Carnevino (已結業)

二月五日(星期三)早前Suyi跟同事討論到哪間餐廳吃開年飯在OpenRice內找來找去，突想起Carnevino，不用多想，就用Tablemap訂位四天的假期轉眼間又結束! 回來的第二日就來到這裡，實行來一個西式開年飯早前看過餐牌，有牛肉他他做前菜，真令人滿心期待坐在舒服的梳化椅，整個餐廳感覺高貴優雅相信晚上用餐，光線再暗一點，氣氛會挺浪漫的呢打開餐牌，發現原來已更新，與其網址的不同沒有了牛肉他他，還有喜歡的Carpaccio主菜方面，今次不吃牛扒，反而點了較輕盈的三文魚侍者先送上麵包，一個富牛油香又質感鬆軟而另一個則配上牛油或豬油(butter or lard)同吃豬油的味道強烈且偏鹹，適合重口味的朋友而我則喜歡香滑的牛油，放落麵包吃，美味滿足試了兩款前菜，其中一款是Veal Carpaccio with Salted Egg and Herb DressingCarpaccio上放了大量香草以及鹹蛋，賣相已經先聲奪人薄切的牛肉仍極富牛香，與兩款味道濃郁的配料混在一起，仍然十分突出加上牛肉質感軟滑，是色香味的享受，叫人難忘另一款前菜，是Calamari with Spicy Tomato 鮮魷先經炸過，再放入帶辣的番茄醬外層香脆，內裡仍充滿着魷魚鮮味，質感又彈牙與番茄醬一拼吃，鮮味會更突出主菜是簡簡單單的Pan fried Salmon生菜上放上蛋碎和洋蔥等，吃落爽口香脆主角三文魚亦煮得甚有水準，魚皮脆口惹味，魚肉則煎成半生熟，油脂豐腴美味只須加$58，就可享用一款甜品可惜是日太飽，吃不下了，下次下次 繼續閱讀

Friday night with no prior dinner bookings can be a little daunting since most places would be full house. So when I called Carnevino and was able to easily secure a seating for two at 8.30 despite calling just 10 minutes beforehand I was pleasantly surprised, but little did we know...Carnevino, one of Mario Batali's ventures and from the name already announces what it serves- carne meaning meat and vino (you guessed it!) wine with an Italian touch.Starting with some bread. A slice of white crusty bread extra thin and because it is a steakhouse as well as being an American thing, a miniature popover. Nothing really special, just empty carbohydrates to nibble on while waiting for your appetisers, the butter was decent, but the lardo was pretty nasty. Although infused with herbs, it could not fully disguise the overwhelming stale fat odour that lingered on the tongue afterwards.I am having a 'thing' with bone marrow at the moment and seeing it on the menu meant I had to order it. One bone split into two, it was beautifully roasted and the marrow wonderfully fatty. They scattered preserved lemon over it which was to help with easing the palate from all the oiliness, but it did detract me from concentrating on the rich flavours of the marrow. The accompanying white bread was lack luster as well, more of the crusty white bread, but this time toasted.The octopus was a decent serving of tentacles, but I would debate the freshness of the octopus used as I detected a slight fishiness. Maybe that was why they had to cover the dish in a strong sweet and sour sauce which was not unlike something you could order at a cha chaan teng just with an Italian twist from the limoncello.They had two selections for their dry-aged steaks and we chose to share the 18oz New York strip. Asking it to be cooked to a medium rare, you can see that it was seared to a rare and not only that the heart of the steak was cool to the touch. We asked for it to be further cooked and in the mean time we occupied ourselves with the side of creamed corn, which if not for the slight popping of the fresh kernels I would have assumed was poured straight out of a can.Upon return it looked slightly better, at least it was warm this time. The exterior is quite charred, with the layer of carbon lending its flavour to the steak. One word to describe this steak, chewy. And not just slightly. If you are in need of a jaw muscle workout I would highly recommend you in tackling this piece of steak.No dessert as our jaws were already too tired.Carnevino was definitely an experience. One that I happily will not repeat. 繼續閱讀

