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2017-06-01
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Unlike many of my friends, Monday is my day-off of the week. Instead of TGIF, TGIM and cocktails are my way to celebrate holiday. It's been quite some time to ask my friend out and drink together, and of course, do some updates with my friend.In search for a nice restaurant & bar, I find the variety of drinks, decor and convenient location of the place I'm going to introduce are more than satisfactory that must share with you. The name of the restaurant & bar is called Mini Club, which is locat
In search for a nice restaurant & bar, I find the variety of drinks, decor and convenient location of the place I'm going to introduce are more than satisfactory that must share with you. The name of the restaurant & bar is called Mini Club, which is located at 28 Sham Lam Street at Tsim Sha Tsui (although walking the way down Austin Street from Jordan is faster). After I met my friend at Jordan MTR station, it just took us 10 min wall to get here.
Walking inside, we were led by the waiter to get to our table, which was reserved two days earlier.
As I left my office punctual today at 6pm, I was able to get here by 7pm whereby the silent happy hour remained. The old 60-70s bluesy bar setting was well set in the decor of the restaurant with wooden tables and chairs, old popstar faces on the wall, and English music. I also saw Maria Callas' face--one my favourite soprano in the 1950s-70s.
Sitting at the high-chair table close to the window, I found looking through the window could tell me more stories from the light outside. It's a kind of sentiment that I want to talk to the outside world; my phobia still lingers in my body. Before expressing my recent downfalls, my friend and I ordered our special drinks and food first (yes, drinks always come first).
As a matter of fact, this meal was planned to celebrate my birthday last week, so both of us wanted to order something big, if not special. Happily, the restaurant ordered great deal of drinks, including 4-5 pages of wine & beer list, and 3 pages of cocktail list. No excuse can be made tonight if the drink list is lacking in choices! Why not picking 2-3 for tonight! Still, the ball was passed to the bartender for recommendations. He recommended a few special cocktails to us on the special drink list, which we found quite funny and worth to share. This included: what the duck, drink mud, einstein, honey bee, etc.. We also ordered one beer from the list so as to get some bubbles and more alcohol.
For food, we decided in a rather swiftly manner. Comparatively speaking, there were fewer choices of food than wine. Sharing options include seafood platter, sausage platter, cheese platter and skewer platter, while more heavy/starchy options include pasta and risotto. Oyster seemed to be another signature of the restaurant, yet we opted for the seafood platter where it's already included. Besides, we ordered a lobster pasta to try mixing this with our banana beer!
What the Duck!
$108
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About five minutes, our first cocktail "what the duck" ($108) arrived! Thanks to the nice service, we could get each of the drink to share bit by bit. The drink was indeed very cute! On side of the yellow duck, there was soap foam made by carob, water and touch of egg white. Together with the bathroom design, this was very swimming pool like, as-if the pond of the duck. There was also some pink seasalt to give some twist of the drink. Apart from the cute design, the taste was surprising mild with well balanced fresh pressed green apple juice and pineapple juice, and subtle sensation of cranberry juice and grenadine. A very smooth, delicious drink indeed! Recommended: 5/5
Seafood Platter
$298
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Then, our seafood platter ($298) arrived! half lobster, abalone, sleeping crab, sea snails and mussels are layered on the big bowl of ice. In short, all of the seafood tasted fresh and sweet; the freshness comes from the well-chilled condition of the seafood. Recommended: 5/5
In particular, I would like to highlight the abalone, sea snails and mussels here.
The abalone was tenderly poached and very sweet with its own juice. I found the dipping--spicy cocktail sauce went very well with it that the sourness of Worcestershire sauce gave a round body to the seafood. It's also my first unshelling the abalone; rather fun! This added some fun to dining when having a nicely arranged seafood platter.
The sea snail took extra energy to unshell it. Digged dip and twisted it. The chewy taste and slowly explosive juice from the meat highlighted how good a shell fish can taste.The mussel was also very fresh in taste. It's already precooked ones, but freshly boiled with white wine, as evident in the winey taste inside the meat and shallot around the shell. It's one of the rarely seen good mussels I've tried before.
Drink Mud!
$108
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After some seafood, we had our second cocktail "drink mud" ($108), which brought together the Chinese idiomatic saying--what to drink with the word "mud" and the sandy texture of Oreo crumbs of the drink. Underneath the drink, which was to be digged out with the little tool, there was very milld dark rhum, bailey's and milk. And some cocoa flavour too; almost like a slightly alcoholed cocoa! My friend particularly enjoyed the silky texture of the drink, as milk and bailey's always went well together. Again, this cool design was quite amazing! Recommended: 5/5
Oyster Selections
$398
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Then we had our oyster platter ($398), which includes three huge fresh oysters (plain) and the other with Korean sea urchin on top (very golden and tempting), and very much the taste was sweet and not so metallic, and surprisingly, oysters and sea urchin go well together!
Seafood w Lobster Linguine
$128
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After the drink, we had our Seafood W Lobster Linguine ($128). Without the presence of the lobster meat, shrimp meat offered alternative to get the prawny taste rendered. Slightly soften, the pasta was yet full of dark lobster and prawn flavour. It seemed to me both shellfish were used to give a complicated lobster aroma. Delicious indeed! Recommended: 4/5
Banana Beer
$88
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Of course, we had our banana beer ($88) to serve with the pasta. Closely smelt, the banana flavour was quite visible, but I did not feel very banana on my tongue; rather, it tasted malty and bittersweet to render a kind of wheat field experience. The taste was long-lasting, too.
All together, the overall service, quality pf food and environment were out of our expectations. Slightly high in price, but really much worth a visit! Especially, this was located at a seemingly silent corner of Tsim Sha Tsui/Jordan, which was perfect for friends, couples and group gatherings!
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