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2015-11-13
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So I'm taking a Cantonese class with some friends of mine, and we eat out in Wan Chai afterward. We've been having such success with restaurants on the weekend in terms of easily getting tables without reservations that I failed to make a booking for the dim sum place we wanted Saturday. That was a bad idea, so we settled on the Pawn.Now, I liked the old Pawn. Here's an anecdote to briefly capture its charm. One time I was there for a late lunch and the bartender was telling some tourists a ghos
Now, I liked the old Pawn. Here's an anecdote to briefly capture its charm. One time I was there for a late lunch and the bartender was telling some tourists a ghost story. Now I of course don't believe in ghosts, but if you could tell a believable ghost story, you'd need the appropriate venue. The old Pawn was like that. Now you couldn't convince the most gullible tourist that a ghost had been here.
But whatever, in time I may grow to like this new thing. When we arrived there were only two options: set brunch for $500 or free-flow set brunch for $600. YOLOAYDEBOTMB: you only live once (and you die early because of too much booze). We got the free-flow.
The set brunch inovolves them bringing several set small dishes and you choosing one main. It's a fair amount of food. The first thing that comes is avocado toast: mashed up avocado with some lime and cilantro on toast. With good ingredients, it's hard for this to go wrong, and it doesn't. Really great.For the next item I have no picture. It won't upload for some reason, so let me describe it to you: it's two* little iron pots with gooey mac and cheese, coated with a layer of breadcrumbs and probably parmesan on top. Unseeable in the picture is lobster, because it's lobser mac and cheese. Now I know this is a thing, but I personally would rather have lobster and mac and cheese rather than lobster mac and cheese. The combination, in my opinion, helps neither party. Additionally, the cheese wasn't as sharp as I prefer, but it was nicely gooey, so kudos on the emulsification game. Alright.
*Two pots b/c we were four people. If you're two people, I suspect you get one. I don't know if you're dining by yourself.
Next comes the ceviche. It's firm fish, and light on the citrus. Simple and good.We were all drinking the champagne (because hey... brunch), but they thought we should have white wine with the starters so they gave us a glass of that too. I will say the servers were very attentive about re-filling empty glasses.
Chicken salad: again, this is pretty straightforward. Chicken breast and butter lettuce with a light dressing. Nothing to complain about.
Last comes the main. By this point I'm pretty full. I think I had more than my share of the mac and cheese. (Hey just cuz I don't like lobster in mine don't mean I'm not crazy about mac and cheese.) The chicken's not gonna win any prizes. Here in HK we have roast chicken masters like Flamin' Frango and La Rotisserie. But it's OK. I liked the potatoes and carrots.With the mains they gave us red wine, all while continuing to fill our champagne and white wine glasses. One misstep here: the red wine pairing did not work with some people's mains. But I will say, that by the end I was a little drunk. A lot of "free-flow" places will do things like mimosas, which are mostly orange juice, and then the server will be hidden for 20 minutes and then after you ask for a refill come back 20 minutes later and oh look! brunch is over. That's definitely not what's happening here.
It's hard to recommend or not recommend. If you've got $600 to drop on a boozy brunch, then sure, go here-- at least they're serious about the free-flow. If you just want bacon and eggs, then maybe find something a little more low-key.
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