I broke a simple rule I have by dinning at Carnevino - when in Asia eat Asian food. Why? Because although you can get good European food it is poor value for money. Carnevino is a prime example of this. My friend and I went here for her birthday. The atomosphere is good, comfortable booths, low lighting and a good selection of background music. So what was wrong?Service mixed - first waiter we talked to about the selection of meat didn't know what he was talking about (was later contradicted by a more knowledgable waiter we talked to). Waiter who took our order left us without asking the rather vital question of how we would like our steaks cooked. He also did not confirm our order before leaving and thus we got the wrong clam dish for a starter. Food - generally the food ranged from average to good. Slow cooked octopus start was tough - not good. Sauce also too rich. Clams were nice but should have bee served with something to add variety in texture and flavour. Wine list is extensive and the bottle we chose was pretty good. However, no wine waiter came to talk to us, which for a restaurant of this quality is poor. Steaks were cooked pretty well but not perfectly. Although nice and pink inside they lack juices. The outside of the steaks were too highly seasoned (salty). Mash potatoe was excellent though. Portions are generally good. So much so we decided against dessert. I had an espresso which was disappointing. Too bitter. An Italian restaurant that can't pump out a beautiful espresso time after time needs to up its game. All the above would have been acceptable if it wasn't for the price tag. Dinner for two was HK$2,601. And so we come back to the rule that can be turned around to 'Don't East European Food in Asia'. If I had this meal back in Europe it would have been half the price at the same quality. That is why I eat Asian food in Asia and European for when I travel back home.  繼續閱讀

