C:Y的個人專頁

遲來和簡短的食評－若不是因為今天是考試期間的小休，相信現在的我對住的不會是飲飲食食而是數之不盡的理論及readings/_\還記得那是一個雷雨的晚上，我和我爸急急忙忙地衝進了悅木，慶幸我們終於找到了它:)悅木的環境是非常的摩登和簡潔，以白和黑色為主題，吸引了不少的外國人光顧．飛快地看一看了菜單，發覺大致上也是我所熟識的越式菜式，便簡單地點了幾樣較為心儀的食物和悅木的招牌菜，分別為：越南春卷，牙車快，椰香咖哩牛腩，焗法包和悅木牛肉粉！值得一提的是當我要求上將冷水變成溫水後，侍應不斷地為我添加熱水，真的非常周到！等了一會兒後，牙車快（雞絲耶菜沙律）最先來到．以賣相來說，個人非常滿意這道菜的色彩配搭，莫名其妙地令我十分高興！吃下去，雞絲，耶菜和紅籮蔔絲的配搭是非常的新鮮和開胃．一個令人期待的開始緊接著的是越南春卷，新鮮剛炸好的春卷很香口，加上用生菜包住來吃更是美味．可惜份量和size也較少，令人有點失望．再來的便是悅活的招牌菜－悅木牛肉粉，這亦是我最喜歡的一道菜！巧妙之處在於那生牛肉是另上的，以保持牛肉的新鮮和原汁原味．隨即付上的是一個迷你hotpot，以供顧客自行滾熟那些生牛肉，對於貪新鮮的我來說，這玩意足以令我迷上一整晚！湯河的湯底更是鮮甜美味，值得再三欣賞．最後送到的是椰香咖哩牛腩和焗法包．那一大碗的咖喱嚇了我一跳，份量多得驚人．但就味道而言是惹味無窮的－那椰香令咖哩帶來鮮味和陣陣的甜味，牛腩也是充分吸收了咖哩的香！擺放焗法包的箱子也設計得非常有創意和摩登，剛焗法包配咖哩牛腩不得不試！到現在我還是對悅木念念不忘，食物環境都令人眼前一亮．絕對值得再來！－　Ｙ…查看更多

又因為購買了團購套餐的關係，這次又再勇闖疑似另一間的人氣炸物店－近又吉列黑豚專賣店．我和我母親抵達時約一時許，人流不算多，幸運地我們被帶到沙發卡位，坐得非常鬆動！（聽聞lunch hour時這裡的人龍也不能說笑）看一看我們的團購套餐餐牌，發覺食物種類繁多，加上有”無限追加項目”，真令人非常期待！首先來到的是”近又刺身沙律”，味道一般．生菜的質素較差，刺身切成粒狀，帶點鮮味但還是非常的一般:(由於炸物的等候時間比較長，我們便慢慢地研究起旁邊不同的醬油－分別為黑豚醬，青瓜沙拉醬和蘋果沙拉醬．我個人最喜歡青瓜沙拉醬，清新可口又帶點鮮甜，非常棒的配搭！　亦都如上圖顯示，一小羹的醬油和芝麻攪拌起來便形成玷炸物的醬！過程還挺有趣的，好玩之餘又可以消磨等候的時間！不久，我們的炸物到了！驟眼一看，還真嚇了一跳！那份量不多，更重要的是，size也太細了吧？種類也不一！第一印象已經非常的失望:(　和團購套餐餐牌所寫的有出入，感覺上真的”被騙”了！如上圖顯示，切開了一半的是吉列芝士黑豚漢堡和五式野菌餅－兩者也好一般，尤其是吉列芝士黑豚漢堡的芝士比較”黏”，和白飯＆其他的炸物口味不太配．．至於吉列北海道蝦，貴為炸物的精髓，只有小小的一隻，難免令人太失望了吧？幸好，那日本珍珠米白飯和miso soup也尚算滿意．但主菜的失敗非常可惜！:(總的來說，這團購套餐也真的叫人失望－炸物的份量和種類少得驚人和水準非常的一般．．眼看這餐廳的其他名菜如經典中的吉列豬扒也沒有提供在團購套餐裡，很令人質疑究竟這餐廳有沒有心去帶給顧客這餐廳的水準名菜，究竟實制上這餐廳是又隱藏了”真功夫”還是根本就沒有呢？:(－Ｙ…查看更多

