This restaurant had recently been featured on one of the HK chinese language TV channels for the quality of its food - I'm not a chinese speaker and had to rely on my wife for the finer points of the channel's presentation. We had some house guests visiting from Singapore and decided at the last minute to change our dinner plans from a favourite restaurant in Admiralty to one in Tsim Sha Tsui. Where to go? We found Steaks Express in Open Rice and called to make a reservation for 5 people, only t
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This restaurant had recently been featured on one of the HK chinese language TV channels for the quality of its food - I'm not a chinese speaker and had to rely on my wife for the finer points of the channel's presentation.
We had some house guests visiting from Singapore and decided at the last minute to change our dinner plans from a favourite restaurant in Admiralty to one in Tsim Sha Tsui. Where to go? We found Steaks Express in Open Rice and called to make a reservation for 5 people, only to be told that we might have to wait in the street for a suitable table. OK, normal for HK, especially on a Friday night. However, when we got there a table was waiting for us; no problem.
You walk into the restaurant passing the open, glassed in kitchen, to a nicely decorated dining room done out in a combination of chintz and cafe styles that only served to heighten our expectation. The menus arrived - all in Chinese that our guests and I had difficulty reading - and were recommended to take the set menu for two persons (times two), plus an additional main course off the (English) a la carte menu. The set menu comprised a lobster bisque, lobster sashimi, a lobster and pasta melange, tenderloin steak and a sweet. For our a la carte extra dish we chose a 20oz rib eye steak to make up the five portions we would need.
Then came the wine. An extensive and impressive wine list of old world and new world wines at reasonable prices looked good. We chose a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc and a Chianti and agreed with the server's suggestion to serve the Sauvignon Blanc first. All looking good so far, except we had noticed the server calling the wine order through on the telephone to an outside source.
The lobster was presented to us, live, and then prepared for the sashimi - excellent taste and well prepared. The wine arrive at the right time. Next came the lobster and pasta melange - very good flavours and textures. However by this time we had run out of wine and were expecting the Chianti to arrive. No wine, could we choose another as the Chianti was no longer available. This time a different wine list was presented with some further recommendations from the server, so we chose a Chilean Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and red wine glasses appeared and we, again, saw the server phoning the wine order through. Curioser and curioser...
After some reminding the beef tenderloin arrived as did the server with another bottle of wine; this time an "organic" merlot with further news the Chilean one was also out of stock. I filpped and just said we didn't want it, so the wine glasses dissappeared and we contiued with water. By this time, where was the rib eye steak? And the lobster bisque? Another server arrived with a Cabernet Sauvignon he had just happened to find in their wine store - I can't call it a wine cellar. On questioning, I was told it was HK$200-something, did we want it? We said yes so as I started to taste the wine, he then continued to pour it for our guests, nor could I find the cork to sniff. When he was asked to stop, he merely put the bottle down and walked away, so I ended up serving the wine for my guests.
Eventually the rib eye steak arrived and, by this time we had also discovered the tenderloin was quite tough and fatty, even though it was cooked to our order and quite tasty. The rib eye proved to be much better, although the flavour was not so well received as that of the tenderloin.
After some waiting and a lot of reminding, the lobster bisque arrived at the end. This was very tastey, but slightly oily, but because it was at the end of the meal and not the start not everyone in our party appreaciated the flavours. We decided to abandon any further attempt to enjoy the dining experience and called for the bill. Firstly the bill arrived, only for us to find the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon had been over charged, then we were presented with the sweet. This comprised a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top of a ramekin of truffle flavoured egg custard.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Total cost for five people: HK$3,500.
Lessons learnt: 1. Don't believe the TV reviews of what makes a good restaurant 2. For the Maitre'd - get your front of house team, wine list and cellar acts together, because most of everything else is good and has the potential to augment an excellent dining experience.
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龍蝦湯:夠濃郁 份量夠兩個人SHARE
味道OK,好脆,但太硬喇,食起黎好易失儀態
另有1個食蠔既menu
牛扒味道可以
卡邦尼意粉好香,好重芝士味!我最鐘E 哩個!抵食
被上面個卡邦尼比下去了, 一般般
