Alex Allotriophagy的個人專頁

Had been looking forward to try out Isoya for a long time, and chose this as the restaurant for a special occasion/celebration. They have 2 dinner sets to choose from, one at $300 and another at $338. We picked one of each, so the bill came to more than $600 for two people, which is definetively in the upper range among vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong. However, the quality and selection of food did not stand out at all, and I have no idea why they have these kinds of prices. The vegetarian sushi was dry and rubbery. The vegetable platters were stale and dry. The soba noodles were stale too, and tasted like they had been prepared a long time ago, and simply been kept in a cold storage, waiting to be served. Every single dish was just bland and tasteless, and for some reason a lot of the food was so dry. While the food was mediocre, but the worst part by far was the service. We were asked MORE THAN 25 TIMES if they could remove the dishes we were eating, BEFORE we had actually finished them. It felt as if they wanted us to leave the restaurant as quickly as possible, and I have never felt as unwelcome in a restaurant before. I had one bowl of pumpkin pudding, and I was asked FIVE times if they could take it, before I had even finished eating it. I started getting really annoyed, so I told them directly; can you please let us finish the food before you try to remove it from the table? Their response was to try to corner our table from different angles, and remove our food by a stealth attack... (attacking from behind me, over my shoulder, became a favorite) I ended up having to shield our dishes with my arm, every time they tried to remove the food. I have never experienced WORSE service in a restuarant before. Needless to say, it was an upleasant experience, and it definitively ruined the whole mood of a dinner that was supposed to be a celebratory. At the end of the dinner, I was so tired of trying to stop the staff from removing the food from our table, that I just wanted to get out of the restaurant as soon as possible. In that sense, the staff was highly succesful in shooing me out. The dinner was unpleasant, with mediocre food, and we were made to feel so uncomfortable that we did not even stay there for one hour. And the cost of the fun was more than $600 for 2 people. Will NEVER try this restaurant again. There is far better vegetarian food to be had a significantly lower prices in Hong Kong. And as for the staff, well anywhere is better really. If you do decide to go, I'd reccommend you to brush up on your reflexes, as you'll have to be ready to fend off their waitresses coming in from all sorts of angles to remove your food (if you want to get to actually finish your food before they snatch it). …查看更多

Went here today for tea. While I was ordering, I asked for the udon bowl which was discounted during tea time. The staff behind the counter handed me the bowl, and I proceeded to the section where you can add ingredients. They only had 2 ingredients available there, shrimp and sweet potato. I asked the staff if the others were available, and they said yes, I just had to order them.So I went to the cashier and ordered, one tempura eggplant and one inari. The whole process took around 5 minutes, before I could finally pay. The price was much higher than I expected, so I asked why. They said the tea time discount was not in effect today. Why didn’t the staff tell me when I asked for the udon with the discount in the first place? I only ordered that udon because it was much cheaper, I would have ordered another one if I knew I had to pay full price. And why had they put out the tea set discount promotional poster outside their shop if it was not in effect today? Then I was told that I had to wait for 10 minutes for the inari. Then I said okay. Then they suddenly said it was sold out. I said okay. Then they asked me if I still wanted the eggplant tempura. By now, my udon had already started to get colder, so I said I will have it if they have already started preparing it, but I don’t want to wait for a long time. They said they had started, so I paid for it, and then went to wait for the eggplant. When I got over to the section where they prepare the tempura, I saw the guy walking there and throwing a piece of eggplant into it. They lied, they hadn’t started making it yet. He asked me to take a seat.I went to my seat, and ate my udon, which was now cold and did not taste good (only cold udon, no other ingredients). 5 minutes after I had finished eating my udon, they came with my tempura eggplant, which was still not properly cooked. The staff at this restaurant is completely incompetent, and the hygiene standards in their kitchen are really low (the staff handles all kinds of objects, and then touch the food directly with their hands).…查看更多

Had the original, tiramisu and green tea yogurt flavors. The yogurt was good, but very sweet. It melted incredibly fast though, which could mean that they don’t use much milk to make it.There were a wide variety of topping options, and I had strawberry, lychee, gummy cars, oreo, apple crumble, kiwi, milo and chocolate brownie. It is nice to have self-service and be able to choose a lot of different things. Most of the toppings tasted good, like the lychee and the oreo crumbs. The “fresh” toppings I had, kiwi and strawberry, tasted a bit expired though, as the taste was flat and not so good. Next time I would only try their non-fresh toppings.…查看更多