Queuing up for the hottest restaurant in town is never easy, and it challenges your patience. It's not the worse when you've got to give up your first choice for something first, but the worst comes when you order the wrong dish after an hour or more queuing. Here comes my experience in Curry House CoCo...A Friday evening as I dated my Mother for a dinner at 一風堂. She arrived way earlier than me, holding 2 number tickets for both 一風堂 and Curry House CoCo. My classes ran late so it took me over an hour to meet my Mum..by the time I arrived, she had already been standing for around two hours (Sorry Mum!). Expectedly, two hours of queuing was not enough for 一風堂 on a Friday evening..we had no choice but to give it up but turned to Curry House CoCo, which we waited another 45 minutes or so...I kept starring at the MENU and the customers inside the restaurant, wondering what has been the magical ingredient that sparkled the interest of all these curry cravers out here Once we got the table, we sat ourselves down and ordered two set meals immediately, due to our excessive waiting time to have finely decided the best choice (which I later realised it was kinda a wrong decision). Looking at the branding of the restaurant, it was a very homey kind of Curry House, something that you would expect finding in somewhere around the corner of a high street in Japan, publicising the "home-made curry" and the "non-commerical" type of atmosphere. I was indeed influenced by this during my experience in Curry House Coco.My Mother and I decided to give an additional HKD$20 for the Soup, Mini Salad and a drink (Cold Lemon tea we chose), which was something of a decent price I'd say. Too bad that my stomach was not entirely well that evening, I was not able to finish the drink or trying out the ice cream...must try next time! (apparently the ice cream was popular here!)The soup was Onion Soup. Quite a strong flavour of onion and seaweed. The mini salad is really, rather mini, and just like any other typical petite salad you could get from the cafes. I couldn't emphasis enough how the feeling 'home-made' had been keep on popping up as I had my soup and salad! Within a while, my pick arrived - Pork cutlet & Vegetable curry (a curry combination with vegetables). It was rather huge! I was a bit shocked by the quantity, but I think it definitely made a guy who had been waiting for more than an hour satisfied. The potatos were enormous! The plate was big! The Japanese rice was finally cooked - sticky and chewy - just perfect for curry. The pork cutlets were not bad either! It was fresh and carefully deep-fried as not to make it too greasy. With these being said, the ingredients were good if you eat them individually..but perhaps not together? I immediately turned rather full half-way..because pork cutlets were simply too much to take in along with the gigantic potatoes and thick layer of curry sauce! :( I had a hard time trying to finish the dish off (thank god I did at the end). It would be a lot better there was more sauce, and less heavy on the ingredients.My Mum's Clam & Tomato & Spinach curry had quite a bizzare look but definitely a very health-looking dish! She enjoyed it a lot. I had a spoon, and frankly, I liked her's more than mine - at least there was more sauce involved! The tomato sauce was able to add in a bit sweetner the curry, successfully enhancing the overall taste of clam and spinach. A rather clever approach! :)To sum up, I really do think that I picked the wrong dish this time - never ever would I pick the Pork cutlet & Vegetable curry again! Instead, I should have picked some of the more famous ones such as the egg omelette curry or mushroom sauce curry? And I definitely have to try its ice-cream when I return, which was again, huge as I observed! Note: Therefore, the judging for this food review is going to be based on the dishes I picked - but not the restaurant itself and the more famous dishes that I yet to try. Stay tuned! I'm gonna write another review when I return to Curry House CoCo! - Y…查看更多

團購永遠也會為人帶來驚喜，拉麫永遠也會為人帶來新鮮感！不久之前，我和我家人又因為好奇心而一嘗另一款新的團購套餐．是日，我們來到了Domon 札幌拉麵，一間廣為人知的拉麵店．雖然近來人氣甚高的一風堂，豚王等等搶去了不少風頭，但事實証明，當我和我家人抵達時為晚上６時許，但已經有好幾枱人坐下來．．証明Domon 札幌拉麵仍然擁有屬於自己的一羣’粉絲’！當晚，我們點的是Domon 札幌拉麵團購套餐２，首先上枱的是日式柚子大蝦沙律．雖然生菜略為有點失色，不夠新鮮，但勝在蝦身夠大，食落口感十足，大蝦的肉質清爽，配上日式柚子醬，成功為這個團購套餐帶來一個滿意的開始:)接下來的便是Domon的王牌牛油拉麵！不得不承認，我當場被那塊驚人的牛油嚇呆了！　簡直就好似係波籮油裡面的那塊牛油一樣！還未來得切研究究竟那塊驚人的牛油是saturated或unsaturated時，我的雙手已經不由自主地將那塊牛油溶入湯麵裡．多麼可怕的本能意識！但我個人是非常欣賞這碗牛油拉麵！不但size非常的大，令人食得滿足，用料方面雖不能夠和其他知名的拉麵店比，但Domon的材料份量非常多，拉麵的texture厚得來有質感，加上濃郁的湯底裝得那個碗滿滿的，令人食得高興！如此同時，自家製日式餃子和鴛鴦薯餅也送到！日式餃子賣相不錯，脹卜卜看起來用料十足，但我略嫌餃子煎得不夠鑊氣，帶不出煎餃子的特色:(至於這份不可不贊一番的薯餅真叫人喜出望外！剛剛炸好的薯餅外層，新鮮熱辣，加上濃濃的芋頭溶和旁邊的小小耶菜切絲為你清一清口感－真的令人食得很不夠侯！！最後送上的便是黑豚生姜燒定食！暖暖的一大碗日式白飯，質地非常滑身的日式蒸蛋也令這餐添了另一番選擇．可惜的是那黑豚生姜燒（豬肉）有點硬身，應該是用上了剛解凍的豬肉來燒，而那豬肉本身也不算太新鮮．但overall來說這個定食是很不錯的！:)總括來說，這個團購套餐沒有一道菜我是給予恨評的，相反我非常喜歡Domon 札幌拉麵的每一道菜！不過假設Domon可以設有餐飲那便更好了！　Ｄomon你要在這個競爭激烈的拉麵店市場加油啊！！- Y…查看更多

