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2019-10-23
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Summary: The worst excesses of modern restaurants - overpriced, underwhelming, overwrought, under-executed; just a mess. Charming service and pleasant ambiance can't save a poor menu and dishes I couldn't fathom at half the price. One or two good plates aside, I can't imagine ever returning to this place, and I'll save you the trouble and expense; stay away from Neighborhood.Somehow, this is not only on Asia's top 50 restaurants (which is itself a total fraud), it holds decent ratings on Google
Somehow, this is not only on Asia's top 50 restaurants (which is itself a total fraud), it holds decent ratings on Google and Facebook. Fortunately, people on Openrice seem to be in line with my opinion of this place. Neighborhood is a neatly hidden restaurant on a side street off Peel street, right next to Times bar and near Fils a Maman. They've gone for a warm, minimalist approach to decoration which works for them:
Very cozyWe had a table in the back room, and a separate server on hand for the whole meal. She was truly excellent, providing just the right amount of attention, and comfortably explaining how each dish was prepared, as well as listening to our complaints with an open mind.
Here's the menu:
As you can see, small plates on the left average about 175 and mains are over 1000 each. Not cheap. Wine list is in line with what you'd expect at a place like this - we had a bottle of the Le Plan (White Cotes du Rhone), which was perfectly fine for 530.Here's what we had. FYI the small plates are indeed small; they’re best shared between 2 people.
Pigeon Eggs with Caviar
An incredible $280, these were simply terrible. The pigeon eggs are simply hard boiled, coated in a frankly disgusting horseradish-1000-Island sauce and topped with a dollop of caviar each. I assume this would cost 1/3 of the price without the caviar, and it added nothing given how overwhelming the sauce is. I found no redeeming value in this combination, and that's a big statement. Avoid at all costsMochida Tomatoes with Peach
The tomatoes are delicious themselves, juicy and fresh, but they're covered in a cloyingly-sweet sauce which throws off the entire dish. The peaches were sweet, but probably the wrong complement to this already annoyingly candied mess. Did anyone taste this?Warm Vegetable Casserole with Truffle vinaigrette
This dish isn't much to look at - the bizarre inclusion of lettuce makes it look like boiled chinese lettuce with frozen peas. And yes, the top picture is exactly how it looks when it's served. Against all odds though, its surprisingly subtle truffle dressing makes this pretty tasty, giving it both richness and savoriness, while not burying the vegetables in overbearing truffle aroma. That said, ingredient-wise, it's the cheapest wet-market produce, and of course it's not worth 170 HKDGarganelli with Scallop Skirt and Beef Tripe
Stewed beef tripe cooked with undetectable scallop skirt (provides texture i guess?) and garganelli. So rich i swore there was butter added, though the server denied it. Pretty tasty, and finally, a simple dish done well. The pasta was appropriately chewy, and its grooves are perfect to soak up the beefy sauce. The first order i enjoyed Mussels with Curry Sauce
My friends ordered before i arrived, and this doesn't seem to be on the menu, so assume it's a special. A totally adequate plate of mussels in a creamy (non-spicy) curry sauce. The server made it a point to say it was non-spicy, but i'm not sure why; a touch of spice would have improved it i think. Anyway, it's fine (especially with bread!) but not nothing specialKinki (Channel Rockfish) Paella
The most expensive dish of the night at 1180 - after tasting it I was speechless for all the wrong reasons. Its presentation is impressive - it comes in on a hot Paella plate with a layer of rice bearing the deboned Kinki. However, we immediately ran into problems removing the rice from the bottom of the pan - one of the servers had to help us, and even for him, it didn't look easy. The thin layer of rice is BURNT on to the pan - the server told us the chef insists on this level of "crunchiness" - call a spade a spade - it's burnt rice. Some rice will get caught between your teeth, and the "crunchiness" honestly threatens your fillings. The fish itself is actually grilled beautifully though it's over-salted, and without much edible rice as a complement, was sometimes painful to eat. It's very juicy though, and this could be good if the rice was somewhere near paella-level softness, and able to absorb some of those fishy drippings. At 1180 though, i wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.Salt-Baked Chicken with Morels, Foie Gras and Truffle
This was unequivocally a good plate- finally something worthy of the effort spent and cost inflicted. However, we went and wasted that by adding a whole shaved truffle (a painful extra 700HKD), which to me was completely pointless; providing neither added aroma nor flavor. I can't even blame the restaurant - you gotta fleece clowns when you can. Sue us: it was a birthday. Here are some pics of the chicken before and after the salt/egg white covering was broken, and in its final form, cooked with rice and morel/morel cream One pic with the added truffles
The chicken, which i believe is locally sourced, was moist but a bit chewy and stringy. I thought that gave the chicken some character though, and it was certainly not overcooked. The morel cream and tons of scattered foie gras gives it a heartiness and risotto-like consistency which works well with the mild chicken - it's not actually that salty. Fortunate, after the Kinki debacle. It's a whole chicken so it's a good portion to share, and with the rice and foie gras, it's quite filling. The foie gras seemed somewhat tasteless, as I guess its flavor was leeched into the rice, but it was impressively not chewy or overcooked. At 980 this is the closest this restaurant comes to value; just don't fall for that truffle.Overall though, this restaurant is insanely overpriced, and doesn't come anywhere near justifying it. We spent 4300 between the 4 of us with 1 bottle of wine ($530), basically a single drink each. Even excluding the 700$ truffle, it still comes out to 900$ pp for not a ton of food. Lack of value aside, the food seems to have no conception of balance, and the wrong flavors are highlighted at the expense of good ingredients. The tomatoes were ruined by the over-sweet sauce, while the caviar and pigeon eggs were wasted under that orange glop. The Kinki was ruined by poor execution and/or planning, and no restaurant should ever serve a less-than-delicious $1200 dish.
As for positives; I enjoyed sopping up the mussel curry sauce with their admittedly excellent bread, and the baked chicken is also delicious. I suppose if three of you come, share one of the chickens, and keep ordering bread... never mind that's still too expensive. Excellent service notwithstanding, I think we tried more than enough of the menu to justify this rating. Do me a big favor and don't bother trying Neighborhood.
张贴
