Category Archives: Food

Teakha restaurant review – the perfect blend

Posted on May 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

teakha hk

I just wanted to write a short post about one of my favourite places in Hong Kong – Teakha.

Tucked away on oh-so-trendy Tai Ping Shan Street in Sheung Wan, Teakha is the very definition of small but perfectly formed. It’s one of those places where you can just step in and feel the love – the cosy neighbourhood vibe, the jars of homemade scones perched on the counter, the pot of tea brewing on a stove and most importantly, the feeling of genuine heart and passion that has been poured into the place from start to finish.

Even better for non-coffee drinkers like me, there’s not one dreaded cocoa bean to be found inside! Teakha is all about the tea! Well… and some totally scrummy desserts too.

teakha hk ginger scones

One bite of Teakha’s wonderful scones and you’ll be hooked. There seems to be a bit of debate as to whether these are scones in the traditional sense (some folks claim they’re too biscuit-y) – so let me just say as a Brit who lived in a house where scones were consumed on a daily basis for over twenty years, they sure taste like scones to me! Dense, buttery and very, very yummy… I don’t know if you could ask for more.

On my first visit, I tried the ginger scone and it’s just perfect. Served warm, it slips down in just a few happy, homely bites. Not too sweet, not too savoury, with little golden chunks of moreish candied ginger studded in a rich buttery base – a teeny spicy kick finishing off a taste of pure comfort and love. I’m one of those people that, when they love something so much, sees little point in exploring anything else… and I’ve been having the ginger scones ever since. I’ve since managed to get my auntie hooked on the things too; it may well have been the first time someone’s ordered ten to take away!

teakha hong kong

With the scone? A mug of masala chai. Always. As far as teas go, this is really something special – a magic brew of spices and herbs that gives you warm fuzzies that last all day long. I don’t normally like milky teas but this blend totally works for me; it’s a buzzy but mellow kind of spice, rather than being socked over the head with intense flavours (tea is farrrr too lovely to ever be so overbearing). Like the best cups of tea, it soothes the soul.

Tai Ping Shan Street is currently just at the tipping point where it still feels charmingly like old Hong Kong (even dodging the occasional hipster), and hopefully it can cling onto that for a few more years yet – with its lovely homemade feel, Teakha compliments the area rather than detracts from it. Prices are about your average coffee shop fare – around $35 for a drink and $20 for a scone, except I’d much rather support an independent venture built with soul rather than yet another identikit chain store.

teakha hk masala chai tea

I’ve spent many a morning setting the world to rights over my cuppa char here. Teakha is tiny and gets packed quickly so try and visit at non-peak hours, grab a table outside and watch the world go by. Alternately, get a scone to take away and enjoy a little piece of love wherever you desire.

Teakha, Shop B, 18 Tai Ping Shan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, 2858 9185; closed Mondays

P.S. If you’re interested in finding out more about Teakha’s lovely founder Nana and the inspiring story behind how she started the business (she loves tea even more than I do!), read my interview with her here.

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Café Corridor restaurant review – cute and cosy in Causeway

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 2 Comments

cafe corridor hk

Next stop on Mirander & Rach’s cute café tour of Hong Kong – Café Corridor in Causeway Bay.

Tucked away down a… surprise, surprise… corridor opposite Times Square, Café Corridor is a homely little independent joint that’s become surprisingly well-known and loved despite its positively diminutive size. Its owner, Felix Wong, knows his way around a coffee bean (he also founded two other companies, Coffee Assembly and Barista Academy, to promote HK’s coffee culture) and Café Corridor’s reputation quickly grew, meaning the space is always packed with people looking for a quality caffeine fix.

However, if you’re looking for a coffee review, I’m afraid you’ll have to go elsewhere. I don’t drink the stuff (other than in highly diluted, sweetened, milkified and no longer bearing any resemblance to actual coffee, dung ga fe form) so can’t give you my opinion on that… but I’m happy to tell you about everything else!

Café Corridor has an almighty tempting cabinet of homemade pastries and desserts and I had a hard job picking just one… So I picked two, of course! Luckily, Mirander was there to order our second sweet treat, lessening the heavy side order of guilt (calories shared don’t count, right?)! On my second visit, the desserts cabinet was much less well stocked, so I guess it depends on getting lucky on the day!

cafe corridor earl grey chocolate tart

Our first dessert was Earl Grey Chocolate Tart, which managed to look both elegant and sinful, one of the best possible combinations! It tasted great, made with proper rich dark chocolate, not the wishy-washy stuff you find in many places. The Earl Grey was rather too subtle to make much of a difference – more a hint of mellowness that kept the whole thing on the right side of not too sweet. The buttery base was similarly delicious but it was the texture of the chocolate that threw us off – we were expecting a gooey ganache consistency, but it was quite firm and difficult to break into. It got softer, better and more melt-in-mouth towards the wide end of the slice… we just wish the whole thing had been like that.

cafe corridor caramelised apple tart

Our second dessert of Caramelised Apple Tart was pretty flawless, with presentation SO cute that it’s just crying for shedloads of Instagram pics. Thankfully, the adorable presentation was backed up by the taste – soft sticky syrupy caramelised apples, but still with a hint of bite, heaped generously into a moreish flaky buttery pastry shell. It managed to be homely, comforting and cute but done with considerable style.

cafe corridor bacon and scrambled eggs

I also managed to fit in a main dish of bacon and scrambled eggs on toast. I’m generally a sunny side up kind of girl but this was surprisingly scrummy – it had been seasoned and herbed up to perfection, making it taste more than the sum of its parts. But Café Corridor, why so stingy with the bacon?! I admit to loving my bacon more than most (I can tuck away a whole pack in one sitting), but one and a half tiny rashers divided over two pieces of toast is just not enough!

cafe corridor peanut butter and banana toast

Next trip, Mirander went for peanut butter and banana on toast – a combination I’ve clearly not eaten nearly enough of over the years as it was more-ishly addictive. I loved the lashings of syrup and cinnamon on top; I didn’t love the uber-charred crusts that had been left on the toast though.

I washed all this down with a pot of lemongrass and ginger tea, which was so weak that it didn’t taste much different to tap water (which, incidentally, staff are happy to give you free of charge); I’d try a smoothie or hot chocolate next time instead. With desserts costing around $30, mains around $60 and drinks $20-40, prices are reasonable enough given how good the desserts are and the lack of a service charge. Judging by its popularity and quality, Café Corridor could easily open up a larger shop elsewhere or have several other Café Corridors popping up all over town… but that just wouldn’t be the point of the place.

