I was in the mood for Korean but not Korean barbecue, which I guess defeats the purpose of going to this restaurant. Somehow my partner in crime and I ended up here and ordered our food.

Considering that we wanted a light dinner, we ordered a bibimbap and japchae, thinking that we couldn't go wrong with ordering Korean staple foods.

We were served with four entree dishes: Couldn't fault the seaweed, and the kimchi dishes were fine too. Then out came a cucumber and shrimp cold dish. There were three pieces of shrimp, seven bits of cucumber and one piece of onion in that bowl. I stared down at that pitiful serving and said to myself, "Really?" I started to feel sorry for dining out to such new lows.

The rest of our order came a few minutes later. The bibimbap was basically a one-person portion. A male adult could wolf it down in 5 minutes provided he doesn't burn his tongue. It came out nice and hot, but it was neither surprising nor tasty. I was expecting a bit more flavour and ingredients in it; it looked more like fried rice served in a hot stone bowl.

The japchae came out warm. It was a decent size and again, it tasted a bit on the bland side. There were also some bits of meat which tasted like beef in the dish. I wasn't sure because they were miniscule bites of meat to say the least, and my partial taste test proved inconclusive. I think it could've easily passed off as bits of leftover jerky found at the bottom of jerky packs, because it certainly tasted so.

As a side (but nevertheless important) note, my partner in crime and I had virtually no mobile phone reception here. I had to stand at the window next to the lift lobby to get some reception, but it was still quite patchy. Perhaps I should make a point to my mobile phone service provider to aim for repeater cells at this restaurant, or maybe the restaurant could to itself some favours and make its case to the restaurant/building management about it. It doesn't help when I am trying to eat at this restaurant whilst waiting for clients to call/message me.

I would also like to acknowledge the minimalist but effective service by its staff, even though my partner in crime's brief grudge on mobile phone reception fell on exceptionally cold ears as we walked out of the restaurant. I know you personally can't do anything about it, but I do wish you would acknowledge that you have heard such comments. Surely it's basic courtesy to acknowledge and nod.

I eat and drink with an open heart and mind, and never say never in terms of revisiting restaurants, but I may need an extended time out from this place unless it gets its food and mobile phone reception together (unless I am willingly avoiding people like the plague, then that's a completely different matter).

Lunch on my own for Friday afternoon and I had cravings for Japanese food. My usual take-out outlet is now closed for good, I can't find any cheap and sort of cheerful alternatives, so it's time I looked around to see if there are any cheap-ish and cheerful Japanese restaurants. I was choosing between two restaurants (one being non-Japanese) and in retrospect I'm actually thankful to have checked this place instead of the other one. I didn't need to wait for a table for one, and I guess as long as you were asking for a table for 4 or less, seats were plentiful. That sounds slightly dodgy, but once I started to look around at the clientele and realised that the staff spoke fluent Japanese to the expat patrons, I was thinking, surely Japanese customers know what they are eating and wouldn't accept knock-offs... I was seated at the bar table, next to a pair of ladies who were talking about their interest in religions, particularly Christianity.

I wasn't quite spoilt for options, but it still took me a while to decide what I wanted to have. Eventually I settled for a Hokahoka Set, which had a bit of everything. Yes, I was in the mood for that. The Set came out about 15 minutes after I had ordered. There was sashimi, tempura, tamago (eggs), deep fried oysters/cheesy cake, pickles, seaweed/dried tofu appetiser, miso soup and a decent bowl of rice to go with everything. The sashimi was nice and fresh, with five chunky pieces in the mix; the deep fried oysters/cheesy cake were nicely fried with a crunchy batter. I squirted lemon juice on them and that was the only piece of flavouring it needed, making the sauce redundant.

The tempura was a bit odd though. While there were vegetables (a strange bitter green bean and eggplant) and shrimp, they poured the tempura sauce over the tempura before it was served, which in turn made the tempura soggy. I'm not a fan of soggy tempura and I think many people share my view, so perhaps they should serve the tempura sauce on the side, possibly in lieu of the sauce for deep fried oyster/cheesy cake.

Nothing special about the tamago, pickles, miso soup and seaweed/dried tofu appetiser - I'm not a big fan of the appetiser so while I ate it nevertheless, I don't have much comment on it.

