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2016-02-12
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Grievances at work and loud laughs aren't bipolar extremes - putting down the first while bringing up the latter is the rule of the game in Lan Kwai Fong. Not wanting to move our butts between happy hour and dinner time, right at the quiet swoop of Wo On Lane, we killed our Monday blue with happy hour drinks and Spanish dishes.Not extravagant, but just being classy. Dining venues look generally great around this area, but at the same time quite costly too. Comparing with Azure which I wrote befo
Grievances at work and loud laughs aren't bipolar extremes - putting down the first while bringing up the latter is the rule of the game in Lan Kwai Fong. Not wanting to move our butts between happy hour and dinner time, right at the quiet swoop of Wo On Lane, we killed our Monday blue with happy hour drinks and Spanish dishes.
Not extravagant, but just being classy. Dining venues look generally great around this area, but at the same time quite costly too. Comparing with Azure which I wrote before, Common Room's menu is a lot more friendly, which makes it a casual option for friends gathering.
Probably tailor-made for the customers in proximity, they serve antipasti buffet plus an option for main course at lunch ($150 up) and late night menu for pathetic breadwinners who work till late at night. Those I dated are of course survivors who can sneak out from office by 7pm!
Classy bars don't need chandeliers, but dimly lit and industrial-chic interiors plus large wooden tables. The 31-foot long mixology bar table strikes through the most eye-catching area in the restaurant. Largest portion of seats go to those with decent tables and comfy seats, being multi-purposed enough for drinks and nibbles - that's what a gastrobar truly means.
Liquor bottles were decently shown on the shelf, no wonder making up the "cast iron liquor library" that the restaurant has been proclaimed for. Lighting was gentle and elegant, shaping the cozy and communal ambience straight to the point.
Intended for mainly a dinner right after drinks, a wooden table well served our purpose. There weren't many customers on an early Monday night, making it even more spacious in addition to its setting.
Spiked Smoothies x 2
Still early for dinner cravings, two of us wished to grab happy hour drinks first. Fascinated by the leaflet promoting "healthy" smoothie-like cocktails, we ordered two which truly look like smoothies made by veggies! Heard that VANIMAL offered creative cocktails with elements of veggies, at a similar pricing as well.Cool - cumber $105
Cool - cumber
$105
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Not a fan of over-sweetened cocktails, this seemingly healthy (or is it really healthy?) cocktail gave a soothing feeling to awake your taste buds after a day of tiring work. However, it may not be that appealing to vodka lovers who look for real taste of it without looking at the ingredients in its menu.
Heart Beet Smoothie $115
One of my friends got a even not-so-cocktail-like cocktail, with vodka like mine but with beetroot as the red colour splash. Berries on top looked attractive like ice cream toppings. With maple syrup, this was sweeter than mine and vodka, not hidden by beetroot juice, tasted stronger than mine as well.Slider Combo $98
Not being excessively big eaters, we ordered three dishes for nibbles - the first being a burger combo. Quite a considerate concept to cater both omnivores and herbivores, one of the burgers was with wagyu and foie gras and another with portobello. I believe that not only vegetarians love portobello for its meaty texture and robust flavour.
I still picked the omnivore option - the one with foie gras and wagyu. These two are strong in flavour to leave a luxurious buttery taste, let alone combining the two in one go. Beef was grilled just right, leaving signs of slight red inside.
Classic Cheese Curds Poutine $118
Classic Cheese Curds Poutine
$118
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Poutine, being a Canadian (to be exact, Quebec) dish, should be appealing enough to those who have cravings in french fries but fear for getting a sore throat. Having thick beefy gravy through thick-cut french fries, the crispy layer is thus softened yet having the alluring greasy smell.
We didn't bother adding extra toppings, but in fact add-on options are available ranging from +$20 to $30, for example with bacon and eggs, grilled beef and red shrimps. A bowl of classic poutine was pretty fine to satiate pre-dinner cravings.
As told by the staff, cheese curds were made in-house by themselves and not imported nor purchased elsewhere. Looking densely yellow in cubes, cheese curds scattered in the bowl and hiding in camouflage of thick-cut fries!
Beef gravy did its job in smothering cheese curds and fries, giving a light beefy taste. Fries remain crispy enough on the outside yet soft and moist inside to withstand the gravy bath. Gravy was thick enough but able to reach to the bottom so that no mixing was necessary to get the gravy smothering the ingredients.
Chicken Lollipops $98
Personally not a big fan for fried food (cravings satiasted for me after the poutine), I was not especially moved by these chicken lollipops. Just grapping one would be fine though. Perhaps my response would be completely different if I were in a Korean restaurant, serving me a whole dish of fried chicken plus beer with K-pop MV playing on the TV!
Two sauces to moist the crispy and fried layer - thousand island dressing for the sour dip and maple syrup for the sweet dip. My vote went to maple syrup as the savory marinated flavour surprisingly matched with a sweet sauce.
Cravings for fried food were basically satisfied by the above appetizers and we then needed starch in our stomach for the night! Two main courses weren't in paltry portion and filled in the remaining 40% of our appetite.
Lobster Linguine $178
Half a Canadian Lobster stood upright in the middle of the dish, having a large portion of it as the head though. The sauce was dominated by tomato and garlic, with a little highlight of spicy taste. Happy to see that the sauce wasn't too thick to smother, linguine didn't get mushy yet having spice and herbs clinged on the surface - al dente!
Lazybones shouldn't find this an easy go - one has to be really patient in getting the meat out of the shell. Texture of meat was firm and didn't taste dull, attributing to the freshness and optimal doneness.
Squid Ink Seafood Paella $168
Squid Ink Seafood Paella
$168
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Texture of rice was the best part of the dish. Using Arborio instead of any long grain rice, Arborio was a good pick in absorbing the broth but not getting too mushy.
Wrapping up the happy-hour-cum-dinner, while feeling puzzled for where to have desserts around, lazybones simply ordered two desserts here. $88 for one is somehow reasonable in Central, especially with not many dessert options around. (We thought of Holly Brown's ice cream but rolled our eyes..)Cryo-Fried Vanilla Ice Cream $88
While nitrogen ice cream has been there for quite a while, cyro-fried is perhaps a newbie still, though in the same parade of using nitrogen in interesting culinary use. Taking Nitrogen's advantage of low boiling point, deep-frying can easily create a perfect brown crust and thaw the frozen layer, while preventing the interior from overcooked. This is what the theory lies in for the non-melting ice cream inside!
Pouring brandy all over it to get it flamed, which made a truly spectacular watch, perhaps a good option if it was for someone's birthday. Fresh berries at the bottom surprisingly didn't get burnt by the flame!
Cryo-Fried Vanilla Ice Cream
$88
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Vanilla ice cream didn't give us a big surprise in flavour, but in texture as it remains so cold and frozen after the cyro-frying method and flaming of the crust.
Sticky Date Pudding $88
Sticky Date Pudding
$88
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The taste of date was so alluring that even we were that full, we managed to finish 3/4 of it. It wasn't that dense and sweet as imagined, at least not like stone-hard brownies. It remained warm when served, having the stark contrast in temperature between pudding and ice cream.
What truly worth encoring were probably its desserts and poutine! Central has always been a vivid cluster of different kinds of restaurants, but it isn't easy to find one which is all-round enough to serve creative yet affordable drinks, main courses and desserts. Common Room may not be that COMMON, for its contemporary humbleness to embrace all these elements in a 4000-sq.ft attic.
============Full menu is available at its official website (http://www.common-room.hk), thus not showing all of them here. Just some leaflets for a quick scan though -
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