Ordered the Pork and Chinese Cabbage Wonton Noodles. The noodles were plentiful and with a nice texture, and the soup was really good. Very aromatic and tasteful, but in a subtle way. The soup definetively made the dish. The wontons tasted okay too, but the skin was a bit too hard though. For 36 dollars, it would have been nice with one or two more wontons (a glass of soy bean milk was included in the price, so still not bad for the price:)). Their dim sum dishes look really tasty, so I will try their dim sum next time I'm try this restaurant. …查看更多

Decided to try this restaurant as it was completely empty and seemed really peaceful, something which is not too common in restaurants in MK during the peak eating hours. Despite being empty, I had some trouble ordering, and had to wait for 20 minutes for the staff to come and take my order. Every time I called for them, they told me to wait, as they were busy preparing take out food boxes, and that the chefs would not have time to cook for me. I had to remind them twice before they accepted taking my order.When I finally ordered, it took another half an hour before the food arrived. The staff was still friendly though, but they apparently couldn’t care less whether I would eat there or not. I ordered Eggplant and Tofu Skin in Teriyaki Sauce with rice. They served it with noodles instead of rice, without asking me whether I was okay with this change, and stated that they didn’t have any rice left, which was strange because I just saw them fill up a huge pile of lunchboxes with rice.Eggplant and Tofu Skin in Teriyaki Sauce:The service could be vastly improved, and I wish they had asked be in advance before serving another dish than what I ordered. Anyways, the food was still good, although it was not exactly what I had ordered. The best part of this restaurant is the price, most servings cost around 35-40 dollars, and a single serving is bit enough to make 2 people full, which makes it a peaceful veggie restaurant where two people can get full for 20 dollars each person, in the middle of MK.…查看更多

I walk Jordan Road almost every day, so this new restaurant caught my attention when it opened. At first, I thought that it just looked like a generic franchise “modern interior design” styled restaurant, the kind of which there seem to be more and more of recently, all looking rather similar (and usually with pretty bland food). However, I wanted to give it a try as they serve pizza, and I was very pleasantly surprised during my first visit .Tropical Island PizzaThey have quite a few pizzas on their menu with different sauces, like BBQ- and Thai-sauce, instead of the regular tomato sauce found on pizzas. The one I ordered used Thousand Island Sauce, which tasted great! Other than that, the pizza had onion, ham, pineapple, corn, and extra cheese as toppings. There was so much cheese, and this is not the fake kind of “cheese”, this was real cheese, which I really appreciate, as I don’t like to eat fake “cheese replacement” cheese. The crust on this pizza is one of the best I have ever had, it was so thick, yet at the same time really crispy! This is not only the best pizza I have tried among budget pizza options, like Tectonic Pizza, Paisanos or Pizza Hut, but hands down the best pizza I have eaten in Hong Kong Really tasty, and I will definitively be back here very soon to try more of their pizzas!! :)…查看更多

After having eaten a lot of frozen yogurt at “Hey Yo!!” recently, I wanted to try some new frozen yogurt, so I went to Yo Mama. I ordered the regular flavor, with Oreo cookie crumbs and Choco Panda Biscuit. The yogurt was really good, especially because it was not too sweet. It was thick and creamy, and it melted so very slowly. Even at the end, it had almost not melted at all, which means they have used more milk in it (which makes frozen yogurt more smooth and gives it better resistance to melting). The yogurt went well together with the cookie bits, and it was really tasty. Will try more Yo Mama soon!…查看更多

Wanted to try out this restaurant as I really like Shandong style food, but I was a bit disappointed by the dishes I chose.Tomato and Egg Dumplings with Noodles:I was expecting some nice chunks of egg inside these dumplings, mixed with a bit of tomato, but instead they were filled almost only with tomato skin peel, and I couldn’t taste the egg part. Dumpling skin filled with tomato did not work too well taste wise.The noodles didn’t taste anything and were overcooked, and they were thus really soft, and crumbled into pieces the moment I ate them.Pork and Chive PieThis one was a bit better, but the skin was too hard and chewy.  …查看更多