The meal itself was good to fill me up but I felt I needed something sweet to complete the meal, so I ordered a scoop of green ice cream for an extra $10. Thumbs up for the green tea ice cream. With so many different types of green tea ice cream on the market, this one is wonderful: I had a strong fragrant green tea flavour linger around my throat for a good hour after the meal. Such a delightful ice cream to have.

Lesson of the day: There are very decent sub $100 Japanese set lunches around. This is one of them. I will be back.

Found this Fuel through accident, really. I was waiting for a job interview nearby and was quite early for it, so I decided to have a walk around Landmark and see how I could spend my lai see money. What I didn't realise was that I would spend the first $40 of my lai see on a flat white.

As I wrote early last year about the sublime flat whites they dish out at the IFC joint, Landmark's store did not disappoint either. Like IFC, the brew here was slightly bitter and an entire stick of sugar did not hide the fact that the brew had a subtle yet distinctively bitter taste to it. The foam was stiff and was still standing even after I had poured the sugar in and stirred the drink a good few times. I didn't want to put it to waste so I ate the foam with the teaspoon (oh pinotgris, manners please...)

Flat whites are always a pleasure to drink at Fuel, even though they cost $40 and are served in almost miniature saucers. Oh well, we deserve a treat every now and then.

There is something different between the IFC and Landmark stores, and that is seating. Seating at Landmark deserves a less than favourable mention. Being the less than 5-foot-6 east Asian that I am, I find it difficult to perch comfortably in bar stools, with or without back rests, yet the joint was full of them. I mean, at least I had the choice to sit down in decent chairs at th IFC store, but it seems that place is at such a premium, they can only afford bar stools and unfortunately make things uncomfortable for patrons to stay any longer than 15 minutes.

But I say it's a good thing, because just in case I do get that job, I don't want to make this place my hideout destination...

Lesson of the day: If you want to sit properly, burn more calories and walk to the IFC store; if you are comfortable with bar stools, however, Landmark will do you just fine. I think the staff are also more attentive at the IFC store, but that could just be because of my one pleasant experience.

My official first lunch outing at Metropolis Mall since changing jobs, and I went with my colleague for a pre-CNY lunch celebration of sorts.

The two of us ordered set lunches consisting of vegetable soup, a sole fillet with red curry sauce main dish for her, a chicken fillet with onion sauce for me, and lemon tea for her and coffee for me. It took us a while to capture the attention of the staff at this place, I was finally noticed when I waved my arms frantically, almost looking as though I was drowning in the invisible pool of water.

The food came out at a steady pace. The soup had lots of vegetables in it, which distracted from the fact that the soup was a little bit watery. The garlic bread that went with the soup was dreadful: the slices were thin (less than 1cm thick) and looked more like food scraps than proper feed.

Fortunately the main was a little bit more fulfilling. The chicken fillet was the size of my hand and quite thick too, while the sole fillet was even bigger. Taste wise, the chicken fillet was marinated with thyme and so the chicken had a light taste to it before the onion sauce was drizzled over it. I liked the vegetables - a generous portion of beans, carrots, half a tomato and some eggplants. My colleague decided that she didn't want vegetables as a side dish and asked for spaghetti instead when the dish arrived. The staff then said, "Sure. Let me give you a dish of spaghetti instead" and served us an entree plate of spaghetti. The serving wasn't huge but we were pleased with the extra carbs.

I had a coffee as an after-meal drink. I was expecting a black coffee where I could add my own milk and sugar, but lo and behold out came this cup of foamy, latte-like white coffee instead. The lady said it was one of their signature drinks or something like that, and I tried it with half a packet of raw sugar, with the other half going into my colleague's cup of lemon tea, which she liked. The coffee was quite well done, with a really nice mix of foam, milk, sugar and coffee. I happily spooned the foam into my mouth and enjoyed the small cup of coffee.

To be honest the food isn't top notch quality, and at just over $40 per person there are plenty of options around this neck of the woods, but I'd give a happy face for the sake of the cup of coffee. Strange.

Just stopped by here for lunch, and ordered a Greek salad set meal with a vegetarian samosa.