Inside is small and cosy (a euphemism for cramped… the toilet being particularly grim), with wooden tables and chairs packed in tightly like a game of sardines, although there is also a small outdoor space too. A floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall mirror at the back of the room cleverly gives the illusion of space, so much so I almost wandered directly into it! The décor isn’t much to write home about, but I did like the abundance of personal touches, with one wall covered in Polaroids of staff, customers and other little scribblings.

For such a cosy café, the range of the menu and desserts is truly impressive and there is plenty I want to come back for. With such lovely presentation and homespun local charm, it’s the kind of place that just puts a smile on your face (even if you’re so close to the table next to you that you could join in their conversation) and happily transplants you to a kinder corner of Causeway, a world apart from the rest of its commercial cookie cutter-dom.

In short, the place, just like the food, has been obviously created and filled with love. And for that reason, although it doesn’t benefit my afternoon tea comfort, Café Corridor thoroughly deserves to be packed out every hour of the day.

Café Corridor, G/F, 26A Russel Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2892 2927

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Harbour City Chocolate Trail 2013 – going cocoa loco!

Posted on February 13, 2013 | 1 Comment

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 chapon 1

Anyone who knows me should already know about my sweet tooth. Well, it ain’t just the one tooth, I tell you! Dessert queen, pudding princess, sweet treat sucker – call it what you will, but I’m an addict… and top of the (cake) pops is my love for chocolate! So as soon as I heard about Harbour City’s Chocolate Trail, I knew I had to get in on the cocoa action.

Having read and drooled over That Food Cray’s chocoholic tour of the mall, I was lucky enough to be offered a similar whistle-stop walk-through from Harbour City’s awesome PR, Season. On emailing Season, I declared that my 90-minute window should offer us ‘plenty of time’ to look around The Chocolate Trail – turns out that Nicole (That Food Cray) spent three hours there! And having seen and sampled just a few of the dessert delights on offer, I can totally see why!

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 Gerhard Petzl chocolate display

The Chocolate Trail is an annual fixture at Harbour City, featuring displays, demos, exclusive pop-up kiosks from gourmet chocolatiers, and special treats from some of the mall’s existing brands and restaurants. Some of the chocolate themed displays are more cheese than chocolate (boom boom) but the coolest/craziest HAS to be the royal banquet created by Austrian pastry chef Gerhard Petzl. Every single thing – the table, the place settings, the cutlery, crockery and the food itself – had all been hand-crafted from chocolate and the level of detail is insane; we’re talking Heston levels of dedication here!

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 gerhard petzl chocolate banquet

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 chocolate royal banquet

The room smelt absolutely incredible (ever wondered what eau de chocolate might smell like? Get a waft of this!)… although this might be too much chocolate even for me! I asked Season what was happening to this once the Chocolate Trail was over and she wasn’t sure – so maybe you should hang around come closing day to try and grab a bite!

Gallery by the Harbour, Harbour City, First Floor

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 kapok

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 kapok 2

Our first chocolate stop was Kapok, which I knew mainly as a cool style boutique on Star Street in Wan Chai. Turns out that they carry a whole lotta chocolate too! In-keeping with Kapok’s hip and edgy style, many of the brands were beautifully packaged artisanal chocolates that you can’t find anywhere else in HK.

I already wrote about ChocoYOU – a website where you can build your own customisable chocolate bar – for Sassy; Kapok is the only physical retailer to sell some of their pre-packaged varieties, so this time I tried their curry-infused chocolate. It was a whole lot less daunting than I imagined, with a mellow spicy buzz that complemented the chocolate taste well (even if I doubt I’d ever choose curry chocolate of my accord!).

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 kapok rannou metivier

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 kapok rannou metivier pistachio

Kapok has also scored an exclusive partnership with Rannou Metivier, producing these gorgeous selection boxes of assorted chocolates. We tried several – the Ceylon tea one was slightly disappointing without much noticeable tea taste, the salted butter caramel one was more buttery caramel than salt, whilst our favourite was the pistachio with its deliciously nutty yet silky smooth and gooey filling.

Kapok, Gateway Ground Floor

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 thierry mulphart macarons

After seeing so many Instagram photos of Thierry Mulphart’s chocolate sea salt caramel macaron, I had told Season that it was my only definite must-have. Chocolate, sea salt, caramel AND macaron?! I mean seriously, it’s like someone stepped into my wildest chocoholic dreams and made it happen! Alas, I probably set my expectations too high but this was still pretty tasty.

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 thierry mulphart chocolate sea salt caramel macaron

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 thierry mulphart chocolate caramel sea salt macaron

It didn’t really have the trademark airy but chewy texture of a macaron; instead, there was more of a crunch and combined with its unusual hard chocolate shell, this felt more like a biscuit or chocolate bar… a super tasty one, that is! I don’t think you can really go wrong with that marriage of flavours and this macaron-biscuit-yum hybrid was further proof of that.

Thierry Mulphart, Gateway First Floor

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 christophe roussel star ferry chocolates

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 christophe roussel yuzu chocolate

Next was Christophe Roussel, a French pâtissier who allegedly supplies Lauduree with their chocolate – well, with provenance like that, how could I resist?! I loved their super cute Star Ferry chocolates created exclusively for the Chocolate Trail – they’d make for great souvenirs… albeit ones that disappeared into your belly very quickly! Roussel’s signature chocolates are his lip-shaped ones, so we dutifully tried the Yuzu flavour. Normally, I steer clear of fruity chocolates as I usually find the syrup artificially sweet, but these were actually rather lovely and light. Yuzu is a pretty unusual fruit flavour to go for and the sweet but sour citrus cut through the chocolate nicely, making the whole thing sing on the palette.

Christophe Roussel, Gateway First Floor

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 la madeleine de proust display

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 la madeleine de proust florentines

Sugar and spice and all things nice… La Madeleine de Proust definitely wins for prettiest display! This French brand is nothing new in Hong Kong, having hosted many similar pop-up kiosks in malls before – but their set-up is absolutely stunning, reminding me of the sweet shops you thought only existed in fairy tales. We tried their signature Florentine – a gorgeously chewy biscuit featuring chopped nuts set in a caramel base and coated with dark chocolate. Apparently, the name originates from the words for a French kiss (‘baiser florentin’) and the sensation of eating one is supposed to produce a similarly sweet feeling; well, I’m not entirely sure about that, but given some of the ropey kisses I’ve “enjoyed” in my time, I’m pretty sure the Florentine biscuit would be the reliably more pleasurable option! This was so yummy that I was nearly tempted to buy several on the spot – it wasn’t too sweet and the soft but feather-light chewiness was delightful.

