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2012-12-20
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San Xi Lou was actually an "alternate" booking which was made by my friend as we had originally wanted to go to another restaurant in Wanchai. I was originally skeptical, but my friend said this place was decent. My friend was right and we had a good hotpot experience.Firstly, I must say, I was quite comfortable with the environment, given that 70% of the guests were expats or non-locals (Japanese, etc.) Clearly, the crowd was very white collar, which gave me comfort since hotpot in Hong Kong
Firstly, I must say, I was quite comfortable with the environment, given that 70% of the guests were expats or non-locals (Japanese, etc.) Clearly, the crowd was very white collar, which gave me comfort since hotpot in Hong Kong can sometimes appear "risky" from a hygiene perspective. In fact, my first impression walking into this restaurant raised the same questions. Not that San Xi Lou was dirty, but it certainly was not spotless either. It is clear that this place was not originally designed to be a hotpot place.
San Xi Lou is located at Coda Plaza on Macdonnell Road. So it is actually very convenient for those of us who live around the Mid-levels. It is not a building which is "cool" or "stylish", in fact, it is just the opposite of that. You have to wait a little bit for the elevator and then it takes quite a while to make it to the 22nd floor given the elevator stops at likely every floor in between.
Once we got there, the reception was not very well organised. Even though we had a reservation, we had to wait for 5 minutes for them to clear a table for us. The receptionist was polite and pleasant and so were the other waiters and staff.
Once we got seated, we ordered pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the soup base took a while to come out (more than 10 minutes). Granted, the restaurant was packed full and you could tell the staff were being stretched. Yet at no point were the staff "exhausted" or "cynical" and they all maintained their composure and followed up on orders when we would follow-up with them.
They were sold out of a number of the fresh seafood items which was not great. But once we got going, the food was good. The Beef was pricey, but well balanced and worth eating. We ordered a lobster, which was good. The geoduck could have been more fresh, but still decent. We ordered the pork and vegetable dumplings, which was very good for a hotpot place. Our soup was a half and half with spice and pear. The spice had just enough kick, but not too much to kill the flavour of some of the other items. The presentation of all the hotpot items was very neat and exuded quality.
Maybe because it was Christmas, but everyone else who were eating there were having a good time. Half the tables were eating some kind of Szechuan spicy dishes, which I imagine is pretty good. Assuming that San Xi Lou can maintain its consistency, I would definitely come again and recommend to any "gwai lo" working in Central or living in the Mid-levels who is looking for a decent hotpot experience.
张贴