I could get really picky about the way they heaped in umpteen amounts of sauce in the salad and basically ruined the essence of a Greek salad, but I won't - I'll just say it's a Greek salad with a twist because it actually tastes quite good. The greens are fresh, the feta cheese isn't awfully salty and neither are the olives, although I might complain just a little bit on the lack of tomatoes and olives in relation to the other greens like the leafy vegetables and cucumber. It was a hearty portion and just what I needed after several back-to-back carnivorous meals the day before.

The vegetarian samosa was just what I had in mind. It's the Indian style samosa we're talking about: the large, thick pastry pocket with a potato (starchy) and green peas stuffing - not the paltry triangular, grease-laden pockets with a curry taste in them. Brilliant. It was nice and hot, but not to the point where it burns my lips. It goes really well with the salad and gives me enough starch to last through the rest of the working day.

It would've been nice to throw in some chicken tikka pieces like I did last time at the Lockhart Road Ebeneezer's. Oh well, there's always next time - I'll make sure I come back for some kebabs in the near future.

As with the clientele, I couldn't help but to note that the patrons around me weren't Chinese: Indians, Jewish, Pakistanis etc. Don't ask me how I can distinguish between them though. Hello my Chinese friends, where art thou? The United Nations ambience in Ebeneezer's is indeed a microcosm of the cultural melting pot that is Tsim Sha Tsui and even Hong Kong, and it contributed positively to my eating experience at this joint.

Lesson of the day: Don't write off restaurants just because they look like chain outlets. They could still house the real deal and give you an authentic experience of sorts.

Another comment on Cafe Crema, but this time strictly on its meals.

I wanted to go because of the coffee so we went to Crema for lunch. It turned out to be a decision worse than Lebron James' "The Decision".

We looked around the tables to see what others were ordering: egg salad with greens, pasta with veal and mushroom sauce, spaghetti cabonara and smoked ham and cheese panini. We saw all but the veal pasta and none were convincingly pleasant on the eye - the cabonara looked simply like spaghetti with ham and some white sauce. Since we didn't see the veal pasta, we ordered it along with roasted coffee and a latte.

During our wait we were told they had just run out of veal and asked if we wanted chicken in our pasta instead. We saw no harm (another bad decision) and said we didn't mind.

Out came the pastas. The pasta was disappointing. I tried the mushroom sauce and it was probably some canned mushroom soup thickened up to be a sauce of sorts - it was awfully salty. The pasta had some chew in it, which was alright, but the sauce and chicken were bad combinations. This pasta needed to go with red meat. We made the effort to tell the staff what we felt upon paying the bill, let's hope they'll take our comments seriously because it was really quite foul (and we're not that discerning either).

While I got a cute kitty cat on my latte art, the roast wasn't as aromatic as the one I had at the old store. They almost tasted like two different brews. Not impressed.

This sad face

Lesson of the day: Just stick with coffee and cakes. Crema has earned the respect of many through its coffee but I agree with fellow commenters, saying that the joint's service and quality has taken a dive since moving to its newer, bigger premises. I am happy to stay away from here for a while, even though it means compromising my caffeine intake.

I've been here for a while now, and it's about time that I checked out what they hype is about.

Experience wise, it certainly wasn't anything like the pleasantness that fellow Openrice commenters have mentioned.

There was no queue when I came here at around afternoon tea time on a weekday. I was here over the weekend and the queue extended all the way to Aberdeen Street at lunchtime. It's a serious queue compared with its beef brisket noodle rival across the road.

I stopped and tried to find somewhere to sit. The all-female staff weren't helpful and just asked me to find a seat on my own. I asked around at all the vacant seats and apparently all of them were either taken up by imaginary people, or people who are too selfish to put their precious Gucci or LV bags on their laps (sucks to be me for bringing an old rucksack to the place). Eventually I found one near the kitchen exit and tried to made myself comfortable there. I tried to, of course, because the staff were dishing out plates of toasted buns right behind me.

I asked for my order to be taken three or four times, and I usually asked a staff member straight after another order has been taken at a neighbouring table. They always asked me to wait in a rather firm but "I don't really care" tone. One told me to find another staff member because "I don't take orders". I've heard of that bureaucratic speak before, but who cares? It's a good time to learn how to multi-task. Eventually the lady in the kitchen (the in-charge, I suppose?) reminded her staff to not just take care of the takeaway orders, but also take down the eat-in orders, and it was then that I was served.