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 la madeleine de proust

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 la madeleine de proust turtles

La Madeleine de Proust also sell a variety of sweets, biscuits and other confectionary, so if you’re getting a bit of cocoa overload, stop by here for a breather!

La Madeleine de Proust, Gateway Second Floor

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 chapon 2

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 chapon eiffel towers

The next stop on our tour is a must-visit – French artisan chocolatier Chapon. This stall was buzzing with people – apparently, they were re-stocking from selling out over the past few days and the staff literally could not get the chocolates out fast enough! Chapon is selling exclusively in Hong Kong at Harbour City for the Chocolate Trail and it’s the first time the brand has been here… and with any luck, they’ll be back soon because the chocolates are divine. Patrice Chapon was previously the ice-cream maker at Buckingham Palace, but luckily found his true calling in chocolate, and his Smoked Salt Praline Dome is his signature calling card… and they are SENSATIONAL.

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 chapon smoked praline domes

I can’t quite describe the flavours of this unique chocolate; simultaneously blow-your-socks off stunning but still subtle, refined and sophisticated. The dome has a thin salty smoky outer layer with a satisfying caramel crunch layer inside, followed by the soft smooth nutty centre; the flavours are perfectly balanced and the final lingering taste of mellow smoky chocolate exquisiteness was just beyond. I will definitely be back to grab a few more (if there are any left!) and we should all keep our fingers crossed that Chapon becomes a permanent fixture in HK! In case you hadn’t realised, this is THE must-have chocolate from the Chocolate Trail – miss it at your peril!

Chapon, Gateway Ground Floor

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 lucullus

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 baruzzo display

There was a small pit stop to check out the unbelievably cute animal chocs at Lucullus, before we moved onto Baruzzo, an Italian chocolatier inspired by the handmade precision and bespoke nature of couture dressmaking. Fittingly, their thin square-shaped chocolates are all decorated with beautiful colourful designs; normally, super pretty chocolates look super pretty to hide the fact that they don’t taste too pretty… but I was very pleasantly surprised with Baruzzo’s! They have loads of innovative and interesting flavours just as unusual as their designs.

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 baruzzo

Our personal favourites were Rosemary, with the aromatic savoury herb nicely setting off the chocolate’s richness and complementing rather than overwhelming it (and I managed not to think about roast lamb once!). I have previously tried VERO’s rosemary chocolate with its liquid caramel centre, but Baruzzo’s rosemary element was delivered in the form of a scrummy crunchy middle – one of our favourite chocolates of the day. We also loved the Jasmine chocolate, which really did deliver the clean light and fragrant essence of Jasmine tea but without being too floral.

The Marigold variety was also intriguingly complex, with many different playful flavour notes (none of which I could quite put my finger on!), whilst I also tried their salted caramel soft centre and it was a-ma-zing. Normally, I hate orange-flavoured chocolates (Terry can keep his Chocolate Orange thanks very much!) so the fact that I even enjoyed their Orange Blossom variety (light, fruity and enhanced with some fine crunchy hazelnuts) means that Baruzzo must be onto a good thing!

Baruzzo, Ocean Terminal Ground Floor (by KidsX)

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 prestat

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 prestat truffles

Our final port of call was British brand Prestat, the only chocolatier to hold two Royal Warrants. With over one hundred years of chocolate expertise, their speciality is the truffle so we tried the Banoffee (the banana-caramel filling was luscious but the shell being white chocolate just made the whole thing too sweet) and the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt. I am obsessed with the chocolate salt flavour combo and this hit all my buttons – saltier than most with a rich addictive caramel filling. The packaging is also suitably grand and gorgeous, chocolate truly fit for royalty so you can feast like a queen! P.S. I was clearly in a chocolate coma by this stage, as I forget to take any chocolate photos – sorry!

Prestat, Ocean Terminal Ground Floor (by KidsX)

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 chocolate swag

harbour city chocolate trail 2013 godiva truffles

Season also generously gifted us a swag bag of chocolate goodies, including a few brands I didn’t have time to try. I was surprised by Godiva’s Truffles, which are MUCH better than I gave them credit for. They’re a little on the sweet side but the Crème Brulee and Apple Tart Tatin ones in particular were beautifully nuanced and way more interesting than I thought mainstream chocolate brands were capable of being – it definitely beats Thorntons, that’s for sure!

I’d highly recommend a little jaunt around The Chocolate Trail – it’s a great opportunity to check out tonnes of awesome chocolatiers at once, many of which have only limited availability in Hong Kong… if they’re even available here yet at all. My must-visits? Chapon, Baruzzo and Prestat.

Obviously, given the beautiful presentation of these brands, many of these chocolates would make for amazing presents for others – but it’s just as important to bag a few to treat yourself! I know I will…

The 2013 Chocolate Trail runs at Harbour City until 24 February; Harbour City, 3 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, 2118 8666

Many thanks to the lovely and generous Season for arranging our tour, my friend Mirander for coming along and being my hand model and Nicole for doing such an amazing blog post that inspired me to get off my ass and hit TST!

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St Betty restaurant review – the roast of the town!

Posted on January 17, 2013 | 7 Comments

st betty hk roast beef

Having recently returned to the UK for the first time in over three years, I can safely say that one of the (very) few things I miss about the place is the food. That’s not to say I don’t love eating out in Hong Kong – and trust me, do I LOVE eating out here and would miss it madly if I were ever dragged kicking and screaming somewhere else – but you just can’t get things like fish and chips, kebabs, Magnums, Penguins, sticky toffee puddings, smoky bacon crisps, Domino’s pizza deliveries, great big whacks of gammon, beef Wellington from the supermarket and the little family-run Italian down the road over here.

However, what you now can get over here is a beautiful top-notch Sunday roast – thanks to the wonderful Shane Osborn, head chef at St Betty.

I don’t even want to think about attempting to cook a Sunday roast myself here – the difficulty and expense of finding a good cut of the beef, the many hours it would take to cook in our tiny microwave oven, and the fact that I’d go through all that for a meal that I’d essentially be eating on my own! In the UK, the omnipresent Sunday carvery at your local pub is such a given that we practically take it for granted… but since you can barely find a traditional British pub in Hong Kong these days, it’s hardly surprising that the proper Sunday roast is becoming a bit of a dying breed. True, you can often find some roast beef in most luxury hotel’s buffets (good luck finding any Yorkshire puddings though – I once saw some cake-like bread labelled thus!) and The Globe does a mean and extremely reasonable take on the roast every Sunday (which I reviewed here). However, I’m a beef girl through and through, so The Globe’s rotating approach to its meat and that the place often sells out before I’ve even woken up on a Sunday… let alone the fact that’s it’s a bloody long trek from Central MTR for a lazy arse like me… means it’s not always an option.

st betty hk sunday roast and all the trimmings

So you can imagine the undisguised glee, salivating and little jigs of joys I did on learning about St Betty’s Sunday roast – which is always beef!