I really wanted to like the Kung Fu Dim Sum franchise, as I thought it could be a nice budget dim sum franchise like Dimdimsum Dim Sum Specialty Store, but after visits at their different branches, I don’t think that it’s possible.During my last visit, I experienced really bad service. I visited their restaurant at the China Hong Kong City mall in TST. The food was quite good, but their wontons were served frozen, deep frozen right out of the freezer (seems they forgot to heat them properly before serving). When I complained, they returned with exactly the same wontons heated in a microwave, which tasted really bad (minus the half frozen one I had taken a bite of ). The staff denied this, and they refused to offer a brand new serving.Today I visited their restaurant in Portland Street. The first impression was not good, one of the plates had some rice left on it, and the paper one the table was broken and dirty.Braised OX Tripe with Black pepper sauce ($20):The beef tripe tasted raw. This is the most undercooked beef tripe I have ever been served. It didn’t have the normal softy but very chewy texture, rather it was just hard, and without much taste. The sauce was good though. Egg Custard Shortcake ($20): The cover was just too doughy, and the egg custard tasted very artificial.Turnip Cake with Sesame ($22): It was overcooked and extremely oily. It was not crispy from being fried. It was just oily and soggy and wet, without much taste. This one was the best dish I tried at their TST branch, so it was quite disappointing to see how bad they managed to make what is supposed to be the same dish across their different restaurants.Minced Pork & Squid Steamed Rice ($23): It didn’t taste particularly good, but it was okay, and it was among the most edible dishes served today. Crispy Sticky Rice with Chicken ($22): The chicken meat was overcooked, and what should have been “crispy rice” was soggy and wet, and mixing them together did not help either. Could not finish more than a few bites, as the taste was just too bad. Overall it was a mix of mostly over- and under-cooked dishes, and without a doubt the worst dim sum meal I have had this year. Will not be back. …查看更多

I decided to give the dim sum at Dim Sum Express a try. Hidden away at the end of a backstreet in East TST, this is probably not a place most people would encounter by randomly walking around. That is a pity, as Dim Sum Express has a pretty interesting take dim sum. They call themselves a fusion of Hong Kong-style dim sum and Japanese cuisine, although the Japanese influence was rather mild, and sometimes the dished were inspired from other (and often non-Japanese) sources, but they were overall quite innovative in the context of dim sum.  Japanese Style Sauce w/Cuttlefish in Eggplant ($20)The cuttlefish was juicy, and the pieces of eggplant were nicely done. The sauce was good too, but I didn’t care much for the topping. Steamed Xiao Long Bao ($32)Xiao Long Bao with crab and pork meat inside, it was pretty good, but nothing special when it comes to xiao long baos.Japanese Style Mushroom Truffle W/Beef ($25)This one came out really well, although its appearance was extremely bland. The beef inside had a really distinct taste and succulent feel to it, the sauce was delicious, and it blended well together with the mushroom and truffle. Recommended!Japanese Style Beef w/Fried Korean Noodles ($48)The beef was really good, with lots of sauce, and noodles. As the servings at this place were relatively small, this dish was good to add some volume to fill up the stomach. Italian Rarioli w/Vinegar Oil Salad ($48)Another non-japanese fusion dish (supposedly Italian because of the salad?). Much like a fried shrimp dumpling, but with a different kind of crispy cover. Quite dry, but if eaten together with the oily salad, it was pretty good. Not worth the price, as these seemed to me just like deep fried shrimp dumplings. Steamed Pork & Shrimp Siu Mai ($18)This was mainly pork siu mai, as there was almost no shrimp inside. It was still pretty good, but the pork could have been a bit more “meaty”, as it was a bit too processed/grinded. Osmanthus Pudding ($18)Instead of the typical goji berries found in osmanthus pudding, this one had black jelly. It was rather bitter, without much taste, and the pudding texture was a bit too gelatinous. Overall I really enjoyed eating at Dim Sum Express. For most of the part, there were no other diners in the restaurant, so it made for a peaceful and laidback dinner. It was spacious between the tables, and the lighting had dimmed and relaxing ambience.I usually eat in dim sum restaurants in the price range of One Dim Sum, Tim Ho Wan, and DimDimSum Dim Sum Specialty Store. Compared with those, Dim Sum Express was expensive, and the bill came in at almost twice the price per person, compared with what it would have cost to eat in the above mentioned places. In terms of quality of food, I found the quality of ingredients to be only marginally better.When it comes to taste on the other hand, it was a mixed bag, with some dishes being a lot better than average, while others being just average. However, the dim sum restaurants mentioned above are extremely cramped, and offer a rather stressful eating experience, so I would seek out Dim Sum Express again, both for its relaxed atmosphere, and also in the hopes of picking only their "above average" dishes. A meal composed only of those, would surely be a hit! …查看更多

Went to get some late lunch at Nha Trang Thanh just after regular lunch time, and their section of the cooked food market area was more or less empty, with most tables available. I ordered the "House Special Three Combinations (Lemongrass Pork Chop, Vietnamese Ham, Chicken Wings)". The dish arrived quickly, and it was really tasty. The pork chop was soft and scrumptious, the chicken wings crispy and meaty and the pieces of vietnamese sausage were good too, and a the slices were a little bit thicker than they usually are at vietnamese restaurants. The staff were friendly, and they had an English menu. I'll definetively be back here soon to try out more of their dishes, and to write a more in-depth review! …查看更多

