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2013-10-08
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Before I have a massive rant about eggs, I’d just like to mention that I like Coast. My friends like Coast. It’s convenient, has a fairly solid, albeit pedestrian, menu of meats, salads, pizzas, burgers - you get the idea. The veggie food is actually veggie. The environment is nice and spacious and simple - reminds me of a million and one chain wine bars in the UK. You are in very average but safe hands with Coast.However, it is one of the slowest places on planet Earth. It is in fact so slow th
However, it is one of the slowest places on planet Earth. It is in fact so slow that, looking across the pass into the kitchen, I thought I saw chefs breaking the laws of physics and actually move backwards in time. I think that a moment in the Coast kitchen could in fact halt the passing of time. Let me breakdown the facts…
Toast - 20 minutes (the chef was cooking it on the steak griddle for some reason?), turkish toast (ie fancy toast) - 15 mins, eggs benedict - a whopping 40 minutes. I could understand if the kitchen was rammed and diners were queuing up outside, but of the 20 or so tables, there were two occupied - our 5 person and another 3 person booth. Why does it take 20 minutes to make toast and 40 minutes to poach a couple of eggs? Seriously. On top of this, it took badgering the staff 3 times to get the wait down to 40 minutes on two eggs. To their credit, the staff did go to the pass and make the enquiries, but even they were moving so slowly that the CERN institute would find them fascinating.
So, when the eggs finally did arrive, I thought these would be the best things ever created in a kitchen due to the long wait, but no - very very average, bordering on poor. The toasted English muffins with lashings of slightly salted butter, were pale and soggy excuses (perhaps the toasting was skipped as the griddle was being used for turkish toast?), the piping hot eggs slightly runny, were soft but icier than a cold welcome from the wait staff, and finally the hollandaise. Right, let me explain something about eggs benedict (and I think Ramsey would agree), you have to have lots of hollandaise - it’s the raison d’etre behind the dish. It is supposed to be a piping hot sauce that covers the poached eggs and muffins, like a warm hug of French-ness. What I was served was a teaspoon of yellowish mayonnaise on each egg. It was literally as though the chef had whisked a little lemon and mustard into mayo. You may ask why I didn’t complain at the time? Mrs PieEatingMan was concerned that I might have died of old age in there waiting for the dish to be redone.
My advice for those wishing to visit Coast; only go there to meet friends before moving on elsewhere. It is a convenient location, has a big sign, and can be easily described to even out of town guests. Arrange to meet there for a quick beer (you may want to call with your drinks order in advance), then shoot of somewhere else for better food. Or, you could just stick to south coast HK island? There is a very nice beach there, and at least there, “time and tide stop for no man”...
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