St Betty, the creation of Wagamama founder Alan Yau known formerly as the by-all-accounts mediocre Betty’s Kitschen (stupid spelling and all), has been transformed courtesy of the Michelin-starred magic ways of Osbourn – and his Sunday roast may just be the best bit.

st betty hk sunday roast

For just $298 per person, you get a prime cut of beautiful medium-rare Aberdeen Angus sirloin with all the trimmings – and even a dessert each too! The beef, quite rightly, is the star of the show. It’s cooked to perfection, roasted in a Josper grill (fancy chef-y oven thing), heart-poundingly pink, mouth-wateringly juicy and sighingly tender, sliced thinly but not too thin with a little sprinkling of salt on top and that unmistakeable synapse-sparking charred roasted delicious flavour. It tastes like the best beef should – rich, intense and pre-programmed to bring out all of your caveman primal urges. You get roughly three slices per person and I’m not exaggerating (just ask my Mum!) when I say I could easily and happily finish all three people’s portions without breaking a sweat.

It is made even better by the fact it comes with gravy. Yes, gravy! Someone in Hong Kong actually knows what the stuff is! I’m obsessed with gravy (and used to drink it like soup from the gravy boat when I was younger… and totally still do whenever I get the chance) but had lost hope in finding good beef, a good restaurant and good gravy in the same place. I tried asking for gravy in a steakhouse here once – after much debate and explanation, I was eventually served a saucer of pure fat that had come out of the beef as it was cooking. Nice.

Anyway, the gravy at St Betty is intoxicating stuff – a little too thin to be my total gravy nirvana but I’ll take it – and is best lashed over your meal generously. Don’t worry, the waiters will refill your gravy coffers multiple times if needed.

st betty hk roast potatoes

As for the trimmings… there are Yorkshire puddings. They are actual real Yorkshire puddings (miracle!). Majestic puffy mountains of buttery, golden-brown home comfort, perfectly crispy until I transform them into edible little gravy goblets. It’s one per person although I’ve heard a rumour they may be able to replenish supplies of these too – I’ll have to put that to the test one day! There are roasties – glistening nuggets of pure Sunday roast gold that you might know better as roast potatoes. Crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, incredibly moreish… and the ones at St Betty are as good as they get.

st betty hk roast veggies

There are also two other sides; confit of Chinese cabbage and Japanese bacon (the bacon bit always gets my vote though one of my friends found it too salty) and crushed roasted root vegetables (a little too sweet for me and I wasn’t keen on the baby food texture – I’d rather just have whole roasted carrots and parsnips please). There’s also some horseradish cream, but since I don’t like horseradish in the first place, I have no comment. Honestly, I don’t think I even noticed it, I was too busy pouring the gravy down my throat.

st betty rhubarb apple crumble

After all that, you’ll be settling nicely into a food coma, ready to snuggle into your armchair and vegetate in front of a Come Dine With Me marathon on Channel 4. But St Betty instead gives you each a cute little pudding of rhubarb and apple crumble, served with a dainty jug of cream. Honestly, it’s too much – one to share between everyone would be enough. I don’t like rhubarb so I’m hoping St Betty might one day change the fruit because whilst I adore the buttery scrumptious of the crumble, soaked with light fresh cream and stirred into a gooey delicious mess, I’m just not a fan of that distinctive tart tang of rhubarb.

Make no mistake, St Betty is not a pub and the roast is a cut above whatever you’d get at your local – but thankfully, in terms of quality as well as price. However, what I do love about St Betty’s bright and breezy surroundings in the IFC is how unstuffy the place feels given the pedigree of the chef and his dishes.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I LOVE this roast. I loved St Betty’s a la carte menu too (which I reviewed for Sassy here) yet it’s still a tad pricey and fancy for the everyday. The Sunday roast, however, I can see myself coming back for time and time again… and in fact, I already have. If you’ve been having Sunday roast cravings, get yourself down there pronto – and trust me, this Sunday roast is even better than any of the ones you might remember!

rach mirander jake sunday roast

St Betty’s Sunday roast is served from 1-3pm every Sunday and costs $298 per person (for a minimum of two people); you are advised to pre-book at least 24 hours in advance.

St Betty, Shop 2705, Podium Level Two, IFC mall, Central, Hong Kong, 2979 2100

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TWG Tea Salon & Boutique review: Bon appe-tea!

Posted on December 17, 2012 | 2 Comments

TWGs hk tea tasting 5

At afternoon tea, it can be easy to lose focus… cute bite-sized finger sandwiches, scrumptious sweets, and of course, buttery yummy warm fuzzy-inducing scones (with clotted cream, of course). But it is called afternoon TEA for a reason – so who better to bring the focus back on your humble cup of char than TWG Tea!

I was invited for an epic afternoon tea of girlie chats, delicious nibbles, and pot after pot after pot of more tea than you ever thought existed with blogger BFFs Jasmine of Dress Me and Vanessa of All Things Indulgent, plus the lovely Renee from Flare and TWG’s Cathy. And for a truly special afternoon tea, you can’t go far wrong.

TWG started in Singapore and its Hong Kong Tea Salon & Boutique in the IFC mall has a Raffles-esque colonial feel, with rattan furniture, smartly suited and booted staff, and walls lined with iconic vintage-style tins of their signature 1837 blend. Afternoon teas are so ten-a-penny here that it’s lovely to find one that still feels special and a treat, without being in yet another five-star hotel. Time has a habit of standing still in TWG, and in hectic HK, that’s actually kind of a joy.

TWGs HK tea tasting 2

TWG has the largest collection of teas in the world… and I swear to God, we might have tried most of them that afternoon. Black tea, green tea, white tea, iced tea, Christmas tea – you name it, they’ve got it… and in spades! Their tea menu goes into the hundreds and to be honest, is slightly overwhelming, especially when they all have ridiculously pretty names like Silver Moon, Jade Dragon and Weekend in Casablanca (coffee could never get away with such romanticism, right?!).

