Just another gastropub - Bread Street Kitchen

I will say on record that I am normally not big a fan of Dining Concepts restaurants - I personally never had particular memorable experiences in any of their places (with the sole exception of BLT Burger, perhaps) - nor I am those kind of person craving for the so-called celebrity chef restaurants - you know, where someone who made their name as cooking show hosts, lend their endorsement to some dining outlets around the world but have nothing to do with their day-to-day running whatsoever.

I am saying this just so you got the idea of my enthusiasm level about the recent opening of Bread Street Kitchen, a collaboration between Dining Concepts and Gordon Ramsay (yeah, the foul-mouthed TV personality seen in multiple shows who also happened to be a chef/restauranteur)

On a roll with new restaurants - The Continental

There's been a number of new restaurant openings in Hong Kong recently, and this evening we dropped by to one of those, The Continental, in Admiralty.

The restaurant, only officially opened this past Monday, took over the space formerly housed the fine Italian restaurant Domani on the terrace of the Pacific Place complex. Under the high ceiling with glass panel surrounding the structure sandwiched in between tall office buildings, the vast dining room features dim lighting and dark decor, booth tables on one side and simple wooden table and comfy sofas with green upholstery on the other. It's quite a comfortable setting. There's a little bar near the entrance for a drink or quick bite, and there's also an outdoor dining space which I think would be great when the evenings get cooler, probably in a few weeks' time.

Starred gem in Kwun Tong

Recently I was at the Michelin-starred MIC Kitchen for a dinner tasting of the newly-launched menu. It's been a long while since I last came - that was when the restaurant was still known as MC Kitchen before a lawsuit from you-know-who forcing a new change soon after its opening. I am interested to know how this place - an outpost of Chef Alvin of Bo Innovation now headed by his top lieutenant Chris Keung - has evolved since then.

First thought on Neighborhood

We seized the opportunity to try out our friend Chef David Lai's new Soho restaurant, Neighborhood, in its first evening of service during the soft-opening week in mid-October.

The restaurant is located at a relatively quiet corner on Hollywood Street between Peel and Aberdeen, with the entrance tucked at the back facing a little park. Decor was minimalist and tasteful, with gray wall, wooden, clothless tables - we were adoring every single piece of tableware from the short glass tumblers to the forks and knives that David brought back from Paris.

Dragon in the Sky - Birthday Dinner at Ryugin

We don't know why we haven't set foot in Ryugin before - both the original restaurant in Tokyo and their Hong Kong branch (called Tenku Ryugin) - but we this year decided to come to visit to celebrate my birthday on the weekend before the actual day. Since I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and the name of the restaurant, Tenku Ryugin, literally meant "Dragon in the Sky" in Japanese, it just seemed to be a somewhat fitting venue for the occasion (or just a lame excuse to finally check it out)

Visiting an old tempura house in Hong Kong

Ten Yoshi was one of the handful Japanese restaurants in town that specialized in tempura - in fact they were probably one of the first that are truly worth mentioning. A few friends were talking about that on our whatsapp group and decided to have lunch there on one weekday afternoon.