On a Saturday's sunny afternoon, after I had a thorough dential check-up at Wanchai, my mother and I began to search for a restaurant that we discovered at the groupon website. Thanks to Groupon, we were about to explore something new and refreshing again!Kramp House, a short but precise name. I especially like it - simple and straightforward. No fanciness was given, but the word 'House' added a sense of coolness and youngness into the image of the restaurant. Perfect! Walking into the restaurant, it was quite a refreshing scenery to me. Similiar to the name of the restaurant, the inner-decoration did not require any excessive items to decorate the restaurant. Instead, it used still colours such as red for tables and silver for chairs. White walls, mini blackboard and chalks for stand-up menus and black lamps for lit-up on the wall to give a sense of the 80s-90s. Everything so simple and quiet, just the right thing for a place of French Crepes.The Groupon offer that my mother and I purchased included a can of soft drink, an appetizer and a Savory galette complete. First came the can of soft drink and an appetizer - I ordered mash potato and my mother ordered salad. The mash potato was finely mashed, and flavoured. It was not too salty but it had a slight taste of salt and pepper. It was a light appetizer that one could ask for. As for the salad, my mother liked it a lot as the pieces of lettuce were very refresh and cool, nicely blended with the vinegar sauce. The soft drinks were just out of the fridge - making them cool and chilled to drink. Next arrived the maindish, the highlight of the Groupon offer, the Savory galette complete! This savory crepe contained a sunny-side up and slices of hams and cheddar cheese as in the ingredients. It was very attractive just to look at it.....and how did it taste? Well, on my first and second bites of the crepes..frankly, I was disappointed. As I continued to have my third and the fourth bites (and so on)..I felt more discouraged to go on! :( One, it was way, way TOO SALTY! It was weird that the plate that my mother had was less saltier than mine. Mine was very salty that I couldn't finish my plate after I had a few bites :( Two, the crepe was rather cold and hard, given that it had a thin layer, it felt like I was chewing a piece of 'overnight pizza crust' that was not crusty but chewy instead.Third, the flavour of the sunny-side up did not match with the crepe, and a bit bizzare when mixing with the slices of hams. I felt like I was eating..something of a breakfast but a French crepe breakfast? Oh gosh I had no idea...All in all, I really wonder if my experience here in the Kramp House was truly an authentic French crepe journey as I did not feel any slight moment of the authenticness at all...my plate of Savory galette complete was quite, depressing. I was not full, obviously, after my meal. There were a lot of things to improve on, in the menu especially. - Y…查看更多

I recalled an afternoon with my Mum when we both were searching for somewhere nice to fill our tummies with something light. Due to the limited choices nearby my home, we chose to try our Bistro Délifrance in which I never had the chance to pay a visit despite been walking pass the shop for countless times.It was a weekday and there were rarely anyone inside. The inside of the restaurant was much bigger than I imagined. Dim light, French paintings and the use of orange and white colours around the room made me wonder if I have stepped into a coffee shop by the corner of the high-street in Paris! :)Looking at the menu, it was attractive with a wide range of Bistro tea sets. I was rather hungry and very ambiously, we ordered three dishes.First came the Hot potato gratin. Small but pipping hot when served. The top layer of cheese was not too thick and blended well into the potato gratin underneath. Slices of onion were found inside to enhance the texture too! Nice little portion of starter that was! Next, my Mini spinach and corn penne in mushroom sauce arrived. On a first impression, the appearance might doubt your judgement to the dish. Yes I must admit that I was slightly disappointed with the look..but when you try the dish out, it actually was not that bad as I imagined! The mushroom sauce went along very well with the corn and the spinach and penne! It might be a bit of a 'children food' .. nevertheless I enjoyed it with a heart and mind of a kid. Up til this point, all we hoped for was something sweet to wrap up the meal. It wasn't long until our dreams came true with the arrival of Baked chocolate and banana thick milk toast! Now the appearance of this dish definitely helped the penne dish to grab a few points back! I was stunned by the beauty of the toast! (Considering that the previous dishes were not too much of a surprise in terms of the look). Though the toast had cold down a bit, the sweetness of the chocolate sauce matched nicely with the slices of banana. Perfect when you had a slice of toast and a zip of hot tea! Having spent around 2 hours of our afternoon there, with only one to two tables other than us and some of the old-school 80s songs played quietly at the background of the restaurant, what would be a better way to chill our afternoon away? - Y…查看更多

Since it was almost time for me to leave Hong Kong, we had decided to go around Hong Kong to try some interesting places. This time, we went to CRUMBS because I had always liked frozen yoghurt, but was just limited to YOMAMA, so this is for me to try something new. It was so hot that day, and feels even hotter in MK because of all the pollution and the crowds. We finally arrived at CRUMBS, and Y ordered mochi with blueberries, whereas I had mochi and 椰果(coconut fruit?). We got lucky that day and had free crumbs on our yoghurt, which I later realised, are actually gingerbread crumbs, and goes quite well with the yoghurt's taste. The yoghurt itself was pretty good, not too sweet. I especially liked how they made layers of yoghurt and toppings which made them look prettier. For mine, the mochi was both soft and chewy, which was great, but I find that there are too much sugar with the 椰果. It was definitely a great yoghurt place. Unfortunately, I'm not sure was it the day being too hot, or the yoghurt are not being kept at a cold enough temperature, the yoghurt started to melt not long after we got them. And by the time we reached Mong Kok MTR station, half of it had melted (which I think is perfectly normal given the HK average temperature, it's just not appealing that's all). Despite the yoghurt melted, I found it delicious. But probably it's better to have it perhaps indoors next time, or when the weather is somewhat cooler. - C…查看更多

