Adventure #242: Mandarin Grill

My birthday was on a weekday and I was working on a deal, so I thought let's be safe and eat in Central. So G picked the Mandarin Grill. We haven't been for a long long time and remembered the food to be excellent.

After seated we were served amuse bouche of ham, cheese and olive.

This is most interesting as the object on the spoon is not an olive but contained something made with olive and hence served next to the little pot of olive plant. 

A selection of olive oil to accompany the freshly baked breads

This is simply called Bacon and Egg - made up of 18 weeks old suckling pig with duck egg and truffle honey sauce. Presentation is excellent (i.e. assembled right in front of me). Tasted very good but no element of surprise.

This I find more interesting.  This is called Forest Floor and it certainly looked like it. Made up of mushroom, foie gras, chicken liver and brioche.  All are not what they appear to be!

I ordered Turbot.  The dish (once again assembled in front of me) resembled the ocean floor.  Everything is edible, even the stones! Unfortunately, the turbot is a rather tough fish and I didn't enjoy this dish as much as I hoped.

G ordered the Calotte. It's beef. Served inside a "book".

Beef is good. Geoff didn't quite like the chocolaty sauce.

Soufflé - best dish of the evening

Loved the "Petite Four"!

Loved the service and the amuse bouche.  The presentation of all the dishes were excellent.  The taste however is slightly below expectation.  Food is similar to The Krug Room but for the price, I prefer the Krug Room.

Mandarin Grill
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
5 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong
Tel: 2825 4004

Adventure #241: Gaucho Steak Restaurant

Went with a couple of friends to try out this new joint from the UK. Gaucho serves mainly Argentinian steaks.

The décor is dark with leather - cow skin but I didn't really captured in in these photos.  Loved the lights though.

Waitress came over with the raw meat selection.......looks all the same to me!

Loved the bread. The round ones are cheese bread, so rich but so good.

A selection of starters to share. Not a salad fan, I much preferred the melted cheese thingy (forgot the name of this dish). Not thinking about the waistline tonight......

The ladies (2 of us) shared the Gaucho Tasting Plate, so we could have a taste of the 3 most popular cuts chorizo, ancho and caudril.  They are all good but I think I like ancho better........

The guys were more adventurous (also a much bigger stomach) had the Tira de Ancho - spiral cut, slow grilled with chimichurri. 500g of pure beef!!! This is really good but I think a bit too much for 1 person.

Hand cut chips with truffle oil and chives. They initially gave us the wrong one which we complained of not smelling of truffle at all. Then they replaced it.  Strong truffle aroma, delicious.

A early birthday surprise!

Good food, good service.  Heard the set lunch portions are smaller.  Will return to try that.

Gaucho Steak Restaurant
5/F, LHT Tower
31 Queens Road
Central
Hong Kong
Tel: 2386 8090

Adventure #235: Le Souk

Felt like having something different tonight and finally decided on middle eastern food. We then picked Le Souk in Soho.

The restaurant was not big but very colourful décor.

Was recommended this Egyptian beer.  A little sweeter than normal once. Quite nice, more of a lady's beer.

Our starters: Hommos with grilled lamb and Lebanese Babaganoush. The hommos very creamy and the lamb soft and succulent. As for the babaganoush, I am a great fan of eggplant, so what can I say. Served with warm pita bread, it was so good, we finished every last bit!

Chicken Tagine - we ordered this so the kids have something to eat. And they loved it.



Cous cous a Le Souk - a signature dish.  The roasted lamb shank was wonderful.  Juicy and soft.  Served with veg and cous cous.  The bowl of sauce (soup?) seemed a bit redundant.

A selection of homemade Baklava pastries.  Not the best we have had.

We really enjoyed this meal. A first for the kids and a change from the usual western cuisine.

Le Souk
4 Staunton Street
SOHO
Central
Tel: 2522 2128

Adventure #234: Ocean

It was a couple of weeks after returning from France before we were ready for some rich western cuisine.  This evening we were invited to have dinner at a private kitchen in Happy Valley called Ocean.

