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2009-06-09
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Ever since a rather subdued opening not even that far back on countback, I have patroned the Wanchai store on multiple occasions which spanned over a period of many months whenever I arrived in Hong Kong. I have always respected Epoch as one of the first genuine batches of 'Quality Cafes' that has ever opened in Hong Kong - its now a reputed Tour de Force in its own rights, raising the bar forever that local standards are to be measured from 'subconsciously'. We have since been drawn in to a n
Its been one of my regular meet up spots and I highly recommend it to friends and alike, I still do. Its a lovely cafe well known for its emphasis on quality chocolate cakes, illy coffee and basic yet surprisingly hard to find sandwiches, decorated throughout with artworks, music CDs, very comfortable sofas and crimson red 'illy' logo matching layouts, etc. Deep under, I've quietly hoped that if 1 day it manages to expand its territory outwards, it will happen at the expense of other boring yet proliferating coffee chainstores and put them into oblivion as long as no one loses their part time job.
Looks like Epoch has just taken that first step with their 鰂魚涌 opening!
Nowadays the Epoch stores also do a pretty decent pasta selection with 'valued meal deals' and the cakes seem to be better than ever. Here's a dinner that I had recently:
1) Spaghetti Carbonara accompanied by a small Side Salad with Balsamic Dressing -
1st of all, I've noticed someone else on Openrice also recently trying out various Carbonara's as a true test of a shop's pastas. I concur with this approach because the measure of the authencity of a dish begins with the basics , even though this shop has other interesting pastas/risottos on offer. The Carbonara sauce here was slightly too Hongkong-nised creamy, even though the original Italian recipe doesn't even call for any cream. There is an additional raw eggyolk presented that is to be mixed on the spot by the customer, a novel idea yet dissimilar to the 'poached egg' approach in some other Jap-Italian shops.
The Bacon in this dish however was not to my liking, in fact I really disliked the artificial Hickory Wood Smoked Bacon Flavour, it was as pungent as those dry smoked bacon chips you used to hate eating but still pile on top of the self-made Pizzahut salads nonetheless like confetti, just because they were free and colourful. In fact these bacon slices aren't even bacon, they're ham and have none of the bacon fat taste nor the bacon meat's natural grainny muscle texture that accentuate a Carbonara dish, they were even slightly acidic from the wood oils. The only positive thing about it was that the shop was generous with its serving but it only meant more 'ham' was left uneaten on the plate. Meanwhile the spaghetti texture was slightly below al-dente but acceptable. Sprinkled on top is a bit of dried parsley and black pepper, I thought there wasn't a lot Cheese taste pre-mixed in so I asked for additional. Out came some grated Parmesan in a small bowl, fortunately these didn't taste like the Americanised KRAFT Parmesan but tasted exactly like the real deal.. a very nice gesture from the shop. (As a side note, the Australian KRAFT's Parmesan do not carry that skimmed milk powdered but non-existent parmesan taste as the ones bought in Hong Kong. Its a completely different product.).
2) Spinach, Mushroom and Cheese Panino -
There are a few Panini options on the menu but we opted for a more Veggies filled Panino to be shared. These were press grilled to a slight crunchy texture. When it arrived, we thought for the price charged the inside fillings were a bit atrocious. Merely a few strands of spinach and hardly any mushrooms for more than $40 odd dollars, on the other hand I am happy to announce that 'these weren't of the tinned mushrooms' varieties aka Burger King, Burger Mix, Bowl Burger, etc.
3) Coffees -
illy coffees as I have mentioned numerous times are hard to perfect. I won't go into details here but let me just say, the Cappucino I had that night actually tasted really good, the froth and milk was textured really well too. Yet, sitting from where I was, I watched the whole operation in real time and swear that it was one of the most 'scary' espresso shots poured from an espresso machine. It only confirms my experience and suspicion all along... illy derived 'milk coffees' are made best only when you treat it like a French Press coffee and all normal philosophies, logic and trainings must be thrown out of the windows.... (it'll probably make a good cafe au lait, it even tastes French rather than Italian.)
The extraction method here differed a bit from my experience with EPOCH at Wanchai. Here's my conclusiom:
- If you want a really good Cappucino, only order it from 鰂魚涌 Epoch.
- Want a very good illy Espresso? Then only order it from the Wanchai Epoch.
- If you want a good tasty Cafe Latte, don't bother at Epoch unless you like it milky and weak (even tough its authentic in parts of Italy but others).
A Smile given this time around because I think there has been improvements lately to the Epoch stores and the prices are very affordable, cakes not reviewed here were excellent. Perhaps they need to look into their food quality control although coffees are usually excellent. A low '3' - high '4'.
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