First tea fact of the day: all these different ‘colours’ of tea in fact come from the same plant, it is the way that the leaves are processed that determine the type of tea created and its level of caffeine. Who knew?! And if you thought it was impossible to get wired off tea… well dozens of cups of tea and one very massive sugar high later, and we beg to differ!

TWGs HK tea tasting 3

The majority of TWG’s food is also tea-infused, and although they are more famous for their afternoon tea and desserts (including tea-infused ice-creams and sorbets – yes, I’ll definitely be back!), they also do a full a la carte tea-ified menu too!

We stuck mainly to their “Fortune Afternoon Tea” offering, which includes three macarons, two freshly baked scones or muffins, and a croque monsieur sandwich. Our smoked salmon croque monsieur with Gruyere cheese apparently boasts a tea infusion but it was pretty subtle, making for a salty smoky comforting start to the meal.

TWGs hk tea teaching 4

The scones were also great – warm, buttery, homely and everything scones should be. They were pretty much the only part of the set that didn’t boast a TEA!!! component in them… but that’s only because it’s found in their accompanying tea jelly instead! And trust me, I was sceptical, but the tea jelly was a total revelation. Smeared on top of a buttery scone with lashings of thick indulgent clotted cream, it was total heaven – a heaven I never even knew existed before! Sweet but not too sweet yet still with a distinct delicious tea flavour and just the perfect amount of wobble, I’m not entirely sure I can even explain why or how they created this tea jelly alchemy – but I’m very grateful they did. Try it to believe, folks!

The addition of muffins to the set was a nice unexpected element; these ones almost tasted more like chocolate chip cookies, so I wholeheartedly approve. I’m not sure I can let go of the idea of needing scones in an afternoon tea though!

However, TWG’s most famous dessert is without a doubt, their tea macarons. Between us, we managed to sample all eight flavours on offer, each infused with a different complimentary tea variety (and were near delirious with the combination of sugar and caffeine by the end), and they were a deserved highlight. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t really taste much of a tea element, but that didn’t make them any less delicious! My absolute favourite was the Napoleon caramel black macaron – there’s just something so wonderful about getting an intense rich lip-smackingly moreish caramel hug from an item so airily daintily prettily delicate as a macaron.

The light brown Chocolate Earl Grey one was another obvious favourite (come on, this is ME you’re dealing with, after all!) but I surprisingly also really enjoyed the white Moroccan Mint macaron too – mint desserts are so hard to get right, and I have eaten my fair share of toothpaste-esque numbers in this city, but this was just the right amount of invigorating refreshing freshness whilst definitely still being a dessert rather than a mouthwash. I also loved the tangy punch of the fruit ones (purple passion fruit, lemon yellow and bright pink blackcurrant), and I was relieved that none were too saccharine sweet. I’m sure macaron snobs will find cause for complaint (is the exterior quite crunchy enough? is the gooey middle to chewy outside ratio right?) but I really enjoyed them. [You get to pick three for the tea set, so just for the record, my choice would be Caramel, Chocolate and Mint or Blackcurrant!]

But really, I have to end on the tea, don’t I? Forget all the tea in China – this was all the tea in the rest of Asia, Europe, Africa and pretty much everywhere else that might have grown a single tea leaf in their time too! Jasmine, Vanessa and I sniffed leaves, sipped char and oohed and ahhed over the different colours of our brews all afternoon – with blends featuring cornflowers, Christmas spices, passion fruits, berries, vanilla, anise and heaven knows what else.

TWG steeps your tea for you, meaning you aren’t left with clumps of leaves swimming in your teapot and a radically different strength of brew at the end from when you started. They also serve it up in the most fantastic metal-encased teapots that keep heat for up to an hour (clearly they realise how long us girls can spend nattering over just one cup – and yes, I’ve already asked for one for Christmas).

My favourite, and the one I left with a tin of, was Silver Moon – a delicate light little number that practically dances over your palette. Aromatic but not overpoweringly so, it’s a green tea blend accented with strawberry and vanilla, and I’d recommend it for those of you who like your teas light, clean and different. The fact that all TWG tea comes beautifully presented, in gorgeous packaging and highly covetable gift sets, is the icing on the cake… or should that be the tea jelly on top of the scone?!

TWG’s Tea Salon & Boutique is a special teatime treat in every sense of the phrase. Leave the coffee addicts with their ice-drips and weird tiny cups; instead, come armed with a couple of girlfriends, a desire for tea and a clear schedule for the long hours you’ll no doubt lose to the TWG time warp. Alice couldn’t have had more fun at The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party!

TWGs tea tasting 1

The Fortune afternoon tea set costs $268 and is served from 3-6pm daily. A Chic afternoon tea set, including finger sandwiches but no macarons, is also available for $228. This tasting was by invitation.

TWG Tea Salon & Boutique, Shop 1022-1023, 1/F, Tower One, IFC Mall, 1 Harbour View Street, Central, Hong Kong, 2796 2828

Some photos (i.e. the awesome ones!) by the lovely Jasmine Webster of Dress Me!

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Fiat Caffè restaurant review: start your engines!

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

My friend Mirander and I are engaged in on-going quest to check out every café in Hong Kong… and latest to make it on our radar was the Fiat Caffè in Causeway Bay. And yes, that is Fiat as in cars.

Cunningly disguised as a car showroom in Leighton Centre, I must have walked past countless times before realising that there was actually a menu pinned outside… and not just a basic café menu of perfunctory espressos and sad-looking sandwiches, but a mouth-watering menu stuffed with interesting Italian dishes.

Amongst the bruschetta, panini, pasta and gelato on offer, there is one gimmicky ‘most expensive coffee in the world’ (it comes with a Fiat) but otherwise, the menu is done with far more conviction and flair than you would expect of a café parked within a car showroom (parked… see what I did there?!).

The environment is bigger than expected (from outside, all you can see are the cars!) and a little busy – there’s a large kitchen-bar area, food to buy and take home (including pasta, tea bags and ice-cream) stacked everywhere, and a wall constantly re-playing Fiat commercials (I will probably now take Jennifer Lopez’s advert to the grave). Again, I was expecting a more gimmicky element – Fiat branding on the crockery, seats shaped like cars (clearly, I’ve been to too many Disney themed restaurants in my time!), but thankfully it was much cooler than that. Mirander and I eyed the uncomfortable-looking latticework perspex chairs dubiously, but actually they were surprisingly fine (for the first hour anyway) – so not just style over comfort!