To their credit the food came out nice and quickly. I started wolfing down the beef and tomato noodles almost as soon as I put the bowl on the table and had the chopsticks handed to me. About halfway through the noodles, a member of staff brought another bowl of beef and tomato noodles out, saying that this bowl - the bowl in her hands - was for me. Alright, then whose noodles am I eating? It's not as though the noodles are named, if you can't serve quickly and to the correct table, maybe it pays to read the order properly. I couldn't care less about their mix-up and continued to wolf my noodles down.

As I paid for my bowl of noodles to a member of staff, the lady in the in-charge said to the other staff, "Don't let anymore people sit outside the kitchen entrance!" I guess she was implying that I was getting in the way of their business. In that case, shouldn't you have left these places empty, rather than having chairs next to the table? And shouldn't the staff be more active in organising people where to sit, rather than a free for all and letting people find their own way? What an organisational mess.

OK, service rant over. Food wise, this place is mediocre.

The tomato soup base itself isn't that chunky - the chunkiness comes in when you mix your pasta or noodles up with the generous splodge of tomato (probably a half-half mix of canned tomatoes and fresh ones, although I have to say I haven't seen a single fresh tomato on the premises) plus puree. From the flakes of dried spring onion floating in the soup, I can see that the noodles were made with some of the noodles' original flavouring sachets. One would really wonder why they need to put more flavouring in, if the tomato soup base was really that delicious.

Despite my smell impediment I could smell the aroma of buns being toasted on the premises, which is great, but nothing overly special. Toast a few slices of bread with a toaster in your own home and you'll get the same effect.

The ambience is raw. Nothing against it, but definitely a sense of nostalgia as some of us used to sit under sheets of tarpaulin and eat under foldable circular wooden tables and chairs. Definitely a tai pai dong feel to it, and definitely not a crowd attractor come the rainy season.

Given the experience I had with the staff, that alone doesn't deserve an unhappy face. I'll judge them on their food, and to be perfectly honest, this joint is grossly overhyped and overrated. There are a few places which are just as rough, and the staff are just as cocky, but at least their service is snappy and generally faultless.

Lesson of the day: It's not worth queuing up at this joint. Take half a day off from work and come here before or after lunch on a weekday, and you won't have to wait. I'll leave you to decide whether this place is your cup of tea or not - it certainly isn't on my end.

Just popped in this morning for a caffeine fix as I've always walked past this place without actually trying the coffee itself. I ordered a caramel latte as I had a sweet tooth and I didn't want to heap in spoonfuls of sugar to ruin the coffee (although some may argue adding flavour to the coffee is wrecking the original taste of coffee itself, but I'm not here to discuss the science of flavours).

The 8 oz. coffee was a good size for me as coffee is a pretty strong diuretic for me and I didn't fancy the thought of stopping to find the toilet every 15 minutes. Like many fellow foodies have mentioned, the latte artwork is interesting, with cute animals and shapes to complement the coffee that they serve. I was given a bunny rabbit this morning, which went very nicely with the sweet coffee.

Despite the coffee being sweet, however, the sugary flavour did not hide the fact that the roast had a bitter taste to it. The taste became more pronounced as I left the coffee sitting at the table for a good 20 minutes. I personally enjoy a bitter brew (especially when drinking black coffee), but since this was a caramel latte and I liked my coffee a bit more milky and sugary, I thought a milder roast would've gone better with the milk and sugar and caramel taste.

Also, having watched a mid-morning bunch of tourists and Japanese expats patronise the cafe, it was very nice to sit in the serene environs and enjoy the coffee whilst smelling it at the same time. The service was prompt and professional and hopefully the new location will allow for more seating capacity.

One thing to note, however, was that even though the joint said they had wi-fi, I had difficulty connecting to the system. My mobile phone picked up the signal, hooked up to the network but the network didn't allow me to access the internet. It didn't bother me much, however it would've been nice to try out the wi-fi network wherever possible - after all I do appreciate saving up my data services for times when there is no wi-fi coverage.

This place is fine. It won me over with good food; however I have yet to be won over by its service.