My mum and I officially turned into a pair of groupon food hunters. Whenever she got interested into a particular restaurant promoted by groupon, she would pull me in and we travel to anywhere, literally, ANYWHERE, in Hong Kong just to get a taste of food and a fun of the night.If you have been reading/are going to read my previous groupon meal experiences, you would find out that at the past I did not have quite a good memory of them. But thing seemed to change upon my visit to Double Stars, and onwards (to be post!)! I wouldn't say that my dinner here at Double Stars was amazing, but at least decent and satisfie :)That night, the meal was a Four courses dinner meal. A very quick and brief review of each course as follow -Soup: Cream of mushroom & Vegetable soupalong with garlic breadTypical starter for any four courses meal. Quite average. The garlic bread was quite hard (crust) and not too much of the garlic paste, but good that the soups were quite warm to begin with. As I was wondering if this meal would be just like any other average-type of western restaurants, the appetizers changed my thought immediately. The Fresh prawn and mango salad with peach sauce (right) and the Baked french escargot with mashed potato (right) both caught me in surprise. The prawn was indeed very fresh and with the peach sauce, the dish became very light and easy to eat and digest. As for the escargots, they were very fresh and pipping hot when served. One thing to mention was that, there were special forks provided for us to pick the inner part of the escargot out to eat. Very hygienic and caring indeed Next came the Linguine with parma ham & black truffle cream sauce, my pick for the main dish. It wasn't too bad. The black truffle did not come to a good use at this dish as the amount given was too little to lift up the taste of whole. The cream sauce was quite well blend with the pasta and mixed peppers. Though the parma ham was quite weird as a combination to this dish..given that parma ham was better served as an appetizer, along with melon to lighten the saltiness of the ham...weird My Mum's pick - Provencal fish fillet with lemon butter sauce. Quite an average dish..the dried-out french fries, tasteless cabbage and the so-so fish fillet..altogether made the dish quite off-track. There weren't too much to eat fillet out of the provencal fish to be honest..and the dish wasn't appealing either :(The drinks caught us in surprises. Both the Iced hazelnut latte (left) and the Apple mint cooler (right) were quite refreshing and new for us. Best to drink them along with the sauce-heavy pasta and the breadcrumbs-heavy fish fillet! Very nice :)Last but not least, the desserts! I must say the desserts were the best out of all! The Bread pudding (left) and the Creme brulee (right) were pipping hot when served, indicated the freshness, most probably been stored inside the oven for quite a while. Both puddings were finely made with eggs. A slight spoon of the pudding gave me the finest taste of the wholehearted efforts given for the preparation of both :) Absolutely loving the tenderness and hotness of both desserts!! The name 'Double Stars', the sister's company of 'Strawberry forever', has long been established as chain stores around in HK. However, due to the decreasing popularity as well as the fierce dinning competition in Hong Kong, Double Stars has slowly died out and remained barely a few. It was not surprising to see that now, they have expanded their market into Mainland China, which turned out to be quite a success. I guess afterall, people in Hong Kong loved restaurants that owned an unique selling point, in which having backed up by a fame that was already created overseas. In this case, Double Stars might have lost out for more than a mile in the first place...Keep up the work Double Stars! - Y…查看更多