Because I am a pig and couldn’t pick between two salivating-sounding bruschetta, I ordered both! First up was one topped with crispy pancetta, fried eggs, stewed tomatoes and black truffle – come on, doesn’t that just sound seriously sexy?! It arrived looking just as sexy, a mountain of indulgent Italian goodies (like a posher English breakfast!) piled atop a hefty wedge of toasted and defiantly un-soggy bruschetta, and it was as utterly scrumptious as those ingredients would have you expect.

The eggs (two eggs! result!) were cooked beautifully; one prod and beautiful yellow creamy goodness spilled out from the yolks. The pancetta was crispy salty and wonderful, although I do wish there had been a little more of it given the size of the dish, whilst the truffle flakes added a slight but unmistakeable woody smoky touch. I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes so would have preferred them in a less ‘wet’ form, but they added the right amount of fresh tanginess to balance the other rich flavours.

Second and even better was the prosciutto, sun-dried tomato, shallots and Fontina cheese bruschetta. The flavours here were much lighter and more obviously Italian than my first pick. The prosciutto was heaped on generously (how many times have you ordered this kind of thing only to get a tiny handful of the stuff?) and was dreamily beautiful – soft, salty and dangerously addictive. The sun-dried tomatoes were also packed with flavour; I see these all too rarely in restaurants here and wish they’d been more generous with these too! Nevertheless, the lack of sun-dried tomatoes was almost made up by the abundance of beautiful shallots – little balls packed with zinging sweet but sour loveliness. The Fontina was sliced very thinly, meaning it was practically welded to the toast, and has a more mild nutty flavour compared to other Italian cheeses, but the tastes all came together perfectly. I had to admit defeat and couldn’t finish half of the bread this time – yes, there are limits to my gluttony!

Miranda opted for a panini stuffed with more Fontina, balsamic mushrooms and tomatoes, pronouncing it ‘pretty good’; panini are a bit of a weakness for me so I will definitely be back to try one. I also really liked the honest presentation of all the dishes – no fancy drizzling of this or that, just plated up (in the case of the panini, on a rustic chunky wood board) and letting the ingredients and tastes do the talking.

Even better, despite the fact that this is a table-service joint and the waitresses are happy to keep topping you up with free tap water at all times? No 10% service charge! With the bruschetta and panini costing around $60-80, prices aren’t unreasonable for the quality of ingredients and hearty portion sizes, plus if you are that way inclined, they do offer good value lunch, afternoon tea and dinner sets too.

Although Hong Kong is not exactly short of Italian restaurants or indeed cafés, Fiat Caffè is a one-of-a-kind here. The dishes are a cut above the norm and despite their simplicity, are combinations that I just haven’t seen elsewhere. They’re well thought-out, authentic and have been created with an obvious love for food – and are absolutely delicious enough to warrant repeated return visits to work your way through the whole menu (I’m already eyeing all mentions of anchovies and homemade ricotta)!

The busy environment and the gradual sensation of the chairs’ latticework pressing into your bum means that the Fiat Caffè isn’t really the place to enjoy a long leisurely meal or a social dinner gathering. However, as a pit stop for an afternoon pick-me-up or a quick, filling and very delicious lunch, it’s definitely right up there for pole position. Vroom vroom!

Fiat Caffè, Shops G5-6, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 2960 9222

Bottom photo credit: Fiat HK’s Facebook Page

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Heirloom Eatery restaurant review – Smores, Smores, Smores! (how do you like it…)

Posted on June 4, 2012 | 4 Comments

Hong Kong is all about the hype. Be it Hello Kitty toys, Lady Gaga tickets or the latest ‘it-restaurant’, there’s always buzz around something.

One of the coolest, most talked-about restaurants from a while back, is Heirloom Eatery in the also buzzing Sheung Wan side of Hollywood Road. In traditional Rach late to the party style, I didn’t get round to trying it out until a month or so ago – with foodie partner-in-crime Michelle of Chopstixfix and her friend Amy (not a blogger but just as game for taking loads of pics and eating loads of food!).

Heirloom is a quaint little eaterie with lots of quirky design touches. It’s definitely a world away from any of the flashy restaurant group behemoths in Hong Kong and, with its whimsical menus, floral crockery, mismatched furniture and homespun feel, is probably all the better for it. Although the restaurant is on the smaller side, it’s lovely to sit outside watching the world go by on a nice spring day.

The menu is casual and international, with a few key influences – Mexican and Asian (thanks to the heritage of the two founders) – and a few majorly hyped dishes… Dear reader, we tried all of them!

Hong Kong suffers from a dearth of good Mexican food… even a dearth of good Tex-Mex food, in fact… so everyone has clamoured on board Heirloom’s tacos like they’re the great white hope of the HK dining scene. There are four varieties and my favourite was the Carnitas of slow-braised pork with pickled onions – the pork was deliciously meaty, melt-in-mouth, and the seasoning absolutely perfectly judged, making it the most moreish mouthful of taco ever. And we really are talking mouthful… because these tacos are tiny!

The Balinese fish taco was complemented nicely with a fresh kaffir-lime dressing whilst a prawn one benefited from some heavenly dressing and chunks of avocado; however, I didn’t get on well at all with the Tree Hugger taco of hibiscus, black bean and salsa verde (a bitter floral flavour that reminded me more of a fancy tea brew than a main meal). Shared between the three of us to get a taste of each type, these tacos were literally rendered bite-size – and I do think $120 for a plate of these four tasty but tiny morsels is a little pricey.

I normally do my best to avoid too much greenery on my plate, but my friend Emma recommended the Balinese Chopped Chicken Salad ($115). This was a more generous serving of roasted chicken, piles of chopped purple cabbage, hearty chunks of avocado (YUM), runner beans, cherry tomatoes and a lemongrass-lime-sambal dressing. The real star of the show was the dressing – that delicious twist of fresh lemongrass, zinging lime and just a little heat from the sambal made for an intoxicating combination. More avocado, less cabbage though thanks, as we definitely had enough left to feed a few rabbits afterwards!

You can’t go wrong with sweet potato fries ($35) and these were exactly the crispy sweet finger-licking golden strips they should be – and that spicy mayo was utterly delish (I think my mayo to chip ratio was approximately 4:1).

We were excited about the Mexican street corn ($55) but the coriander-mayo-lime dressing was just a bite too wincingly sour that day (as our puckered up faces after taking a bite showed!)… although liberally rolling your corn in the addictive crumbled cheese does help matters significantly!

Finally, onto what we’ve all been waiting for, dessert! Beautiful tempting homemade cakes had been sitting on the counter throughout and I could practically hear their siren’s call all meal, whilst Heirloom’s signature make-your-own Smores (complete with mini gas burner, $120) had been the talk of the town practically as soon as the place opened.

