I've created an account for this review, as I am genuinely that disappointed. My Cantonese girlfriend chose this restaurant to celebrate our anniversary due to the lovely view. The view was in fact lovely but that’s about the only positive thing I can say about this restaurant.
Where to start? As we walked in we were (im)politely informed that nobody spoke Cantonese in the restaurant, which to be honest is pretty appalling in this day and age. There wasn't even a hint of an apology for not being able to speak to my partner in Cantonese, which led to me having to translate. No big deal, but not what one would expect from a self-proclaimed fine dining/top tier restaurant. Elsewhere in the world this simply wouldn't do.
We were seated after some delay due to the servers English not being particularly brilliant either, and were then offered water whilst we chose what to eat. I later found out this cost us $70. The view which my partner had asked for was to be fair rather nice, it’s just a shame the interior of the restaurant was so lacking. It was dark, gloomy, characterless and most of all depressing. It is reminiscent of the dodgy Sheffield casino restaurants I would visit after a night on the town, and was devoid of atmosphere. The awful elevator jazz that is piped into the room I think is there to mask the lack of ambience, however it only seems to further heighten your awareness that this is a restaurant that doesn’t really care about dining.
On the table was a bread basket, which contained dry bread and solid butter, neither of which were particularly suited to whetting our appetites, and we were asked twice in the space of about five minutes if we were ready to have our orders taken, however this took longer than expected due to the uninspired menu. After much deliberation I plumped for a fillet mignon, none of the other steaks were worth the price tag, not in their dreams. Even by Hong Kong standards they were above and beyond what one should expect to pay for the steaks on offer. I ordered it rare, reconfirmed that I understood what rare meant, and that they should er on the side of blue if they are unsure. My girlfriend went for the spinach and ricotta ravioli. I was then informed that no sides were offered, and would be charged $70 for a potato. The food was brought in good time. Perhaps it should have stayed in the kitchen longer.
For a steak restaurant not only was this filet overpriced, the steak was incredibly poorly cooked. Seriously over cooked to say the least. Verging on medium. For such a large piece of meat it was dry and not at all pleasant to eat, something that would be more forgivable in a local eatery that does not proclaim to be a steak specialist. There was some attempt at a salad (or plate dressing it was difficult to tell which as it was just dumped on the plate like a dogs grassy sick), but I'm still unsure where the bright idea to serve four uncomplimentary sauces with the steak came from, one done well would have sufficed. The overpriced potato was outrageously over salted, and I honestly didn’t have the stomach to finish it, despite the ludicrous price.
My partner’s pasta was bland and the sauce was reminiscent of something out of a jar. Overly sweet and no real taste of the parmesan promised on the menu. The inside of the ravioli was tasteless, and the pasta fell apart far too easily. The fact that she left half of it says enough really, she normally devours mountains of the stuff.
After our plates where cleared, we were offered desserts, however we had had enough of being ripped off by now. To be fair the staff were in no way rude or impolite, they just lacked any charm or finesse. We were reminded multiple times our table would be need to be vacated by 9, however our dinner was at 7 and the place was barely half full (says it all really on a Friday night). Not particularly conducive to a nice meal out. It really was very standard service, and lacked the professionalism that restaurants of at this level should possess. We decided to get the bill and leave.
I will say here that there is nothing about this restaurant that is particularly awful, it’s just lacking anything that could possibly warrant that sort of price. Plenty of places in Hong Kong have equal or superior views and have a service and food to match. I get the impression this place does a lot of business on travelling business types or those without much knowledge of food. No one could possibly argue this is warrants the price tag. Essentially it was top tier prices for distinctly average grub. Genuinely the most disappointing dining experience in Hong Kong so far.
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