Malouf's Middle Eastern Cuisine (Closed)

Greg Malouf's. A local restaurant operated by Dining Concepts HK and licensing from the famous Arabesque/Mediterranean chef of the same name in Melbourne, Australia and using some of his famous recipes of 'Momo Melbourne'. The residing chef is also trained under Malouf and also oversees the operation at Olives at SOHO.On a family oriented Sunday involving shopping then a plan to dine later at 囍宴 滋‧選 afterwards, mother and myself curiously wandered upto the open roof dining area, just to take a breathe of fresh air as well as to check out whether any of the often empty restaurants have closed already. With Malouf's advertisement for $30/glass happy hour wines, a bit of desperate persuasion by the manager downstairs as well as the promise of free snacks until 8pm, we walked in to have a sunday drink and it ended up being a light dinner downstairs instead. (I think I went coincidentally on the same day as previous reviewer PEECH by the way, may be I should have said hello!)A small standalone table filled up with free Mezze/Mezza items and dips are available for anyone having a drink. Strangely enough, most of these free items are the same as the Mezza Bar items on the drinks menu, often in the $5X-$70 range per dish, so this free snacks offer was great value for money since the drinks themselves were super cheap and of selected quality. Food items might include carrots, cucumbers, Hummus Chickpea dips, Sundried Tomato or Red Pepper dip, Olive Dip, Jou Jou/Pita bread, sliced bread, Vine leaf wrapped Dolomites, Ricotta and Spinach Filo Pastries (but the doughy and hard external texture was more like the Noah's ark like 'Pastizzi's' to be exact), poker chip vegetarian Falafel's, some kind of Merguez sausage roll, Olives, preserved Lemon Rinds, etc. FREE! Until 8pm. Great start!The only gripe is that they dont refill them all the time, so you really need to ask! OTHER FOODS:Chickpea batter Sardines with Tabouleh/Tabouli Salad:Batter slightly too soft and little chickpea taste, but sardines were surprisingly fresh, bony and tasteful.Tabouleh salad unfortunately did not taste anything like it should, the Continental parsleys barely having any aroma and taste and not chopped up well. I think Italian parsleys are better suited in this application, each and everytime. Could barely detect any mint leaves flavour either.Vine leaf wrapped Portobello Mushroom & Haloumi Cheese with a Yoghurty sauce topped with smoked Paprika and Coriander and Red Onion type of salad (differs from the version online):Very nice indeed, as I'm a great lover of Vine leaves, Portobello as well as Haloumi Cheese. The Coriander based salad was slightly nicer than the Tabouleh in the sardines dish. What impressed the most was the Quality of the Wine selection versus Low Price here. There are roughly 11 types of Wines by the Glass available here, which are NOT the usual cheap as chips Chilean wines which induce headaches each and everytime for yours trul - infact, not a Chilean in sight - GOOD! Ranging from $58 to $7x, to max $128 for a glass of Non-Vintage Billecart Salmon Brut Rose (who else would serve this champagne by the glass in HK usually?), all wines except the latter can be had for $30-40 during Happy hour! Wow. A lot of Hong Kong restaurants can learn from here. Here's a preview of what I had:Whiter Loosen, Villa Loosen Riesling 2006, Germany - Haha. All smiles as this type of cheap but slightly sweet riesling wine exemplifies exactly why cheaperer quaffs such as cheap but off-dry Riesling, Beaujolais, Chianti/Montepulciano,really have their place on Sunday's. A cheaper grade of German riesling was chosen here - it had none of the often associated petroleum like funky character (or to me personally, smelling exactly lke Super Glue). That kind of higher end riesling has a bit of an acquired taste character, often taking 30-60 minutes to blow off and not as suitable for food matching especially spiced food like these. $40/Glass Happy Hour. Pincipato Pinot Grigio, 2006, Italy - the most versatile white wine here that suited most food and seasonings in Malouf. A tone darker and denser than usual Italian Grigios but still crisp and floral, this really was an affordable yet surprisingly complex Pinot Grigio. House wine = $30 HP.Dusky Sound Sauvignon Blanc, 2007, New Zealand - Very distinctly varietally New Zealand Sauvignon, with its punger aroma and passionfruit driven palate that made it prosper in the world. Not entirely my type of Sauvignon as its too new world like, but the sommelier/chefs who chose this to represent the Sauvignon Blanc selection has done well as it punches above its weight in most aspects, although a bit predictive. $40 HP.Red:Babich East Coast Pinot Noir, 2007, New Zealand - a medium bodied, biased towards new world Pinot that is also quite representational of the pinot varietal as well as NZ. Sweet red fruits, slightly meaty, good balance between oak, spice and plummy fruit, went well with food here. Again a great choice by Malouf's, obviously not a top wine by any measures but for a measly $40 a glass HP and not much more post-happy hour, its highly recommended. Umani Ronchi Montepulciano D'Abruzzi, 2006, Italy - An attractive sweet aroma, Dark cherries with a slight complexity in the background that suggests a higher priced wine than its price tag with some complexity and not just sugar sweet druits. This Montepulciano had a medium tannin level and this created a secondary character in the background, reminding me of Vine Stalks or grapeseeds. The House Red here, therefore $30 HP. Not suitable for most food here but a great quaff by itself.From a Business point of view, the wine by the glass choices here make a whole lot of sense - as they're not expensive wines, therefore they have enough profit margin for the proprietor, whereas from the customers point of view I could afford to pay for my sunday drink, or a few of them! All the ones I tried were much more than the usual single dimensional house wines served everywhere else, they were carefully selected and representional of the grape varietal, whilst surpassing the expectations for their stupidly low prices. Well done. One of the most entertaining Wines by the Glass selections I've encountered in HK, bar Lounge Bar at Four Seasons.As rumour has it - Malouf's will soon be rebadged to the slightly older and more established 'Olive' brand, possibly in a attempt to induce more brand recognition with non-Chinese customers who have visited the original Olives in SOHO. As can be seen, this open-roof terrace area of Elements hardly gets any customers. Its relatively quiet from weekdays to weekends, a fate that also affects other well known international brands like MEGU. Over at D.Diamond there wasn't even 1 customer at 8:30pm, whereas JOIA fares better but still only at 30% occupancy. In my honest opinion, it will be a big mistake to rebrand it as another 'OLIVE', a name which is too often wrongly associated with Greek food in its SOHO shop as although that is partially true, it is majoritively Modern Middle Eastern. IF ANYTHING, THEY SHOULD BE RE-BRANDING THE SOHO 'OLIVE' TO "MALOUF'S".The problem is not even to do with branding or the food, or brand recognition, but it lies with the Shopping Centre management. I remember the 1st time I visited Elements, I did not even know about this high end Dining Area on top of virtualy nowhere, with little advertising signs on the elevators below. There is hardly any walker by traffic. If I was Dining Concepts HK, my first priority will be to force the Management into doing something about this lack of marketing or unfamiliarity with this roof top dining area within Elements. 2ndly I would more actively advertise the Malouf concepts to HK customers, or perhaps putting on display his very interesting recipe books which showcase the food from a few Mediterranean countries... even though the execution of the food isn't perfect, at least it is fairly interesting. Rebranding it back into Olives wouldn't increase sales here, in fact I'll predict that it'll fare worst. It would be a great loss for Hong Kong if Maloufs and then Olives closes down and pulls out from the market as it is a very unique experience, although not as good as the Melbourne version. But you heard this here first - somehow, I have a feeling that not far into the future, this space would evolve to become the next outlet for the newly imported American/French steakhouse BLT, practically managed by the same company. Afterall, BLT is doing well and Elements is missing just such a restaurant of high quality steaks. I certainly wouldn't want to see that happen though. continue reading

