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2010-08-13
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I give an OK because I have been to this restaurant twice - one superb and the other disappointing. First encounter - It was not long after they first opened. I was there for a work dinner with some high-rollers. One of whom knows the owner of the shop and not surprisingly received attentive service and delicious food. I was particularly impressed with the florentina steak, Aussie wagyu dry-aged porterhouse, which provides a well-balance between tenderness and favor. To illustrate my point
First encounter - It was not long after they first opened. I was there for a work dinner with some high-rollers. One of whom knows the owner of the shop and not surprisingly received attentive service and delicious food. I was particularly impressed with the florentina steak, Aussie wagyu dry-aged porterhouse, which provides a well-balance between tenderness and favor. To illustrate my point, it is helpful to give you my precious experiences in US. I have been to various steakhouses i.e Peter Luger, Morton, Capital Grille, Wolfgang, Smith&Wollensky and etc. The point is: I have been spoiled. And the truth is: I have not had a great steak in HK before Bistecca. Get it in Chicago style, burnt from the outside and pink from the inside. Tender, juicy and surprisingly tasty. I would like to emphasize their choice of steak, which I consider extraordinarily smart. Dry aged USDA prime offer strong favor but are less tender than the wagyu. On the contrary, wagyu is tender but often lacks the strong favor. An Aussie dry aged wagyu offers a good mix.
Second encounter - I returned for the florentina with my foodie friends. We ordered two florentina to share. They served them by stacking them up one on top of the other. We did not care much about the presentation. We dig in. They were WARM or even cold. It was obvious to me that the steaks were pre-made. Fatal mistake. For god sake, I felt so cheated by over-paying some second-day-steak-roast-beef-for-sandwich in a NY deli. Things started to go downhill from there. Peter Luger or any prominent NY steakhouses set a rules - waiters deliver the steaks to the tables within certain number of seconds out of the ovens. So that when the steaks arrive, they are still sizzling. A good restaurant never forgo its core value. Persistence is key, stupid.
Later on I came across this restaurant over a conversation with a friend, who provided a better explanation. The restaurant quickly made a "hit" after open. The quick success distorted the focus of the chef, who needed not worry about the business when the room was filled with bankers, traders, HF managers and other businessmen, collectively high spenders. They got so busy and needed to negatively correlate business to quality, sadly. The need of mass production explained my warm/cold florentina.
I am hopeful. Bistecca is smart. But it needs to be focused and delivers persistence. Then they will win my business back.
张贴