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2016-10-15
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While 2016 has been a boring year for restaurant openings, it's the year of re-branding and makeover. Recently, we saw Riva and The Deck successfully transformed into Skye rooftop bar at Park Lane Hotel and Blue Butcher now officially "Blue - Butcher and Meat Specialist". Even Bostonian, the decade-old surf-and-turf resto at Langham Hotel, decided it was time for a facelift.After an extensive two-month makeover, the new-look Bostonian now sports a shipyard chic decor with wooden panel walls, mah
After an extensive two-month makeover, the new-look Bostonian now sports a shipyard chic decor with wooden panel walls, mahogany seats and vintage dark brown sofas.
The bar near the entrance of the restaurant added a vintage touch to the vibe.
The semi-buffet brunch ($588 on the weekend) features a wide selection of appetizers (mainly salad), luxurious seafood platter, sashimi and made-to-order main course.
Free flowing bubbly is additional but non-alcoholic drinks like soft drinks and juices are included in the brunch.
Round one - I started things off jumping all over their poached lobster, one of the highlights of the buffet. The foie gras terrine with red wine jelly was very high on my list too. I didn't like the salmon confit (and smoked salmon), which I thought was way over-seasoned.
Round 2 - The prawn skewers were nice but a bit oily. I like the tiny little crab legs. Very sweet and meaty. I suggest not wasting time with the baked scallops which were kind of disappointing. There's not a whole lot of places that offer oyster kilpatrick with their weekend brunch so it was a real pleasant surprise that Bostonian does offer it here. However, I wasn't happy with the fact that they stopped refilling it midway through the brunch (more on that later).
Braised abalone - this was seriously good. Another pleasant surprise.
After several rounds of non-stop seafood, I finally threw in the white towel and started getting ready for my main course but right before that, some complimentary dishes from the kitchen.Porcini soup was not nearly creamy enough and I didn't like the addition of barley there. When I'm having a buffet, the last thing I want was to use up my stomach space for stuff like barley.
Baked crab meat with sea urchin - This was much much better. I wish they could provide unlimited supply of these at the buffet counter.
Foie gras toast - Not bad but the toast was a little on the hard side.
Fast forward to my main course. I had this Dijon mustard-crusted beef mignon with chorizon hash, roasted corn flan and pepper jus. It was done exactly as they were instructed, medium.
Dessert was a variety of magnum ice-cream bars in different flavors.
Now I want to talk more about this brunch experience..... For the premium price that they were paying, I fully expect all the dishes to be refilled periodically but that was not the case at all. Certain dishes such as the baked oysters were never available except for the start of the brunch (when this photo was taken) and the same goes for other dishes like prawn skewers.
There were definitely enough waiting staff to handle a half-full crowd but for whatever reason, my glass was always more than half empty.
For about $600 per head, there were plenty of choices for a good weekend brunch in the city. I had pretty lofty expectations coming in for the revamped Bostonian but came away slightly disappointed with their efforts. As the crown jewel of The Langham Hong Kong, I simply expected more.
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