We had three starters to tide us over, beginning with the mezze. The cheesy ladies fingers were OK, and the smoky baba ganoush was not bad with the homemade jou jou bread. The almond falafel was nice as to be expected, while the salt cod and preserved lemon fritter had a nice, soft texture like one would find in a Portuguese or Spanish restaurant.Batt moubakhar - the duck leg was marinated in "7 year master stock"...not quite sure what that means. While the frying made it look like a duck confit, the cumin salt used reminded me of Chinese 5-spice. The accompanying carrot salad matched the duck nicely.Laban immor - the lamb dumplings were pretty good, with the interesting tastes of garlic mint yogurt with spinach and chick peas.A second round of ordering added another starter and some mains. I didn't take any of the shawarma as it's been made into a modern salad.We had two orders of the bistayeea, since we would have been fighting for the pigeon pie otherwise. However these fell a little short of my expectations, given how yummy they were on my last visit. The flavor of the pigeon meat was less intense, and although there was still the almond and the sweet filo pastry, it was just a bit anti-climactic.Malouf's Mouhrabieh bi kraides - this prawn and mussel tagine was interesting, with caramelized fennel and giant cous cous that look like white BB shots. Not sure what these balls are made of, but they sure are chewy.Mozat bi baharat - the veal shank looked gigantic sitting in the tagine pot. The meat was tender although just a tad dry for my taste. The butternut pumpkin base was sweet and good.We can't walk out of the place without sweets, so here goes a third round of ordering...Spiced pomegranate ganita with minted watermelon salad and lime syrup pistachio halva - I had a tiny spoonful and it seemed pretty good. Mahallabia - I had this on my last visit, but the jelly on top of the cream is now made with rose scented strawberries. Still had the Iranian candy floss on top which is just dragon beard candy (龍鬚糖) to the Chinese...Syrian apricot and almond tart with caramelized orange and orange blossom clotted cream - pretty yummy actually, and the caramelized orange was especially interesting as this isn't something we usually see.Burnt honey ice cream and kataifi and toffeed figs - delicious caramel flavors.I had the Morrocan mint tea, but unfortunately the tea had neither enough flavor nor enough sweetness...Overall it was a pretty decent meal, if a tiny bit below my expectations in terms of food quality. However the real let down came in the form of service. The staff seemed poorly trained and generally slow, perhaps even a little nonchalant. We were a bit put off by this. The whole dining experience would be so much better - resulting in more customers - if the staff could just care about service a bit more... Oh well... original blogpost: http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2009/03/morrocan-flavors.html continue reading