Since our failure to queue up for the famous 'Chocolate Library' and ended up going to LGB last time (See my LGB review), my friend and I promised each other that we would be back in the near future!! Fortunately, we picked my friend's birthday to try it again. This time, we managed to wake up early on a Saturday morning, took a taxi, all for the sake of the Chocolate Library! (The following information may be useful for those of you who are planning to visit the Chocolate Library but are clueless about the queuing time) We done some research in prior to our visit that the Chocolate Library started serving its Afternoon tea at 2PM, and the registration started at 1PM. Having learnt our lesson last time, we arrived at around 12:15PM to start queuing up at the lobby. Yes, I'm not joking. I thought I was late already in terms of queuing. To my suprise, there were already quite a few parties in front of me As the clock ticked, we were there standing for more than an hour, until a lady dressed in uniform came over to register our names. And that was around 1:15PM, we were told to come back at 2PM. Another 45 minutes? Oh well, lucky that there was Elements nearby to spend some of our time in shopping. In the mere 45 minutes, we didn't pay much attention to the shops but our watches instead. We counted our time very carefully, and returned to the lobby at around 1:45PM. Waited for another 5-10 minutes, we were FINALLY allowed to take the lift to the 103/F! It was totally different when we arrived on the 103/F, a totally different world comparing to the lobby. Grand and flourished design with a glimpse of modern glamour and luring fragance, we soon saw the logo of the Chocolate Library. :) We were the second party to arrive, and very, very fortunately, we were given the second best table among all! Our table was near to the view of the 103/F, in which we could turn our heads and observe the view of New Territories. It was truly amazing.On the other side (top photo), there were some unknown bits of architectural design in preventing our browsing...quite weird indeed. Nevertheless, my friend and I learnt that, it really didn't matter if you're queuing at the front or the middle or near to the back downstairs at the lobby. As long as - 1. you are in pairs (the best combination for visiting Chocolate Library), 2. you got yourself at least in the middle of the queue and 3. you come back early before 2PM., I'm pretty sure that you will get a nice table. Afterall, you fought all the way here mainly for the sake of the 103/F's view and the legendary 'Opening' of the Cover of the Dessert box don't you? The presentation of the MENU was very attractive indeed. The thickness of the hard-paper cover of the 'book' made you truly believed that you sat yourself in the Library, in which you were about to explore the wonder of Chocolates here. :)My friend suggested that instead of ordering two tea sets, which would be too much for two (oh yes trust me), we ordered one afternoon tea set plus a Chocolate Souffle to share. The Chocolate Souffle was the first to arrive. It was quite a small portion, but as we were very much aware of our calorie intake for the rest of today, we thought it would be enough. Though it was small, but it was just right when we both had a couple of teaspoons. The Chocolate Souffle blended in very well with the raspberry source. Though the flavours were different to the perfect Souffle I had back in The Verandah (See my Verandah's review), this Chocolate Souffle here was able to grab my heart with its very rich chocolate moisture and texture. The crispiness of the top layer of Chocolate souffle was amazingly addictive too. We finished off the dish with half a bite of the chocolate to sweeten our tongue. And finally, the afternoon tea set! The one we've been waiting for! The cover of the dessert box was nicely designed - though I did not capure a photo of the cover itself. The waitress kindly offered us time to take as many photos as we want befor taking the cover away. By then our excitements calmed and we were finally able to enjoy afternoon tea in a quiet and decent manner, haha! I would not comment too much about the desserts, as I found them only a side-point to our whole experience of the Chocolate Library, from queuing to appreciating the every details of the design of the restaurant and presentation. :)A few quick points about the desserts of the tea set - If you are coming in pairs, one tea set would be more than enough for both of you. The desserts in the shelves were simply too much for one person to take in all by himself. They were too 'much' for one's intake. Personally I did not like the tea set too much. Despite its excessive sweetness, most of them (mainly tarts and hard-cakes) were too hard to bite. I had a preference of softer desserts, perhaps that was why. And one or two of them were particularly 'strong-in-flavour' (e.g. the bottom right one) Beware! :( For all the desserts we had, the chief skillfully mixed chocolate with raspberry for every single of them. Raspberry's sourness could moist and blend with chocolate's sweetness for the better enjoyment of our tongues. My favourite out of all would definitely be the Chocolate Souffle, and the Raspberry and Cream (the middle one).To sum up our experiences, it was indeed a very fun and enjoyable afternoon. Bearing in mind that we failed upon our first visit, our eagerness to get a seat had largely exceeded our imagination. It was a very unique experience that I think both my friend and I would never forget. And especially it was my friend's birthday, spending a nice afternoon on the 103/F was more than what we could ask for. Don't expect too much when you pay your visit, especially the food. Just come and enjoy the atmosphere and the 103/F view (if you're lucky to get the nearby view's seat). I definitely think that once is enough for the Chocolate Library. :) I would never want to wake up early and spend two hours just for an afternoon tea, with no gurantee of nice view seats. Though my next target would be the OZONE upstairs P.S. Remember to check out the toilet! You would find something amazing there A little shoutout, happy birthday again cathy! - Y…查看更多

However nicely designed the MENU, interior design, servicing are, if the food itself isn't well-cooked and fresh at the first place, the fancy stuff is just a side-story.Jika Udon is one of the great examples to illustrate this point.On an evening that I could not recall its date, M and I were looking for a light supper to fill our tummies after having Cova's Pistachio ice cream (See my Cova's food review). We came across Jika Udon and decided to give it a try. We were brought to the bar table in the busy hour. Looking at the colourful menu, I spent quite a while choosing what I wanted to eat. The photos and illustrations brought a lot of fun to the readers. Within a while, we put forward our orders and waited in an anticipating mood Both plates of udon arrived at the same time. M ordered Udon w/ Kagoshima Black Pork & Assorted Mushroom w/ Pumpkin Sauce (top) and I ordered Udon with Chicken with Sauce. The appearance was not bad at first sight. We picked up our chopsticks and started to give it a mix and taste....Oh no, seriously?I ordered Udon with Chicken with Sauce to play safe because I thought that it should be the easiest and best to cook and make to satisfy the customers. Here, this plate of udon has an extremly small portion, within a few mouthful of udon could finish the plate up. The udon itself was quite sticky, lack of moist and too 'thick' in the sense that it was too chewable. The chicken slices were over-cooked, hard and dried. That must be the case of the defrosting process for the chicken being not fresh enough, as well as the udon. With THE light Sesame sauce, it didn't really create the moist or a particular flavour to the dish. Just a slight taste of sesame..All in all, it seemed below-average to me. :(As for b]M's Udon w/ Kagoshima Black Pork & Assorted Mushroom w/ Pumpkin Sauce, again a very small portion. Nothing special at all. The chicken slices were again, overcooked and dried. The pumpkin Sauce did brush the dish up a bit but seemingly little in terms of the quantity of the sauce...I was not too sure if the cumcumber slices matched with the overall ingredients and sauce of that dish...With a quick try of the so-called 'Jika Udon', I guess the food are merely just processed food brought-in from the markets and defrost them before served.. I cook Udon with Chicken with Sesame sauce (cold) at home too and I have the experience of the procedure of cooking them, from picking up ingredients to serving, it seems pretty clear to me that what qualifies for a nice plate of udon. Therefore, definitely not Jika Udon. - Y…查看更多

