around for a little bit more to finish eating the food. BUT NO - THEY TOOK THE POT AWAY. That's too extreme, and a waste of food on their part! We were planning to finish off the vegetables and things in the pot.
On a side note, I felt like the beef wasn't consistent - the first plate looked good, but the subsequent plates looked like normal beef, not the better beef that we ordered. It was like they were trying to cheat us out of what we ordered. Also, the seating arrangement was mediocre. We were a party of 6 in a booth, which made it inconvenient for everyone to go out to the buffet. It was also stupid that there was only one pot to share amongst the 6 of us.
For $120 (including service), it was mediocre. It wasn't a pleasurable dining experience, with the super-strict stingy policy and food wastage.

Da Domenico is a restaurant that I still sit on the fence about, after a few visits. While the food is very good, I can't decide if the price tag really matches the food and the environment. I've read the reviews of other Open Rice members, and the restaurant does split opinions down the middle - the food is good, but not great, and service can be horrendous.

The bruschetta ($180) - it used to be $150 but now the prices have gone up. I don't know if paying $150 or $180 is worth it for 3 pieces of toasted bread with tomatoes, garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The tomatoes are fresh and sweet, but I wish there was some herbage.

Their burrata ($320) - just simple burrata cheese, accompanied by tomatoes and balsamic (like the bruschetta) and rocket.

The famous Linguine Gamberi ($520) - it's one of the highlights of coming to Da Domenico; I would sum it up as a very intense shrimp bisque pasta. Pasta is cooked perfectly. It's good, but not over-the-top fantastic.

The clams ($520) were very fresh, sweet and succulent. Nothing fancy, just some parsley on top.

I'm not the type to put a lot of weight on service and decor when I write reviews, but when the pricing of dishes is in the same tier as other 5-star hotel or 2-3 star Michelin restaurants, it really made me wonder what I was paying for. Is it really that expensive to import all those ingredients from Italy, or am I just paying for bragging rights? Clearly the money isn't really going into the decor or service. On top of which, the chef/owner is known for having a temper and when I was there he refused to cook for a table because they were late for their reservation and he didn't want to cook anymore.

Da Domenico is worth trying - just make sure you can stomach the sub-par service and the bill.

Original review @ http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2010/10/da-domenico.html and a subsequent review @ http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2010/10/revisiting-da-domenico.html

Went up to Shenzhen for a quick trip and remembered hearing about a RMB 98 all-you-can-eat dim sum at the Shangri-La just next to Lo Wu station.

We got to Shang Palace and they told us the wait was 40 minutes. They don't take reservations on Sundays and public holidays. I'm sure most of the diners who were there were from Hong Kong!

The food and service were good overall - not as upscale as the Shang Palace in Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, but still very good service and food for the price you pay. It was also a very comfortable place to sit back and enjoy a lunch away from the bustling train stations.



For more photos, please go to http://pleasuresofeating.blogspot.com/2010/10/shenzhen-shangri-la-dim-sum.html