Carnevino is an Italian steakhouse located right at the heart of Central. With its name "Carne" stands for steaks and "vino" stands for wine, the steak house is promised to serve the highest quality steaks and remarkable wine.The steakhouse was spacious with an open bar at the front door and a grand dining room further inside. The dining room was beautifully furnished with a classy steakhouse ambiance of marble and wood. The service was topnotch with attentive and friendly staffs. Shawl and hot water are both readily available for ladies if they feel cold.Carnevino's Restaurant Week Dinner Menu HK$438We went to Carnevino today for its Dinning City's Restaurant Week's menu. I always reckon the best deal at RW is dinner at a steakhouse. For the price you are paying for a set menu at RW, you can only get a main course (or less) normally.Watermelon amuse boucheI thought it was not really watermelon because it was a cube and I thought it is hard to prepare watermelon in a cube shape? Anyway, this watermelon cube was in tongue size, not even bite size. It was refreshing and sweet with a tint of herb flavour. Please give me more and be less stingy! Bread & ButterEVIL as Carnevino are, they dare to serve LARD along with butter with their breads! The lard was savoury and smooth with strong pork flavour, which compliments the bread really well. The unsalted butter was easily spreadable and smooth. The cupcake-like soft bread was light and delicate. I like the flat sliced bread more which was chewy at the rim and soft inner. Despite the crazy saturated fats the lard contains, I smeared the butter and the lard together with my bread. Soooooooooooooooo GOOD!Insalata Romana Romaine and Red Endive Dressed in a Sweet Garlic Dressing with Spanish AnchoviesThe cute little anchovies surprised me as the ones that I had was often overly salty. This anchovise from Carnevino was fresh, tender and in good saltiness. The romaine and red endive were both very crisp and fresh. Yet I would be happy if the kitchen chop the leaves finer for me. The garlic dressing was mixed in thoroughly and in good portion to just coat the leaves perfectly. There was a delicious amount of Parmesan cheese all over the plate. The salad was delish.  Calamari with Spicy Tomato Crispy Calamari with Pickled Chilies, Lemon and Spicy TomatoThe calamari was AMAZING. It was deep fried to give a light yellow puffy and crispy crust, and kept the inner fresh and chewy. The spicy tomato sauce was delectable! It was savoury, spicy and mildy sweet. We literally cleared the plate by swipping the sauce off the plate with our bread.USDA Prime Top Sirloin 12ozThe sirloin was beautiful. It was nicely charred on the outside and perfectly cooked to give a pinkish inner in medium rare. The sirloin was tender and juicy with a crunchy aromatic charred crust. It was a nice sirloin but I still prefer rib eyes or filet mignon more .Although it is best to have steak without sauce, or just with a bit of sea salt, I still appreciates Carnevino's steak sauce. There are in total six different kinds of steak sauce available but Salsa Verde Butter was recommended to go with the Prime Sirloin. The Salsa Verde Butter was rich in flavour and compliments the steak really well! Despite the steak sauce, a cute box of different kinds of salts were brought to us for our enjoyment.Although not as crazily many steak knife options as the Steak House Wine Bar + Grill, I was still contented with Carnevino's steak knife. The steak knife was heavy and sharp with an etching of Carnevino on it. Carnevino mainly use Christofle for their other utensils like table fork and knives.Roast Chicken with Truffles and Semolina alla Romana Roasted Half Chicken with Semolina CakeThe dish came in with a nice presentation and a strong flow of truffle aroma! There was some truffle shavings on the salad and probably some truffle oil as well, thus making the salad tasted heavenly. The roast chicken was extremely succulent, the dark meat was smooth and tender; the white meat was bouncy and tender! The sauce was rich and quite robust in flavour and tasted good with the chicken. The semolina cake tasted like mashed potato with a crunchy top. The dish was awesome.Creamed Corn with Lime SaltEver since I have the amazing cream corn at the Strip House by Harlan Goldstein, I could not resist but order creamed corn whereever I go. This creamed corn was quite weird in taste as lime salt and cherry peppers are added to it. The creamed corn itself was not very sweet nor buttery, its texture was more to the chewy side. I do not like the combined taste of the occasional spiced pepper and the sweet corn.Carrot Cake, Coconut Ice Cream, Ginger Carrot SauceThe 3 layered carrot cake was moist and moderately sweet. The ginger carrot sauce complimented the cake very well and brought some spiciness to it. The coconut ice-cream was light and creamy but did not match too well with the cake, vanilla might be a better choice.Lemon Semifreddo BSangria Sorbet, Mint Fruit SaladThe Lemon Semifreddo was weakly lemon flavoured and had an interesting texture, like frozen gelato. The Sangria sorbet was delectable, sweet with a mild wine taste. I could not remember if I had Semifreddo before, but I don't think I like it too much.  繼續閱讀

最近工作有點困阻, 只有見步行步, 食一餐好的平衡一下不正常的心理. 假日的12:30, 只有幾張枱, 冷清而寧静. 他很喜歡CARNEVINO的装修, 古銅色的吊燈配上優雅的皮製傢俱, 古典又有格調. 午餐: Appetizer + Main Course = $238, + Dessert = 另加+ 58Appetizer : 我叫了Veal Carpaccio with Salted Egg and Herb Dressing : 顏色很美, 生牛肉片加些旦, 加些香草, 很開胃. 他是Local Shrimp with Tomatoes and Polenta : 蕃茄蝦加意式玉米餅, 很新鮮, 也大隻.Main Course: 我叫了Carnevio Burger   : 包微微焦香, 牛肉是淡粉紅色的, 豐腴多汁, 簡單配醃黃瓜, 芝士和菜已很滋味, 番茄醬被冷落在一旁. 配菜沙律超大碟, 我倆一同盡力而為. 他是Flat Iron Steak: 平鐵牛排, 它取自一般人用來慢慢燉的牛隻肩膀部位, 在切割時避開肥油筋絡, 是油花均勻而且肉質細腻的牛排. (註一)Dessert 我叫了Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Coconut Ice Cream 菠蘿旦糕不太甜, 椰子雪糕很淡, 他不喜歡, 我卻欣賞, 飽到上心口也把它吃光！ 他叫了Bomboloni : 四大粒的炸吉士醬麺粉團, 配香濃的士多啤莉果醬.食得很飽, 為了幫助消化, 周圍逛逛才回家. 繼續閱讀