Birdie

I have been itching to check out this new yakitori place named Birdie at a new building that seemed to have sprout up out of nowhere in the middle of Central. A few friends have eaten there and liked the food, so we finally managed to get a booking to go one late evening on a weeknight.

Siesta Fiesta

There’s a sense of déjà vu when we went for the weekend brunch at La Rambla a few weekends ago. The nice spread of savory and sweet Spanish dishes at the counter did remind me of the good old Catalunya in Wanchai with their sumptuous weekend buffet before it closed down a couple years ago. Of course, such resemblance was hardly a coincidence given both restaurants were operated by the same group.

The Big Fish

The dinner was months in the making, at least that’s how far the chat group went discussing every single details of the meal beforehand and rounding up enough people for a feast. It all started when our friend F who managed to get hold of the rare Ikan Empurau fish from Malaysia and organized a dinner just for that.

A Swiss Visitng Chef

We honestly had not heard of Chef Andre Jaeger and his (former) hotel-restaurant in Switzerland when our friends A and R asked us to join them for dinner when the chef dropped by Hong Kong for a quick stint – it’s certainly our fault for being ignorant, as I learned afterwards that Chef Andre has quite a reputation being in the forefront of contemporary Asian-inspired cuisine out of his family’s property Fischerzunft in Schaffhausen since the 1980’s and remained a prominent figure in the Swiss culinary scene even after his retirement a few years ago.

(Good) as Usual

We thought Sunday brunch at Belon was a perfect way to introduce some of our friends to our favorite restaurant in town, plus it’s something we have never done before so it’s a good opportunity for us to check out this menu as well. Sunday is the only day of the week that the restaurant opens for business in the afternoon, and I do like the different vibe of the place – more chilled and laidback as opposed to the rustic, lively atmosphere often seen at their always- busy nights. And I did like the natural sunlight beaming through the wooden windows facing out to the street.

Bang For the Buck

We kicked off our long weekend with a lovely lunch at Roganic, the new restaurant in Causeway Bay opened a few months ago but already got so popular that it’s almost impossible to book. We finally managed to score a table on the first day of the Ching Ming Festival holiday weekend so we figured that’s perfect timing for us for a long lunch there.

Last Minute Tempura Lunch

Well, I did try to call a few other places before getting a last minute lunch reservation at Ippoh in Sheung Wan last weekend. I was originally craving for some sushi but when none of the places I wanted have space at the counter available, I settled with my second choice of tempura. Ippoh is a place that I always wanted to check out, so I was just glad I got the chance to at last.

A Few New Dishes on the Menu

It was only a month or so ago when I last ate at Caprice, but when my friend M asked me to join her for lunch at the restaurant, I immediately said yes, especially I heard Chef Guillaume was preparing a feast for our group as a preview of many new dishes that would go on the seasonal a la carte menu shortly.

Russian Four Hands

In my opinion, the best type of guest chef menu is one featuring somebody from a restaurant that I have never tried and often at a place difficult or tricky to go otherwise, either that be somewhere impossible to book, or impossible to reach. Guess this time for me, it’s a bit of all which is why I was particularly eager to try. I am talking about the restaurant Selfie in Moscow, and its chef Anatoly Kazakov, who was recently in town to do a series of four-hands menu with Chef Maxime Gilbert of Ecriture on top of the H Queen Building in Central.

"Us Time"

Some quality “us time” was definitely in order as we sent the rest of our family off to the ferry pier and drew the big group Macau weekend getaway to a close. We realized we haven't visited The Tasting Room at City of Dreams for a while, so I shot a quick message to Chef Fabrice a few weeks before and let him know our plan for lunch at his restaurant. Unfortunately he was in France on the weekend we were going, but we figured we should stick with the original plan, knowing his sous chef Leonardo and pastry chef Julien would take good care of us.