閒日行商場最好，唔駛同人迫之餘又可以聽到售貨員介紹新到貨品~ Elements餐廳咁多，本來我想去D. Diamond既，不過媽咪竟然對中東菜有興趣…好！上到Civic Square見到比較靜，因為我地都過左午飯時間，不過中東藉侍應都好熱情招呼我地~ 今日天氣非常好，我地選擇左坐室外~ 有兩款lunch sets，可以揀2 or 3 courses，另外亦都有express lunch~ 媽咪想試下個前菜，shredded chicken pieces with garden greens and egyptian style egg，主菜要左grilled salmon (全名太長唔記得)~ 我就比較鍾意食Shawarma，雖然羊肉吸引D，不過媽咪唔食羊，都係要雞肉啦~前菜Chicken Salad賣相好靚，可惜我對中東菜冇乜研究，所以唔識分有邊幾種食材~ 首先隻蛋整得好好食，溏心蛋唔係重點，反而蛋白上面既香料好好味，帶少少甜~ 沙律調味亦做好，唔太酸不過都好開胃~ 大量既雞絲，一塊小肉餅加埋隻大雞蛋，食左一半都已經飽左大半主菜三文魚外面煎得非常香脆，魚肉一D都唔老唔腥，煮得剛剛煮，入口嫩滑，算廚師手勢好~ 伴魚既puree好幻滑，甜甜地同三文魚好夾…我記得好似係紅蘿蔔蓉，但係唔敢肯定~Chicken Shawarma 大得有點兒過份呢，係土耳其食都係食一個就夠哂，今次一碟有兩大卷，仲有沙律同薯仔伴菜…我揀左tahini yogurt sauce，酸酸地冇咁漏，特別欣賞呢度既肉係好厚身既雞脾肉，燒得juicy唔鞋口，好好味~ 不過真係太飽喇…最後都食唔哂~侍應都好好禮貌，見我地食唔哂都問多兩次食物有冇問題 餐牌上有好多不知名既食品都有問必答，唔知佢識唔識講中文呢… 埋單 $186同土耳其街邊小食店好唔同既風味，不過食物好味又有心思，媽咪又覺得今次好新鮮，感覺良好…下次唔食咁飽就仲好食飽飽之後仲可以慢慢食傾下偈，係一個long lunch既好地方~ continue reading

Called the restaurant the day before to see if they have any dessert for birthday. The manager was very nice and introduced different cakes/dessert. At the end I've chosen "a plate with different selections".It was a surprise. Nicely presented and decorated.Top: Turkish cookies and candiesLeft: Chocolate tart: Not too sweet, like brownies. The thin piece of chocolate decoration is unexpectedly good.Bottom: Pudding with pear cubes and topped with something like 龍鬆糖.Right: Ice-cream with crispy top and bottom, topped with fruit in caramel$228 may sound a bit expensive for a dessert. But personally think it worths: looks good, tastes good and could imagine the time and skill requiredOther food are good too. We ordered:- Salmon Kibbeh- Hummus and Scallops- Pita Bread- Beef Kebabs- Mixed GrillThree people spent three hours for the dinner. Couldn't finish all the food and took away the whole plate of mixed grill. DBS/Compass card 10% off.Nice place and food. My recommendation for couples or 三五知己 to enjoy the evening. continue reading

很喜歡soho同集團的olive，所以帶着期望來試，雖然只是午餐。頭盤係rice shape pasta，諗諗地，但又幾好食，茄汁底，食完唔會太飽，整體食落比看起來好。主菜係大量cheese+minced 羊肉的混合體，很滯，但好味，芝士同羊都是我非常i喜愛的物，調味香料有Ｄ印度style，啱哂口味。另一主菜是辣雞卷，只得辣，麻麻地。Ｄ decoration 幾好，舒服。整體總算冇失望。 continue reading