The Smores were awesome. Of course they were. Cinnamon-crunchy Graham crackers, decadent dark Willie’s chocolate and sinful molten marshmallows… was there any doubt that these wouldn’t hit the heights of my axis of awesome? Plus there’s something about being given a mini flame and toasting forks that just transforms me into a gleeful child and the three of us spent faaaar too long melting, smearing and intensely photographing the entire gooey process. It’s exactly the kind of delightful charming fun with friends dining that I think Heirloom is all about and makes your meal an experience rather than just forking food down blindly. It is a little bit of work breaking up the slabs of chocolate and getting them on your fork long enough to melt them, but trust me, it’s totally worth it.

The other desserts were less great – the chocolate fudge cake that had been tempting us all lunch was (whisper it) not quite moist or chocolate-y enough; a berry crème brulee was bursting with fruity juicy summer flavours (nature’s equivalent of stuffing a pack of Skittles in your mouth all at once, $80) but the consistency was far too runny. However, there’s no denying the gorgeousness of that floral crockery (yes, I’m a girl and care about such things)!

Now that the worst of the hype has passed onto other restaurants in Hong Kong, Heirloom is definitely worth a visit. For me, it’s a little pricey for what it is (both in terms of portion size and overall quality, although there is no service charge); bar the Smores, which I would love to gang around with girlfriends, there’s nothing I’m absolutely desperate to come back for either. Yet the interior, the design and the menu have all been lovingly personably created and the whole place has bagfuls of quaint heart-warming charm. And that’s a concept I can definitely get on board with.

Heirloom Eatery, 226 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, 2547 8008

Top photo credit: HK Magazine

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Dessert of the day: there be magic in them Crumbs

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 12 Comments

My fondness for desserts has been well documented so here’s a quick post for one of my favourites: Crumbs Fro Yo!

I was introduced to the delightful Crumbs by my lovely friend Jane… and it’s probably one of my defining moments in Hong Kong! With the fro-yo craze exploding in HK over the last few years, you can barely move for people dripping their icy treats all over you on street pavements – but how do you separate the wheat from the chaff (or whatever the yoghurt equivalent of that saying would be… something to do with curds and whey? I digress…).

Well, Crumbs isn’t just good, it’s great. Whoever thought that a little stand selling fro yos would be quietly making the best fresh brownies in Hong Kong?

Ever since I had my first Crumbs, despite the huge variety of no doubt delicious toppings they offer, I have been unable to deviate from my tried and true topping combo – because it is SO damn good! Crumbs with their signature house crumbs and brownies. On the days when they offer you a free topping… errrr… more brownies please! It’s flipping freezing fabulousness.

House crumbs… no idea what is in those golden crispy sprinkles… magic maybe? It’s cinnamon-y, it’s toast-y, it’s a little bit digestive-y, but who cares when it’s the perfect crunchy complement to those soft creamy waves of white fro-yo clouds.

The double chocolate brownies – not too sweet, not too ‘not sweet’, a just right amount of give and goo, and super-chocolate-y too. (Rach tip: they sell these in bags on their own. I am yet to take them up on the offer fearing the brownie mania it might ignite inside me.) Crumbs also make some very yummy fresh scones, should a more English mood strike you at counter.

I carry their business card with their locations on it at all times, just in case I need to locate a Crumbs in my vicinity STAT. Sadly, my nearest branch in Quarry Bay is not open at weekends (as we found out having made the trek there one weekend!); I have been known to plan my days around trying to sneak a Crumbs in (shhhh… don’t tell my boyfriend). The Crumbs connoisseur in me can also tell you that Quarry Bay does delivery to nearby offices (thank God I don’t work there… fro yo for lunch, anyone?!), the Jordan branch has a few seats inside, the Kowloon Bay branch is in a mall with loads of great places to perch and eat your fro-yo outside (as opposed to Causeway, where I stand in a dinghy back alley near a man cutting someone’s hair into the street… slight mood-killer) and that the Mong Kok branch is absolutely nowhere near the MTR station.

And now I’m craving a Crumbs fro-yo…

Crumbs locations in Hong Kong (someone give me a Foursquare badge already!):

- G/F, 6 Cannon Street, Causeway Bay, 2838 5500
- G/F, 15 Tong Chong Street, Quarry Bay, 2214 1212
- Shop P23, MCL Cinemas Telford, Telford Plaza Phase One, 33 Wai Yip Street, Kowloon Bay, 9537 9695
- Shop B, 64 Bute Street, Mong Kok, 2393 5772
- G/F, Parkes Street, Jordan, 2736 9191

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La Creperie restaurant review – why every day should be Pancake Day!

Posted on April 6, 2012 | 2 Comments

Whenever my friend Mirander and I meet up, we fall into incredibly girlie stereotypes. We gossip, we shop, we eat desserts. You’ve already followed our expedition for high tea at Robuchon, but now for one of our favourite pit-stops… La Creperie.

Unassumingly tucked away on the first floor of some serviced apartments mid-way between Admiralty and Wan Chai, La Creperie is probably Hong Kong’s most authentic purveyor of French crepes – specifically buckwheat pancakes, galettes hailing from Brittany (thinner, larger, darker and crisper than the more conventional ones). Sweet, savoury, seafood, salad… they’ve stuffed them with anything they can get their hands on here… great news for greedy cochons like me, who can opt for crepes as both a main course and dessert!

The room is large and charming in a homely way, with well-worn dark wood furniture and a nautical theme in the décor (lighthouse salt and pepper pots!) that extends to the staff wearing Breton-striped shirts. Mirander and I always go off-peak, around 3pm, when the place is deserted – meaning service can be a little slow (especially as we always seem to find ourselves hidden behind a pillar) but that we can sit and gossip to our heart’s content!

For my main, I always go for Le Four. I just can’t look past any dish that has bacon as its main component! In addition to that deliciously salty shredded bacon, Le Four also contains a mix of slippery earthy diced mushrooms, some obligatory lettuce leaves to make me feel healthy and a creamy ultra more-ish sauce to totally cancel that out. This darling usually gets devoured in ten minutes flat; I just can’t get enough of the light crisp perfect accompaniment of wrapping all that deliciousness in a crepe brings – can I wrap all my food in one please?!

For desserts, Mirander and I fall into yet another girl stereotype – we order one to share. This means both of us get to feel better about halving our calories, whilst ensuring our orgasmic ‘mmmm-ing’ happens at the same time and neither of us get food lust for the other’s dish! There are so many scrumptious-sounding options on La Creperie’s menu, but again, we’ve never yet managed to look past La Defi, which comes topped with baby caramelised chunks of banana, a scoop of caramel ice-cream and lashings of salted caramel.