Long ago, I have been hearing from my friends about THE very special ice cream that Cova serves. Apparently it was the BEST and most unforgettable ice-cream that they have tried so far in Hong Kong. I couldn't quite recall what was THE flavour but everything became quite clear as soon as I arrived in Cova. That evening, M had to pick up a cake from Cova in which I enthusiastically asked to join him, mainly because I was interested in witnessing the variety of ice creams and cakes served in Cova. While M was busy handling the cake issue, I was drawn into the wide selections of ice cream. Though I could not recall THE legendary flavour that my friends mentioned, the waiter, saw my puzzled look, immediately very warmly reminded me of their BEST SELLING ice creams in store. And- ah! Pistachio, here we go. The name that rang the bell rightaway. Also highly recommended by M, I chose it on the spot.On the first sight, the greeness of the Pistachio ice cream shocked me a bit - I never knew it would be green. Alright, perhaps every Chinese New Year I avoid eating Pistachio so I did not give much attention the colour of Pistachio other than knowing its outer shelf is a trim of white. Anyway, I must say that the flavour of Pistachio ice cream served in Cova was quite unique, in a sense that I felt like I was having a 'Wasabi-bean's flavour' of ice cream instead! The attempt was indeed very refreshing, bizzare and interesting. No wonder my friends described it as special.Yet, I am not sure if I would choose this flavour again when I return next time; the Pistachio ice cream was a bit too..extraordinary. But I do recommend you to try it out! It's definitely worth a try.(Photo credits to Michael)- Y…查看更多

W Hotel, a rather prestigious brand in town. An interesting name indeed.The Living Room, an even more mysterious name to me.While my high-tea fever is still on, I grabbed the chance and paid my visit before I began college again in Sept.Generally, I was rather impressed with the setting and atmosphere. The interior design was remarkable especially in its modern creative design such as the bookshelf and the causual paralleling lamps in the ceilling, echoing with the colourful wallpaper by the side. My friend and I thoroughly enjoyed sitting at the comfy sofa to chat our hours away.However,despite the setting, we were a bit disappointed at the food and servicing. :(In prior to our visit, I was told from my friend and by the reviews at Openrice that the food in Living Room were below average. In fact, I found the food slightly better than I imagined (perhaps I expected the worse) but absolutely not the quality that a hotel, such as W Hotel would produce. We ordered an Afternoon High Tea Set for Two; I shall write in short, the most distinct points of the experience - The sandwiches were alright though they tasted quite similiar to what I would have made at home..the french bread was rather hardened by the time they served. The scones were, bizzarely, placed inside a bamboo basket at the middle of the set. It looked very weird to me. Unexpectedly, the scones were even harder than the french bread. Hard as a rock that we could hardly bite them off We very much liked the honeycomb mascarpone cream, perhaps our favourite among all. The honeycomb was sweet and crispy, along with the mascarpone cream that was perfectly smooth and delightful to have. Very nice indeed :) Cookies, a quite surprising snack to find at a tea set. Normally one would find snacks such as macaroons or tarts but none of them appeared at this tea set we tried. However, we didn't like the cookies at all. Furthermore, one of the cookies was very very disgusting. Sorry I normally do not use this word at food reviews, but my friend and I could not help but to keep complaining about the yucky flavour of that cookie (the lighter-coloured one). It tasted like..grass mixing with mud, no jokes. :( We ditched that immediately. The cookies discouraged us to move on to try any other sweet bits. Another failure of the High Tea Set was the Tea. It was shocking to see that - 1. The tea was extremly light and plain. The flavour of the tea was not strong at all. My friend ordered Earl Grey and upon the arrival of the tea pot, the tea was not even ready yet when the waitress hurriedly pour the tea out - she was immediately stopped by my friend. My Jasmine tea was also not my cup of tea here..the overall presentation of the tea pots, the below average quality of tea was quite rare to see nowadays comparing to the tea sets served in other places. The tea was done very quick and heartless in terms of the flavour and presentation :(All in all, I could only give a SIGH to the Living Room. Ok, it was not as bad as I thought - at least decent in sitting. But in terms of the High Tea Set, it was no good. The savoury, the sweet bits and the tea failed at the presentational aspect. They did not fit in with the style and standard that the W Hotel trying to uphold (grand and modern). In short, not presentable enough for display nor fitting the genre of the place. I definitely do not think my money was worth spent here - I could have used the same amount of money to enjoy a better quality of food somewhere else. No more High Tea here again. - Y…查看更多

