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2013-03-25
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IntroductionBought to you by castelo concepts, who owns Jaspas, sushi O (next door), Zaks, Harringtons, Piccolos etc so there must be some expectations from them. A big company and expertise in these sorts of restaurantsA lil introduction from their website 'The latest addition to the Castelo Concepts’ family is Oolaa. Having opened its doors in October, Oolaa is a unique all day dining and drinks destination. Located on Soho’s Bridges Street, at the ground floor of the luxury residential comple
Bought to you by castelo concepts, who owns Jaspas, sushi O (next door), Zaks, Harringtons, Piccolos etc so there must be some expectations from them. A big company and expertise in these sorts of restaurants
A lil introduction from their website
'The latest addition to the Castelo Concepts’ family is Oolaa. Having opened its doors in October, Oolaa is a unique all day dining and drinks destination. Located on Soho’s Bridges Street, at the ground floor of the luxury residential complex CentreStage, Oolaa is a 6000 square foot venue housing a restaurant, lounge bar, cafe corner and private dining area all under one roof.
With a seating capacity of 120 guests, Oolaa restaurant, with its intimate outdoor terrace, “fine wine corner”, wood fired pizza oven, serves an array of high quality unpretentious worldly cuisine; with a wine list to match.
The Bar area exudes a loungy atmosphere with its classic design and elegant drink list…..the perfect spot for a pre-dinner cocktail, happy hour with colleagues or to ring in the weekend with friends! After the dinner shift, Oolaa’s loungy bar will slip into something a little bit more comfortable with some soulful tunes and sinful grooves, while the drinks keep on flowing.
Last and certainly not least, Oolaa’s cafe corner is an early morning haven for Central’s city slickers and a Bridge Street’s weekend hang out. Comfy sofas and chairs, the smell of ground Illy coffee and freshly baked pastries will lure you in and make it tough to leave.'
Date
Sunday 17th March 2013
Meal
Brunch at 3pm
Ordered
Eggs Benedict - 2 poached egg with citrus hollandaise, leg ham and buttered baby spinach - $110Oolaa' Big Breakfast - 2 Sunny side eggs, pork sausages, smoked bacon, roast Roma tomato, baked beans, mushrooms, home fried potatoes & toasted sour dough - $120
DrinksGrapefruit juice - $50
Ice cappucino -
Their Breakfast Menu - http://www.casteloconcepts.com/assets/block/Oolaa%20Breakfast%20%20Nov%202012.pdf
Food
Eggs Benedict
"Eggs Benedict is a dish that consists of two halves of an English muffin, topped with ham or bacon, poached eggs, andHollandaise sauce." from Wikipredia
The Eggs Benedict looked devine. The hollandaise sauce was beautifully done and settled on the surface of the egg. Even the eggs are perfectly poached. 
I have tried making a poached egg before, it was incredibly hard to make it perfect. Meaning the shape of it, the texture, obviously the timing has to be perfect. What I love about these poached eggs are both of them seemed to me, identical size and shape.
There were generous amount of Hollandaise sauce. I must admit, this was the most 'musturd' colour Hollandaise sauce I have seen. Usually they would be pale yellow, here it is almost like musturd. The leg ham was heavenly. I expected it to be as thin as paper, but this was generous. Not too thick, where I really need to chew my teeth off. But thick to where I can chew bit and taste the flavor of the ham!
It was an incredible idea to add the buttered spinach underneath the ham. Firstly, it made the whole thing much healthier (yes with some green, I cheated my mind to think it is a healthy dish despite how many eggs is made to use the sauce!)Firstly the spinach is delicious as it is lightly buttered, and it neutralize the saltiness of the ham. I loved it. It is first Egg benedict with green in it. I cannot say it is extrodinary, but the experience was pleasant. What was missing?
I think it must be the eggs. Do not get me wrong, it was perfect poached eggs. Golden yellow egg yolk, identical shape and size. Perfectly poached, when I cut into it, the egg yolk flows out all over, and I dip the muffin into the runny egg yolk. It was heavenly.So what went wrong? The egg itself. It was tasteless. I wanted to find out what egg they used. A cheap one/ I could taste it of course but yo can tell it wasn't a good egg where you will pop it in your both and go 'mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm im in Heaven'
The Hollandaise sauce was distinctive. It is less creamy than other Hollandaise sauce I have tasted but it goes well with the ham and spinach altogether. As a whole package, it was a delightful dish
Oolaa' Big Breakfast
Oolaa's BIG breakfast
It consisted of:
2 eggs (any style you wanted)
2 Pork sausages,
3 pieces smoked bacon,
Roast Roma tomato,
Baked beans,
Mushrooms,
Home fried potatoes
A toasted sour dough
Cannot miss out on a Big Breakfast when you are out for brunch, but not many places in Hong Kong gives you an authentic English breakfast. I think Oolaa's Big breakfast is as good as it gets in Hong Kong.First of all I would like to state, THEIR PORK SAUSAGES ARE THE REAL THING!!!!! I hate, and I mean hate going places, and their menu says ' English breakfast' or 'American breakfast' then when it arrives on my table, they give me these chinese cheese sausage which you can get from Park n Shop or bit better they give me frankfurters. I prefer my good old Cumberland sausages. Although these weren't Cumberland, they were still thick pork sausages. I cuuld taste the herbs in it. i love it. These are the real sausages!