It was on the 1st floor of an old building with very steep stairs. But once inside, the atmosphere is cool and calm.

This private kitchen is what the owners called 福音私房菜. The owners are Christians and the wife and the restaurant's namesake will tell diners all the miracles associated with the opening and running of this restaurant.

Something to wet the appetite - strawberry with foie gras.

Baked US oysters with hollandaise sauce and tomato provencal. We were to eat the hollandaise sauce one first and then the tomato.  Very well made, really enjoyed them.

Cream of mushroom.  Smooth and full of mushroom flavour.  One of the best mushroom soup I have had. Excellent!

Lime granite - to clear the palate and ready for the main course!

Although the restaurant also offered a chicken dish and a seafood dish, all of us chose the beef dish.  We were told that this dish is not always on the menu. They were celebrating their 3rd anniversary and thus this signature dish is back on the menu for a limit period of time.

12-hour slow cook Australian Wagyu beef cheek with lettuce mashed potato and port wine jus.  This is truly a great dish. The beef is so flavourful and just melts in the mouth. Heavenly!

Rasberry panna cotta with lychee jell-o, strawberry ice cream and mixed berries. I ordered this for both G and I because we just loved panna cotta. I later changed to the dish below.  The panna cotta was good but after a heavy dish like the beef cheek, a lighter dessert is perhaps a better choice.

Coconut and pineapple in five texture. I won't normally choose this as I am not a fan of coconut.  But this turned out to be quite enjoyable. It was light and different from the traditional dessert.

Finished with a choice of coffee or pukka tea.  A wonderful end to an excellent meal!

Ocean
1/F, 9 Sing Woo Road
Happy Valley
Tel: 3480 0512

Adventure #218: 121BC

The other restaurant on the "choice" list of the SCMP which we decided to try is 121BC.  It was tucked away on a side street in Central.  First impression - small and cosy. Rather promising.

The restaurant only consisted of 1 long table sitting maybe 30 people and a long narrow table top with bar stools.  So it felt rather different when we were first seated as the restaurant was only half full at the time.

There is no menu, only a large chalk board at one end of the room.  With the dim lights it was quite impossible to read. So the lady gave us the ipad with a picture of the chalk board so we can order.

You can choose 8 dishes at $500pp but we prefer to order separately. The restaurant reviews indicated that their wine list was pretty impressive stocked with mainly boutique Italian producers.  What surprised me was how much a glass cost (well over HKD100 on ave).  The 2 glasses of reds we ordered was very mediocre at best and nowhere near the Chiantis, Brunellos or Amarones that we drink at home on a regular basis.  The waitress then let slip that these boutiques are much cheaper than the more well known producers.  It's  fine to promote your "boutique" wines if they taste on par or better but not when it is sub standard and cost even more than the better known producers. 

Homemade ricotta, eggplant, oregano, chilli.  Nice but pretty ordinary and nothing unusual.

Calamari, green beans, lentils, tomato.  A bit taken aback when I saw this dish.  Tasted worse than it looked.  Bland. Nothing Italian about this, like a fake Thai dish.

Caramelised lamb ribs, pomegranate, caraway.  This was the best dish of the evening but even then, we have had much better ribs elsewhere.

Whole sea bream.  This was the worst dish. The fish was not fresh (a crime in HK where fresh fishes can be bought almost everywhere!), the meat was mushy.  Totally lost interest in this.

Can't even remember which one this was.  By now, we just wanted to finish the meal and leave (not a usual move for us). Dessert was ok.

As the restaurant started to fill up, the place just felt so cramped.  Not a nice feeling squashed on both sides by strangers.  And the noise........

The food was absolutely disappointing.  Shocking that the SCMP reviewers rated this place with a "star".  For the price they charge, this restaurant would rank at the bottom quartile vs its peers.  No way I would recommend this place to anyone, even for half the price.

121BC
42-44 Peel Street
Central
Tel: 2395 0200