Called up this morning and was told that there was only one table left for lunch time. I thought to myself, this place was either very small or very good. And I was wrong on both counts.
I took a leisurely walk from Central with enough time to arrive before my guest. Went to Centre Stage (but on the Hollywood Road side) and couldn't find the restaurant. There was also no indication on the Hollywood Road side of where this restaurant might be. Tried to look for it on the map from Openrice.com on my iPhone but had a very difficult time getting the proper orientation. Adding to the insult, this place was listed under Central rather than Sheung Wan, and I thought I knew SoHo well! It is, to be frank much closer to the (no longer in use) Police Married Quarters at the west end of SoHo than the Central Police Station. In the end, I arrived 20 minutes later than my lady guest!
The whole restaurant was already full by the time I arrived at about 1:15pm, and it wasn't small by any means. The restaurant stretches the whole length of the building, and it is really huge by SoHo standard. Located on street level, it had all the window panes open today, giving the whole place a nice bright and breezy feel to it as there wasn't much traffic on Bridges Street. How wrong I was as I sat there watching a garbage truck entering the street! The restaurant is, in fact, located directly opposite a garbage collection station. Throughout the lunch, as the wheelie bins got loaded on to the truck, the stench just got blown into the restaurant drowning whatever (little) aroma the food had.
The menu was interesting enough with a choice between the daily soup and the salad bar as appetizer, fish/pork/beef/shrimps/vegetarian as the main course, two different types of dessert and coffee or tea to follow. Both of us opted for the salad and the fish.
The salad bar was located in the central portion of the restaurant but to save on space, the food was placed on the table top of some sort of a small open kitchen. On the menu, it specified that only one visit to the salad bar was allowed which was fine with us, or so we thought, until we found out that the squarish bowls available were about 6 inches wide. The variety was nothing special, choices limited too.
Then came the main course. The fish looked professionally done, well presented with mashed potatoes and some romaine lettuce. My guest and myself were in agreement that despite the culinary effort and presentation skills, the fish itself was tasteless.
The dessert, some sort of orange-tasting mousse, was well made and, to the credit of the restaurant, the coffee was good.
陽光明媚、微風拂面，很順利check in完，看時間尚早，索性多往山上走一點，去了環境較好的Oolaa。這裡和山下一點的Wagyu,Jaspas同屬一個集團，早餐供應的食物基本相同，但價格要高15%-20%，相信也是環境的原因了。Oolaa面積比較大，座位比較寬敞，還有室外的sofa可以選擇，雖然室外部分面積不大，但在如此逼迫的香港，實屬難得。來此吃早餐的幾乎清一色的老外，加上簡潔清爽的佈置，讓我有置身santa monica的錯覺，明淨的玻璃窗印出街對面的街市名稱，一下子又把我拉回到現實中的香港。
我選了戶外的sofa坐下，一來天氣很好，二來鈡意物品可以隨意攤放的自在感。早餐餐牌的確似曾相識，幾乎和Wagyu相同，除了價格。早餐的選擇挺多，經典的西式早餐品種都可以找到，點了Omelette with spinach, mushroom and swiss cheese($100)，再來一杯skimmed latte($40)提提神。
外表看omelette似乎有點過熟，讓我小小擔心了一下，還好裏面有豐富的蛋汁。整體上omelette不油，蛋的部分外熟裏嫩，可以收貨。spinach也算豐富，但mushroom切得太細碎，菇味很淡薄，我喜歡切成一片一片的新鮮蘑菇。有失水准的地方，cheese少得可憐，幾乎看不到也吃不出，一度讓我一度懷疑他是不是忘了加cheese。一白一麥兩個半份包本身無特別之處，但烘得暖暖又脆脆，至少是花了時間、做了功夫的。
Skimmed Latte: 拉花模糊，奶泡比較粗，不夠細膩。上口味道還不錯，咖啡味道醇香，也夠滑，口感不苦不澀。
附送的小小一塊cookie意外的好味，很濃的牛油香味，口感鬆脆，也不會太過甜膩。又或者因為我平時甚少吃這類美味的魔鬼。
頭盤:
2. 煎鵝肝配多士 - 重點是伴碟的紅菜頭碎及太陽蛋，與煎鵝肝同伴熱烘多士同吃，畫龍點精。
3. 生蠔 - 是日選了四隻法國蠔，海水味重，只需簡單伴些檸檬汁已足夠提味。
主菜：
2. 龍蝦意粉 - 非常簡單的一道主食。只靠本身龍蝦汁的天然味去伴意粉，味道實而不華，大家都照讚。
3. 煎鯛魚柳 - 友人說魚的肉質不及sea bass 嫩滑，但龍少爺反而覺得肉質肉味濃郁兼有口感，不會滑得太過份。
甜品：
2. 芒果甘寶 (crumble) - 微醉的芒果肉配上新鮮即焗的甘寶，這個很不錯吃。
是晚另點了兩支紐西蘭白酒，三人埋單共$2,300 元，非常暢快。施少姐，祝你永遠開開心心，福杯滿溢。Enjoy your life !
Checked out Oolaa for a casual Sunday evening dinner with my boyfriend. We called earlier in the day and easily made a reservation for 8pm. The dining room was only about 1/2 full when we arrived, though it was still a bit noisy. We were given a two-person table next to the window with a view over Bridges Street (and the garbage collection building across the street). The hostess was friendly and prompt to bring us the menus and the waitress also arrived quickly to take our drink orders. The menu is immense and can suit any taste from burgers to ribeye to curries and pizzas. I am usually weary of this type of menu (have you heard the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none"), but I know Oolaa uses fresh ingredients and they've been immensely popular since opening, so they must be doing something right. I ordered the minted green pea risotto with king prawn and my boyfriend had the blue lobster lasagna. We each had a glass of rose prosecco and nibbled on the bread basket while waiting (bread was dry and not worth having). Our meals arrived after about 15-20mins. My portion of risotto was huge and there were 3 king prawns, which was a nice surprise (I had expected only one). The risotto was cooked well but it had a heavy dill flavor instead of the minted peas as stated on the menu (I had expected it to taste like mushy peas). My boyfriend enjoyed the blue lobster lasagna, though it was heavily coated in cheese and probably could have done with a bit less of that. We finished our meal with the Oolaa version of an Eton mess: whipped cream, meringue, bananas and mangosteen. It was tasty, but a bit too sweet for me. All in all, a decent experience, but I probably wouldn't rush back. Dinner for two w/ two drinks: $698.
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