Went there to grab a bite before we saw a movie (It was "Inception" and no, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped) today.
This place is tucked away in a quieter pocket of Causeway Bay but It's not that hard to find. We arrived at around 2:30 in the afternoon and the place was nearly packed. But that didn't mean we got sloppy. We were quickly seated by a friendly hostess who brought us menus and water in no time, and was more than happy to help us move to a bigger, more comfy table when one became available.
The decor of this place is cozy and a bit shabby-chic, and the overall atmosphere was relaxing and made you want to linger... We waited for our food while reading some of the magazines and books from the bookshelves.
Now the food. We had Eggs Benedict (one of my fav. breakfast items) with wild smoked salmon (one of my fav. food items) and the Brunch Club Salad.
The Eggs Benedict was served with a crispy hash brown and some salad on the side. The eggs were poached to a runny consistency and perched atop layers of salmon and toasted English muffin. The combination could have been heavenly if only the hollandaise sauce packed more punch - somehow there wasn't enough hollandaise and the sauce itself was too light.
The original Brunch Club Salad calls for cold-cut beef, chicken and smoked salmon, but they ran out of chicken and so our Salad came with only beef and salmon. The beef tasted a bit bland (esp. without the sauce) and rubbery. I'd much preferred the accompanying grilled veggies and wedge of bread toped with grilled goat cheese.
The entire experience was marred when the check arrived: you see, in addition to the automatic 10% service charge policy, this place takes money from you by a practice called "rounding," whereby if the service charge is $24.60, then an additional $0.40 will be added to the entire bill so that the total amount will be the next nearest whole number!
I've never encountered such a ridiculous practice before, and I wish I had spoken up and challenged it today.
Somehow I did not. I wonder has anyone out there ever encountered such "rounding" anywhere else?
Verdict: Will probably go back to try other dishes, but will definitely challenge their "rounding" policy if it should happen agian.
