Laidback Lunch on Level 101

It certainly was a beautiful day to be up and about eating at 101 levels above the ground at Radical Chic – with the kind of early summer weather reminding me of Bossa Nova tunes for some reasons. I missed the gorgeous sunset at my last dinner here a few months ago but I was more than compensated with the gorgeous day time view this time at the table overseeing the Hong Kong Island skyline at the back and West Kowloon in front. 

Twice at Mono

It was a pure coincidence that I ended up eating at Mono twice in the same week in late March/early April. First it was on a Tuesday when Chef Ricardo invited me over when the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant awards were announced over live stream video. There’s plenty to celebrate about that afternoon of course as they found themselves being ranked 32 in the continent this year. Kudos to the team and I was glad they let us share the joy with wonderful food, champagne, company and all. (Both the Arepa with Caviar and Pabellon Criollo were out of this world!)

Solid Choice

It felt like not that long ago when we first saw the hoarding in front of what has become the new location for Sushi Wadatsumi. Turned out that's almost one year ago since their old shop in Sheung Wan closed and relocated to K11 Musea across the harbor. 

Casual Degustazione

Remarkably, we saw a few new restaurant openings despite all the restrictions imposed during the pandemic. Testina was one of them, a modern trattoria-style restaurant at the corner of Lyndhurst Terrace with collaboration with the team from the popular Trippa in Milan and chef Marco Xodo hailed from Bombana Shanghai. 

Return to Roots

We were happy when we heard Chef Stephanie’s restaurant Roots was reopening in late March after a short hiatus, and we decided to pay her a visit on the first week of service resumption. Of course, a short break away from the kitchen is always good to refresh one’s mind but we are also conscious about this COVID crisis has been hitting everyone hard, especially those small businesses in town. 

Sushi Hisayoshi

We went for sushi once again a few weekends ago at a new restaurant in TST. Saw my friend’s IG story about this place earlier and learned that this is the outpost for Tokyo’s Ginza Iwa in their second attempt to open a branch in this part of the world. This sushi-ya took up the space formerly occupied by a high-end ramen joint at the quieter section of Harbour City. The décor was classic with the pale wooden tones with a spacious U-shaped counter which can seat 15+ comfortably and another counter/private room at the back if they were able to operate in full capacity.

Weekday Lunch

When we saw a lunch spot open up at Ando in the middle of last month (probably due to some last minute cancellations), we didn’t hesitate to fetch it and call this a mini accomplishment of sorts. While dine-in for evenings is still out of the question, Ando is by all means still very popular during the day – the dining room was filled to the capacity when we arrived slightly after noon for our lunch reservation. Quite a contrast to the quiet streets even in the middle of Central business district in the middle of a weekday.