Visited 麵麵店 on a Thursday night. Although the category in Openrice says "Hong Kong Style" they mainly had Taiwanese style food. I ordered a dinner set which consisted of: Soy Bean MilkThe soy milk was good, but a bit too sweet. Fruit salad and garlic charcoal bread on a salad bedThe fruit salad was good, with some interesting pieces of fruits which I couldn't figure out what was. The garlic charchoal bread was also good, very crispy with sufficient amounts of garlic spread. Taiwan style meat riceThe main dish was something of a mixed bag. It was a generous serving, with a few differnet items, salad, tofu, deep dried pork, a half egg and minced pork. The dish was literally soaked in sweet soy sauce, and it was a bit too much soy sauce for me. When I reached the bottom of the bowl, the lowest layer of rice was drenched in a pool of soy sauce (though I wonder if this might be the way it should be served?). Even if it was intentional, it did overpower the different tastes the rest of the dish provided. Although it contained different types of meat and tofu, it all tastet quite the same because of the soy sauce. There was a bit too much minced pork, and as it mixed with the rice, the whole dish became a bit on the meaty side. It would have been better if there was a bit less, so that the dish would have been a bit more balanced. They do not have an English menu, but they do have a few pictures of their dishes on the wall. …查看更多

Went out to get some late night food. To my surprise, a lot of restaurants around Jordan were packed, even if it was 10pm on a Wednesday night. Six Noodle was more or less empty, and their waiter actively invited me in, so I decided to enter and try out their "Signature Wonton Soup with noodles".The wontons had a really strong taste, and each one had lots of shrimps inside! The crab roe had a really distinct taste too, and the way it stood out complemented the taste of the wontons well! The wonton were a little bit less firm than smaller wontons often are, but maybe with several pieces of shrimp inside, it is harder to make the whole thing stick densly together. The soup on the other hand was nothing special, not much taste, and the noodles were just average as well. But still, for this price, I think this place offer good value (and taste) for the money, as the most important part of the dish was good! The interior was pretty nice too, not overly cramped between tables, and with some nice BW photos of old HK on the walls.…查看更多

I was about to eat at this Toast Box a while back. However, to my astonishment, the moment I was about to place my order, a grey rat with a fat pink tail ran past me, from under the ordering counter! I have never experienced something like it before in a restaurant. I have actually never seen a rat inside of a restaurant, and I have eaten in a lot of relatively unhygienic establishments before... It was a surprise that my encounter with a rat would be, not while sitting at some street-side dai pai dong, but inside a shopping mall! When I bent down to see where the rat had leapt out from, I was even more surprised to see a "mouse hole" in the counter! The counter actually had a "mouse hole", the kind of hole in the wall where rodents can exit/enter, just like the sort of hole seen in the "Tom & Jerry" cartoon! I have to admit I found this part to be somewhat funny too..But needless to say, I decided not to eat at this Toast Box... The existence of a "mouse hole", in this case a "rat whole" absolutely deterred me from trying it. Since there was a hole, I suppose the rat actually lives under the counter (!), and certainly it did no appear there for the first time when I visited. I first tried Toast Box in Singapore a long time ago, which was a really nice experience, so I wanted to try out Toast Box in HK too. However, this was my first visit to a Toast Box in HK, but after my encounter with the Toast Box Counter Rat, this chain will remain forever untried for me in HK, regardless of which branch. I can't imagine some of the hygenical standards of a place that provides accommodation to rodents... Just a warning to other Openrices:) Most likely the mouse hole has been sealed and the rat(s) evicted by now, but do think twice before you try out Toast Box, this branch in particular! …查看更多

Tried the Matcha Custard Red Bean Oobanyaki at Sweets House Cha Cha. They were freshly made at the store. The soft dry encasing made for a good combination witht the viscous matcha custard, and the red beans. A little bit expensive, but so are most things in City Super. If I come back to try this palce again, I would try one of the more unconventional options, like the tomato, mushroom and cheese oobanyaki!TIP: The snack shops don't have designated seats, but you can buy snacks from a few of the dessert shops connected to city super, and eat them in the food court. It makes for a nice alternative dessert restaurant experience. The City Super food shop is usually not too crowded, except in the main holiday season, when there are the most tourist from Mainland. …查看更多