Eggs weren't anything special as they were just sunny side up. I am sure it is quite easy to make and like I said previously, the egg weren't the best I have tasted. I loved the mushroom though. It was generously seasoned (for once) I tasted the pepper and the salt in it. There are so many places that don't bother seasoning the mushrooms, they miss out how important that is for the taste buds.I liked the fried potatoes. They were cut into small cubes, just right for bite size! If all the cubes added up, probably only 1/4 of a potato. But there were lack of seasoning, I added salt and pepper myself. But It was still good, something different from a hashbrown.
There were only 3 bacons pieces and they were quite tough and hard, but obviously they tasted so good, who can resist bacon?
Overall the Big breakfast is average, nothing mindblowing, nothing you cannot make a home. No surprise there at all. Maybe if there is next time, I won't order this again.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere here is better than the food, it is a fact. The restaurant is big. One side is for dining, can fit around 15-18 tables, and the other side is the bar and lounge with sofas. I was told if no reservation you will be taken to the bar. Which I actually prefered. The music is different, bit more relax and less tense. There are sofas and people there seems less tense. It seems more like area where you want to chill and chat for long time while having a drink or so. They have the open window on that side facing the street, how peaceful. As the location is high up in central, it is much more quiet and less busy than soho itself.
The dining area seems more tense. Everybody used their hushed voice and sat up straight and looked serious. I guess this side is for the REAL thing. Although I prefer the other side, this side is obviously for business lunch or something more sincere.The atmosphere is still nice. Peaceful and relaxing.
The lights were dim and at 5 o'clock straight, the lights were turned even dimmer which made the mood more romantic.
White tablecloth and brown chairs, very classic look don't you think?
Tables were not clued together like noram soho places would be. Place was quite spacious, part from the 2 seaters dining tables, they were closer together, the bigger tables were more spreaded out. I can assure you I cannot hear the table infront of me for once! YAY! no more 'free' gossipsService: Poor
There weren't anything good about the service, even a long think.
They weren't rude to me either but, just looking at service. They were not up to standard.
First of all, noone ever answers the phone, I have been trying make a reservation since a night ago, noone picks up. So how am I suppose to make a reservation, especially their website do not have the online reservation service. Even in the morning, noone was picking up. And when they FINALLY answered, they were blunt and unhelpful.
Upon arriving, as the restaurant is quite big, the entrance seemed to be hidden in the middle. There are two sides of the restaurant from the middle, left is the bar, right is the dining area. When I walked in, I had no idea which side to go to as I wasn't greeted. No waiter nor waitress acknowledged me. It made me feel quite lost. I went out to the counter where a lady was facing the other lady inside the counter. They looked at me as if I was asking for direction- NOT WELCOMING. I am sure costumers feels the best when they are greeted immediately and they are hired to help me out not the other way round. So why do they make me feel so unwelcome.
As our booking was at 3pm, and we were late for 20mins. The lady rudely said 'Your booking is at 3pm, oh theres last tablae for you' and showed us to a table. I looked around the dining area, there were only 7 occupied table, so only 25 percent of tables are taken up. She obviously tried to make us feel bad for being late, wich i do apologize sincerely. But there is no need to make your costumer feels guilty especially if there are free tables.
Also, they never filled our empty glass with water from the start when everybody elses has. We asked for water twice and they still not filled our glasses. They never gave us a drink menu until I ask too.
It was nearly as hard as winning the lottery when trying to catch their attention.
They are never around, even when they are, they always hovering around the counter with their back facing us. Or they are walking straight pass us even if I am calling out to them. Surely if you know you have people seating in the dining area, eating or waiting for food, it is your job to be serving them. I am not saying you need to come over and ask if I want anything all time, but atleast you will have that alert for people when they ned you.
One woman on opposite table called out for a waitress and she walked straight pass twice. She got pretty annoyed so I got hold of the waitress for her. The waitress did not apologized. And from what I saw, there was soemthing wrong with her salad,. Sos he waited for a new one. IF the waitress would have acknowledged her earlier, then maybe the poor lady did not have to wait 5mins to tell her the problem and wait another 10mins for a new one. As her friend has already started eating hers.
I had to wait another extra 10mins for the bill as noone was around. I guess next time I can just walk out if they don't care that much
Drinks
There are fresh juices that can be ordered. At price of $50. A good healthy alternatives. But theere are wine and champagne available which I did not choose.
Iced cappuccino
My companion ordered iced cappuccino. and to our surprise it was huge, usally it would be a small glass only but this was huge. The Cappuccino was good, strong flavour with lots of milk. Just way how I like it
You can go check out their drinks menu here : http://www.casteloconcepts.com/assets/block/Oolaa%20Drinks%20List%20Aug%202012.pdfRecommendation
I would definately recommend the Egg Benedict, much better than the plain old Big breakfast which was small and not worth the money. Did not even fill me up. The Egg benedict was so appetizing. Even looking at it gave me ecstasy. The perfectly poached egg and excellent hollandaise sauce. And the lovely spinach. Where else in Hong kong can you get better egg benedict?
Verdict
Would I go back again? Maybe
Rating from my brains (out of 5 hearts): ♥♥♥
Rating from my Heart (out of 5 hearts): ♥♥♥
I will come back to Oolaa, maybe not craving for it. But thinking about where to have a great Sunday brunch in Hk, nowhere can beats the atmosphere here and the above average food to be honest
Details
G/F, Bridges Street, CentreStage Soho | Mid-Levels – Hong Kong
+852 2803 2083
No details on opening hours on their website unfortunately
Reservation: Essential
Email: oolaa@casteloconcepts.com
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