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2009-04-08
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I confess that I am a sucker when it comes to bone marrow. After St. John in London introduced it in its menu, the originally humble dish suddenly becomes a sensation in the culinary world. It has also gained much popularity in New York where I have had plenty of nicely prepared bone marrow dishes. So when I heard that The Pawn is serving bone marrow inspired by St. John, I dragged my friend to pay a visit just for this dish. Unfortunately when we arrived at The Pawn slightly after 2:30pm,
Unfortunately when we arrived at The Pawn slightly after 2:30pm, we were notified that the dining level (for lunch and dinner) was closed and only the bar level was opened. Imagine how disappointed I was! Instead of finding another place, we decided to sit down at the bar level anyway and just chat our way through the afternoon. The room was spacious with a pub-fare feel, but was literally empty. There was only one table occupied at the patio, and we opted to seat outside as well to enjoy the breeze. Browsing through the menu, we ordered two non-alcoholic drinks and a dish to share. While waiting for our dish, we took the time to enjoy the surroundings of the old Wai Chai district which was certainly a striking contrast to this modern and chic establishment. I could see how it appealed to Westerners and tourists, as it exhibited why Hong Kong is an interesting place, where East meets West and Tradition meets Contemporary.
Our two drinks arrived first. My friend’s Very Berry Smoothies ($68) was a mix of low fat yogurt, strawberry juice, raspberry, and blueberries. It didn’t taste much different from what you could get from other smoothies joints, and you could detect tiny bits of the raspberry seeds and blueberries skins blended nicely with the thick yogurt that contributed to the creamy texture. Not exceptional but certainly fresh and well balanced in flavor and it was quite filling as it wasn’t watery at all.
My Vitamina ($68) was a more adventurous choice as it was a twist to the traditional virgin Bloody Mary. Instead of tomato juice, they used carrot juice and mixed it with celery salt, Worcestershire, lemon juice, and Tabasco. I always like salty and sweet combination and have an affinity to fresh carrot juice, so I enjoyed this drink fairly well. However, this acquired taste might not be appealing to everyone, so I will only recommend this only those with an open mind.
The menu featured a lot of drinks from cocktails, wine, non-alcoholic, flutes, and martinis. I imagined that it would serve well to those who like a wide variety of drink options.
While we enjoyed our drinks, the English Breakfast, toasted sandwich ($105) that we ordered was quite a disappointment. It came in a gorgeous plate with the halved sausages, tomatoes, bacons, and two sunny-side-up eggs stacked on top of a single piece of rye toast (so it wasn’t really a sandwich). “Wait, where are the baked beans or the hash browns or the bubbles and squeaks?” was my first thought. Normally I wouldn’t be too picky about English breakfast which was not supposed to be inspiring anyway. However, at this price I would expect something more than very chewy sausages (doubted that it was homemade and it was so chewy that I had to spit out some pieces), not-crispy bacons, and just 1 piece of toast. The whole dish also lacked any kind of seasoning. The only saving grace was the eggs which were probably cooked with runny yolks. Overall, this was way below my expectation given how appealing their menu items appeared.
We didn’t want to gamble and order more dishes, but my friend wanted to have a cappuccino ($48?) to round out the meal. It was quite standard and served it purpose.
Service was, um, hard to judge. Our waitress disappeared as soon as they delivered our food. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to give us all the space and time to chat or if they just didn’t care. Since they did smile and were courteous, I gave them benefit of the doubt. The receptionists were very nice as they brought us to the dining level and the rooftop to view the space for private events.
Overall, I had mix feelings about The Pawn based on this visit but I won’t be ruling this place out yet until I have tried their signature items during a proper meal.
張貼