開學了！新的學期又到了．正正是因為開學的第一天，尚有一點空閒的時間，便打算再尋找一下好吃的！剛好那天我兩位好友打算帶我去一試她們食過讚不絕口的魚腐！既然可以和好友們一聚，又可以一試新的餐廳，何樂而不為呢？:)一入到門口見到招牌為”生記”，隨即想起出名食粥的另外一間”生記”！難道它們是同一集團？還是機緣巧合？再看一下門口貼住的不同雜誌報紙的訪問和介紹，相信這次的”魚腐之行”會是一個不錯的收穫！這兒的生記款式不算多，但勝在夠專一！專門售賣不同材料配搭的鮮魚湯米線．我兩位好友二話不說便選好她們想點的．既然這裡出名魚腐，那我便點魚腐米線吧！聽我好友說，這兒的魚湯是特別用６０條魚熬出來！理論上它的湯底應該會是非常鮮甜，而實際上又是不是呢？我和我的好友點了招牌魚湯魚腐米線．等不夠３分鐘便立即送到！這兒的湯米線有大，小之分．當晚我們點了小，但我認為小的份量真的比預期中小很多．．建議肚餓的人一定要點大來吃！魚湯驟眼看來真的很清，細心一試便試得出它的鮮甜！用６０條魚熬出來也不出奇呢！　但我最欣賞的並不是魚湯，而是它的魚腐！這兒的魚腐份量大，外層漲扑扑，口感彈牙，麫份味不重，內裡的餡肉質豐富亦夠彈牙．好吃到停不下來！　可惜的是，不知道是否因為我點了小的關係，配菜和米線份量非常少．．食完整碗麵後仍覺得有點餓另外一位好友點了雜錦魚腐魚湯米線，材料非常豐富，除了魚腐之外，也有雞翼，生菜等等做配料．而亦都因為這款只有大的關係，我們立刻便看得出大和小的分別．．因為這間”生記”離我上堂的地方不遠，相信我很快便會再重返這裡一試它的魚腐！　（下次再來我必定會點大的！:)- Y…查看更多

It has been a long while since I last had fine-dinning. The Verandah is a well-known restaurant in the hotel dinning industry that serves high quality of desserts and with excellence in preserving the traditional setting of the Victorian age as well as some professional servicing throughout your meal. It was my father's birthday and my mum, very kindly, had booked a table for 3 two months ago just for this special evening. (Remarks: Prior booking of at least 2 months in advance is needed at the Verandah)We arrived at 7:15PM for its Sunday night buffet menu. Other than the soup, main course, Souffle of the Day and some special assorted biscuits and tea/coffee, everything else were in a buffet style. This was actually something I prefer than having buffet for everything as I could actually spent some quality time chatting and waiting to be served. :)After placing our orders, we were asked to enjoy ourselves for the Appetisers buffet first.Though the Seafood & salad bar and the Sushi bar were incomparable to some other hotel buffets in town (as they were solely focusing on the large variety of food), I found the selection at the Verandah was good enough. It was all about Quality over Quantity. Among the selection, I was most impressed with the salad (crispy and fresh lettuce along with over 6 kinds of salad dressing), Slow cooked scallop and Miso and fillet. They were in a small portion but the fine taste had lasted for a period of time in our mouths! When we had 1/4 of our tummy full with the seafood, salad and sushi, the Soup of the Day: Prawn Cream Soup was ready upon our order. On top of the actual taste, just by smelling it was a pleasuring experience! The rich celery was deeply blended with the cream, producing an extremly nice smell that could enrich your senses! There were a lot of celery chunks inside the soup that made it even healthier along with the prawn bites. A point to note was that the serving bread was also good to have with the soup - the outer crust was crispy and the inner shelf was very soft. Everything was served in a warm temperature which made it a very good start of the meal! Next came our main courses: (in the order of the photo shown) 1- Roasted pigeon with smoked potatoes and turnip fondant, Port wine sauce2- Pan- fried snapper on braised white bean with chorizo, anchory sauce3- Olive oil poached Tasmanian Ocean trout wiht bell pepper couscous and tomatoes cream sauceGenerally they were quite good, in taste and presentation. However, for my dish, the Tasmanian Ocean trout, I found it a bit unsurprising due to the fact that the trout tasted a bit raw and cooked salmon-like. With the sauce being a bit too light, I felt as though the dish lacked of something to brush the whole thing up. My dad had the roasted pigeon and he found it quite disappointing, mainly because the portion too small and he could hardly had some bites of meal out of it. :( Nevertheless, they did not bother us too much because we wanted to save our tummy for the desserts! I really, really could not emphasis how impressed I was throughout the dessert-intaking experience. I simply could not resist the temptation of every single dessert. Perhaps that explained why I gone in and out of the table for at least 4 times just for the dessert period. Among the best range of dessert, I specially recommend the Coffee tiramisu, BLUEBERRY & CHEESE PUDDING (WITH CRUMBS!), Macaroons (came with white chocolate, chocolate and strawberry flavours), the VERANDAH'S HOME-MADE ICE CREAM and the Strawberry & Vanilla cream.Please allow me to further explain a bit more about the bolded*and*underlined words - they were like the heavenly desserts that one must try when comes to Verandah. For the BLUEBERRY & CHEESE PUDDING (WITH CRUMBS!), as you could see in the photo (the far right), it was warmly heated inside the pot to ensure the costumer to experience the best temperature of hot pudding. The blueberry flavour was not too rich as to avoid the over-dominating taste within the pudding. The cheese was subtle, just to act as an enhancing flavour and smell of the pudding. Anything with crumbs would be great for me! (I love crumbs!) So on top of the soft pudding, we got a bit of chewiness and crispiness with the crumbs!As for the VERANDAH'S HOME-MADE ICE CREAM , it had been a loong time since I last had such a soft and smoothly made ice cream (probably back in thailand i think?) I dare to say, it was worth having 3 cups in a row! One should never forget the famous Souffle of the Day at the Verandah. Before the start of my meal, I was recommended by a friend of mine who was a true expert in fine-dinning, that the Souffle here at the Verandah was a 'MUST-TRY'. Given that the day was my father's birthday, we got an extra candle! Even better :) If I have to pick the best dish from The Verandah's Sunday night buffet, it's definitely their Souffle! It's very different to any other Souffle I ever tried/made; a lot of air bubbles were trapped making the souffle as soft and as delicate as possible! And one should definitely pay attention to the cream and peach sauce on top while witnessing the blending effect into the souffle! Parfait!Overall, my family and I enjoyed our evening at the Verandah very much. We stayed til the end of the opening hour - simply too caught up with their desserts. It was a pity that I couldn't greet their chef to say a word or two, but if he/she ever sees this post, please allow me to say - your desserts were impressive, and heart-touching! :) Thank you Verandah, Thank you Peninsula.- Y…查看更多

