Wine Dinner Avant Premiere

Late last week I attended the preview dinner of the new collaboration project between Conrad Hong Kong and Burgundy wine powerhouse Maison Albert Bichot. One of the private rooms of the hotel's Chinese restaurant Golden Leaf was transformed into a wine-themed dining area, completed with tableware and stemware with engraved Golden Leaf and Albert Bichot logos. Special menu designed by Chef Wan will be served with wine pairing selected from Albert Bichot’s wide repertoire, from some harder-to-find village wines to ones from the premier cru and grand cru climats owned by the winery.

Serious Kappo Dinner

Maybe it’s what I heard from others who have been, or I am just curious about this interesting combination of the chef and the concept and the venue, but Haku is one restaurant I have been wanting to visit for some time, and we worked out of the way to arrange this dinner date there in September before our long trip out.

A Flavorsome Dialogue

Sichuan cuisine is perhaps one of the most well-known yet least understood style of cooking in our culture. As representative Sichuanese dishes like Kung Pao chicken, Mapo Tofu, Hot and Sour Soup or Dan Dan Noodles are now enjoyed by people all over the world from college kids sitting in their dorm rooms holding the Chinese takeaway box to workers squatting by the curb in the province capital of Chengdu with food from a street-side stall, to a certain extent and to many, Sichuan cuisine is their entry point of knowledge about what constituted "Chinese food" in their minds. But the popularity of those dishes all with intense flavor also causes a general misconception that Sichuan food is all about being hot and spicy, which is far from truth.

Celebration at Man Ho

I keep hearing great things about the food at Man Ho of JW Marriott at Pacific Place so we decided to check it out one evening to celebrate papa's birthday. And I solicited help from Chef Jayson Tang to set up the menu for us as I was interested in trying some of the signature and seasonal dishes by his team.

Late Summer at Caprice

Four months on since Chef Guillaume settled at the kitchen of Caprice of Four Seasons Hong Kong we saw another change of menu with even more new dishes being introduced by the team, just as we were about to say goodbye to the long summer season in the beginning of September. Like last time when we were here a couple months ago, we left it entirely to him to decide on the menu for us and we had a blast with a series of delightful dishes.

Korean Brunch

With the latest typhoon just brushed by us, we managed to come to Jinjuu to check out their new Sunday brunch menu as scheduled. I did enjoy having a leisurely stroll up to Lan Kwai Fong during weekend day time, with the street cleared of the crowds, the curb properly cleaned up and most of the places just generally quieter and more comfortable, for someone who just wanna chillax.

Standing Strong

The team of Posto Pubblico must be doing at least something right - while every restaurants on the block came and went like a merry-go-round in this challenging environment of Hong Kong dining scene, they are still standing strong at its original location on Elgin after eight long years, just as popular night-in, night-out as they have always been.

Gin + Sushi

I count Kishoku in Causeway Bay as one of those few local sushi restaurants I go every now and then to satisfy my sushi crave. Recently they have been trying to do a few new things on their menu offering, including the one that I recently went which combined the omakase dinner menu with gin pairing – specifically the house-made infused gin with various flavors designed by mixologist Antonio Lai to serve with a different seafood dishes.

It Never Rains...

Let’s get the rant out of the way first for one of our recent dinners at 11 Westside of Kennedy Town. Problem #1: we had a reservation for 6 persons at 7pm and confirmed in writing by the restaurant team 3 days before, but when I walked in at 6:45pm I was told they only had my booking for 4 persons at 7:30pm (and the maître d’ even tried to correct me til I showed her own email in her face suggesting otherwise). Problem #2: to make up for their mistake they tried to offer me a square table for 4 with 2 additional chairs pulled up instead and asked whether that would be okay – are you f*cking kidding me?

Pizza Pizza!

It may sound a bit gimmicky to run a special menu promotion branded as a "Bake Off" between professional chefs and professional food writers (who wouldn't want some rivalry talk?), but then I couldn't care less as long as it was a good enough excuse to have more pizzas at Lan Kwai Fong’s Mercato, one of my favorite joints in town for casual dining. This "Great Pizza Bake Off" campaign was running for 10 straight weeks starting late August, with each fortnight featuring two different pizzas, one by someone who cooks for a living, and one by someone who writes about cooking for a living.

Fancy Pub Grub

There were definitely other sports bars in town that I felt more like at home either for practical or sentimental reasons, but I must admit as far as food and location go, none of them beat Dicken's Bar in Causeway Bay. Recently I was there on Friday evening to check out some dishes from their new a la carte menu after not being here for God-knows-how-long.

Another New Sushi Place

Seems like there's a constant stream of sushi restaurants coming and going in the rather crowded field of Causeway Bay and Sushi Tsuboni represented one of the latest entries joining the frenzy. Located up inside the new V-Point Building on the buzzling Yiu Wa Street, the restaurant features a contemporary design with a well-lit and spacious dining area with a gorgeous harbor view, unlike many other sushi restaurants which has a cozier ambiance.

Family Dimsum Lunch

Shang Palace at Kowloon Shangri-La was filled to the capacity already when we went for an early dimsum brunch one Sunday morning last month - much to my surprise given we arrived well before normal lunch hours. We rarely dined in TST East area but thought we should give it a try, thanks to some expiring cash coupons I got as benefits for being a certain credit card holder.