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2014-01-12
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Having heard wonderful things from quite a few friends about the Grand Hyatt Steakhouse, I decided to take Miss P here for Christmas Eve! Setting (9/10)The place has a great ambiance, with dim lighting, leather/sofa type chairs, and ample room between tables. There are a few sections to the restaurant, the main salad bar area has “cart” seats, ideal for couples. FoodTonight, it was a Christmas Eve set menu at HKD1,480/person, not including drinks and service.Cocktails (8/10)Quite innovative cock
Setting (9/10)
The place has a great ambiance, with dim lighting, leather/sofa type chairs, and ample room between tables. There are a few sections to the restaurant, the main salad bar area has “cart” seats, ideal for couples.
Food
Tonight, it was a Christmas Eve set menu at HKD1,480/person, not including drinks and service.
Cocktails (8/10)
Quite innovative cocktails here – bit on the strong side, so the ladies may want to ask them to make it a bit sweeter.Garlic Bread (5/10)
The bread had great flavor, with just the right amount of crisp. Too bad it was only mildly warm when it came.Salad Bar (8/10)
Nice selection at the salad bar – Oysters, iberico ham, smoked salmon, duck pate, shrimp cocktail, made-to-order salad, DIY salad barGood quality ham and smoked salmon. Oysters were not the freshest.
Unfortunately the staff at the salad bar was sneezing and sniffing on top of the salad section, and did not even wear a mask. Later in the night, I had to visit the toilet multiple times – this may have had something to do with it!
Lobster Bisque (4/10)
Not as good as some of the competition out there. XO Cognac taste was not overpowering, but the flavor profile of the lobster was quite weak. There needed to be some additional brightness in the taste.Nebraska NESA Prime Slow Roasted Rib Eye (8/10)
This was Miss P’s choice for the evening, a roasted rib-eye steak, cooked perfectly medium rare. The steak was well distributed in fat content, just a bit of tendon around the “eye”. Could use a bit more crispiness to the edges. Personally, I liked it alot as I prefer the taste of US beef.
We were offered many mustards and sauces to choose from. He recommended the truffle mustard, which was surprisingly balanced and complemented the steaks wonderfully.
Nebraska USDA Prime Strip Loin 12 Oz (4/10)
The Strip Loin was cooked to my preference, also served on a warm plate. The char was not as good as Intercon’s. The fat distribution was decent but the steak was chewy as there was too much tendon.The biggest let down of this steak was not so much the quality, but the fact that it was barely warm when it arrived.
My personal opinion is that a steak is not hard to cook. There are fewer steps than most other sophisticated and similarly priced dishes. However, its difficult to master those simple steps in cooking and serving a steak in a restaurant setting, and unfortunately my experience was probably ruined by a cook/waiter who let my steak get cold before getting it to our table.
Side dishes
Duck fat fries (9/10) – these were well seasoned, potato wedges were slightly chewy as you bit into themWhipped potatoes nutmeg (7/10) – well executed, standard mashed potatoes
Winter mushrooms (5/10) – decent, nothing special
Desserts
Homemade Christmas Plum Pudding (not rated)Nice presentation, personally do not like Plum Pudding so I will not comment on the taste. At the marked up price we were paying, I would have liked more choice on the desserts, however.
Black Forest Christmas Log Cake (7/10)
Very nice presentation on this! It was a fun end to the meal.
The chocolate soft serve ice cream was rich and light. The log cake itself wasn’t particularly special, it was a bit on the dry side and could use more cream filling. There were other fruits and cookies around the dish, those were decent as well.
Service (9/10)
The service was one of the best I’ve experienced at a hotel steakhouse. The waiters were patient and were knowledgeable about their food and drinks. Miss P likes her cocktails sweeter, they said they would adjust the sweetness accordingly.
We were recommended duck fat fries by a friend – although they didn’t have it on the Xmas set menu, I just mentioned this to the waiter and they made us a special batch on the house!
Near the end of the meal, they took a picture of us and put it in a nice red card backing for us to commemorate the meal!
Conclusion (6.5/10)
The place has a great ambiance and the level of service was impeccable. Portions are big and the salad bar has a nice selection. It was rather unfortunate and maybe I was unlucky that there were a few major setbacks that I didn’t expect at hotel dining and on Christmas Eve. Perhaps the staff need more training on hygiene and time management.
Overall, I think that this is a decent place to dine. I probably wouldn’t come again for special occasions, but may come back on a normal day.
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