I wonder if it was a chain reaction that, the groupon meals I had always failed badly. A month ago, I was tempted by this groupon dinner called 融會東瀛珍味：以 $299 享受柊亭料理<柊之二人套餐>，十道菜包括海膽刺身、Toro手卷 (原價 $868) at the Habitat Japanese Restaurant. I bought it straight away and decided to try it out with C. The restaurant itself looked pretty decent and authentic, but the emptiness of the restaurant shocked us. It was around 7pm when we arrived and there were only a table of 2 among the empty seats...perhaps that was why they needed to have groupon promotion. Nevertheless, we did not quite like the setting: the hygiene was below average as we spotted some trash and dirt around us; also with the extremly cold air conditioning that had us freezing the whole evening. It was not pleasant at all as any customer walking into the restaurant would expect the restaurant to live up to its 'presented' standard. Due to the unfavourable lighting of the restaurant, C was not able to capture all the photos of the dishes. Therefore I shall pay special attention to the dishes without the photos, in order to effectively comment on them in words.The first dish was the Cold Tomato Salad (凍番茄沙拉) - it was quite a refreshing start. The tomatoes were fresh and sweet along with the Japanese Salad dressing. A good appetiser to get my digestion going! The next came the 葱toro手卷 & 原板馬糞膽刺身 . The 葱toro手卷 were acceptable, the spring onions and toro were alright though nothing too surprising was spotted. Yet whenever I have 手卷 I am very aware of the quality of the seaweed as it represents whether the 手卷 is freshly made or not. Clearly, to me, this 葱toro手卷 failed in being freshly wrapped as the seaweed has gone hard and not crispy at all. As for the 原板馬糞膽刺身, I dare to say it was the worse dish of the night! When I bought the groupon, the photo of this dish shown on the site was relatively big in size and nice, but the reality of the dish was nothing comparable to that. Fine, I might have deceived by the photos. But the worst came when we actually tasted it, it was absolutely disappointing! The 馬糞膽刺身 was soggy and plain. It instantly melted into a pile of nothingness in your mouth! We had no idea what we were eating and we weren't even able to pick them up from the plate as it gone soggy even by picking them up! One of the side dishes was 日本毛豆. We didn't like it as well. It was too salty - we could actually spot the large amount of salt they sprinkled on top of the beans... The 黑蟹子燒餅 was average.. the flavour was just right but the texture was not impressive. The excessive use of flavour has thickened the base of the pizza, and having it overcooked have made the texture gone very sticky and hard. :( Comparing to the previous dishes, a slightly better one must be the 免治雞肉棒. I quite liked the teriyaki sauce they used and it was a decent dish to serve. Though C did not like it too much due to the lack of softness of the boneless chicken part. We both thought the taste of the dish was satisfying. Thank god as the meal progressed towards the end, there was something that we actually liked - 三文魚頭野菜鍋! There were lots of ingredients inside the pot such as assorted vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and most importantly, the quite-luxurious cooked salmon's head! Both of us loved it as the ingredients were of a fine quality and blended in with the taste of the soup very well. Though the soup was slightly spicy (taste of kimchi somehow?), it was actually great in keeping us eating! Two bowls of 海鮮炒飯 were served with the hot pot. Despite its softness of the rice, it tasted quite like the normal fried rice that one could find in a cha-chan tang (茶餐廳). There were not much ingredients found inside the bowl - generally, quite a plain bowl of fried rice. Last but not least, the green tea ice cream. From the groupon website, the dessert was very nicely shown to be some cups of Dryers ice cream and something else that looked fine. However, it turned out to be nothing of that sort. When the bowl of ice cream was served, it was extremly HARD! Like it was the hardest ice cream I ever had in my life - like a rock, and by the absolute coldness that I could feel from a slight touch of the bowl...all I could do was to give a cold laugh at the end of my meal.. :(:( Do they expect customers to eat it straight away in such a condition? Or wait for another 2-3 hours? By the time we once again felt disappointed just by feeling the ROCK-ALIKE ice cream, C and I were so COLD (because of the air conditioning) and DISAPPOINTED that we did not even bother finishing the icecream, but to pay the bill and left immediately. Never would I return to Habitat again. It made me wonder could they survive any longer even by the strategy of promoting groupons with such standard of food and setting? I'm sorry but in no reasons could I persuade myself to like this restaurant..:(- Y…查看更多