YES SALTED CARAMEL. I think I may have mentioned my love for salted caramel before. It’s salty, it’s sweet, it’s positively sinful. Gooey sticky unctuous love in liquid form… how could anyone resist?! And at La Creperie, they have that salty-sweet balance absolutely right. The banana’s natural mellow sweetness cuts in at just the right points, whilst the caramel ice-cream is soothingly creamily cool, helping the whole thing wash down with a serene soft sweetness and the occasional crunch of little nuggets of hardened caramel in there too. Heaven.

Savoury crepes clock in around the $100 mark, sweet ones around $50, with some very reasonable lunch and tea set deals available too. They also do a mean homemade lemonade, although alas their jars of salted caramel butter and sweets are no longer available (yes, I’ve tried to buy them, many-a-time!). And in the battle of the creperies between this and the similarly French-run Fleur de Sel in Causeway Bay, Le Creperie is a very easy winner for me – in terms of taste, atmosphere, service, price and pretty much everything else you can think of. I love that you can linger here comfortably for hours and no-one bats an eyelid, although I have heard it gets busy at dinner… so just do what I do an eat your dinner in the middle of the day! It’s also within tempting proximity of Sift Cupcakes, allowing Mirander and I the chance to indulge our girlie impulses even more!

So yes, Mirander and I are total girls. But when desserts, company and long lingering meet-ups are as good as this, I just love being a girl – don’t you?!

La Creperie, 1/F, Kui Chi Mansion, 100-102 Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, 2529 9280. Closed on Mondays.

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Brasserie De L’ile restaurant review: frites for my sweet…

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 6 Comments

I may have mentioned on just a couple of occasions (like here… and here… and errr… here too) that my boyfriend is a bit of a chip connoisseur. For him, fries are one of the main food groups and golden chip fat probably runs through his veins. So when I heard about a new joint in town, Brasserie de L’ile, that was serving all you can eat fries, I knew it wasn’t a matter of if we would go, but WHEN!

Luckily for Brasserie de L’ile, it is located on Arbuthnot Road – and Central not being one of our frequent hang-outs, I felt slightly less nervous that my boyfriend would manage to put them out of business in just one visit!

They bill themselves as Hong Kong’s first authentic Northern French brasserie and specialise in pots of moules and handmade frites – with the large 800g option (note: smaller than Frites 1kg offering) coming with the much-heralded all-you-can-eat fries deal!

The restaurant itself is exactly my kind of place – very casual, very French, with comfy plush banquettes lining the walls and an open-front out onto Arbuthnot (not admittedly much fun when lorries and traffic come charging down it, and a bit chilly in winter too). It reminded me of nicer-looking Café Rouges in the UK and of a lighter brighter Press Room here; gorgeous Art Noveau prints and classic French advertising posters adorn the walls, red velvet curtains cordon off the back, and I knew it was made for me when I discovered a stash of amazing-smelling luxurious Aesop hand wash and cream in the bathroom. Yes, the make-up junkie in me is never put to rest, even on foodie trips!

My boyfriend and I ended up going at a betwixt and between time (following my knockout new haircut courtesy of Lorena Severi – see all the photos here!), meaning they weren’t actually serving dinner yet. So, we ended up doing our meal backwards and starting with dessert, a novel way of me getting round the fact that I often feel too full for pudding!

We opted for… well, I chose and assured my boyfriend that he would like it… crepes with sea salt caramel. ‘Oh my God…’ the boyfriend drooled, as soon as he had a bite. Salted caramel is truly a gift of the gods and this was the stuff of Zeus’ dreams. The crepes themselves were a thin, light delight and our plate was licked clean all too soon. We could have done with just one more of the feather-light crepes to truly satisfy our sweet urges though.

Then, we moved onto our starter – escargot with a garlic herb butter. Whenever I see escargot on a menu, however sketchy the joint (and I have had some truly sketchy escargots in HK, which the proprietors probably sourced from the back streets), I just have to have them. Brasserie de L’ile is a definitely non-sketchy joint and these escargots were absolutely mouth-wateringly delicious. Boyfriend had cautioned against having them (as he wanted to leave as much room for the fries as possible!) but these are worth making room for. However, not served in their shells and swimming in a pool of green sauce, I’ll admit it doesn’t make for the most appetising picture – but trust me, these are so good!

The snails themselves were juicy squishy little morsels that carried the full flavour of all the heady rich garlic butter could throw at them. Sadly, these weren’t served on a bed of mashed potato to catch all the juices; my advice is to save some of the (rather average) bread to soak up every last drip! See how full the bowl is in my picture? Well, by the time we were done, it was completely wiped clean!

Finally, the main event… the moules! We went for the classic Mariniere – white wine, garlic, leeks, herbs and love in a pot. The obvious point of comparison here has to be Frites; for me, Brasserie de L’ile’s sauce was a little thinner but the flavours were spot on. As for the mussels themselves, Brasserie’s are mere tiddlers compared to the big ‘uns at Frites; the result is that although the large option here weighs less, it feels like you get more! The taste of the mussels themselves was delightful – sweet with just the right hint of the sea, and tender without a hint of that rubbery stringiness of being overcooked.

And now… onto what you’ve all been waiting for… the frites. WOW. Even for a non chip connoisseur like myself, these are definitely amongst the best in Hong Kong. They are defiantly homemade – soft, light, hand-cut chunks of awesome. They are also seasoned to perfection, salty, buttery, even a little garlicky. We made it through three dishes… and my boyfriend claims he could have made it through at least another three more. (It seems to compensate for the all-you-can-eat deal, they do make your initial serving smaller than the norm but don’t be afraid to ask for more, and they come quickly enough not to put you off your rhythm!)

I must also complement the service that day, from a lovely smilingly attentive waitress who made us feel so welcome, even when we wandered in at the most random of times, and for whom nothing was too much trouble.

My boyfriend and I have actually taken to reminiscing about the chips, like some golden childhood memory… that’s how good they were! The truth is though, that everything we tried off Brasserie de L’ile’s menu was similar levels of wonderful and, coupled with its relaxed vibe and reasonable for the quality prices (most mains are around the $150-200 mark), we can’t wait to go back. Maybe we’ll even do the menu the right way round next time!

Brasserie De L’ile, G/F, 4 Arbuthnot Road, Central, Hong Kong, 2147 2389

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