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2011-12-12
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It's a Chinese culture for families to gather together on Sundays and enjoy a nice meal. As a tradition, all yum-cha restaurants would be fully packed on the day. Today was nonetheless the same. We arrived at 12noon - peak time for lunch and hoped to find a seat somewhere. Not surprisingly, queues were lining outside every single Chinese restaurants like 湘川滬, 鴻星, 皇廷, 翠園 which were all situated at 7/F and 8/F in grand century place. The least number of tables that we had to wait for a small table
The setting was indeed unsuitable for family gathering, but great for couples. Due to the lack of people, it's rather quiet, or positively saying, tranquil ambiance. As traditional japanese restaurants, the lightings were not as bright as chinese ones as well. We were given a menu, 3 pages, and were told that those were the only dishes available for lunch. There wasn't any sunday specials, mostly were 定食 - at attractive price of around $70-80 per set. It would be great if they could provide a la carte so families/friends could share food, and they could definitely earn more as well
We wanted sushi, and...nope sorry
Rather disappointed, we opted for other snacks. give credit where credit is due - this egg roll was fab. it was a bit rough when we looked at it, however as we bit into it, the egg was actually soft and smooth. It was a delightful combination with cheese and mentaiko. The subtle sweetness made it alluring. It was the first dish delivered, towards the completion of our meal, we were delivered another plate, apparently they made a mistake and we were told that the chef mistakenly made an extra one. To avoid "wastage", we decided to have it! At the cost of our bill of course
This is another dish that deserves praise. A straightforward rendition without any tricks. The deep fried soft chicken bones were golden brown, crunchy, not too oily yet juicy. All you look for in this simple starter was presented at only $18! It was encored immediately
Salmon sashimi, grilled salmon and strands of fried eggs are the combination of this three-colour set. They were served side-by-side as you can see from the picture. Nothing too fancy, expected taste. Since they didn't serve salmon sashimi a la carte, I wasn't expecting too much from the salmon. It was fresh, but not too juicy, mediocre at best. The grilled salmon was lukewarm, slightly below average standard as it wasn't tender and pretty bland... The sushi rice was amazingly lovable moist and chewy, definitely augmented this dish overall. It was generously portioned as well. The set also came with a steamed egg custard, it was smooth but we didn't like sour egg so it was left untouched.
The staff especially brought our attention to this dish, mentioning that it was sour, which is of my liking and escalated my expectation. It came with a nice pot that was heating upon delivery. We had to wait like 5 mins before uncovering it. I simply couldn't understand why it bothered with all the gimmick when everything was simply distinctive off-note. It wasn't sour because of the tomatoes, it was austere salty. The pork was stale and coarse, soup was queasy. No excuses were made for the lackluster performance of this effortless dish.
We only ordered this after the drab tomato pot. Sadly, it was a grave implication of the chef's skill. The pork bone ramen was again too salty, could taste the MSG straight away, which made me questioned the chef's tastebud (or maybe he didn't bother foodtasting at all). The noodles were close to al dente, but not enough to pull up the standard of this dish. The soup clang too much on the noodles which made it way too heavy. The miso soup, awkwardly, was decent - a flovourful broth that wasn't salty! We dipped the noodles to the miso soup and managed to finish the noodles. We would definitely call it an accomplishment The fried chicken was average, pulled down by the soup as well as made it soggy. It should really served separately to conserve its juiciness. In addition, the service was not flattering given the lack of customers, not attentive at all and we had to cue for water adding; they were "so eager" to collect our menus as if not enough were printed for a mass of customers-_- All I could say at the end of this experience was.. 虎頭蛇尾 Understood why it didn't "dare" to charge at a higher price in such a decent place. Grateful that waiting time was saved but we immediately went to auntie anne's to make sure our stomachs were satisfied and filled. How about simply extend one of the Chinese restaurants to its location and save the public's time
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