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2009-07-06
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Everyone below has covered the basics so I can skip to the food directly, there's no need to re-stating the obvious! Still, I gave it some thoughts and think it fair to separate my review into 2 short categorised mini, write-ups in order to be more accurately reflecting the food and dining experiences, also the scoring. AFTERALL, all of us amateur food critics need to rely on one another's reviews, also hoping that if there are improvements to be desired from the restaurant or shop - our COLLEC
The first one is about the Afternoon Tea or Pastries/Take Away desserts experience, which I have done so on 2 separate occasions.
Afternoon Tea Set On 3D Plastic Stand:
Savouries - Too little selection. A bit of Bacon and I think Beetroot in one. Marinated tomatoes on bread. Some fish in Balsamic Vinegar. I think this is the MAJOR WEAKNESS of the teaset, as later visits saw a similar example being displayed. For me personally, I want a better offer of savoury stuff. Luckily.... the sweet stuff are much better.
Sweets - Consisting of small mignon pastries and cakes, mini bomboloncini filled with custard, flavours might include Hazelnut, Pears, Apples, Mangos, Strawberries, etc. These are kinda cute and bite sized, they're also quite unique in the Hong Kong market. Happy to see them here! Usually selling for around $8/piece by themselves. I thought I liked these enough that I would repeatedly order some of them on a regular basis as a tea snack. Certainly much better than the savoury stuff.
Coffee - The Pascucci coffees used here are actually the same as the Pascucci branded cafes in Hong Kong (I believe it might have grown to around 3-4 outlets by now?) and even the machineries and other maintenance related things are also done by the Pascucci group's personnel, as I so happen to see these guys enough to discover! The first few coffees I tried here were honestly quite poor, either being way too tepid even cold, or watery. I certainly did not expect these from a 'Dedicated Pasticceria' run by Italians trying to promote their famous cafe here in HK - what are the Italian owners thinking? However someone knowledgeable in the end managed not only to fix the problem but made me 2 Out-Of-This-World grade coffees, worthy of being one of the No.1 Coffee Status! Speaking of vindication! I think if they are serious, they should monitor this to be consistent in the future but here's hoping - fingers crossed....
The best I had here surpassed the Pascucci main shops' experiences by a lot - unfortunately, proper coffee is all about manual labour and control on the semi-auto/manual espresso machines, the undisputed epitome of coffee, unless you are a purist experimenting with single-origin beans. Give 1 amateur homechef, 1 training chef and 1 established Michelin chef and 1 Three-star Michelin chef exactly the same produce and they'll churn out very different results, unless the 'base ingredients' themselves were bad enough to start with. If this makes any sense!
Other Pastries and Sweets:
Order other things on the same day or on other occasions -
Croissant - Although Foodiewil already warned on his 1st review that these are not the usual fluffy type croissants one associates with the Internationally recognised, French style flaky and light pastries, in reality Italian Croissants are a different beast altogether and carry another authentic name. Perhaps if GVSTO didn't market these as the familiarly named 'Croissant' in English, it won't create such confusion amongst the customers. Italian 'Cornetti' usually have a thicker and spongier feel to it, resembling more an 'unrisen' croissant in nature internally. I knew what to expect here after Foodiewil's review, but I must say even taking this into consideration, the plain 'Italian style Croissant/Cornetti' I bought was overly damp inside. It was just left in the open or more recently placed under a plastic cover, but perhaps either the Hong Kong's higher summer humidity or the air-conditioning has further affected this special type of 'thicker' pastry? It also lacked a bit of eggy or buttery taste.
Small Croissant - Tried one of the smaller, pinkish savoury croissants with salmon as well. Its slightly pink and is supposedly rolled with PInk Peppercorn contribution. Good. Can they make a bigger version of this!
Baba (NO PHOTO) - One of the 10 or so LATEST additions recently in GVSTO after the soft opening stage in June, they have a small sponge cake that resembles a Baba Au Rhum or Popover in shape but doesn't seem soaked in rum, instead more of a citrusy syrup and slight alcohol infusion. I actually thought this was more sweet than anything - it could do with slightly bolder alcohol or flavouring! Bring it on! I actually also think this didn't soak up enough liquid as it was a bit too spongy in feel.
Strawberry Panna cotta (take away version, NO PHOTO) - When I first bit into this, I was slightly disappointed as its not a panna cotta in texture and taste at all, instead it has more like a thick biscuit base with just a hint of vanilla and strawberry flavour but its mainly sugary. It wasn't too sweet but like the above Baba, it lacked its 'intended' flavour. Perhaps it needs to be improved and I might enjoy it immensely rather than it being a bit ho-hum at this stage.
IN SUMMARY - pretty good sweets and pastries and rather unique in the local market. I thought these weren't old style ones but more modernized in a way - in fact more modernised than the COVA stuff for some reason. I think its not perfect as yet but its getting there.
I have 1 complaint though - I wanted to buy a sandwich here for lunch 1 day. Its cut into quarters and each quarter is $25. So, a single sandwich will cost me $100. That's ridiculous. The MAIN desserts served inside the restaurant are also crazily priced. The Panna Rappresa or Tiramisu are around $90-100 each for a minimal serving. As a comparison, a Panna Cotta/Rappresa from il Bel Paese is only $24 and that's the same size.
Around a mid '4' to low-mid '5' for pastries.
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