We came here on a weekend afternoon at lunchtime and pretty much came here by accident. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we didn't have to wait for seats unlike many other restaurants in Causeway Bay, so we took to our seats.

We ordered a pork soft bone sanuki udon, pork neck sanuki udon, two salmon handrolls and a takowasabi. Service at that moment was minimal but prompt; the entrees (handrolls and takowasai) came to us within 10 minutes and the udon within 15 minutes.

I have nothing but praise for the handrolls and takowasabi. The handrolls' nori was crisp and the salmon was fresh. Apart from the fact that the wasabi was flat (not enough spice in it) and the soy sauce bottle kept on leaking at its bottle neck, the handrolls were excellent. The takowasabi was evidently made with octopus chunks - you can actually tell what you are eating, instead of white slimey gobs. Unlike the wasabi chunk that came with the handroll, there was ample wasabi flavour in the takowasabi, which made up for the lack of kick in the handroll. Taste wise it went with each other very well.

Our sanuki udons arrived whilst we finished off our appetisers. The udons we ordered were $38 each, and we didn't expect gargantuan portions. Fortunately they weren't huge in portions, but they were decent enough to fill up average Hong Kong guys. The pork soft bone chunks were average in size and portion, but the pork neck was well marinated and cooked. Sanuki udon, meanwhile, was great, with the udon cooked with some chew left in it and the sweet broth was neither overpowering nor non-existent. This, along with the nice view of Victoria Park and parts of Tai Hang on a sunny summer's day, makes eating here a great experience.

Sadly after a very fulfilling lunch, something had to happen to mess the lovely lunch up. We wanted to check the bill and leave and asked for the bill to be checked three times in 10 minutes, only for our requests to be ignored. Meanwhile we watched as the table next to us asked for their bill to be checked after we did, brought to them in less than a minute, and got their change back in another minute. This infuriated me and my better half and I stormed off to the counter and left our money there. Despite apologies from the waitress whom dealt with my requests, I was not amused.

Lesson of the day: If you want your bill to be checked promptly, drop your signal to the senior service staff. It is likely that if you make any requests to check the bill with the junior service staff (i.e. look for TRIANEE - that's how this restaurant spells their name tags ) it will fall on deaf ears. Minor requests like filling tea and asking for plates and chopsticks will be met by them, but I guess checking the bill - or relaying requests by patrons to check the bill to senior staff - is not within their job description.

A hasty dinner on a rainy day.

I ordered some 小籠包 and 菜肉蒸餃. It was a decent wait and I noticed around a dozen or so customers during my 15 minute wait. The folks in the store (all three of them) were friendly with first-timers, and even more friendlier with the locals whom they like to share a joke with. The dumplings and buns were freshly steamed, unlike the skewers that they have available (although I must say, just because the skewers ready-made, it doesn't mean they taste bad; in fact, quite the opposite, especially when dipped in the spicy sauce they have).

I guess the fact that they were takeaways partially spoilt the experience. The 小籠包 (steamed Shanghai buns) were quite nice, I could tell they had soup in them (once upon a time), but they had been kept in a styrofoam container, which meant little ventilation for the buns and they looked quite deflated and soggy upon opening them. There is a reason why steamed buns are housed in a bamboo steam container - but obviously they can't let us take the bamboo containers home.

The 菜肉蒸餃 (steamed pork and meat dumplings) looked a little bit better, but the skin was a little bit too thick for my liking. I'm quite fussy when it comes to these dumplings as I expect them to be quite fat in shape, along with very thin skin. I thought there would be more vegetables in the filling but it was more meant and a miniscule amount of unidentified greens to speak of.

Both the 小籠包 and 菜肉蒸餃 came with the vegetables that were used to keep the food from sticking on its steaming container - a very nice move which is both environmentally and nutritionally friendly.

This is probably the first time I've had takeaway 小籠包 and 菜肉蒸餃 and I guess there is a reason why - these foods are meant to be enjoyed fresh out of the steamer, which means it should be enjoyed at a dine-in restaurant. Nevertheless, this little joint makes some decent food and even though I was slightly disappointed in its quality, I do take its takeaway component into consideration and wouldn't mind coming back for seconds or thirds.